The Forest Lover

By: Susan Vreeland

Narrated by: Karen White

Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

It was Emily Carr (1871-1945), not Georgia O'Keeffe or Frida Kahlo, who first blazed a path for modern women artists. Overcoming the confines of late Victorian culture, Carr became a major force in modern art. Her boldly original landscapes are praised today for capturing an untamed British Columbia, and its indigenous peoples, just before industrialization would change it forever.

In this novel, Susan Vreeland brings to life this fiercely independent and underappreciated figure. From illegal potlatches in tribal communities to prewar Paris, where her art was exhibited in the famed Salon d'Automne, Carr's story is as arresting as it is vibrant. Vreeland tells it with gusto and suspense, giving vivid portraits of Carr and the unconventional people to whom she was inevitably drawn: Sophie, a native basket maker; Harold, the son of missionaries, who embraces indigenous cultures; Fanny, a New Zealand artist who spends a summer with Carr painting in the French countryside; and Claude, a French fur trader who steals her heart. The result is a glorious novel that will appeal to lovers of art, native cultures, and lush historical fiction.

©2004 Susan Vreeland (P)2004 Penguin Audio and Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Vreeland couldn't have chosen a more vital, compelling, and significant subject....Her dramatic depictions of Carr's daunting solo journeys, arduous artistic struggle, persistent loneliness, and despair over the tragic fate of the endangered people she came to love truly are provocative and moving." (Booklist)

Great content

I had read this book and loved it, several years ago. Sadly the performance changed my previous delight.

Good not great

Wasn’t as bad as the other reviews posted, but maybe they prepared me. You have to remember this was in the early 1900’s. Her work wasn’t as bad as the first museum said. They made it seem like the poles were eccentric. I’ve actually seen her work on the poles, and I think they were good.(not an artist though). I think Emily showed growth in herself and her work through this book. The narrator was off a little with the French accent, but no one’s perfect

Such insights gleaned from Emily Carr’s work!

I discovered Emily Carr while traveling with my mother-in-law to Vancouver Island and Vancouver city decades ago. She fascinated me with her trees and foreboding totems; I felt an affinity with her, having spent a month in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota and Canada, with trees and water composing the scenery.

What great satisfaction I derived from Susan Vreeland’s detailed consideration of Carr’s perspective beyond her artistry. I suppose they are entwined, but I hadn’t put all this together and am excited to immediately begin again to further piece together the perspective of this extraordinary woman.

Well done, Susan Vreeland! And well-read, Karen White. I was never distracted from what was being said; I was fully engaged. Thank you.

Narration is key - too bad

This book was recommended by a friend and I was excited to learn more about the artist and her life and adventures. I am about half way through and probably won't finish due to the narration. I feel like Ms. White is talking to a child with her constant up an downs inflections. I am truly sorry that I won't get to know the rest if the story. Should have bought the book. A narrator can make or break an audio book and this one is broken.

just couldnt

After trying in earnest I couldn't even get through the second chapter to experience the rest. The narrator's pedantic reading was exhausting. I'm going to try another Vreeland book to see if a different reader can keep me engaged in her words, before I give up on her as a writer, but this one was a wash for me.

Trite and poorly read

Ms Vreeland has found just about every cliche about women, artists, and Native Americans and repeated them relentlessly throughout this novel. It is read with great emphasis and excrable accents (the phony French is particularly painful). Save your money and your time; listen to one of the wonderful books at Audible!