Customer Reviews
Promising story, almost unreadable book - By: NoWireHangers, 07 Aug 2008 
I haven't read any of Guterson's other novels, but this story seemed interesting. I thought I would like the book. How wrong I was.
Guterson has been too lazy to use quotation marks on the dialog. Or perhaps he chose not to, for some unknown reason, perhaps just to be artsy. It serves no purpose other than to make the book almost unreadable. Half of the time you don't know if you're reading narration, dialog or characters' thoughts. This is very annoying but might have been forgivable if the book had had any other qualities, but unfortunately it's mostly pointless & very boring. The main reason I finished reading it was that it worked just as well as sleeping pills against my insomnia.
A boring story & a writing style that seems designed to frustrate the reader make "Our Lady of the Forest" a novel best avoided.
Running on empty near the end. - By: Mike Alan, 06 Nov 2007 
I can remember enjoying this book up to about the halfway point, after which it became a struggle. The characters are developed well, but I did not find myself having much of an affinity for Ann, the young runaway despite the harrowing upbringing she had suffered. Perhaps this was the intention of Guterson. She does just seem to be in the book as a catalyst figure. For example, Tom is a more interesting & rounded character, & it is him as the broken man that finds in Ann's visions a last chance for redemption for both himself & his son who is paralyzed.
Another point of interest is the way that Guterson portrays the mass hysteria that religious visions have created around the world over the years. Guterson does this wryly & there are a number of humorous turns of phrase when the visionaries legions of followers flock to North Fork.
This novel then is suspenseful & engaging enough (just)to see it through its 300 + pages. However, like the views of other reviewers indicate, this novel may have worked better as a novella.
Brilliantly written, too short. - By: J. Hackney, 06 Oct 2006 Far & away the most enjoyable & engaging element David Guterson books is how evocatively he describes the local flora & landscapes. The story itself is powerful but I felt it cut off too suddenly, or worked up too fast, as if he didn't quite know where he was going with it, or didnt trust his material to last. Would maybe have been better as a short story, is certainly vivid enough.
A contemporary religious novel - By: , 11 Jan 2005 
This is an interesting book dealing with the old themes of sin & redemption. It succeeds mainly due to the vulnerability of the central character, Anne Holmes. She has the mystical visions that draw an array of unsavoury characters into her orbit, & the reader is kept interested in the outcome. Shorter than his other books, Guterson writes with an urgency that keeps the pages turning, & does not avoid the difficult subject matter.
When questions provide answers - By: , 16 May 2004 
David Guterson is a man who rather asks questions than give the answers. In his third novel to-date, Our Lady of the Forest, he asks you to believe or not to believe. Or maybe he does not even go that far: he just urges the reader to consider the options, to look at it from both sides.
Ann Holmes, a teenage girl with a childhood of neglect & sexual abuse, tries to make a living by picking mushrooms in a gloomy Washington forest near Tacoma. One day she has a vision of the Holy Virgin who urges her to build a church in the woods, & within days her initial solitary experience - after a second & a third vision of Mary - swells to near mass-hysteria, spread by the internet.
Her cynical "friend" Carolyn tries to financiallly exploit these visions of Ann. The young priest of the isolated & derelict community is troubled more by Ann herself than by her experiences. Young guilt-ridden, unemployed & divorced-with-a-restraining-order Tom Cross sees in Ann a ray of hope to overturn his own desperate situation.
Guterson observes & describes these people's lives with accuracy & precision. He looks at events from different points of view, it is up to the reader to draw the overalll picture - if that exists at alll. There is humor & tragedy, compassion & cynicism. The bulk of the book spans a mere four days in November, but you feel like you know these people intimately. Likewise for the description of nature & the often absurd scenes that take place, the reader is not a bystander but feels he's taking part in it rather than just watching it.
Guterson does not write fast-food literature, but for those willing to take their time, slow down & question received truths, this book is great food for thought.
