‘North Woods’ by Daniel Mason    (2023) – 372 pages

‘North Woods’ is the captivating story of a plot of land in western Massachusetts and the people who lived there through the years from colonial times until the near present when it is now advertised as Catamount Acres.

The New England novel ‘North Woods’ begins with a horrific scene from King Philip’s War (1675 – 1676). This King Philip’s War, a war between the colonists and some of the indigenous native people of the region, was the largest calamity in seventeenth century New England and is considered to be the deadliest war in Colonial American history. More than 1,000 colonists and 3,000 natives were killed. More than half of all New England towns were attacked by native warriors, and many were completely destroyed.

With such a horrific beginning what could the future hold for this place in western Massachusetts?

The next scene in ‘North Woods’ centers on Charles Osgood and his two daughters Alice and Mary. In the 1770s Charles bought this piece of land, built a house, and started an apple orchard that produces the famous Osgood Wonder apples. Here we get word pictures of the beauty of the woods and flowers and other vegetation and the birds and animals who live there.

“Everywhere the tracks of little animals, the deep steps of the deer. The snow renders their passage legible, reveals the long night’s silent maps.

Would they listen, the animals? She smiles ruefully, imagines the chipmunk scolding from his oak confessional. The gossiping chickadees. The wolf’s summary revenge.”

We get scenes of the idyllic country life as the apple orchard prospers. However given its bloody past, the place is haunted.

Later we get scenes from this site’s more recent history. These sections are written with a variety of characters and in a variety of styles which keep the goings on interesting. But we always come back to the apple trees, the chestnut trees, the squirrels, the beetles of the north woods. Yes, even the sexual exploits of a pair of beetles are described in several pages.

He mounted.

And then she threw him off, smashed him against the wall with such aggression that the peeping mites were scurrying in fear.”

Much of the later sections are devoted to uncovering the haunted ghostly happenings from the past.

What makes ‘North Woods’ a special delight is that the author Daniel Mason’s playful enthusiasm for his material shines through. It is written with a certain esprit with warmth and intensity. As I’ve shown he will interrupt the narrative with pictures, views of nature, poems and songs.

“Now sing us a December song

To ease the cold of winter night.

The year, we fear, is not for long,

As is the day, as is the light.”

Not that the stories are all joyous; some are very dark as the actual history of the northeast United States really is. Some are ghostly.

Grade:    A