Customer Reviews

The Natural History of Uncas Metcalfe: A Novel

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I truly enjoyed this book. It captures a man absorbed in his own reality and caught up in an environment of his own making. The messages are subtle, the characters believable, and the setting very Richard Russo in the use of small town New York. This book lacks the high level of tortured introspection so often found in modern American literature. The ability to deal with issues of relationship, aging, sexual orientation, and small town dynamics in a subtle and convincing way made this a great read and a book that stayed with me long after I put it down. I look forward to Ms. Osborne's next book.

Uncas Metcalf is the product of generations of correct-thinking, upstanding and ultra-responsible men and women. The past weighs heavily on him and we see him coping with people and challenges unknown to his ancestors. Uncas often refuses to see that which does not fit into his worldview. As the world pushes in, he bends to accommodate new challenges by finding the source for necessary approval in the past. When it works, he is charming. To his own amazement, he can empathize with a young woman whose demeanor and life-preferences are far from his own. After all, good manners and a strong handshake in a young woman are more important than her combat boots. But his search for references and approval in the past doesn't always work. His background and secure place in society has not prepared him for personal malevolence directed toward him, therefore he doesn't recognize it. The author leaves some of his motivation open to further debate - particularly as it pertains to aging. She directly address and closes that loop for some members of the family - an increasingly frail wife and an adult daughter who is both a responsible mother herself, and a young daughter held at emotional bay by her father. For Uncas himself, we are left to wonder about the inter-relationship between his reliance on role models from the past and his ability to evaluate contemporary events. How much of his failure to understand threatening behavior is the result of his age, not his background? As WE get older, are we doomed to exchange analytical skills for codes and memories of "appropriate" social behavior by our parents and grandparents? In this excellent novel, the author poses and leaves us with that thorny question.

I loved this book. Beautifully written, it's hard to put down, and touches on family dynamics, a scary stalker, small town life, and with all that is very very funny. I recommend it highly.

It is so hard for an author to surprise a reader, to truly not let her have an inkling of where a story will lead. I"m not sure I've read a story that so fully gets a reader into the head of someone as this book does with Uncas. He is not a sweet, nor generous, nor friendly man, he is slow and methodical, homophobic and impervious to change. Is that someone most of us like? No. Is he believable? TOTALLY. I think this book opened my mind a bit, made me understand certain people a bit better.
There are moments of tension that de-escalate as slowly as they build up which is difficult for any writer to do well and Osborne master this. This is prose.

As a septuagenerian, married father of three, I was impressed by Ms. Osborne's sensitivity and accuracy in depicting characters well out of her age range. The main character, Uncas Metcalf, though very synpathetically portrayed, has a couple of flaws that we AARP-ers recognize as being part of an older mind set: we don't let everything "hang out" as our over therapied children might want; we certainly care more about good grammar than our dot-coming children do. Well done- a very satisfying read

Uncas Metcalfe, professor of botany, lives in the shelter of his mind's hot house, not the real world. He wilts in the face of every challenge. Nothing much in his life comes to bloom, much less fruition. He even wimps out at the book's very end. His unnatural history isn't worth reading.