Read a 1970s historical fiction about a logging town and mothers fighting for their children
Damnation Spring — Ash Davidson
What to Read This Week
Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson
Content warnings, which include major spoilers, listed in footnote of this newsletter. This book is largely about infant illness, miscarriage, and grief. If you are sensitive to this, please read the warnings for more details.1
What It’s About
Colleen and Rich are a young couple raising their son in a small Pacific Northwest logging town in 1977. There’s really not much work other than logging, so even though it’s incredibly dangerous, costing many men their health and even lives, the families don’t have any other choice. So they are proud of their work in bringing supplies to the rest of the world in the form of wood.
But behind closed doors, Rich and Colleen are struggling. Colleen desperately wants another child but has had too many miscarriages to count, and she can’t help but think she’s done something wrong. When a group of protestors and environment-loving scientists come to town to try to stop so much logging, the waters in the area are tested, as the scientists discover chemicals are being sprayed to help the company chop wood faster. And they say the water is dangerous—that it’s the reason everyone in town is ill, and the reason Colleen keeps miscarrying. But logging is Rich’s way of life, and it’s been in his family for generations.
Soon, they’re on opposite sides of an argument, trying to stay together and keep their son, Chubs, healthy, amid the swirling chaos and danger around them. Though the men are the breadwinners in this town, the women are the backbones of their communities, creating networks for each other, sharing resources, and being there for one another even through the toughest times.
Who Will Like It
I had to take a few days off reading after I finished this book. Davidson’s world was so immersive and compelling that I truly felt like I lived inside the story while I read the book, and it took me a while to reenter my real world. The characters were complicated and flawed, with families ending up on different sides of a huge issue and disagreement in their community (still relevant and prescient today), finding themselves arguing against loved ones.
Readers who love dramatic family sagas should pick this one up (I’m always hearing people looking for what to read after Pachinko—while this one doesn’t follow generations like Lee’s book does, I would still hand this to you as a comparison). I would also suggest this for readers looking for historical fiction but don’t want WWII or to dive too far back in time. The historical aspects are not a main focus here, but Davidson’s worldbuilding and sense of place and time are incredible, firmly cementing you in this small town in 1977.
Another book about mothers and children that floored me is Elsewhere by Alexis Schaitkin, which I reviewed here, and I still have When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill on my to-read list. I know I’ll love it, so I don’t know why I keep putting it off.
Misc.
Indie Bookstore Day was April 29—a whole day to celebrate independent bookstores and small businesses. It’s basically my Christmas. This year, I visited three local stores with friends, and we each bought large stacks of new books! Here is just one stack of my books! If you had this stack, where would you start? Did you celebrate Indie Bookstore Day, and if so, what did you get? Books pictured: Brother & Sister Enter the Forest, Ms. Demeanor, This Weightless World, Search, I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself, Now You See Us, Marrying the Ketchups, The Schoolhouse, Aesthetica, The Society of Shame, and We Deserve Monuments.
More Books
Can’t get enough, or looking for a different recommendation? Browse the archives, or check out some popular past recommendations:
Read a mystical novel about what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a woman
Read a cautionary tale of a modern princess trapped in her castle
Read a thriller about a polygamist, his wives, and their secret pasts
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Content warnings include include use of slurs (R-word, sq**w); childbirth scene; infertility and miscarriages; birth defects described in detail; marital affair; abortion (performed by neighborhood woman, not medical professional); logging accidents and general workplace danger; death of parents off-page, in past (cancer and drowning); child endangerment; death of spouse by car accident, on-page; animal death and injury, including of a family pet.