Into the forest. A novel by Jean Hegland, 1996
A couple of weeks ago I was returning books to the shelves
in our library when this title, Into the
Forest, attracted my attention. For the wrong reason: I thought it was the ‘book’
of the current movie Into the Woods,
which stars a bunch of A-list actors and Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood,
Rapunzel and Jack. Not! Into the Forest is
set in a not-so-distant, near-if-not apocalyptic, dystopian northern California
following, or during, a major break-down of civil society. The family, Mom,
Dad, and their two late teen daughters, does not have any close neighbors, and
the nearest town is 30 miles away. In the first half of the book electric
power, internet, and gasoline gradually disappear, and Mom and Dad die. Gangs
are rampaging just off screen. These girls are alone and ill equipped. They
really did not have a clue, but maybe these kids can be forgiven for not having
had a clue because their ‘alternate life-style parents’ pretty much provided everything
for them, while the girls nursed their legitimate dreams of a future in ballet,
for one, and an education at Harvard for the other. For a while they hold onto
the fantasy that everything will come right. Eva keeps practicing jetés and
Nell reads Encyclopedia Britannica from A to Z (which is also a way of marking time
in the book). But when they start
counting matches, candles and cans of peaches they realize that pretty soon
they’re going to be in serious trouble if they don’t do something. The second
half of the book describes in great detail how they teach themselves to survive
in this remote forest. They are fortunate enough to have seed left from prior
harvests and they have a rifle and conveniently marauding wild pigs. They have
nature guides that lead them to the forest’s bounty. Most importantly they have
each other, although sometimes that relationship is very seriously strained.
Bad things happen but in the end the two prevail. One reviewer said it was a
scary book and I agree. What would I do in the same circumstances? Several
reviewers did not like the decisions the girls made, or one or the other of the
girls made. I don’t know, because I was not there. The book was written in such
a way that one could understand why a decision was made.
There were about 100 reviews in Goodreads. It
seemed that most were by women and most liked it, giving the book 4 or 5 stars.
I found it to be a very thoughtful book that, despite complaints from some
reviewers, ended – or, rather, concluded -- pretty much as it should have, or at least in the best possible way under the circumstances.
Nobody
has taken this book out of the Deering library before me. I’ll return it to the
New Book cart with a recommendation that you pick it up. It’s not long, but it
is dense.
