Forest Blood

Perhaps some day you will experience the worst emotional pain in your life and you will wonder "How did this happen? Why am I suffering? Why does life have to be like this? Is there a better way?" If you're lucky and have the resources you will find a good therapist who will listen as you answer those questions for yourself. And you would also be lucky if on the way to the shrink you stopped by a bookstore and picked up a copy of Jeff Golden's book. I know of no other book that more powerfully, artfully, and accurately shows how our psyches are formed by our families and our culture and the price we pay for not getting that right. Because Golden described the inner workings of a male logger's mind, the story is most clearly what happens to boys and men, but he was also wise enough to make that character symbolize what happens to girls and women as well, so the book reveals much about the human condition as it has evolved thus far. Jack, the logger, lives without access to his complete and whole self. His romantic obsession with a life-long friend, Holly, keeps him in a constant state of longing to connect with her but he never does. What Jack really longs for is a connection with a part of himself that was not validated by his family or community. What happens to Jack at the end of the novel tells much about the painful loss of our true self that we accommodate as babies, before we can speak, and which forms the foundation of our psychological make-up. The entire story speaks to the greed, violence, and lack of true love in our world which results from the way most human psyches are shaped as babies and as young children. My only quibble is that Mr. Golden seems to have an extraordinarily good grasp of the problem but no solution. My hope is that some day he will write a solution-oriented sequel to Forest Blood that focuses on the grieving process or some other more miraculous and less costly cure which leads us to wholeness. In the meantime, I recommend reading The Drama of the Gifted Child by Alice Miller and The Dance of Anger by Harriet Lerner.

In a remarkable first novel, Golden weaves a riveting narrative set against the backdrop of Pacific Northwest timber wars. He addresses both timeless human themes - fact vs. truth, ends vs. means, conflict between individual values and historical forces - and timely social/political issues - local values vs. globalization, personal integrity vs. political/financial opportunity. Golden presents the historical background of the timber wars through the direct, honest voice of Jack Gilliam, a thoughtful logger and independent thinker with the soul of a poet. We follow Jack as he comes of age and strives to maintain his integrity while providing for his family in a world transformed by apparently inexorable external forces. He struggles to do the "right" thing, while avoiding the temptations of simple, appealing "TRUTHs" that conflict with the complex web of reality. Gilliam's tale provides a compelling, contemporary vision of the paradoxical conflict between the individual's obligation to influence historical events and the real limitations of a modern individual's influence. Never mind that you couldn't give hoot about the spotted owl or that your knowledge of environmental issues comes from the Jamba Juice Bar. Forest Blood addresses conflicts of fundamental human values in a gripping, contemporary narrative. This book is for you if you are looking for a richly-written, exciting, and thought-provoking novel.

This is a fine novel that is both a captivating read, with complex, carefully drawn charactors, and at the very same time, the best account that we have of the critical ethical conflicts in the ecology movement. If you teach ethics, this book is a clear choice for your students, better than any number of articles on the topic. But if you just plain love a good book, you will just plain love this one. A political novel in the best sense, in that it is about the way in which personal narrative and relationships are at the heart of social dilemmas. This novel takes you directly to the front line of the old-growth timber wars in a way that most of us, as outsiders will never be able to know ourselves, teaching us the power, beauty and transcedence of work. It will be on my assigned reading list for my students, and my friends: a hauntingly beautiful, moving, and very very smart novel.

I live in the middle of the forest wars in the Northwest. Mr Golden accomplished what I would have thought impossible. He created the opportunity for me to care for a died-in-the-wool logger. His character development is excellent.The story is an inside account of the tragic shift in logging practices in the 1980's and the forces that led us there. This is an important read for anyone who wants to better understand why it is that we have stripped the Northwest of its timber and left everyone worse off in the process.

Forest Blood"Past a certain point, it's hard to be surprised about anything," muses Jack Gilliam, the unlikely hero of Jeff Golden's new novel, Forest Blood. Yet in this work of contemporary historical fiction from Golden, a southern Oregon writer, consultant and former County Commissioner, surprises abound.Jack Gilliam's story is set amidst the backdrop of a bucolic Lewis Falls, reminiscent of a town that is one part Brookings, one part Butte Falls, and one part pure historical imagination - the kind of town where people never lock their doors and a kid's first claim to fame is the high school baseball team. Jack grows up here, following in the footsteps of his father, and his father before him, to become a third-generation logger, working in the woods that he's come to love. But what seems to be straightforward, honest work becomes less clear to Jack over time. Caught in a world where "it used to be simpler... Used to be you sold to markets close by, or concentrated on special outlets like we did in San Francisco. You built your relationships, and if you stayed straight and fair with them, they stayed with you. Now it's a free-for-all...," Jack begins to question "the modernization of forest management." Struggling with layers of corporate and community interests that are at odds with one another, he and his neighbors face the difficult realities of changing timber industry as Lewis Falls is beset by both corporate raiders and environmental extremists.But if you think you already know how the story ends, take my word for it - you don't. This is a story with many twists and turns. Golden masterfully blends a familiar historical tale, one that many of us in the Pacific Northwest have lived through, with all of the elements of a suspense thriller. The last three chapters will have you sitting on the edge of your seat.Forest Blood is a must read for anyone who has lived or worked in timber country through these tumultuous times.