{"id":7198,"date":"2017-01-02T12:39:15","date_gmt":"2017-01-02T12:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=7198"},"modified":"2017-01-23T11:51:06","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T11:51:06","slug":"history-of-wolves-by-emily-fridlund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=7198","title":{"rendered":"History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/wolvesus.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-7199\" title=\"wolvesus\" src=\"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/wolvesus-198x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"198\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/wolvesus-198x300.jpg 198w, http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/wolvesus.jpg 331w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 198px) 100vw, 198px\" \/><\/a>Published by Atlantic Monthly Press US\/Weidenfeld &amp; Nicolson UK<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>3 January\/9 February 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Reviewed by Elsbeth Lindner<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/affiliates.abebooks.com\/c\/99367\/77798\/2029?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.abebooks.com%2Fservlet%2FSearchResults%3Fan%3Demily%2Bfridlund%26bi%3D0%26bx%3Doff%26ds%3D30%26servlet%3DImpactRadiusAffiliateLinkEntry%26sortby%3D17%26tn%3Dhistory%2Bof%2Bwolves\">Click here to buy this book<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Coolly opaque yet aching with need, the heroine of Fridlund\u2019s debut novel exists on the fringe of poor white territory in North Minnesota while remaining at one remove from it.<\/p>\n<p>That character is Madeline Furston, also known as Linda, a teenager attuned to the woods where she lives, in hardscrabble circumstances, with<a href=\"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/wolvesuk.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7200\" title=\"wolvesuk\" src=\"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/wolvesuk-186x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"186\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/wolvesuk-186x300.jpg 186w, http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/wolvesuk.jpg 311w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 186px) 100vw, 186px\" \/><\/a>two adults &#8211; ex communards who may or may not be her parents. There is habit in this household but little that would pass for family love, yet Linda\u2019s heart is full of compassion \u2013 for the wildlife and kept dogs outdoors; for the few folk she knows, like troubled school mate Lily; and for the pale child Paul, a son of incomers with a summer home on the local lake, for whom she starts babysitting.<\/p>\n<p>Attracted to four-year-old Paul\u2019s mother Patra, Linda is nevertheless suspicious of his father, Leo, and rightly so. Canny though in some senses she may be, Linda \u2013 unfamiliar with intimacy \u2013 can\u2019t penetrate the mystery of this marriage. When she senses something awry, she is powerless to intervene.<\/p>\n<p>A little like <em>Eileen<\/em> by Ottessa Moshfegh, Fridlund\u2019s novel is a version of blue collar fiction, exploring life from the perspective of a social outsider, drawn to yet unfamiliar with middle-class mores. Linda is alive in the woods, canoeing the lakes, making a project about wolves. Her response to others is silent, reserved, detached, but unexpectedly empathetic as in the case of a teacher accused of child pornography. Searching for attachment, she fashions alliances, but simple redemptions are not for this story.<\/p>\n<p>Fridlund\u2019s tale is a somber yet lyrical coming-of-age exploration which considers the complex meaning of connection and responsibility. Startling in its avoidance of sentimentality, this is intriguing work from an exciting new talent.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reviewed by Elsbeth Lindner<\/p>\n<p>Attracted to four-year-old Paul\u2019s mother Patra, Linda is nevertheless suspicious of his father, Leo, and rightly so. Canny though in some senses she may be, Linda \u2013 unfamiliar with intimacy \u2013 can\u2019t penetrate the mystery of this marriage. When she senses something awry, she is powerless to intervene [&#8230;] in Reviews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-fiction-and-non-fiction","category-notable-books","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7198"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7247,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7198\/revisions\/7247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}