AT THE EDGE OF THE ORCHARD
Tracy Chevalier
Borough Press/HarperCollins
By CAROLINE HUNTER
Having enjoyed a few of Tracy Chevalier's previous novels, I was keen to read her latest effort, At the Edge of the Orchard. Some readers may be familiar with her best-selling novel Girl with a Pearl Earring (1999), which was subsequently made into a film.
However, on this occasion I was disappointed. To cut to the chase: if you're interested in trees, their propagation, care and harvesting, then this is the book for you. Apple trees are a particular focus, just in case they take your fancy.
I understand that fiction is often based on fact, or the selective use thereof, but when it starts to overwhelm the narrative, boredom can set in. And in this case, it did.
Roughly the first third of the novel is taken up with a painstaking description of a young family struggling to eke a living out of an extremely inhospitable area of Ohio called the Black Swamp. This should give a neon-sign clue as to its unsuitability for growing apple trees.
Set in the 1830s, conditions are grim and swamp fever is rife, with children especially susceptible to its fatal grip.
The family in question, the Goodenoughs, cannot seem to win their war with the land or the fever, not helped by the parents constantly bickering over which apple trees to plant. Eaters for savouring or spitters to turn into cider and applejack? As Mum is a drinker, their fighting is bitter and affects the whole family. Ultimately, the outcome of their miserable battle shapes the course of the entire story.
Things start to get more engaging when the focus shifts to the travels and exploits of their son Robert through the 1840s and '50s.
Chevalier offers enough historical detail about the Californian gold rush and how people lived, thrived and otherwise through that era of intense greed to pique some interest, but inevitably the microscope swings back to trees as Robert goes about his business as a tree agent.
It's not that I don't like trees - far from it - but the level of detail tends to swamp the story and I found myself glazing over.
It is only in the last part of the book as the family storyline reasserts itself that it really comes alive. All the threads start to join up and the human drama adds some verve to an otherwise pedestrian tale.
The rewards are there in the end, but it takes perseverance.
Caroline Hunter is an ODT subeditor.
