At first glance, Damnation Spring seems to be exactly the sort of book I would enjoy. The premise is amazing and so is the setting. But the story takes so long to get going and is so bogged down by technical logging jargon that I lost patience with it.
Rich is a fourth generation logger making a living out of felling trees in California's redwood forest in the 1970s. When the opportunity comes to own a grove nearby with the biggest tree of them all, it's hard to pass up. Meanwhile, his wife Colleen desperately wants another child, but is heartsick after multiple miscarriages. And she isn't alone, knowing many women nearby who have had similar misfortunes. But is it just bad luck, or is something going on in this town where herbicide is sprayed abundantly and frequently?
Yes, I'm totally on board with this premise. Give me beautiful scenery, hardworking folks, and tight-knit communities any day. It's also an interesting period of our history, heralding in the awakening of a collective conscience towards our environment, with citizens starting to realize that we could not just raze to the ground with impunity our natural resources and somehow not face the consequences.
But I knew almost from page one that this was going to be a slog. The book is filled with logging descriptions, technical terms, equipment details, and slang, all used without any explanations to make it easier for the reader. Even the simplest logging terms took me a long time to figure out. (Apparently "pumpkins" are trees, not actually pumpkins, sigh.) The narrative is mostly alternating between Rich and Colleen, and I started to dread Rich's turns, where it seems half of his pages are filled with the intricate details of his logging job.
The part of the blurb that most caught my eye is Colleen's story where she tries to figure out what is happening to her community. But the pace is so glacial that she doesn't even put two and two together until halfway through the book. And it isn't until the last 100 pages that much happens. In a 450 page book, that means the first 350 pages was a total grind.
It doesn't help that, other than Rich and Colleen, most of the characters in here are unlikable. This took me by surprise, for a book supposedly about the working-class experience, to paint most of these people so unfavorably. And there were so many characters in here, dropping in and out of the story without proper introductions, so I feel like I'm constantly stumbling along trying to figure out who each person is.
I had such high expectations for this book going in. But the glacial pace, logging jargon, and huge cast of characters all contributed to my sense of constant bewilderment, like I didn't know what was going on. Often, I resorted to guessing and rereading paragraphs over and over for any grasp of understanding. It's hard to rate a book higher than 3 stars when I'm not sure I understood half of it.
Readaroo Rating: 3 stars
My heartfelt thanks for the advance copy that was provided for my honest and unbiased review.
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