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I've read other phone-book sized books before (stares in Neal Stephenson) but this one was really a tome. It spans a hundreds of years, looking at indigenous and non-indigenous (eg colonizers) involved in logging and trees and forests, following a couple of families and their descendants through changes in, well, everything about the world. The story's sweep is all-encompassing, looking at the kinds of lives people lead, their struggles, their relationships. The rapaciousness of capitalism and the absolutely cruelty of colonialism (obviously not unrelated) are two big themes here. But also, the cheapness of life, the suffering and the lack of concern that men have for each other. The characters travel the world, sometimes die in inconsequential ways despite their significant lives. And through this long book (which I took breaks from many times, setting it aside while I finished another book or 3) is absolutely brilliant creative prose. I hadn't read a Proulx novel before (just short fiction) and hadn't really appreciated her talent with phrasing and description.

Beyond that, the book is meticulously researched. And you can tell; while that may not appeal to some readers (and we've all read things that belabor details we don't care about) I really liked the Mi'kmaq terms and world view, and the specific logging technologies and processes. The details were rich and painted the world in so many different ways across the different people and times and places and cultures.