A beautiful memory
Green Mansions was one of the first books I read in English when I fourteen and had recently come from Cuba. I loved it and a few years later I named my first son after the male character Abel.I bought the book from you to give to my granddaughter Sabina who was just 14.I hope she likes it too.Thank you.
Irma P.
Absorbing, rich, strange
Though it appears slim, it is by no means a slim read. A book this rich needs to be savored, like good wine; not gulped, like cheap malt liquor. But, despite this, it is, absolutely, an easy read. The story flows naturally and poetically. Not forced, not hurried, it strikes not a single ingenuity. Written over a hundred years ago, it doesn't seem at all dated. Rather, there is a timeless quality to it, and an almost biblical gravitas.
The plot and the pacing are superb, but I'm especially fascinated with Hudson's way of telling it. There is an earnestess, and an openness--a preternatural ease to his prose that won me over from the first page. It holds a certain directness of thought and purity of purpose that keeps you transfixed, even hypnotized. Before I actually started reading it, I glanced a little worriedly at the long paragraphs that I figured were probably filled with typical nature writing (The wind blew through the trees...I heard a bird....I saw a squirrel....) The typical boring snooze fest that most nature writing is. Well, rest assured friends, this novel is anything but. Green Mansions has been called a "love story". It definitely is, but it is also so much more.
It is obvious that Hudson loves nature, but he doesn't idealize it. If he did when he was younger (likely), his perception deepened as he aged. This book might even be a rebuttal of sorts to the pop notion of nature as something benevolent. For Hudson, nature is neither benevolent nor malicious. Exquisite, yes. "Beautiful", definitely yes, but also indifferent. It simply doesn't care. Prayers are futile. The price of weakness is death. Morality is nice and all, but things get complicated in the jungle. Every fragment of joy has its counterpoint in gloom. He juggles wide-eyed optimism and bitter fatalism, with equal ability and sincerity.
This is one of the most absorbing books I've ever read. Certain scenes, no doubt, will stick with me forever. Now I am looking forward to my next foray into the rich worlds of W. H. Hudson.
A beautifully written but plodding novel
Green Mansions starts off well, and the story picks up in the final third of the book, but in between the narrative falters to the point that I was tempted to abandon the book, something which I don't often do. The protagonist, Abel, is not particularly likable -- which I don't believe was the author's intent -- and even allowing for the time period in which the book was written, Abel displays a surprising degree of condescension towards the natives and white men alike on whose hospitality he often depends. My general dislike for Abel made Green Mansions all the more difficult to stick with through its protracted longueur. The religious/eco-mystical aspects of the novel, however, are intriguing, and the writing is lush and evocative. I don't regret the time invested in reading Green Mansions, but it's extremely unlikely that I'll ever feel a need to revisit the book.
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