Book Summary and Reviews of The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

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Cathryn Conroy

A Daring Literary Achievement: No Plot, One Character, a Very Sad Ending…and I Couldn't Stop Reading
I will confess right from the get-go that Lauren Groff is one of my favorite authors. If she writes it, I read it. That said, while I am in awe of the literary power of this book, it is not for everyone.

There is no plot. There is only one character, and she doesn't have a name other than "Girl," although she is sometimes called Lamentations Callat, Wench, or Zed. Much of the narrative reads and feels like a fever dream. And the ending is sad…so very, very sad.

It's the early 1600s. Girl, who is about 16 or 17 years old, flees in the middle of a frigid winter night from an early colonial American settlement, probably Jamestown. Everyone is starving. People are dying of hunger and disease. She steals the boots of a boy who died of smallpox and swipes her mistress's heavy cloak. Into a sack she packs a pewter cup, a flint, a knife, a hatchet, and two lice-infested brown coverlets. And off she goes, running as fast as she can in the hopes she can escape before they come looking for her. She knows they will come searching, and if they find her, it will be a violent end. So she must get away—fast. Because what she did is not forgivable.

Girl survives by her wits, battling nature from winter's cold to wild beasts, battling herself and her body's need for food, water, warmth, and rest, and battling man, including one who tries to stone her to death. Taking place over a few weeks, the novel is the story of her flight and survival through the wilderness as she tries to walk to Canada (without any real idea of where she is going), as well as numerous flashbacks to her life in England and her life in the colonial settlement. Until she was four years old, she was in an orphanage/poorhouse in England when she was purchased by a family needing a servant. The mistress treats her kindly, adopting her as a kind of pet, but the teenage son abuses her horribly. The mistress is widowed, and her second husband, a minister, takes the family to the New World against their wishes.

Deftly written in a way that makes prose seem like poetry, this is a book to be savored and reread. It is not suspenseful, it is not a page-turner, but it is captivating and almost seductive. I felt Girl's fear, her body's cold, her hunger, her determination, and her courage. I felt like I was out there in the dark forests with her as she trudged north, as she slowly reveals her secrets to the reader.

This novel is an inspired tribute to the power of the individual to choose a life that is different from the community, to forge a path that no one else has taken, to live a new life. Lauren Groff has written what I can only describe as a daring literary achievement.

Gloria M

Compelling!!
This is the first book I have read by bestselling author Lauren Groff.  In my defense I have multiple long lists and piles of fiction that I want to consume, and I only have so much time-one has to eat and sleep and do laundry!.  But after being unable to put down her latest, "The Vaster Wilds" I am so looking forward to perusing her older novels!

Groff writes with a deft, inventive, emotional hand.  The reader will feel cold, colder than imaginable.  Hunger will settle and take up permanent, painful residence  in your stomach.  The sort of hunger that consumes your every thought and lends to visuals of your body devouring itself.

You will feel fear and terror and exhaustion and despair and anger and sorrow and hope, and that is just in the first few chapters.  But as we join Lamentations (not her original name)  she is beginning her escape in the dark night, wearing stolen boots and gloves and cloak.  She knows she is leaving everything and everyone behind, but she tells herself, "...think not of it, else you shall die of grief."

She prays to god (note the deliberate lack of capitalization) and sings inside herself for some small comfort.  On this journey we learn about our protagonist- that this land is not her birthplace,  that men are worse than wild animals and that this world is savage.  As she flees and reflects, it is revealed that she is resilient,  a smart survivor, a victim of abuse, and a loving caretaker of a special needs child, Bess.

Her perilous trip from Europe to this new uncivilized country is detailed as is the swift and relentless pursuit by a violent, vicious, merciless soldier chosen to hunt her down just for the reward of fresh, hot bread.   The reader will find themselves caring deeply for Lamentations and rooting for her to succeed and live the life she envisions.

Who will enjoy this masterful work of literary fiction?  Anyone who likes a good story with strong characters that elicits deeply felt emotions with an original plot and well woven words. Apologize to the other books in your TBR list and move this one to the top position!  It is going to linger in your consciousness for a long, long time.

Barbara

Surviving the Wild
The girl had no name. She was a teenager, hired to be a caregiver for the child Bess as the family journeyed to America with the ill-fated Jamestown colonists. Could the girl survive the vaster wilds? The colonists were diseased and starving, so immediately following a murder, the girl fled the colony with only a few crude items to keep her alive. However, she had resourcefulness and that proved to be her most valuable possession.

The novel slowly shifted from the girl’s perilous escape to her thoughts and pondering. Her deep thoughts included her past life, her love for the child Bess, religion, selfishness and even death. Lauren Groff has written this novel magnificently as it truly encompasses the wretched lives of the Jamestown colonists, not the sometimes romanticized versions that we conjure after reading a history lesson. It is up to the reader to decide if the girl’s thoughts are merely recollections or possibly hallucinations as she becomes unhealthier.

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