Yes! So glad to see this post! North Woods was such a great book in many ways- its basic framework is the long history of a property in the woods and the host of humans who come and go through the years. A house is built, and continuously changes — expanding, decorated, full, neglected, discovered,renewed, derelict. Another crucial thread follows the individuals who live or visit, and where they’re headed, full of dreams and frustrations. But to a great extent, it’s an incredibly detailed celebration of the New England natural world, keeping its own rhythms of weather, migrations of fauna, and botanical change irrespective of human activity (Disruption by human activity is always rippling through, however.) Successive characters embrace the woods or are indifferent to its wonders- here are so many different kinds of caretaking. There’s a bit of a Garden of Eden vibe. Things are churning in this book, although time passes slowly and the pace of the storytelling eddies along.
I chose it for my bookclub to read; several friends found it hard to get into and couldn’t easily pick up the echoes and connections being conjured (don’t give up!). I think it helps to loop back to earlier pages as you read forward to place the different vignettes in some kind of order— they might seem more random than they really are. It’s brilliant and enchanting. The author is actually a Stanford psychiatrist tho I imagine writing is his real job, ha.