Our Lady of the Forest

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as I hoped
Review: This book was rated 4 stars in pre-release from BOOK magazine, so I bought it, looking for a good read. Being raised in Catholic schools all this visionary stuff is intriguing. "Our Lady of the Forest" is in fact intriguing and difficult to put down. The ending, however, was a little too tidy for this constant reader. I did not want uplifting but I did not want tidy with everything explained and everyone in a place where they belong.
Reading along with this book I enjoyed the ride and the excellent writing. Learning about the Northwest was interesting to me as well as seeing the poverty still present in this country.
"Our Lady..." is a book that makes you think I just wanted to think a little harder on the end.

Rating:
Summary: Our Lady of the Forest
Review: At first I thought it was a loser. Who wants to read about an asthmatic mushroom picking waif masturbating in a rain drenched forest next to a god forsaken logging town? But then, Guterson pulls you into his modern legend of lost souls: the visionary, pill popping Ann, the self-loathing ex logger Tom Cross, the self-centered wanderer Christine Greer, & the sincerely fallible Father Collins. Guterson documents today's thirst for religion and redemption with passion & insight. This isn't as magical as Snow Falling on Cedars or uplifting as East of the Mountain. But our Lady definitely succeeds in raising questions about where are we going, why are we here, and what we are doing to our sacred places. Suddenly, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is a homeless, abused child whose search for meaning results in environmental disaster and yet another church. There's no happy ending, and that's the Truth.

Rating:
Summary: His Best Yet
Review: I liked Snow Falling on Cedars and East of the Mountains, but I have to say that our Lady of the Forest seemed even better. I read it through twice, and I haven't done that since I was a teenager. Wonderful evocation of place (which I know well because I grew up in the Pacific Northwest), fully realized characters, humor, suspense and a depth of spirit.

Rating:
Summary: I keep waiting¿
Review: I keep waiting for Guterson to write another book as good as Snow Falling on Cedars, and maybe that's not fair. But, judged against that stellar book, Our Lady of the Forest comes out a poor second. It concerns Ann, a runaway teen who has Lourdes-like visions of the Virgin Mary, and her depressed logging town sees her as their last hope for prosperity.
The book is written in multiple points of view: a doubt-ridden local priest, a modern-day female hobo and opportunist, Ann herself, and most interesting, a guilt-ridden logger whose is torn up over an accident that left his son paralyzed. Heavy stuff here: sin, guilt, faith, exploitation - and love. Ann is pulled between the dichotomy of virgin vs. whore in this modern-day morality play.
Beautifully and lusciously written, but it's not Snow Falling on Cedars.

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing Story Drenched by Explicit and Graphic Sadness
Review: If you're looking for another "Snow Falling on Cedars," this isn't it. Guterson certainly has a gift for storytelling and painting characters with vivid descriptions and voices. But be forewarned - The language is gut-wrenchingly foul and the horribly brutal and graphic descriptions of both consensual sex and rape are so explicit that they overpower the story. ... The story of the homeless Ann Holmes being visited by the Virgin Mary is beautiful in its simplicity, including the crowd of both cynics and followers that surround her. However, Guterson seems so determined to develop dark, flawed characters with few redeeming qualities that you're left wondering why he bothered to embark on this journey. This is a sad story that leaves you not with a feeling of hopefulness, but rather despair at the cynicism that abounds in Guterson's world.

Rating:
Summary: Shy of its Potential
Review: When asked what I thought of "Our Lady of the Forest" after finishing it, I remarked that I thought he needed another editor, or had succumbed to the pressure of his publisher to prematurely submit the transcript for publication. That is because this novel had the potential for being a great novel, as jewel-like as his "Snow Falling on Cedars". But reading "Our Lady of the Forest" I was left with the impression that had his editor handed it back with the advice to give the novel 6 more months Guterson could have produced another wonderful novel reading it I noted inconsistencies in the quality of the passages that suggest it was rushed. . What has gone to press, while interesting and readable, is regrettably just okay.

Initial reviews of the novel were so complimentary that I wondered whether I had missed something. However, they also appeared so quickly after publication that I wonder whether they were thoughtful critical reviews, or whether the advance reading copies had only been provided to those likely to promote the book. Today's review in the New York Times validated some of my impressions -- certainly that this book fell short of what it could have been.

An example of the need for editing is the novel's iconoclastic character Carolyn. She is overly sardonic, overly cute, and so overly written that she overpowers the book, and signficantly detracts from its central character Anne. Additionally, there is a bit of a excessive description of dark, salacious details that do not enhance the plot and accordingly seem solely distasteful. Also Guterson might have been advised to have substituted a number of the prolix terms that appear out of context in light of the plot's characters and location. Furthermore, the shots at Seattleites were so predictable that they seem tired and cheap -- and most were expendable.

"Our Lady of the Forest" does highlight Guterson's tremendous creativity, and social insight. Again, I just felt a tremendous disappointment -- for David Guterson, based upon the quality of his earlier work, and the evident potential of this novel.

Rating:
Summary: A Brave Departure!
Review: OUR LADY OF THE FOREST is a departure from SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS. Much as Bret Ellis did in AMERICAN PSYCHO, Guterson is sticking his neck way out here.
The plot is fairly simple. A young girl encounters The Blessed Virgin Mary in the woods while digging mushrooms. Before she knows it, she's got two thousand pilgrims breathing down her neck.
The trouble with this scenario is that Ann Holmes is a homeless person who's been known to smoke marijuana now and then and is also not averse to eating magical mushrooms. And she's not even Catholic! Guterson has fun making sport of Ann's devotees; much of the book is a satire on religious groupies whose gullibility is too much to believe.
The setting for OUR LADY OF THE FOREST is Washington state; Guterson adds a little environmental conflict in the person of Tom Cross, an out of work logger whose life is slowly swirling down the toilet. He feels responsible for his son's paralysis and he latches onto Ann of Oregon as his possible salvation.
Ann is a shy young girl and all of this hullabaloo is a little bit too much for her. That's where Carolyn Greer comes in. She takes on the role of Ann's spokesperson. She doesn't believe a word of this but she knows a goldmine when she sees one. She's a sort of Jimmy Buffett character who needs to earn money so she can winter in Mexico and some of the money meant for a Our Lady's new church sticks to her fingers.
The other main character is a first-year Catholic priest who lives in a trailer home; his church smells of mildew and he's thinking of leaving the priesthood. When he meets Ann, he's enticed by her Kate Moss, heroine-babe sexuality.
All of this is a whole lot of fun if you don't take religion too seriously and I guess that's the point Guterson is trying to make.

Rating:
Summary: Insightful foray into human frailty laced with Divine Grace
Review: In contrast to a couple of other reviewers below, I, as a Catholic, found this book to be an amazing feat of poetic, insightful analysis of the tensions that we all strive to resolve in some manner, between the frailty and caprice of our human nature, especially in the area of sexuality, and our desire for greater faith and grace, and between the "Church" as simultaneous institution and living organism.

As a happily married parent of three children and very active in "mainstream" parish Catholic life, having been involved in charasmatic Catholicism and Marian devotional groups, having traveled to Medjugore in the late 80's, having witnessed a supposed "Marian Locutionary" and the surrounding "hoopla" in the Chicago area at about that same time, having seen saints and shams, and having a rather broad knowledge of the various theological, philosophical and mystical topics interjected and alluded to, "en passent," such as Manichean Cosmogeny, Kaballah, and Platonic solids, I thoroughly enjoyed the perceptive character development of the various personalities involved, whom the author uses to embody and present the various elements of conflict. Through these personalities and their encounter with this unfolding apparition and the "visionary," we see our humanity exposed, and the Grace of God working in unusual, subtle and surprising ways in dark and hidden undercurrents.

In the end, we find that God does indeed "work in mysterious ways" and most often in spite of our foolishness and weakness! For the reviewers who accused the author of being "anti Catholic" and too focused on sex, I would say just the opposite. Yes, if you are offended by the laying bare of our human condition, as in the stark portrait offered in Tom Cross, or the "un-priestly" struggle of Fr. Collins with sexual desire, you may wish to skip this book. (Or maybe, it's time to open your eyes to what God already clearly sees in each one of us ... remind me again, why did Jesus come? To redeem sinners, or something like that?)

In my opinion, this book is an inspiring affirmation of our great God and his grace, the Catholic faith and the rather colorful assortment of characters that comprise "the faithful" and give vibrancy to our Church. I listened to it on CD on a solo 800 mile drive and found it an enlightening and agreeable travelling companion.

Rating:
Summary: I feel I've read this before
Review: This story is strangely familiar. A girl sees Madonna in the woods. Will people believe her? I enjoyed reading this book but now it is hard to remember why. There are no outstanding characters. The plot is not unusual or ground-breaking. I guess it is the small things that made it beautiful - the descriptions of the lush northwestern forest, the damp, the moss. Very well written, a "literary" novel - but it lacks heart.

Rating:
Summary: An Emotional Look at Revelation in a Modern Setting
Review: David Guterson tackles lofty subjects in his novels. SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS deals with the injustices done the Japanese-Americans living in the Northwest during World War II, while EAST OF THE MOUNTAINS analyzes a man's confrontation with terminal illness. His latest, OUR LADY OF THE FOREST, is the story of a teenage runaway girl who claims to see the Virgin Mary. Guterson researches his subjects like a bloodhound on the scent of a criminal. He uses a most unlikely subject to reveal messages to the contemporary faithful who come to hear her words.

Ann Holmes is sixteen, an itinerant runaway who gathers mushrooms in the woods near North Fork Campground, Washington. She is the daughter of an unmarried teenage mother who lives with a methamphetamine addict. By fourteen, Ann has been repeatedly raped by the addict and has aborted two fetuses. A severe asthmatic, she leaves her abusive background and forages for mushrooms, her sole source of income. She's small, skinny, has jagged cut hair and wears a hooded sweatshirt that shrouds her features. Carolyn Greer is a mushroom picker who lives in a van in the North Fork Campground and takes Ann under her wing.

Guterson's imagery gives his audience a clear sense of his setting, the aroma of fallen cedar needles a rich reminder of his successful first novel. Ann's occupation is appropriate for her daily sojourns deep into the forest, however unseemly for a girl hiding from the world. The tattered, wheezy child is reminiscent of the conduits for a holy message chosen in the first century A.D.

The first apparition comes when Ann brushes dirt from the gills of a mushroom. She notices a strange bright light that hovers between two trees, with the brilliance of a halogen light bulb. Frightened, she picks up her bucket and runs, says an Our Father and three Hail Marys, then finishes her rosary at lightning speed. Scared by the experience, she witnesses it again and sees a human figure that glides toward her. She races back to the campground and takes refuge in Carolyn's van. Greer is skeptical but agrees to accompany Ann back into the woods for another look. Ann alone sees the figure again, but Carolyn is witness to Ann's bodily movements and reaction to the apparition. Word spreads and local priest Father Donald Collins accompanies the women to document Ann's contact with the Holy Virgin.

Father Collins ministers to a dried-up logging community that cries for work. Tom Cross is a tortured former logger who is responsible for his son's paralysis. The man curses God but hungers for redemption and forgiveness from his family. When Ann's sightings of the Virgin become widespread topics of conversation, Tom hopes for his own redemption.

Commercialism enters when followers set up shop to sell trinkets, jewelry and Catholic memorabilia, and hover at the campground. Ann reports that the Virgin wants a church built in the forest and ministry commenced by the faithful. Church leaders scrutinize Ann's story with minute detail. Her frailty lies not within her faith but in the confines of her sickly physical body.

I was annoyed by Guterson's writing style, using no quotations for dialogue. If the subject had been more appealing, I might have been more accepting. The characters are interesting, but OUR LADY OF THE FOREST did not make me a Guterson fan. I much preferred his first novel.

Still, the story is told with passion and will lead to much discussion about holy apparitions within any faith. OUR LADY OF THE FOREST is an emotional look at revelation in a modern setting. Readers of many beliefs will be able to relate to the feelings that surface when religion is a vital part of life.

--- Reviewed by Judy Gigstad