A peculiar grace Book

I read this book in a day.

I deeply loved In the Fall, the only other Lent I've read, for many of the same reasons as this fine piece, though they are, on the surface, very different. What ties them together (besides Lent's... er... I nearly used the word "sparse" there :) but sparse his language does often feel, despite its richnesss, and I am appreciative of his disregard for conventional sentence structure in service to his Yankee cadence) is the sense of spanning time in New England - the cycle of the seasons and the cycle of re-evaluation we hopefully undertake as we age. As a native Vermonter (which Lent, much to my joy, is as well) I was struck with the pitch-perfect depiction of the uncommonly common Woodchuck, living out his days in relative seclusion on a hillside. Non-natives in the process of growing old (and aren't we all) will be moved by the protagonist's grappling with the hold old wounds still have on his life, decades later. Makes one reflect on the choices one makes in deference to such things, and the destructive (and potentially transformative) power the past has in our lives.

Mmm... yes, well ramble ramble ramble. :) It's a fantastic effing book!