Clearcut

by Nina Shengold

Book Overview

Set in the gloriously rugged backwoods of the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s, Nina Shengold's gripping debut novel follows three people in search of new lives deep into uncharted terrain of the body and heart.

When rough-hewn loner Earley Ritter picks up a hitchhiker one rainy night, he can't imagine how much it will change his life. A "shake-rat" who salvages cedar stumps left when loggers clearcut, Earley seems to have little in common...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400079691
• ISBN13: 9781400079698
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Strong on Many Levels at Once

Nina Shengold manages to do something magical in this novel: evoking a time recently past while propelling you into the thick of an atmosphere so immediate you won't be able to shake it off easily after finishing reading. Yes, there once was a time when life-choices had a broader range of erotic and economic possibilities, making for interpersonal confusions, adventures, victories, and sad losses. Nina's characters ring true. She has a remarkable able to imagine the erotic imagination and physical experiences of a man, while clinging to the female version of eroticism at the same time. This is unique and, simply, a gift. There are times where the book gets bogged down in some detail (usually about logging practices in the Northwest) and I found the beginning a little slow-moving. I was afraid it was going to tread over much-trodden-upon ground with its plot. It didn't. The second half of the book MOVES; it is hard to put down and it haunts you. Strong on atmosphere, gifted in its erotic atmospherics and complexity, this book is a keeper. You will find yourself recommending it to anyone with a well-developed brain, love of the erotic, and love of contemporary literature. I am enormously impressed.

Compelling and tender

I don't read a lot of contemporary fiction, but this was recommended by a good friend. It's a beautiful and compelling story of three characters who form an odd sort of boy-girl-boy romantic triangle that challenges each of them in unexpected ways. Although there is clearly a "main character" each story comes through clearly. She really takes us inside their head in a way that never relies on easy conventions. The story is funny, sad, moving and Shengold's talent in drawing us into the lives of these three wayward people lost in their search for happiness kept me wanting to know more about them. There is an exciting edginess in the emotional twists and turns of the book that feels, all to sadly, very much like that thing called "life"

Fabulous read

There's only one thing you need to know about this book: it's a terrific read. A friend handed it to me and said, "I'm not telling you anything about this novel. Just read it." It's the best advice I can give. The only problem comes when you have to put it down (to continue with your life). Earley is such a haunting character: full of conflict and contradictions. How could anyone not fall in love with him?

Of logs, legs, and sensitive lugs

Clearcut is a pitch-perfect evocation of a time and place -- a great time, the early 1970s, and a great place, the Pacific Northwest -- that tells a big, three-hearted American tall tale. Even Sam Shepard and Peter Coyote would envy the rugged nobility and lone-wolf manliness of Earley Ritter, the Paul Bunyan of hippie "shake-rats," who has the courage to enter into a previously unthinkable menage a trois while still maintaining his deeply ingrained notions of decency and loyalty. But as fresh and torrential as the sex is, and as crackling and indelible as the characters are, the inspired descriptions of America's last wilderness are even better -- Shengold writes with a sinewy lyricism of cloud and mountain and forest, elk and trout and clam, that would bring a smile to the mossy lips of John Muir. This is the best possible book to take with you on a weekend trek through the backwoods-preferably to a remote cabin with a hot tub full of literate nymphs and astute satyrs.

wonderful read

I loved this book! It brings to life a time and place in a way that stirred me deeply. The characters, even the minor ones, are so alive in my mind that one of my regrets is that I can't meet them in the real world. Nina Shengold has written a book where the sex scenes sizzle and the consciousness of the time are alive again.