Barkskins

BARKSKINS

by E. Annie Proulx

 

Nominations: Dayton Literary Peace Prize Finalist 2017, Dublin Longlist 2018, Kirkus Finalist 2016, Women’s Prize Longlist 2017

 

Date Read: October 14, 2023

 

Barkskins is Proulx’s homage to the intersection between the precious balance of ecosystems with naked greed. Too early in the drive for timber, which was equated with expansion and growth, there was no concept that forests could be decimated. Everyone believed forests were self-replenishing. That is, until all the forests of eastern U.S. were logged and didn’t regenerate as they had thought.

 

Coming as indentured servants, Rene Sel and Charles Duquet were tasked with enriching their benefactor Claude Trepagny, a disgusting brute of a man focused only on his own interests. While Rene held on to the terms of his contract, probably longer than he should have, Charles ran off, never completing his contract. These two lives take dramatically different, but interconnecting turns.

 

Rene begins a family and because their mother is Miqmak, they begin a native line that has numerous challenges due to the inherent racism white settlers have against Indians. Their way forward is treacherous, often working in dangerous logging jobs and scrounging together just enough to survive. They are tested, berated, abused and ignored. 

 

Charles Duquet is a determined Frenchman, his eye focused on anything and everything he can do to become rich. Early on, he is able to leverage the furs he has hunted  into seed money for his ultimate enterprise – timber. Changing his name to Duke, his long-term challenge is finding enough heirs to continue Duke & Sons, one of the largest logging enterprises in North America.

 

As these two family’s lives play out, we can see the ways that the decisions that were made bad in the early years of our nation’s history have a direct impact on the ecological present we are witnessing now in the form of ice shelf collapse, extreme weather and forest collapse. While some leading up to the present espoused conservation before conservation was in vogue, most were slaves to their own naked greed and never batted an eye at the long-term consequences of their actions. 

 

Proulx once again slays in presenting this family saga with an environmental bent. There were lulls in the storytelling that I felt could have been excluded but overall this was an enthralling tome bound to become one her best known works.