Woodsburner: A Novel by John Pipkin

by John Pipkin

Thumbs down.

A fictional account of the day Henry David Thoreau accidentally burned down a chunk of Concord Woods. Pipkin tries to use the quirks of fictional characters against which to compare and contrast Thoreau's philosophy. It kind of falls flat.

That coupled with the fact that most of the main characters and several minor ones have these blaring deviancies in their personalities. I don't need to read about the perversions of fictional nineteenth century personalities.

Also, I couldn't help getting the impression that Pipkin was trying to show that even old-fashioned people, and people of of faith especially, were all perverts. Maybe he was trying to define deviancy downward; or to defend the acceptance of various perversionsin our day by showing that perversity, itself, is universal throughout history. Which it is, of course, in our sinful condition. But not to the extent Pipkin's characters portray.