Legends of the North Cascades

by Jonathan Evison

Hardcover, 2021

Call number

FIC EVI

Collection

Publication

Algonquin Books (2021), 352 pages

Description

Fiction. Literature. HTML: ā??A beautifully rendered and cinematic portrait of a place and its evolution through time . . . A story of survival and the love and devotion between parent and child.ā? ā??Jill McCorkle, author of Hieroglyphics  Dave Cartwright used to be good at a lot of things: good with his hands, good at solving problems, good at staying calm in a crisis. But on the heels of his third tour in Iraq, the fabric of Daveā??s life has begun to unravel. Gripped by PTSD, he finds himself losing his home, his wife, his direction. Most days, his love for his seven-year-old daughter, Bella, is the only thing keeping him going. When tragedy strikes, Dave makes a dramatic decision: the two of them will flee their damaged lives, heading off the grid to live in the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest.   As they carve out a home in a cave in that harsh, breathtaking landscape, echoes of its past begin to reach them. Bella retreats into herself, absorbed by visions of a mother and son who lived in the cave thousands of years earlier, at the end of the last ice age. Back in town, Dave and Bella themselves are rapidly becoming the stuff of legendā??to all but those who would force them to return home.   As winter sweeps toward the North Cascades, past and present intertwine into a timeless odyssey. Poignant and profound, Legends of the North Cascades brings Jonathan Evisonā??s trademark vibrant, honest voice to bear on an expansive story that is at once a meditation on the perils of isolation and an exploration of the ways that connection… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Hccpsk
Jonathan Evison manages to evade any kind of designation as a writer, and for me, his distinct efforts range from great (The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving) to good (Lawn Boy) to not so good (This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!). His latest novel, Legends of the North Cascades, again breaks new
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ground in topic and structure. Dave Cartwright returned from three tours in the marines like many soldiers--deeply and inextricably changed both physically and mentally. His only touchstone is his daughter Bella, and after his wifeā€™s death he spirals into a state that leads them to live in a cave in the woods. The story unfolds through short chapters told in a variety of voices including Dave, Bella, Daveā€™s mom, his brother, and many of the townspeople who donā€™t even know ā€œCave Daveā€ but speculate about what brings a man to that point.
A provocative and strange thread of narrative belongs to Sā€™tka, a woman living in the North Cascades at the end of the last ice age. Evison weaves her struggles to survive in the barren and treacherous wilderness with Dave and Bellaā€™s endeavors to live outside of accepted norms. I found parts of this book laborious--too much dialogue between Dave and Bella that felt forced and unrealistic, too much rote, interior angst and sometimes it seemed Evison was a bit entangled in his structure. Yet his portrayal of Daveā€™s increasing loss of reality and control interspersed with glances of his time in the marines was powerful and moving. The sections about Sā€™tka and her son felt real and an interesting parallel to Dave and Bella. All in all, for all of its issues, Legends of the North Cascades will stay with me as a poignant work of man vs. the wilderness, family, and mental health.
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Awards

Audie Award (Finalist — Best Male Narrator — 2022)
Washington State Book Award (Finalist — Fiction — 2022)
Indie Next List (June 2021)

ISBN

1643750100 / 9781643750101
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