Published 2016
The author of The Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain now tells the store of two immigrants to the New World. Both are from France and have signed on as indentured servants to a man who puts them to work chopping trees in what is now Canada. People at that time believed the forests to be indestructible, since the wilderness was so vast compared to what they had seen in the Old World. The native Americans did not cut the forests and made their homes from animal hides instead of lumber. Since they were at least partially nomadic they did not want immovable homes made of wood. Even though the original Americans had been on the land for many centuries, the forests were virgin. The timber was cut mostly for export back to the Old World, much of it for ships’ masts.
Rene Sel and Charles Duquet are the two men whose stories the author follows through many generations. Rene Sel remains with his master for many years and is rewarded with a piece of land of his own. He is forced to marry his master’s cook when the master’s new wife believes he is having an affair. But the marriage is a happy one, and their children go on to inhabit America. They do not achieve much wealth since they are part Native American and during that time were largely treated as slaves or at best, expendable. Charles Duquet, on the other hand, is a rebel from the very beginning. He is plagued with ill health, in particular suffering from bad teeth. When the pain becomes overwhelming, he runs away into the forest where Sel and the master can hear his painful moans. No attempt is made to recapture him, the forest at night being deemed too dangerous to enter. Years later Rene hears of a man with bad teeth, or no teeth, having had them all pulled, who has made a reputation for himself as a fur trader, one of the best in the new country. When the old master hears of this, he is enraged and sets out to find and recapture his servant, who has not worked his time to pay for his passage. Duquet goes on to found a wealthy family, trading in furs and timber from the new world.
Life during this time in Canada and North America is pretty dismal. Lawlessness and corruption are rife. The book was a struggle to get through at times, because the life it portrayed was so fraught with peril from all sides. I did get a new awareness of the plight of the Native Americans, how much they gave and how much was taken from them at the beginning of colonization. Disease killed many, but greed killed many more. This is a very long book. It reminded me in some ways of Jane Smiley’s saga of the Iowa farm family, but hers is modern day and split into three novels.