3.5 out of 5 stars

I loved the chapters where we saw the visions of this land from the perspective of the mother and son in the Ice Age, I thought it was really cool how Jonathan Evison tied the two groups to the land. I can understand how Dave felt that escaping to the woods would solve his problems. I lived in the Yukon and there are a lot of people with PTSD who move up there to be far away from people. I felt at times that the story was a little slow and I found my mind wandering.

Overall, the story was good. I liked the ending and felt it brought the characters full circle and now maybe they can deal with their grief. ( )

I just couldn't get into this one. Read to Loc 1094 and still didn't feel engaged. Moving on. ( )

Trauma destroys the lives of those who have lived through devastating events but it also impacts the lives of the people around the trauma victim.

Legends of the North Cascades tells the story of two beings whose trauma leads them to isolate from society, each with a child they determine to protect. But isolating from society does not bring healing, and their post traumatic stress disorder worsens.

Dave hoped for a football scholarship but it eluded him; with few choices he enlisted in the Marines. He knew that on the field he was a determined, hard worker, a quick thinker whose insight made up for his slender size. He loved his country and he wanted to travel and to make a difference.

But after three tours in Iraq, Dave had lost his illusions. He returned home psychologically damaged to struggle on his own. His marriage floundered. They thought a child could change things, and during pregnancy they did join in expectation and joy. With Bella's birth, their problems worsened.

When his wife suddenly dies, Dave decides to take Bella to live in a cave in the North Cascades. He owed money and was going to lose the house. He and Bella would live off the land where they would be safe from the human world.

At first, Bella was happy and Dave was well organized and directed. Bella resisted attempts to bring her back into town. But over time, Dave's mental health deteriorated and Bella grapples with estrangement and loneliness.

Thousands of years before Dave and Bella came to the North Cascades, S'tka refused to join her clan when they migrated into the unknown lands beyond the mountains. As a female, she had suffered under male power, allowed to starve while pregnant and raped. She gives birth to N'ka and does everything she can to protect him. But her son grew up and wantes to find others, to expand his world. His mother insisted that others brought pain and put their lives at risk.

Jonathan Evison uses the two timelines to illustrate the universality of human experience, the worst and the best of society, and the damage we inflict on others.

The children love their parents, but also are open to finding good in human society.

Evison has written,

I believe in the power of stories to transform. I still think the novel is the greatest empathic window ever devised by humankind, and I think it would be a better world if everybody read at least one novel per week. Way better than if they watched Mad Men. Or played Farmville. I have one theme: reinvention. I believe people can change. I believe most people want to. I believe in forgiveness, forbearance, generosity, and humor in the face adversity. (https://s3.amazonaws.com/algonquin.site.features/revisedfundamentals/about-jonathan-evison.html)

Legends of the North Cascade offers unforgettable characters and a transformative story that will wring your heart and mend it again.

I received an advanced ready copy of the book from the publisher. My review is fair and unbiased. ( )

Dave Cartwright has had enough. After three tours in Iraq he has come home to Vigilante Falls in Washington State only to find that he feels incapable of connecting to the people and the place that once defined him. Most days, his love for his seven-year-old daughter, Bella, is the only thing keeping him going. When tragedy strikes, Dave makes a dramatic decision: he will take Bella to live in a cave in the wilderness of the North Cascades.

So begins a compelling adventure, a story of a father and daughter attempting to cope with a breathtaking but harsh environment. Once they are settled in the cave, Bella retreats into a different world, that of a mother and son who had lived in that same space, but thousands of years before, at the end of last Ice Age. As the two dramas begin to merge, a timeless odyssey unfolds, both as a meditation on the perils of isolation and an exploration of humans' indelible struggle to survive.

Once you start, you have to read this. The father and daughter are compelling. For the most part, I found the bureaucrats to be as stifling as I believe they are.

The only part that was hard for me was the seven-year-olds connection to the ancient story. We all pretty much believe that their lives were extremely harsh, but as we're told this is what the daughter is aware of, I found it a little too much. ( )

Jonathan Evison manages to evade any kind of designation as a writer, and for me, his distinct efforts range from great (The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving) to good (Lawn Boy) to not so good (This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!). His latest novel, Legends of the North Cascades, again breaks new ground in topic and structure. Dave Cartwright returned from three tours in the marines like many soldiers--deeply and inextricably changed both physically and mentally. His only touchstone is his daughter Bella, and after his wife’s death he spirals into a state that leads them to live in a cave in the woods. The story unfolds through short chapters told in a variety of voices including Dave, Bella, Dave’s mom, his brother, and many of the townspeople who don’t even know “Cave Dave” but speculate about what brings a man to that point.
A provocative and strange thread of narrative belongs to S’tka, a woman living in the North Cascades at the end of the last ice age. Evison weaves her struggles to survive in the barren and treacherous wilderness with Dave and Bella’s endeavors to live outside of accepted norms. I found parts of this book laborious--too much dialogue between Dave and Bella that felt forced and unrealistic, too much rote, interior angst and sometimes it seemed Evison was a bit entangled in his structure. Yet his portrayal of Dave’s increasing loss of reality and control interspersed with glances of his time in the marines was powerful and moving. The sections about S’tka and her son felt real and an interesting parallel to Dave and Bella. All in all, for all of its issues, Legends of the North Cascades will stay with me as a poignant work of man vs. the wilderness, family, and mental health. ( )