Turn off the phone, keep nibbles close by, and settle in because it’s likely you’ll read straight through Liz Moore’s can’t-put-it-down 476-page tale set in the Adirondacks -- The God of the Woods - about a summer camp, missing children and class. Eerie, suspenseful, impressively subtle, it features points of view from not one protagonist but several characters, including an escaped serial killer. They weave in and out of this remarkable narrative that opens in 1975 and alternates with background scenes from the `50s and `60s.
The number of characters is almost Russian novel and you may have to remind yourself who they are. But each chapter for named for one of them helps keep order.
They include the coed camp director, assistants, kitchen staff, counselors, locals -- many Polish Americans with a “dynasty of secrets”. Also the wealthy, aristocratic, and snobby owners of Camp Emerson, whose main house is called, after one of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essays, Self Reliance. They have their own secrets. There are also the main house workers, local police, politically connected state officers, and most of all – the forest in its splendid mysteriousness, the reason the camp was started years ago by the late Peter Van Laar to encourage environmental respect.
Unlike the founder, the heirs, Peter Van Laar II and Peter Van Laar III, are interested only in status and money. There WAS a Peter Van Laar IV, a charming, bright eight-year-old, but he went missing years ago, his body never found, and the police have deemed his case closed.
There’s also a map for all the fictional locations, including a lake, and you’ll likely be consulting that as well. And admiring the author’s skill even more.
What happened to young Peter, called “Bear” by his mother Alice, to distinguish him from his father and grandfather? It’s a question that continually plagues those who live and work at Camp Emerson and in the nearby drab, fictional working-class town, Shattuck, NY. It’s said he went to go hiking with his grandfather, then ran back to Self Reliance to get a pocket knife, and was never seen again.
Days of anguished search parties yielded nothing. His mother Alice, who adored Bear beyond reason, went mad hallucinating about him and had to be temporarily institutionalized. The last person to see him was the gardener of the Van Laar Preserve, who became a suspect. And, of course, the fact that a serial killer was on the loose and in the area when Bear disappeared, created a prime suspect.
Now 15 years later, the buzz has never died, especially because a new camper has come to Camp Emerson, Barbara Van Laar, conceived it’s assumed, to replace Bear. She’s clever, rebellious, surly, Goth in her dress and behavior. And she hates her parents. The reader slowly learns about her but only after the opening sentence of the book: “The bed is empty.” It’s August 1975. Barbara is gone. In short order the reader learns about her brother Bear who when missing in the same area years ago.
Her cabin mates know nothing, not even Barbara’s loner bunkmate, Tracy who is befriended by Barbara. Police Investigator Judy Luptack, who enters the novel late and becomes, arguably, its most fascinating character, is determined to find out – both about Barbara and Bear. A working class woman of plodding good intentions and honest values, she perseveres despite insecurity, self doubt and mockery from her colleagues.
It’s amazing how Moore gets inside the heads of so many diverse characters, regardless of class, age, gender, and profession, and uses humor and irony to explore relationships built on different needs. Her style includes interior monologue as well as third-person description and conversation. Everyone to Moore is human, though humanity seems reserved for those who appreciate the “peril” and “beauty” of the woods and its invitation of the forest to find oneself again.
