History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund

It’s been about 10 days since I finished History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund and I’ve had to let it sit in my brain and fester a bit before I felt I had my thoughts in order.

First up, a bit about the book. It’s a first novel and tells the story of Linda, a teenage girl growing up in very rural Minnesota who befriends a young mother and her four year old son who have moved in to a summer cabin on the other side of the lake while they wait for the arrival of the absent academic husband/father. The relationship between Linda, the mother and son is at the heart of the story. Additionally, we have a picture of rural and small-town Minnesota – a teacher who may or may not be guilty of child pornography. A fellow pupil who may or may not have had a relationship with the teacher. On top of that we have a time shift with adult Linda looking back at the events of her teenage years and we see how they affected her initial and continuing maturation into adulthood.

That’s a lot of stuff going on in one book and I’d like to say that the author pulls it all together. She does to the most part, but at least for me, not entirely.

The initial set up for the story is incredibly well done. It’s atmospheric, the attention to detail is beautifully realized. We learn a lot about Linda, her environment and her life right off the bat. Fridlund actually won an award for the first chapter and I can see why. There’s a tremendous feeling of foreboding hanging over the set up and throughout the story. You just know something is going to happen, it’s just a matter of what and when and Fridlund’s use of language and especially of the Minnesota environment heightens that feeling to great effect. The payoff to all this impending badness is very clever and almost unbearable in its tragedy. Fridlund obviously knows her subject and the environment she’s writing about and this does immerse you in the woods, the lakes and in Linda’s teenage point of view.

What didn’t work for me were the parts where we see Linda as an adult. Yes, it’s good to see how teenage trauma impacts on her later in life, but I was much more interested in younger Linda and her observations of the actions of the adults around her. To be honest I didn’t really care about the people in her adult life (like her lover) who don’t also appear in her younger years – I don’t think those characters added that much other than as a passing illustration of how trauma impacts future relationships. Maybe I'd feel different if I read it again secure in the knowledge of "what happens" and more willing to care about the characters that on first read I didn't care about.

The book also had me musing on the concept of ‘A Novel’. About how publishers put the term on the front as if it elevates the book from merely being storytelling, into something much more high-art. I actually looked up the definition of “Novel” to see if it would shed any light on why some books are novels and others are not. Merriman-Webster defines a Novel as “an invented prose narrative that is usually long and complex and deals especially with human experience through a usually connected sequence of events”. Okaaay – that’s fine, but by definition doesn’t that make The Shining a novel, or Lord of the Rings or Stranger in a Strange Land, but I don’t remember seeing ‘A Novel’ under the title line of any of those books?

Anyway, I have a little dark voice inside me whispering that the time-shift to adult Linda is part of that “complex” part of the narrative the above definition talks about. As in “I’m a novelist, so I have to be complex.” That’s all very well if it adds to the narrative, but in my view (and of course other folks will have other points of view) it didn’t really add anything. I’d rather have seen the pay off to the impending tragedy play out in real time rather than retrospectively. I felt a bit robbed, given that I’d had my heart in my mouth for a large part of the book wondering about the nature of the obviously impending doom and mentally applauding the writer for her skill at putting me on such an edge. Seeing what happened in retrospect rather lost some of the jeopardy for me, although it didn’t undermine the actuality of the tragedy that occurred.

Do I think History of Wolves is a good book? Yes, I do. Do I think it is well written? Yes, I do. Would I recommend it to a friend? Yes, I would – this is my opinion, and I’d love others to make up their own mind. Do I think it was trying a little too hard to be a “Novel”, rather than just a story? Yes, I do.

However, having said all that, it’s a first novel and I was impressed with the obvious skill of Emily Fridlund, so I definitely wouldn’t rule out seeking out future work from her if I came across it.

History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund was published in 2017 and my copy was published by Harper Collins.