The Forest House: A Year's Journey Into the Landscape of Love, Loss, and Starting Over

by Joelle Fraser

Overview

Following divorce, Fraser resolves to stay in the small mountain town where her son's father lives, but it soon proves too claustrophobic. She finds relief a world away in a small house up a winding road tucked so far into the forest one forgets it is technically still in town. It's in this small and remote forest house, both buffered and enveloped by endless wilderness, where she slowly rebuilds.



The life she carves out for herself and son Dylan is harsh at times and lyrical at others. The physical landscape feeds her—with its trees and animals, firewood, barbed wire and rugged unforgiving demands—while her internal self brims over with favorite passages culled from beloved books…and also with immense guilt about pulling her son into the confusing and messy reality of divorce. Of course, it is complicated reflection, as our lives often are. No moment of reveling goes unpunished by self–reproach: how dare she be happy for the quiet afforded her when Dylan is with his dad. Is it okay to be happy? Shouldn't she be sadder?



And her past is not past at all. Her history and the history of her family are very much alive in her, and memories crop–up unbidden, providing hints of explanation, that both prop her up and damn her. It is when all these gremlins hound her that she turns to what is outside her door.



This is a literary gem for anyone who has navigated the treacherous waters of loss and rebuilt a life, for those who love an expanse of sky, and for those who carry books in their mind.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781619022058
Publisher:	Catapult
Publication date:	03/01/2013
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	492 KB

About the Author

Joelle Fraser graduated from the University of Hawaii and has MFAs from Eastern Washington University and the University of Iowa. A two–time MacDowell Fellow, Fraser's award–winning work has appeared in many literary journals, including Hawaii Pacific Review, High Desert Journal, Michigan Quarterly Review, Fourth Genre, Crazyhorse, Zyzzyva, and The Iowa Review. Her first book, The Territory of Men: a Memoir was published in 2002 by Random House, and Kirkus called it "a beautifully crafted debut," declaring that Fraser was "a writer worth keeping an eye on."

Table of Contents

1 The Forest House 1

2 The Dark Season 9

3 How to Leave 19

4 Comings and Goings 29

5 You Get By 37

6 Strange Country 45

7 Going Dark 57

8 The Art of Jerry-Rigging 63

9 Damaged Goods 67

10 Birdsong 71

11 The Blue Jay Show 77

12 Outsiders 83

13 Jimmy B 89

14 The Sleeping Place 97

15 Prison Town Prayers 99

16 Trip Wires 107

17 Coming To 111

18 Neighbors, and Other Distractions 113

19 Tree Scars 115

20 Fire Season 123

21 Dianna's Table 127

22 On Wood and Warmth 133

23 Companions 139

24 In October 145

25 Survival of the Fittest 149

26 First Snowfall 155

27 The Beauty of My Surroundings 159

28 Three Degrees at Dawn 167

29 Cabin Fever 171

30 The Gift of Snow Geese 177

31 Blessings 179

32 Future Tense 181

33 New Year's Day 185

34 Susanna on the Ice 187

35 Cliffs and Clouds 193

36 The Peppermill 199

37 Overwinter 207

38 Where Your Life Meets the Sky 211

39 The Rock Garden 217

Editorial Reviews

Praise for The Forest House

"[Fraser's] poignant, heartbreaking struggle to find her way in a life she never planned to be living transcends her personal story to encompass all who find themselves at unexpected, and often lonely, crossroads . . . Her thoughtful, sincere, and generous chronicle will especially appeal to newly single parents." —Booklist

"Fraser soulfully evokes the year she spent in an isolated forest retreat recovering from the trauma of divorce and exploring the inner landscape of her heart…A poignant study of gratitude for the simple life." —Kirkus

"I turned to The Forest House every night before I went bed, wanting to drift off to sleep with the smell of the tall pines, the call of the ravens, the beauty of big skies coursing through my body, and wake up renewed, healed. As evocative and imagery–dense as poetry, The Forest House is the story of coming to life again after a devastating divorce, through silent communion with old–growth trees and investing love in the broken and homeless animals who grace her path. This is the story of a woman braving a courageous choice—to live in a way that feels true—set against a sensual verdant landscape. As redeeming and soul cleansing as a long walk through a welcoming forest."—Alison Singh Gee, Where the Peacocks Sing: A Prince, a Palace and the Search for Home


"I adore The Forest House. It's a moving and tender sequel to her acclaimed first memoir, The Territory of Men. The harsh realities of her own life have made Fraser a compassionate observer and a resourceful mother in a wild beautiful place at the very edge of her world. Here at this unstable equilibrium of nature and civilization, of dissolution and reconstruction, she builds a fortress for herself and her young son. Here is a story about starting over from scratch and learning how to build a fragile life together without losing sight of all that is beautiful. A wise and sweet telling of a year in a little house in the forest." —Andrew Pham, author of Catfish and Mandala

From the Publisher

Fraser (The Territory of Men, 2002) soulfully evokes the year she spent in an isolated forest retreat recovering from the trauma of divorce and exploring the inner landscape of her heart. When the author divorced her husband, the emotional fallout left her devastated. Not only was she unprepared for how joint custody would redefine her relationship to her young son Dylan, but she was also unprepared for the wave of "crippling guilt of being the one who left." To maintain her privacy in the conservative California mountain town where they lived and ensure Dylan had access to his father, Fraser quietly moved into a tiny, one-bedroom house on the edge of a nearby forest. In this lonely but beautiful setting, Fraser began to examine her life. She thought about her Swedish great-grandmother, who was forced to leave her six children behind and follow a fugitive husband to America, where the two divorced. She eventually reunited with some of her children, but for the rest of her life, she worked "like a slave" in a land far from home. From this extraordinary woman, Fraser came to understand that survival meant "setting a course" for herself and making peace with her choices. She accepted the financial challenges of being a single parent with a low-paying job and found renewed joy in the companionship of her dog and cats. As she learned to appreciate the natural world around her, Fraser came to value both her freedom and the pain that had come along with it. Her injuries, like those done to the great scarred trees around her, were actually a testament to the hidden beauty of life itself--and to the choice to either live in fear or "look for [the] gifts" in every experience, no matter how painful. A poignant study of gratitude for the simple life.

Kirkus Reviews