The Forest Lover [Hardcover]

Susan Vreeland (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books Canada, Limited; First Edition, First Printing edition (2004)
• ISBN-10: 0670044814
• ISBN-13: 978-0670044818
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,234,438 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Susan Vreeland's short fiction has appeared in journals such as The Missouri Review, Confrontation, New England Review, and Alaska Quarterly Review. Her first novel, What Love Sees, was made into a CBS Sunday Night Movie. She teaches English literature and Art in San Diego public schools.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars *A GLORIOUS ADVENTURE FOR READERS*, July 1, 2004

By 

mcHaiku "nmi" (Brown County INDIANA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Forest Lover (Hardcover)

After being immersed in delicious piles of children's & YA books I changed course long enough to read "The Forest Lover." 1st, because long ago I was intrigued by Emily Carr's art; 2nd, our lifetimes overlapped; 3rd, the author's "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" is near the top of my *Vermeer List*; and 4th, for the joy of reading about a woman with great talents who overcame many obstacles including three inflexible, stuffily 'religious' sisters.

In the *Author's Afterword* Vreeland says her story is a look at Carr's 'courageous and extraordinary life'(p.329). My favorite quotation by the artist is when she exclaimed late in life: "DON'T PICKLE ME AWAY AS A DONE" (p.331). Even after two heart attacks and a stroke Emily Carr was pushing herself around on a makeshift wheeled crate in order to keep painting. She died in 1945 at age 74.

Her paintings reflected her spirit as well as the spirit of the forests and native people she grew to love. She was intrepid; the paintings astonishing. She was 'gutsy' and her art could be disturbing. They sometimes mirrored her melancholy; hers was a lonely life. I see echoes of Barbara Kingsolver's "Poisonwood Bible" in Vreeland's commentary on the miserable treatment natives were handed out by bureaucrats and 'men of God'. The torments they caused!

Susan Vreeland was writing this book for 17 years. She said "In paint and words, Emily Carr casts a tall shadow, one which has accompanied me in western forests" - this from her experience kayacking into the north country to search for remnants of the totem poles Carr had sacrificed so much to capture on canvas.

Some reviewers have carped about Vreeland introducing fictional characters and relationships in her story. 1st, let's remember this IS FICTION; 2nd, writers often do this to entice a wider audience. If this book serves to introduce hundreds more readers to Emily Carr and the wrongs she fought against, then I say "Amen" - "so be it"; 3rd, the author, in trying to portray the artist's spirit felt she could take 'certain liberties' because Emily, herself, altered facts and chronology in her own writings. And why shouldn't someone as passionate about her painting as Carr also have passionate relationships? One Amazon reviewer has gone a step beyond objecting to fictional love scenes; he/she ridicules the actions and language used as though anyone can say what is a "proper" way of writing about love!

Vreeland describes (Part II) Carr's experiences in France in a most engaging way. It was the time of Monet and Van Gogh although Carr did not meet these men. The author captures vividly the critical eye of Parisians and the manner in which Carr's art evolved. Carr's was a truly amazing achievement, as a Canadian and a woman, to have a painting shown in the prestigious Salon d'Automne. She returned to British Columbia with a new confidence in her technique.

Late in life Emily Carr was gratified to receive acclaim: "Hers is the greatest contribution of all time to historic art of the Pacific slopes. Miss Carr is essentially of the Canadian West *not by reason of her subject matter alone but by her approach to it*"(from the Ottawa "Citizen"). I find her paintings to be spirit-filled and/or spiritual (according to your individual interpretation); her colors bold and lush. When you come to the end of this book - a glorious adventure for the reader - remember it as a fictionalized account told with love and admiration for someone who lived 'before her time' and captured the true essence of her surroundings.

REVIEWER mcHAIKU remains in awe of the subject and heartily applauds the author.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars slow beginning/strong ending, March 28, 2004

By 

Kcolorado (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Forest Lover (Hardcover)

I discovered Emily Carr's paintings during a visit to the Vancouver Art Gallery several years ago. I was drawn to her work and amazed that I hadn't heard or seen it before, since I have worked as an art curator and art historian for many years. Having written about women artists, I was intrigued with her story and pleased to see that the Canadian government had a stamp honoring her. I bought a catalogue of her work and have been delighted to introduce her to others. I was interested when I learned that Susan Vreeland had written a fictionalized account of her life. I have to agree with several other reviewers that it is an uneven book and much of the dialogue is artifical and stilted. I stuck with it and was rewarded after the first 100 pages as the author began to describe Emily's experiences in France as she sought to express her feelings through painting. The book gains strength and I found it quite compelling in describing the struggle of a painter and the artist's deep connection with her subject matter. However the book is diminished because it needs more color reproductions of her work. The book made me seek out my catalog of Emily Carr paintings and I enjoyed looking at the images as I read. The author talks about the number of years she worked on the book and the uneven structure suggests that she didn't fully resolve the issues. Yet for all that, it ended strongly and I was swept into the passion of this lonely and sensitive artist and her deep feeling for the culture and landscape of the northwest.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Different from "Artemisia"; just as powerful, September 28, 2004

By 

Amazonbombshell (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Forest Lover (Hardcover)

As well-written and revealing as THE PASSION OF ARTEMISIA, the style of THE FOREST LOVER couldn't be more different from its best-selling predecessor. It's bolder, harder, it moves more abruptly, like the style of art and the artist it follows. Until I read this book, I'd never heard of Emily Carr, but I'd been to the forests of British Columbia and I live among the wild greenery of northern Oregon, so I read it for the forest in its title. Along the way, I did a bit of minor research into the fascinating explorer Vreeland depicts so well, and I discovered that her art is, as she struggles to comphrehend in the book, about soul -- yours and your subject's, mixed together on the canvas.

I haven't done enough research to know how many historical liberties Vreeland has taken in her story, but I really don't care. Read this book if you love art, soul, the northern forests, wilderness, people with gumption. Especially if it's all-of-the-above. I'm not a big art enthusiast, so I imagine someone who is will get even more pleasure from the experience.