We Took to the Woods by Louise Dickinson Rich was a favorite of both my grandmother and my mother. It was written back in 1942, I think. I remember reading parts of the book as a child (I think it was a book in my grandmother's bedroom bookcase) and I remember my mother fondly telling me about it.
The author meets a guy on a camping trip with her sister and a bunch of other girls and he winds up courting her long distance from Maine to Boston. She gave up her teaching job to join him in the primitive backwoods of Maine where she's got two cabins (a summer and a winter one) but has to use an outhouse and kerosene lamps. No city fixings for them! Her neighbors are game wardens and lumberjacks. People come from the Outside to fish and camp in the summer but in the winter she, her husband Ralph, their son Rufus and sometimes her step daughter are isolated for months. They do have a nearby neighbor who is practically one of the family. His name is Ralph too so he goes by his last name of Gerrish. But she loves her life and writes in a wonderfully intelligent and witty way about it all. I never knew lumberjacks could be so interesting! Her description of the Township meeting (true democracy!) is a scream. Her accounting of how she gave birth to her son, how she orders food supplies for the winter, how everyone knows everyone else's business, the best places to go fishing, the time she got terribly lost in the forest, all are just sheer storytelling perfection.
I bought my own copy of this book a long time ago but it got ruined in a flood. I had been thinking about it off and on for about two decades. It isn't available on Kindle and I can't find it at my library, so I broke down and bought it. It was worth it. I think it could make a good read aloud actually for older kids.
Two thumbs up!
For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment