David Guterson's Our Lady of the Forest navigates between the mystical and the cynical in its slowly paced telling of a Marian encounter in North Fork, Washington. The story opens in the North Fork campground among homeless mushroom pickers. The town is reeling from the loss of its logging industry, and its residents make their way by scavenging odd jobs and selling the produce of the forest. Living in the campground, 16-year-old Anne Holmes is a runaway asthmatic whose recent interest in Catholicism follows a period of petty thievery, drug use, and frequent masturbation (an interest that Guterson notes is shared by the town priest, Father Don Collins). While off on her rounds of mushrooming one morning, she encounters a bright light--the Virgin Mary, she believes. Soon, she has drawn a band of thousands as people flock to North Fork to witness the vision and be healed. But, through Carolyn Greer, a world-weary fellow-mushroom-picker who longs for nothing more than an extended vacation to "Cabo"-- readers learn that Anne actually sees nothing, or at least no one else shares the Marian apparition that gives Anne lofty commands each day.

At times Guterson lets his characters' pettiness, opportunism, and cynicism overrun the delicacy of Anne's world. Carolyn's vehement atheism and materialistic languor undermine what could have been a stronger counter-point to her spiritual friend. Even Father Collins, who struggles between fatherly compassion and sexual longing for the young visionary, is too full of self-loathing for readers to embrace him. Yet, the novel's exploration of Anne's abrupt and intense faith pierces the narrative and brings light to it. And as Anne's visions grow in intensity and her health begins to fail, one can't help but long for divine intervention on her behalf. --Patrick O'Kelley


From Publishers Weekly
When Ann Holmes starts having visions of the Virgin Mary, the bedraggled teen runaway becomes the last hope for the inhabitants of a dank, economically depressed logging town and the hordes of miracle-seekers who descend on it. In this panoramic, psychologically dense novel, she also becomes a symbol of the intimate intertwining of the sacred and the profane in American life. Guterson (Snow Falling on Cedars; East of the Mountains), tells the story from the viewpoint of four lost souls groping for redemption: Ann; Carolyn, an aging, overeducated, cynical drifter who takes Ann under her wing to profit from her growing fame; a local priest wrestling with his doubts about, and lust for, the visionary; and a tormented ex-logger trying to atone for the accident that paralyzed his son. Guterson's evocative prose, pithy dialogue and piercing insights cut through the fog of sin and guilt that shadows these wounded characters like the overcast sky of the Pacific Northwest. And as Ann's visions stimulate a tourism boom and draw the attention of media vultures and a skeptical Catholic Church, Guterson explores larger social themes-the demise of blue-collar America; the ironic symbiosis of religious devotion and commercial exploitation; the replacement of faith in God by faith in psychopharmacology; and the link between the exaltation of women's saintliness and the reality of women's degradation. Searching for the miraculous in the mundane, this ambitious and satisfying work builds vivid characters and trenchant storytelling into a serious and compassionate look at the moral quandaries of modern life.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-Guterson gives readers a contemporary world in which spiritual and ancient concerns are brought to the forefront of awareness. Subsisting as an itinerant mushroom picker in the rain forest of Washington, an abused runaway teen experiences visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who speaks to her and directs her to encourage the building of a shrine in the place of the visions' occurrence. A slightly older young woman, who has no belief in the tenets of any faith, introduces Ann to the local Roman Catholic priest, a man who is both intellectual and spiritual, and who is bothered by his own predilection for impure thoughts about the young seer. News of Ann's visions brings in hordes of believers and the curious, including another local, a middle-aged man who has isolated himself since the accident that paralyzed his teenaged son. Guterson keeps this diverse handful of central characters in constant tension, allowing readers to empathize with all of them while questioning their motives. Teens concerned with matters of faith, belief, the mysteries surrounding unbidden experiences with mythically powerful beings, and the fallible nature of both the best and the worst adults will find a lot here to ponder and discuss. Familiarity with Christianity isn't necessary to accessing this tale, although such a background will add another layer of complexity to readers' considerations of the story.Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From AudioFile
In an economically depressed timber-rich region of Washington State, a runaway 16-year-old girl sees a vision of the Virgin Mary in the forest. The vision forces a reaction on the part of many in the community, among them a local priest who struggles with faith and desire, an out-of-work logger who has made himself detestable to all who might have loved him, and the girl's older, cynical friend and caretaker. Blair glides easily from one to another, not by doing voices, but by communicating personality characteristics. She identifies and then reflects what is most essential in each, whether piety, skepticism, anger, or scorn. M.O. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
Guterson follows up Snow Falling on Cedars (1994) and East of the Mountains (1999) with another novel set in the Pacific Northwest. The rain-sodden timber town of North Fork has been hit hard by the downturn in the timber industry, and the only businesses that thrive are the bars, patronized by out-of-work loggers and itinerant mushroom pickers. One of these, Ann Holmes, is a fragile teenage runaway who is convinced that the Virgin Mary visits her in the rain forest. Too many psilocybin mushrooms, or is Ann a true visionary? Before long, thousands of pilgrims arrive in North Fork, overrunning the local motels and laundromats, trampling the forest floor, and hanging religious gimcracks on bushes and trees. Meanwhile, the locals respond in different ways. Some, like Ann's cynical de facto manager Carolyn Greer, see a moneymaking opportunity. Father Collins, the young priest to whom Ann brings a message from the Virgin, has to reconcile his own skepticism, longings, and beliefs. And Tom Cross, whose life has imploded since a logging accident that paralyzed his son, is looking for redemption. Though some readers may be frustrated by the slow pace, Guterson's third novel is thoughtful, humane, richly detailed, and atmospheric. It should be welcomed by those who loved Snow Falling on Cedars. Mary Ellen Quinn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
“Outstanding….Our Lady of the Forest is surely one of this year’s best novels.”—The Plain Dealer

“An intense and affecting journey of faith, miracle and humanity.”—The Denver Post

“Like a latter-day Dostoyevsky, Guterson dips into the world of ordinary people….A disturbing novel that challenges us to consider the power and mystery of faith, and what role religious belief should play in an unjust world.”—Chicago Tribune

“Epic….Eccentric, accomplished….[Guterson is] writing with more humor than ever before.”—The New York Times Book Review

“A thoughtful…rumination on faith and human frailty.”—Entertainment Weekly


Review
?This is Guterson?s best book.? ?Chicago Sun-Times

?Another virtuoso performance from David Guterson . . . Gripping . . . Marks an expansion of his vision . . . Transporting . . . Balances on the tension between belief and despair without ever losing its sense of mystery.? ?L.A. Times Book Review

?Spellbinding . . . Mesmerizing . . . Brilliantly conceived . . . A marvelous and affecting spectacle, both timeless and contemporary, that makes for electric reading.? ?Seattle Times

?Explores a complex and challenging set of questions without a hint of condescension . . . The dimensions of this compelling novel are catholic in the larger sense.? ?Christian Science Monitor

?An intense and affecting journey of faith, miracle and humanity.? ?Denver Post

?Blends some of the appeal of Stephen King?s uncanny tales . . . and John Updike?s fables . . . Thoroughly absorbing . . . Guterson writes virtuoso dialogue.? ?Seattle Weekly

?Magnificent . . . Reading it, I kept putting [Guterson] in the best possible literary company . . . I was in a state of elation while I was reading . . . A marvelous book, in every sense.? ?Jonathan Raban

?An intense, gripping read . . . Finely etched characters, the most intriguing and fully realized cast in any Guterson novel . . . Should resonate with many readers searching for belief in the post-9/11 world.? ?Seattle Post-Intelligencer

?Surely one of this year?s best novels . . . Outstanding . . . [Displays] heart, compassion, and a willingness to tackle the most fundamental, and insolvable questions of faith, belief, and personal responsibility.? ?Pittsburgh Tribune-Review


From the Hardcover edition.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
From the bestselling author of Snow Falling on Cedars comes a darkly humorous contemporary novel of faith and redemption, focusing on an economically depressed community that suddenly becomes the center of hope for the despairing. After teenage runaway and itinerant mushroom picker Anne Holmes has a vision of the Virgin Mary in a nearby forest, her motley crew of friends and colleagues all respond in different ways, ranging from acceptance to utter disbelief. After word of her visions spreads, various miracle seekers gather on the site, throwing the local church and logging companies into a panic.

The author evokes real sympathy for the confused inhabitants of the impoverished town, as each character becomes a symbol for a segment of the world at large: the believer, the cynic, the doubter, and the lost. Even when detailing great sorrow and anguish, Guterson easily sidesteps pessimism to give a compassionate, penetrating view of life's beauty. Stylish, weighty, and shrewd, the narrative is as much a chronicle of our social dilemmas as it is about the doubts and moral uncertainties of our protagonists. A masterfully crafted and moving novel, Our Lady of the Forest will impress and astonish you with its examination of the nature of belief in our unsettled times. Tom Piccirilli

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Ann Holmes seems an unlikely candidate for revelation. A sixteen-year-old runaway, she is an itinerant mushroom picker who lives in a tent. But on a November afternoon, in the foggy woods of North Fork, Washington, the Virgin comes to her, clear as day.

Father Collins - a young priest new to North Fork - finds Ann disturbingly alluring. But it is up to him to evaluate - impartially - the veracity of Ann's sightings: Are they delusions, or a true calling to God? As word spreads and thousands, including the press, converge upon the town, Carolyn Greer, a smart-talking fellow mushroomer, becomes Ann's disciple of sorts, as well as her impromptu publicity manager. And Tom Cross, an embittered logger who's been out of work since his son was paralyzed in a terrible accident, finds in Ann's visions a last chance for redemption for both himself and his son.

As Father Collins searches his own soul and Ann's, as Carolyn struggles with her less than admirable intentions, as Tom alternates between despair and hope, Our Lady of the Forest tells a suspenseful, often wryly humorous, and deeply involving story of faith at a contemporary crossroads.

FROM THE CRITICS

The New York Times

The entire novel is marked by this turn toward the homely and the unnoticed. In his previous works of fiction, Guterson sought the moral high ground, giving us characters tinged with nobility living in places carved out of beauty. His brand of moral fiction, influenced by John Gardner, could at times seem insufferably righteous. Now, in Our Lady of the Forest, he overcomes his virtue problem, writing with more humor than ever before. For the first time, he seems interested in the mess and mud of real life … Guterson's previous do-the-right-thing morality is happily set aside in favor of a humanism that allows his people to lust, to be funny, to fail, to hurt one another. No one here does the right thing; no one knows what the right thing would be. Even the landscape is freed from being perfect. — Claire Dederer

The Washington Post

In the tradition of Franz Werfel's Song of Bernadette and Brian Moore's Cold Heaven, David Guterson has written a tale of what happens to a group of believers and nonbelievers when someone has visions of the Virgin Mary. — Carolyn See

Publishers Weekly

When Ann Holmes starts having visions of the Virgin Mary, the bedraggled teen runaway becomes the last hope for the inhabitants of a dank, economically depressed logging town and the hordes of miracle-seekers who descend on it. In this panoramic, psychologically dense novel, she also becomes a symbol of the intimate intertwining of the sacred and the profane in American life. Guterson (Snow Falling on Cedars; East of the Mountains), tells the story from the viewpoint of four lost souls groping for redemption: Ann; Carolyn, an aging, overeducated, cynical drifter who takes Ann under her wing to profit from her growing fame; a local priest wrestling with his doubts about, and lust for, the visionary; and a tormented ex-logger trying to atone for the accident that paralyzed his son. Guterson's evocative prose, pithy dialogue and piercing insights cut through the fog of sin and guilt that shadows these wounded characters like the overcast sky of the Pacific Northwest. And as Ann's visions stimulate a tourism boom and draw the attention of media vultures and a skeptical Catholic Church, Guterson explores larger social themes-the demise of blue-collar America; the ironic symbiosis of religious devotion and commercial exploitation; the replacement of faith in God by faith in psychopharmacology; and the link between the exaltation of women's saintliness and the reality of women's degradation. Searching for the miraculous in the mundane, this ambitious and satisfying work builds vivid characters and trenchant storytelling into a serious and compassionate look at the moral quandaries of modern life. (Oct. 3) Forecast: The gloominess of this uncompromising novel may deflect some readers, but others will be drawn in by its intensity. Look for it to hit bestseller lists, though the 350,000 first printing may be ambitious. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Posters, reading group guides, and a 16-city author tour-Guterson is getting what you would surely expect of a "highly recommended" novel (see review, p. 166). Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal