A Review of the Book "Through the Black Spruce" by Joseph Boyden

Title: Through Black Spruce
Author: Joseph Boyden
Publisher: Penguin Group
Year: 2008
407 pages

I had heard many good things about the author and so when I saw this book in my local free library, I grabbed it. Surprisingly, the story did not hold my attention as I thought it would. Let me explain.

There are two story lines running through the book. Will Bird is lying in a hospital bed having been put into a coma. One story line is him telling us about his life and history, and the events leading up to him getting injured.

The other story line is about Annie, Will's daughter, who has returned home to sit by his bedside. In the late hours of the night, she recounts her story to him, which was being on the search for her missing sister, Suzanne.

Picture two parallel lines that keep getting closer until they finally meet up. That is how this book was laid out. Normally, such a story would keep my interest as it goes back and forth between the story lines. Each chapter ends just as you are getting invested in the character and so you read the next chapter in a hurry to get back to that story, and the pattern repeats itself chapter after chapter.

However, in "Through Black Spruce", both stories are told in the first person narrative. Therefore, as each chapter began, it took a few paragraphs to realize there was a character switch, resulting in my having to go back and restart the chapter.

Overall, though, it is a powerful story of love, betrayal, heartbreak, and the bond of a family. I would recommend it with a warning to pay attention to the break in the chapter and assume that you have now switched characters. Maybe you'll be able to read it more smoothly than I .