Last week I finished reading an absolute gem of a book. I'd picked it up in a Waterstones sale; I'd had a £10 voucher to spend and the book I wanted only cost £7, so I needed to find something else to get my money's worth. So, lo and behold, I pick up a copy of Winter's Bone, by Daniel Woodrell, for the low price of £3. There was a sticker on the cover, proudly announcing it was now a 'major motion picture', complete with an image of Jennifer Lawrence's face.
I came home, placed the scrap of a book (it's more novella than novel) on my shelf and promptly forgot all about it, instead pursuing other worlds of fantasy and monsters that made up my massive reading backlog. I didn't mind so much; it has a nice, crisp white cover with dead tree branches in black and silver and a crow (or possibly a raven) perched there, amidst the title. Gothic and bleak, reminiscent of many an old romantic thriller. It looked pretty, even if it was hardly the pinnacle of originality, so it didn't look remiss on my bookshelf, even in its unread, unloved state.
I imagine it was about six months after purchase (finishing one degree, starting another and moving house later) that I eventually picked up Winter's Bone. I'd finished reading Emporors Once More, which had taken what felt like a lifetime to complete, and Dark Waters for university. Although I knew I really ought to be reading A Call to Crusade, which had been wondrously gifted to me by the author in return for a review, all I really wanted was something short, light and finished with quickly. This gave me the choice of rereading one of my childhood favourites, a graphic novel or this forgotten, bargain, 'just because I have the cash' book. That and, ever since having placed it on the bookshelf in the living room I now share with my boyfriend, he has been exuberant with puerile glee over the title. So to satisfy his curiosity that no, this book is not about getting a hard on in the cold depths of Winter, I read it.
Sometimes you buy a book just because the title, or the cover, or the price appeals to you. You buy it on a whim. Sometimes you get what you deserve; trashy, cheap, throw away fiction or, as seems to be the case now, a novel riddled with supernatural romance and overly explicit sex scenes, when in reality you were looking for the next The Lord of the Rings. Sometimes you get something that was well written, with a unique spin on an age worn plot but wasn't really to your taste. Other times you find something that makes you wonder how you had not come across it before; something fantastic, something that engages you, pulls you head first into a different universe before spitting you out with a revelation of an ending. Those finds are the best kind and the reason I still pick up something different, something random in the sale section in bookshops.
Fortunately, Winter's Bone was this later category. it was brilliantly written. The blurb claimed it was a thriller, so I was expecting a fast pace, two dimensional characters and terrible forensic scenarios, feeling like it had been written over a weekend, with lots of coffee and cigarettes, to maximise profit potential. What I got was very different indeed.
Woodrell is, surprisingly, a wizard with words. He conjures up majestic scenes that juxtapose the austere and desolate plot. The story takes place, predictably, in winter and Woodrell has a habit of transporting you to the snow covered valleys in Missouri. I was a little stunned. This was far from what I had anticipated.
The book centres around sixteen year old, high school drop out Ree Dolly. Her father has gone missing and this means her family (two younger brothers and a mentally unstable mother) will lose their house. So Ree goes to find him. It hardly sounds earth shatteringly new, but somehow it's written in a way that makes it seem very new indeed. Perhaps it's the setting; the valleys, where people get rich on making meth and don't think twice about shooting the enemy. Where blood runs thicker than water. It's not the bright, bustling, underground New York setting I'm used to thrillers using. It's a refreshing change. The setting is very much unknown to me; British, living in the city. I don't know about the wilds of America. This is one way to open your eyes; it makes you realise that America isn't just rich and powerful. It's poor and weak, too. Perhaps I'm far too ethnocentric. Perhaps I'm sheltered. But it was an interesting insight to the areas of America that aren't 'sexy', even if it was only fiction.
Ree's an interesting character. The whole cast is, to be fair. They're not just cardboard cutouts of various stereotypes. You really get to know them. You get to understand Ree's (and everyone's) fear of Thump Milton, Teardrop's familial love for his niece, Gail's resentment for her husband. Each one comes to life, without the need for long, drawn out descriptions and back stories. you are invited to see a window of Ree's life, the one that involves the disappearance of her father. You do not need to know what happened before or after. You just see what is and who is. And it really works.
I think this is a great piece of literature. It's genuinely shocking in places, without being overly graphic or repulsive in its descriptions. It's just honest. it's one of the few books I've read recently that I felt was just the right length. Too often, I keep picking up a book that begins well but then drags for several hundred pages, out staying its welcome. Less often, I find a book that is wrapped up and finished without answering all of my questions, leaving me asking more and feeling utterly unsatisfied. Rarely, I find something that knows exactly when to draw everything to a close. Winters Bone does this superbly. I felt like not a great deal happened over the course of the pages, but enough happened, with enough emotion and determination on Ree's behalf to keep me engaged. Then, before that interest could tail off, Woodrell wraps everything up, neatly and with a sort of beautiful simplicity.
I honestly would recommend this novel to anyone who likes less run of the mill thrillers. Anyone who likes short stories about the fictional lives of others. Anyone who likes marvellous descriptions of a place not so far away. If you enjoy good, solid, real life fiction, you'll probably enjoy Winter's Bone. Certainly, I had never heard of Daniel Woodrell before, but I will certainly be on the look out for more of his work from now on. He is definitely an author to keep in mind.
This book in facts and figures;
My rating: 8/10
Pages: 193
My Format: Paperback
Published: 2007
Guess I'll have to keep a look out for this one :)
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