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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
forgive and move on to his better stuff, October 13, 2000
If an author really captures our imagination and regularly delivers a superior product, then I'm willing to be patient when they try something new, even if I prefer the stuff that earned their reputation (Sharon Kay Penman's mysteries vs. her historical epics), and forgiving with efforts that don't quite hit the mark. Unfortunately, I think that this is something of a misfire for Watkins, who is pretty nearly my favorite writer. This is his sixth novel and, like each of the previous books, it opens up a new world in a level of detail that is truly remarkable (Watkins notoriously immerses himself in the milieu of his subject before writing his books). This time the setting is the Northwoods of Maine, where mill owner Noah McKenzie has been granted logging rights to a stand of trees, the Algonquin Wilderness, in the days before it becomes a nature preserve. McKenzie is a figure of Ahab like obsession, determined to clear cut the forest where he lost a leg in a wood cutting accident years before. Arrayed against him are: the woman who owns the local environmentally conscious newspaper; an ecoterrorist named Adam Gabriel who is driven by the environmental destruction he saw in the burning oilfields of Kuwait; the foreman of his mill; and even his own wife. As Gabriel escalates his monkey wrenching tactics, McKenzie turns to a mercenary friend and soon enough there is open warfare in the woods. Lurking in the dark like a deus ex machina is a grizzled old seemingly unkillable bear that the locals call No Ears. Now, as you can see from the myriad elements that are brought together here, there's just a little too much room for melodrama and, indeed, there are points when the story slides over the edge into unbelievability. But my real complaint is that Watkins, who is normally a more subtle author, has really stacked the moral deck. Rather than have McKenzie and Gabriel meet as idealistic moral equals, Watkins tips his hand from the get go and portrays McKenzie as a malevolent force, hell bent on destruction for it's own sake. Setting aside my own political inclination to cut the mill owner some slack, I think it would simply be a more interesting story if McKenzie were more ambiguous, if it were harder to choose sides in the explosive showdown. But as I said, I'm willing to go a little easy on these complaints because I've liked Watkin's prior works so much and even amidst the facets I disliked, there is much to like here. GRADE: B-
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
He can't write a bad book!, April 14, 1998
Having read (and loved) Paul Watkins' stunning memoir STAND BEFORE YOUR GOD I picked up this novel purely on the basis of name recognition. What a fortunate thing to do! His writing is incisive, probing, and engaging. Every page contains an insight concerning why people act the way they do, and every detail is nurtured to full flowering. This is spare prose which is at the same time unbelievably lush. At first I thought I wouldn't be able to get interested in the story, but Watkins' sensitivity to his characters' minds, and the way in which he makes you care about everyone--even the "bad guys"-- makes you believe you're in the company of genius. Too bad he has only seven books out there: I can't wait till I can read them all, but I know it'll be a bittersweet time when I finish the last. He's simply too good to pass up!
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Powerful Novel, September 30, 2000
This was Watkins' sixth book. I looked his other books up at Amazon and he certainly writes on a wide variety of topics--and does a tremendous amount of research. "Archangel" was one of those books that made you feel as if "you were there". It was a page turner in the best sense of the word, a story of eco-terrorism and so much more! An excellent book, thought-provoking and one that taught me quite a bit. In a tiny town in the northernmost part of Maine, a logging company owner is racing to cut as much forest as possible before more restrictive laws go into effect. An environmental terrorist named Gabriel (the "archangel" of the title) appears to try and thwart this effort, and then a "gun for hire" is brought in to try to stop the terrorism. There are quite a few grisly scenes, including the one that opens the book, but the scenes *fit* the story---they are not merely gratuitous. The forest was not the only victim in this story, and Watkins has an uncanny ability to make the reader feel for every character, even the bad guys. The unfolding of events, which all began with a cover-up of a safety problem, spirals into tragedy for many people. I am looking forward to Watkins' next novel, "The Forger", due out shortly.
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