Redwood Falls Jan Smitowicz
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When David Foster Sayers was eight years old, his mother Rita--a bipolar painter and alleged widow--whisked him away in the middle of the night from their home in the San Francisco Bay Area to California's North Coast, home of ancient old-growth redwood trees and one of the last remaining bastions of virgin forests in America. Rita's shocking actions there forever alter the course of Foster's life; her revelations forcibly instill in him a kind of environmental neurosis. Though he feels overwhelming guilt in contributing to deforestation, he is uncontrollably compelled--as if by some outside entity--to write. Foster believes it is his life's purpose.
Amid this backdrop, Foster quits high school and runs away on a search for his father, who may or may not in fact be long dead. Accompanying Foster is his best friend Jimmy Grant--a wild, impulsive, fiercely loyal, and bisexual black kid whose mother died when he was in grade school. They eventually join together with a mysterious stranger and embark on a ferocious campaign to destroy the oil industry and hasten the collapse of industrial civilization. Their actions inspire others, and before long a full-fledged Environmental Revolution is under way. Redwood Falls builds momentum like a wildfire en route to its explosive, stunning conclusion in the Gulf Coast region of Texas and Louisiana.
"A wild environmental thrill-ride in the grand tradition of Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang. Direct action and ecological resistance at its finest!"
-A.S. Beebe
Redwood Falls Jan Smitowicz
I haven't finished yet, but this book is putting me in a completely different world. The one I want to know more of, and the one I want to make. I read the other book from Jan, Orange Rain, and it was amazing. Bought two paper ones as gifts and to help fundraise to an environmentalist in prison. This one is different, different voice, different characters. Some environment facts seem plugged in sometimes, not smooth in the narrative, but completely forgivable. I understand the need to make the facts clear. This is a great read so far. And I admire the author for living his values. He inspires me to care more for our planet.Product details
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Redwood Falls Jan Smitowicz Reviews
On the heels of the publication success of his first novel, Orange Rain (Trébol Press, 2014), Jan Smitowicz released the self-published Redwood Falls this past August. After reading the sample on , I immediately bought the ebook. Smitowicz begins to build suspense from the first page of this novel, and his vivid description of a groggy, late-night departure on a trip to we're-not-sure-where evokes compelling images and a strong desire to understand the story that is unfolding. To me, the writing style departs slightly from that in his debut novel -- more descriptive, more evocative, more sensual.
Redwood Falls is primarily the story of David Foster Sayers -- Foster as he's called -- and his journey from timid child to bold teenager and young adult. Along the way, readers learn a lot about his family dynamics. When the book opens, he's eight years old and living with his mother, Rita, who is artistic and overly protective. The largest of her paintings, My Drear, hangs in the family's entryway and serves as a physical yet abstract version of the real-life shadows and mysteries that surround Foster's childhood. Its mention at critical times at the story is a lovely device. While there's humor in a child's attempt to make sense of the painting and it reveals much about Foster's mother, there's also something ominous in its presence. Its prominent position in the home is a clear parallel to the importance of the events in its creator's life and a darkness that lies below the surface of her doting and affection.
In some ways, readers come to understand My Drear at the same pace and at the same time Foster does. As he makes a new friend, begins developing opinions about and sensitivities to the natural world and its destruction -- fresh, new growth from a formative seed planted in him by his mother to serve her ulterior motives -- and pushes for more independence, his mother overreacts and can barely cope. Her need for control soon trumps everything and culminates in a violent separation from Foster that marks a turning point in the novel. Once extricated from his mother's suffocating web, Foster begins to develop under new influences and guidance. These lessons help him find himself and his purpose and provide an opportunity for stability and self-confidence that were impossible in his previous situation.
Foster grows rapidly in the novel, perhaps too much so for a teenager, but he retains many childlike qualities as well. He's not as precocious as his African American friend Jimmy, who nurtures Foster's natural desire to become independent without ever resorting to teasing, dares, or belittling. Although mature for his age owing to familial circumstances, Jimmy has the typical sense of immortality that teenagers often exhibit. It's a fine companion to Foster's timidness. The boys bring out the best in each other.
Because the circumstances of the story insulate the characters, they converse primarily among themselves, at times conveying more information than a conversation might reliably hold. Foster's thoughts, too, are at times dominated by facts. Readers new to the topic of environmental justice will learn much from these insertions. Those already steeped in the message may find them a bit heavy-handed. The characters' actions and never-wavering choices are put into context this way. They are heavy choices for youngsters to make, especially Jimmy, whose environmental leanings were tenuous until the system stripped from him the last of anything he had to lose. The evidence presented is overwhelming. It must be if these choices are to make sense.
Many questions about Foster's mother and her apparent descent into madness go unanswered. We never discover the subject matter or the content of the painting she undertakes as Foster begins to press for his independence. Presumably it's the first she's painted on a large scale since her completion of My Drear. While it's not hard to understand why Foster flees his stifling upbringing, the ease with which he does so, especially emotionally and without hearing sides of the mother's story from those who can likely supply them, is somewhat surprising. The origins of Rita's struggles, beyond those obvious in the course her life has taken, remain unknown.
The story balances strong threads of dismay and hope and suggests that radical action is required and will work to change the current trends of deforestation, pollution, and resource extraction. It's pleasant to watch a sea change unfold in the book through small but significant acts and bold undertakings that move both policy and the public.
I found the writing moving, and the outcome of one major character remains in enough doubt that a sequel almost begs to be written. I hope Smitowicz will consider doing so. Though many environmental threats are vanquished in the book, one gets the distinct feeling that capitalism and greed have not been buried completely along with them. That interpretation may be my cynicism more than any suggestion made in the novel, but given the enormous challenges the characters face throughout the story, it's hard to imagine that they won't also face aftershocks of greed and power struggle even within resounding success.
I connected with this story on many levels. I'm always up for a novel that involves walks in the woods, and my personal experiences in the forest have so saturated my senses and spirit that I'm almost certain to feel resonance with words and stories that bring them to mind. Personally, my heart lies close to the territory these characters traverse. The story is larger than life to an extent, but its political themes are real in our world today. There is humor in the character development that made me smile and laugh, and the characters are not without their flaws, which grounds the more spectacular elements of the story so that it can romp, rollick, and entertain while offering opportunities for sincere thought and introspection.
Like its predecessor Orange Rain, Redwood Falls takes the reader on a nail-biting/suspense filled adventure, this time as told by a young man named Foster. Author Jan Smitowicz skillfully weaves Foster's story around macro- themes of environmentalism, corporate dominance of our culture, mindless consumerism, the sociopathic destruction of our planet, the subjugation of indiginous culture, and on an individual level, the true meaning of loyalty, genuine friendship, family, and finding one's own place and voice in the world.
Foster's story, leaving these themes aside, is a nail biter! He and his best friend Jimmy's exploits to save what's left of the planet from complete destruction, suffice to say, keep the reader in constant suspense as to how they are going to pull off their latest strike against our corporate oppressors and live to fight another day! I also like how the author, using Foster and Jimmy as literary devices, introduces the reader to the names of writers (such as Derrick Jensen, amongst others), that are on the forefront of the movement advocating decisive, effective, radical direct action on behalf of our planet. The message is clear Petitions aren't gonna get us there folks! In summary, if you are a seasoned environmental activists, getting your feet wet in environmental causes, or simply a person who likes a tension-filled nail biter of an adventure story, waste no further time and get started on this book...You will not be disappointed!
I haven't finished yet, but this book is putting me in a completely different world. The one I want to know more of, and the one I want to make. I read the other book from Jan, Orange Rain, and it was amazing. Bought two paper ones as gifts and to help fundraise to an environmentalist in prison. This one is different, different voice, different characters. Some environment facts seem plugged in sometimes, not smooth in the narrative, but completely forgivable. I understand the need to make the facts clear. This is a great read so far. And I admire the author for living his values. He inspires me to care more for our planet.
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