Nightwoods: Amazon.co.uk: Charles Frazier: Books

Review

'His best book to date . . . Frazier's exquisitely efficient style is matched by some finely tuned suspense . . . And the climactic pursuit through the darkened forest of the book's title proves to be gripping without ever descending into gothic melodrama.'

'[Frazier's] great strength, as well as presenting us with a fully realized physical backdrop, is the tenderness with which he renders the relationships at the core of this book, creating a compelling meditation on violence and the possibility that human love can heal even the deepest wound.'

(Publishers Weekly )

'Frazier's taut prose, superb sense of place and timing and suspense-inducing skills save this from being just another thriller.' (Daily Mail )

'Its dazzling sentences are so meticulously constructed that you find yourself rereading them, trying to unpack their magic . . . By the book's climactic scenes in the shadowy mountain forest that gives NIGHTWOODS its title, the unhurried, poetic suspense is both difficult to bear and impossible to shake.' (Entertainment Weekly )

'The sense of drama slowly engulfs the reader like a mountain fog moving down a valley. It has heaps of atmosphere and texture.'

(www.thebookbag.co.uk )

'Lyrical . . . written in understated, poetic prose.'

(Herald )

'It's Walden by way of Cormac McCarthy, a bleak southern Gothic landscape that Frazier describes in a stark language of elision' (Financial Times )

'There's an almost rarefied atmosphere to this novel . . . mostly the breathless delight comes from Frazier's poetic sensibility towards the brutality and beauty of nature. My advice on NIGHTWOODS is to soak up the purity of Frazier's prose before Hollywood gets a look in.' (Sunday Telegraph )

'Extraordinary' (Independent on Sunday )

'Wonderfully atmospheric, as twisty as a country road'

(The Times )

'The writing is so beautiful it almost takes your breath away. NIGHTWOODS is every bit as good as Frazier's first book, the bestselling COLD MOUNTAIN. Everything about it rings true, from the very first line to the gripping finale.' (Herald Sun )

'A beautifully written tale and an atmospheric thriller - the perfect story to curl up with on a cold winter's night.'

(Good Book Guide )

Review

(The Sunday Times )

'Charles Frazier's third novel is as accomplished as his first two . . . In anyone else's hands, this might turn out to be a gripping but ultimately forgettable thriller. Frazier, however, is a writer whose spare prose paradoxically oozes atmosphere - you can almost smell the verdant pine trees and hear the crack of the twigs underfoot . . . Beneath the chilling, photogenic story, the writing remains beautiful.' (Independent )

'Frazier's taut prose, superb sense of place and timing and suspense-inducing skills save this from being just another thriller.' (Daily Mail )

'Its dazzling sentences are so meticulously constructed that you find yourself rereading them, trying to unpack their magic . . . By the book's climactic scenes in the shadowy mountain forest that gives NIGHTWOODS its title, the unhurried, poetic suspense is both difficult to bear and impossible to shake.' (Entertainment Weekly )

'There's an almost rarefied atmosphere to this novel . . . mostly the breathless delight comes from Frazier's poetic sensibility towards the brutality and beauty of nature. My advice on NIGHTWOODS is to soak up the purity of Frazier's prose before Hollywood gets a look in.' (Sunday Telegraph )

'Frazier expertly evokes the languor and menace of the North Carolina mountains, and his exquisitely efficient style is matched by finely tuned suspense - there is enough knife-play here to make Cormac McCarthy proud'

(Sunday Times Culture ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

A little self-indulgent? 12 Jan 2012

By Sid Nuncius HALL OF FAME TOP 10 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I'm afraid I found this book quite a struggle. It is exceptionally well written with lovely, unfussy and evocative prose and the whole thing is extremely atmospheric, but something about it just failed to engage me. It is very slow in pace, which I normally don't mind at all in a well written book, but for me this began to feel just a bit self-conscious and self-indulgent.

It's a decent story and the period and location of an isolated Appalachian lodge are beautifully evoked. Many people have enjoyed it hugely and I am quite prepared to accept that the fault here lies with me rather than the book so don't let me put you off, but for me it just didn't quite work.

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25 of 28 people found the following review helpful

Flawless contemporary American literature 20 Sep 2011

By J. Morris TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE

Nightwoods is the 1950's tale of Luce, a young woman who has shunned society and chooses to live as a caretaker in a remote cabin in North Carolina. Content to be surrounded by nature, the lake and the mountains, she revels in her solitude until a man from the state department shows up. He has her murdered sister Lily's children in the car and says that as the next of kin, she can either take them in or they go into state-care.

Naturally she chooses to foster them, but they come with more baggage than you could imagine when her sister's ex-husband - Bud - recently & dubiously cleared of a murder-charge shows up looking for the children. Just what does he want?

Nightwoods is fantastically written; the vivid descriptions of the idyllic alpine-setting really allow you to picture the rural homestead. Frazier's descriptions of 1950's North Carolina read like some of the truly great American-authors; all "dipped in cornmeal and fried in lard" like Steinbeck or Salinger, there is even some influence from the beatnik literature scene, reminiscent of Kerouac as the local policeman has a taste for Benzedrine and the locals are fixated with moonshine.

Characters pasts and interactions are brilliantly depicted and this really builds up a great deal of character progression as we see Luce, seemingly frozen solid by her experiences in society, begin to thaw a little. Frazier manages to paint Bud as a formidably evil character without ever straying into exaggeration and as a result, his characters are plausible and truly interesting.

I can't recommend this book highly enough, my only complaint is that it was just the 248 small-print pages long!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

Hugely atmospheric Appalachian story 27 Sep 2011

By Ripple TOP 50 REVIEWER

Part love story, part thriller, this is a hugely atmospheric story set lovingly in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina. It's impossible not to get a feeling for the landscape from this book.

If you have read Charles Frazier's "Cold Mountain", or indeed seen the film, then you'll have a fair idea what to expect from his latest offering - "Nightwoods". As with "Cold Mountain", the landscape of the Appalachians is the dominant character, this time set in the 1950s. He even manages to get his requisite bear into the story although thankfully it fares rather better than the unfortunate beast in his first book. The dark, oppressing majesty and beauty of the mountains and woods pervades the whole story.

The story centres around Luce, a loner who lives a reclusive life as the caretaker of an old hunting lodge in North Carolina. Why this young woman has sought the solitude of live on the edge of the lakeside town is explained. It's a sad tale of rural misunderstanding that means that even her father, the local police officer, has no contact with her despite living so close by. When Luce's sister, Lily is murdered, Lily's traumatized twins show up on Luce's doorstep bringing the real world into her life in dramatic ways. The two children don't speak although initially it is unclear if this is a result of their trauma. At around the same time, her benefactor for whom she has been looking after the lodge dies and his grandson comes to the town to check out his inheritance.

The darker element of the story arises when Lily's ex-husband is freed by the court of her murder and, convinced that there is a missing horde of cash which surely the children have, he too arrives in the town.

The book is, then, something of both a romance and a thriller. Trust is hard won in Frazier's rural North Carolina. The development of the relationship between both Luce and the twins, who at first are hell bent on setting everything alight, and Luce and the grandson is slowly drawn out. Initially they are unaware of the threats that present themselves in the form of Lily's ex-husband Bud, but all that is about to change.

The story-telling is convincing but what is most evident is the love for the landscape. In Frazier's novels, often the characters have more communication with the landscape than with each other and this is again true here. Some of the descriptions are beautiful, but if you are looking for a fast paced story, as the basis of this book might lead you to expect, you will be disappointed. Things seldom happen fast in Frazier's books.

Rather, the story simmers along and the sense of drama slowly engulfs the reader like a mountain fog moving down a valley. It has heaps of atmosphere and texture.