Archie Binns
1944
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York
345 pages for cozy fall evenings by the fireplace.
Overview:
The Northwest logging industry and family drama in the late 1930's.
Summary
Charlie Dow has owned a fairly successful timber logging company for many years. It's dangerous work for the laborers, and in the early years there was a lot of trouble with the beginning of the formation of labor unions. Now, in the late 1930's, his first wife has died and he is remarried to a young local woman, Marian. Unfortunately, Marian first met Mr. Dow's son, Paul, and they fell in love, but due to Paul's introverted and reclusive nature, she gave up on the relationship and married the wealthy father under pressure from her mother. Both of Mr. Dow's sons, Paul and Bailey, are university educated but have no desire to continue in their father's logging company, as had been his dream. Paul is newly graduated and, upon coming home, he and his brother try to reconnect but find it difficult. Marian struggles with the awkward situation with Paul, and also with her desire to get a job and feel useful, which her husband is stoutly against. An old friend of the family and former employee of Mr. Dow comes for a brief visit, which causes a stir and also brings disappointment to some. Suddenly and unexpectedly, Mr. Dow's financial partner calls in his loans, which is devastating to the timber company. Though Mr. Dow works fervently to find a solution to the problem and manages to save his company, the arduous effort causes him to have a stroke and he dies. In the end, Marian relinquishes all her claims to the estate and leaves. Bailey takes management of the business and Paul seems to come around to working for the company as well.
Review
The writing is A+, very good. For the most part, it's a drama of internal and external conflict, set against the backdrop of the early 20th century timber industry of the Pacific Northwest. The author does a wonderful job of developing characters, sometimes with only a tidbit of a line, and mixes past and present superbly. The description of people and places was well done without bogging down the story. Mr. Binns is obviously pensive, insightful, and knowledgeable. It seems like the young people in the story are trying to reach back to the past for answers to the future.
There is significant telling of the logging industry, with a sensitivity to the workers who gave their lives in it and to the land and trees themselves, both being quite used and abused for the profit of a few, and of course for the benefit of the construction industry. The book is dotted with little stories, all tragic, of men who worked in the industry.
The theme of worker's rights runs through the story with characters on both sides of the issue in what seems to be the beginning of the formation of labor unions, in particular the short-lived Industrial Worker's of the World (IWW). He uses the term 'Storm Troopers' to refer to the henchmen hired by the logging companies to beat up and drive off the union organizers. (Apparently 'Storm Troopers' originated as the term for a political militia in Germany in the first world war.)
There are other minor themes and subplots that add depth and interest to the book - Bailey's love interest; Marian's mother's extreme bitterness toward her own marriage; Mr. Dow's first wife, Myra; The former employee, Tom Horton, and his relationship with the family in the early years;
The bitterness and resentment of Marian's mother is arresting. I wonder how and why Mr. Binns got it so exact.
There is a funny scene where Bertha, a young lady in love with Paul, 'sleepwalks' into Paul's bed one night, and he and Marian 'sleepwalk' her back to her own bed. Never does the author say that she is faking, but we all know that she is. It's well done and quite humorous.
Half way through the book, I thought no way is this story going to have a happy ending. It seemed headed to one of those books that is basically one long commentary on life with no resolution (for ex. So Little Time). I was pleasantly surprised to find the end with resolution on several fronts, and some happiness to wrap it up. There is even the implication that Marian and Paul would be reunited. I'm a sucker for happy endings, what can I do about it?
To the Author's Credit:
I love the way Mr. Binns wrote out the scenes in which Mr. Dow is running around Seattle trying to save his company. The author uses repeating phrases to create the feeling of Mr. Dow's dire situation, and then also has the character make it into a story to himself, talking as if it were in the past and he has triumphed over it. And the final thing Mr. Dow does is tell the story one last time before his death. It's very creative, so entertaining, and even insightful, in particular his solution to the problem. It's a suspenseful and frenzied few pages. 'Mr. Dow' is an interesting protagonist (or antagonist to some) in that he is somewhat the bad guy, yet we are not led to dislike him. The author has us disagree with some of his actions, yet appreciate his strong character.
To the Author's Discredit:
On page 124, Marian encounters Paul for the first time since their falling in love, and on page 125 she is marrying his father. For me, that was a hard pill to swallow. Her excuse was that 1) her relationship with Paul was hopeless, and 2) her mother pressured her to marry for the money. Even more, Mr. Dow apparently knew she was in love with his son, but brushed it off with basically 'you'll get over it.' It makes sense that an older man with money will marry a beautiful (very much) younger woman. It's an old story. But the fact that Marian was so in love with Paul, and already an independent-minded young lady in the university, and she resented her mother's bitterness regarding marriage and men in general - it seems out of character. She stated at one point that she is not able to be any closer to her beloved Paul, and yet she didn't want to be any further from him either - so what better way to resolve that conflict than to marry his father? Also, Paul's behavior towards Marian on their second meeting isn't very well explained. Last but not least, after four years of marriage, Mr. Dow and Marian still did not have children, no explanation given, but obviously out of convenience for the story. But...if you can swallow that little pill - and he makes it pretty easy - it is a good story and well done.
The book is chocked full of Wisdom:
Most people went blind to the beauty of the world at the age of six or seven - and for the rest of their lives they groped in the dark and drew on fading memories.
Home is in the past as well as the future, it is scattered over thousands of years of time, and scattered over the face of the earth.
Things don't mean anything except in relation to something else. Food and warmth and shelter don't mean anything without hunger and cold and exposure.
This is a different world for each different person.
Unless you're a standard success, it's hard to feel like anything but a failure.
Things are only economical when you use them for what they're intended.
Anywhere might be Paradise, without our knowing it.
Best Lines:
Mrs. Darling was a gentle, apologetic woman who seemed to have lost her age and identity in a lifelong effort to please.
Mr Binns actually used the phrase "They've been farting around..."
And a childish group of young fir trees that had escaped the devastation of logging looked wild and lovely, blowing in the wind.
"I want to be warm and a little drunk, and talking to some one who believes that things matter."
...proving that his expensive education had not been entirely wasted.
"You should know that the closest you'll ever get to nature is with a woman."
The delicious chill clung to the earth along the half-obliterated skidroad, and in the lee of stumps and bushes thick dew glimmered like frost on grass and stones and spider webs.
...the only good of life is a man and a woman doing things for each other and sharing all they have and all they are and all that happens.
Death by exhaustion each night was followed by resurrection in the morning.
...Bailey pounded on the worn cedar door with the confidence of one bringing gifts.
Those who went away by hearse went most quietly of all.
...but he could feel how the soul felt; it was daring and swift and impatient, and leaving the body would not be death for it, but freedom and life.
Joe had lived by dying. A reliable method, Bailey thought. There could be a special camera for people who wanted to be heroes. You struck your favorite pose and the bulb fired off the pistol in the camera.
He would have to get his sins together under one roof.
Charlie's imprisoning arm relaxed, and he rolled away with a great, impatient snore that was like renouncing the earth and all its works for the night.
"The only chances you ever took were the pawn-shop kind, where you couldn't lose...a fat, soft man who (made) his pile out of the men who did the work and took the chances."
(I know, I put too many, but I couldn't decide which to delete.)
Timber Beast - the title. Honestly, when I first picked up the book, I though it would be a horror tale of some mean ole creature and people disappearing from the forest. Actually, it's the opposite: A mean ole man making the forest disappear. (I have never learned not to judge a book by its cover. I do it all the time.)
Personal Note:
The little town I currently live in was founded as a logging town in the late 1800's. We are on the west side of Mount Rainier in Washington State. The high school mascot is the 'Cruiser', a lumberjack with an axe. My property is littered with stumps, some smaller, some quite large. I consider them tombstones, however many of them have other trees growing out of them.
This stump is the largest one I have found. It's at least 12 feet in diameter at the base. (See my black cat, Felix, at the bottom left for scale.) It is typical with a crown of salal and California Blackberry. Very often they have a Red Huckleberry growing out of them. This one has two scraggly Western Hemlocks, one Douglas Fir, and one Vine Maple growing bunched up just to the side.
This stump is hard to appreciate how big it is. It has a Western Hemlock and a Douglas Fir growing out the top together like twins.
There are four in this picture. One in the foreground, one in the middle with the birdhouse, one just to the left and behind of that, and the fourth above those little pots behind the black car, mostly hidden by blackberries and grasses. Old stumps are everywhere around here.
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