Customer Reviews

Wilderness of spring

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It's a crime that this novel has never seen another printing. Seldom do historical narratives take a clealy humanistic bent to portray a wider, historical context through a fictional story and succeed this well. In "Wilderness of Spring", Pangborn uses two adolescent, orphaned brothers in turn-of-the-18th century Massachussetts and the tale of their experiences to plumb the economic, political,and (most importantly) ideological tides of the time.

The book opens in February of 1704 and takes the reader through the next decade. The witch trials of Salem are but 12 years passed, and fire-and-brimstone writer Jonathan Edwards was born in 1703, so there is the lingering cultural legacy of Puritanism in the air, but the Age of Reason has begun. Literate citizens in Boston speak among themselves about the scientific works of Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke, global trade is becoming a fact and there's a timbre of optimism and rebirth in the prose of "Wilderness of Spring" that reflects this break from the confines of anti-intellectualism.

It is not only the speculation concerning this sea-change in ideological climate that make this book such a treasure, but it is in Pangborn's use of language. Some passages are stunning in the emotional impact he's able to coax, and others are idyllic. Even his action-packed scenes maintain the integrity he's established. He also exhibits again his love for his characters, making them real if distant in time. If he dotes a bit too much on the boys, particularly Reuben, he can be forgiven such a small conceit; it is interesting that, while he portrays characters as complex individuals beyond simple caricatures of good/bad, the only truly nasty characters are the ones, like the boys aunt, that are close-minded extremists.

When published in 1958, I think it met an audience unwilling to deal with a Colonial tale of breaking the social order, with a softly eloquent style and with tenderly-presented but risque moments of early adolescent sexuality. If there is any justice, some wise publisher will pick up the rights to this novel and introduce it to a new audience.