Forest Dark
Ratings5
Average rating2.4
15
Ratings5
Average rating2.4
National Bestseller • A New York Times Notable Book Named Best Book of the Year by Esquire, Times Literary Supplement, Elle Magazine, LitHub, Publishers Weekly, Financial Times, Guardian, Refinery29, PopSugar, and Globe and Mail "A brilliant novel. I am full of admiration." —Philip Roth "One of America’s most important novelists" (New York Times), the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of The History of Love, conjures an achingly beautiful and breathtakingly original novel about personal transformation that interweaves the stories of two disparate individuals—an older lawyer and a young novelist—whose transcendental search leads them to the same Israeli desert. Jules Epstein, a man whose drive, avidity, and outsized personality have, for sixty-eight years, been a force to be reckoned with, is undergoing a metamorphosis. In the wake of his parents’ deaths, his divorce from his wife of more than thirty years, and his retirement from the New York legal firm where he was a partner, he’s felt an irresistible need to give away his possessions, alarming his children and perplexing the executor of his estate. With the last of his wealth, he travels to Israel, with a nebulous plan to do something to honor his parents. In Tel Aviv, he is sidetracked by a charismatic American rabbi planning a reunion for the descendants of King David who insists that Epstein is part of that storied dynastic line. He also meets the rabbi’s beautiful daughter who convinces Epstein to become involved in her own project—a film about the life of David being shot in the desert—with life-changing consequences. But Epstein isn’t the only seeker embarking on a metaphysical journey that dissolves his sense of self, place, and history. Leaving her family in Brooklyn, a young, well-known novelist arrives at the Tel Aviv Hilton where she has stayed every year since birth. Troubled by writer’s block and a failing marriage, she hopes that the hotel can unlock a dimension of reality—and her own perception of life—that has been closed off to her. But when she meets a retired literature professor who proposes a project she can’t turn down, she’s drawn into a mystery that alters her life in ways she could never have imagined. Bursting with life and humor, Forest Dark is a profound, mesmerizing novel of metamorphosis and self-realization—of looking beyond all that is visible towards the infinite.
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This book never really came together for me. I did find the Epstein sections more enjoyable and better written than the sections with the unnamed writer. The latter was full of philosophical ruminations that were a slog. Like others, I was disappointed that the two storylines never intertwined. Overall, a miss.
Forest Dark is two stories with two narrators; the paths of the narrators never cross. (I kept waiting. You kind of expect that, don't you?) Both narrators are at crossroads in their lives. The story of the rich old man was very compelling, as we follow him during his later years, abruptly, inexplicably, divorcing after a long marriage, giving away all his possessions, and moving to Israel. The second story is that of a well-respected writer who has writer's block and tries to remedy it by heading to Israel.
I found Krauss to be a deeply wise writer; I kept marking passages I loved throughout the book. I enjoyed the narrative of the old man, but I never felt deeply caught up in the writer's tale. The last third of the book was a bit of a struggle for me to get through.
Ultimately, I both liked and disliked this book. Maybe I'll resolve my issues with the lack of interconnectivity of the stories and my lack of affection for the writer's story on Monday night when I hear the author speak in Houston. I hope so.
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