I read this trilogy decades ago. It was before I started keeping my list, and unfortunately, I had completely forgotten the titles and the author.

Therefore, I was extremely happy when I unexpectedly stumbled across it while reading "The Pioneers" by David McCullough.

This trilogy offers a fascinating glimpse into a vanished world that was a reality just a few generations ago.

The writing style is vigorous and unique, presented in a nearly-forgotten tongue.

The lives and events described within are so strange, yet at the same time, the day-to-day experiences are both daunting and familiar.

It is truly a remarkable discovery that has reignited my interest and curiosity in this long-lost piece of literature.

I was truly surprised that this managed to hold my attention long enough for me to actually finish it.

I would rate it 2.5 stars. The concept of the story appealed to me more than the actual narrative itself. I really liked the unromanticized portrayal of early pioneer life. However, overall, it was just too dry and slow-paced for my personal taste.

As I read on, I actually came to like the main character, and I felt that their personalities were accurately depicted. But as the book progressed, reading their vernacular became really irritating. For example, lines like "That thar's a big ol' butt of a tree to hafta chop down." started to grate on my nerves.

Despite these drawbacks, there were still some redeeming qualities to the story. The unromanticized view of pioneer life was refreshing, and the development of the main character was interesting. But the dryness and slow pace, along with the irritating vernacular, prevented me from giving it a higher rating.

Great book!

Conrad Richter is truly one of the best writers of all time. His works have the power to transport readers to different times and places.

This particular book is a captivating story about a pioneering family. They bravely decide to leave their old lives behind and venture into the forests of Ohio to start anew.

The journey is not easy, filled with numerous challenges and obstacles. But through their determination and hard work, they slowly build a life for themselves in the wilderness.

The author vividly描绘s the family's experiences, from clearing the land to building their home. We get a sense of the harsh realities they face, as well as the joys and rewards of their new life.

Overall, this is a remarkable book that offers a fascinating glimpse into the lives of pioneers. It is a must-read for anyone interested in history, adventure, or simply a great story.

I truly desired to have a greater affinity for this book than I actually did.

In its favor, the book does present a rather vivid and clear portrayal of the arduousness that the settlement of the Northwest territory entailed. Just envision attempting to subdue a thick and impenetrable forest, clearing it for the cultivation of food crops, all without the aid of modern tools such as chain saws and bulldozers. And this comes after one has managed to construct a cabin and fashion all the furniture and utensils necessary to sustain one's existence. Meanwhile, one also has to ensure the sustenance and cleanliness of oneself and one's children, and keep everyone safe from accidents and diseases.

However, I simply did not establish a very strong connection with the characters, and the plot was merely rudimentary enough to maintain a mild level of interest within me. Additionally, although the vernacular prose might have been authentic, it did little to enhance my enjoyment of the novel.

Perhaps it deserves a rating of 3.5 stars, which I have rounded down to 3. Nevertheless, I will persist with the series. Maybe as the story progresses, I will form better connections. The next installment is "The Fields," to be followed by "The Town."

I am hopeful that future volumes will offer a more engaging and immersive experience.

I read The Trees (The Fields & The Town) after I watched and fell in love with The Awakening Land mini-series on television in 1978. Elizabeth Montgomery played the brave and often desperate protagonist, Sayward Luckett. The series was so captivating that I have re-read all three books multiple times over the years. I purchased them and shared them with friends, and even made them almost required reading for my family, who also loved them. Richter wrote The Trees in dialect, which might pose a barrier to some readers. However, if one persists for just a few chapters, the cadence will begin to come more easily. At least that was the case for me. It's a story of the struggle to survive and prosper in a wild and untamed land and time when primeval forests were dense and alive in North America. Richter's writing makes the landscape visceral. You can feel the pulse of the forest, its denseness, and almost smell the respiration of the trees - the way it was before our "taming".

This book truly brings to life a bygone era and allows the reader to experience the challenges and triumphs of those who lived in that wild and beautiful land.

A lost gem.

I read the trilogy several years ago, and it has remained with me ever since, as if it were an integral part of my own personal history.

Books that deal with westward expansion hold the potential to shed light on human experience not only in a literal sense but also metaphorically.

This trilogy, in particular, allowed me to touch upon a lost history, making me acutely aware of the tragedy that comes with having and then losing important experiences.

I truly lived through these books, experiencing the emotions and adventures of the characters as if they were my own.

It was a journey that opened my eyes to a world that I had previously only read about in history books.

The vivid descriptions and engaging storylines made me feel as if I was right there, witnessing the struggles and triumphs of those who dared to venture westward.

Overall, this trilogy is a must-read for anyone interested in history, adventure, or simply a good story. It is a literary masterpiece that will stay with you long after you have turned the last page.

It's truly astonishing that this classic of frontier literature remains so relatively unknown.

I first had the pleasure of reading it during my teenage years, and now, more than 50 years later, upon rereading, I find it every bit as enchanting as I recalled.

Set shortly after the revolutionary war, people were already venturing westward in search of a better fortune in the unknown. In this initial installment of Conrad Richter's "The Awakening Land" trilogy, the trees take center stage.

Ohio during the frontier days was a vast thousand-mile forest, interrupted only by its rivers. Looking up from the path, one could see a lighter area above, yet the sun remained hidden. One lived in the shade until the leaves fell in autumn. The virgin forest held a menacing quality for those accustomed to the comforts of civilization. No wonder the pioneers regarded it as the enemy that had to be conquered. When the Luckett family arrived, there were no other white people, but by the novel's conclusion, settlers had moved in and begun to form the fabric of a community, while those who had come in search of wildness began to move on.

The author painstakingly studied old letters and narratives to infuse the story with the flavor and musicality of the language spoken by these largely illiterate pioneers. Its charm lies in the vivid descriptions of their ordinary lives of hard labor and their longing for a better existence.

I discovered author Conrad Richter after reading David McCullough’s book, “Brave Companions”.

McCullough dedicated a chapter to Richter, explaining how he had contacted Richter and they became friends.

Reading about the development of that friendship, the respect McCullough had for the writer he befriended, and the craft Richter exhibited in writing about the American frontier convinced me to read Richter.

I decided to read Richter’s trilogy, “The Trees”, “The Fields” and “The Town”.

I finished “The Trees” and was indeed impressed, as McCullough had attested to Richter’s ability to capture the essence of a family’s strength and character in moving and settling in the West, which then meant Ohio at the end of the eighteenth century.

The story is told in the vernacular of the people of the woods in the simplest of terms.

Richter’s research is evident in his description of the raw living experiences of the Luckett family and their encounters as their dense wooded habitat is populated.

The main character is the fifteen-year-old daughter who, as McCullough lets the reader know, remains so throughout the trilogy as she grows into old age.

An example of Richter’s rich descriptive prose that could almost be poetry is displayed in the following quote about the changing from summer to fall in weather, living creatures and trees themselves:

“…Away up on the far side of the English Lakes where that wind hailed from, it must be cold already for he could smell fall on the air. Soon it wouldn’t need a wind to fetch fall from somewhere else, for fall would be here.

\\t“Now snakes were traveling across the path. The spotted rattler and coppersnake were the first to hole up and the last to come out in the spring. The water in the river was getting mighty chilly. You needn’t wash yourself all over any more till next May. Ringtale coons ran heavy with fat. Wild pigeons feasted on the acorn trees. Fox grapes turned blue along the runs and skunks smelled fine and sweet on the evening air.

\\t“…The young beeches on the north side of the hills were the only thing left green among the hardwoods. Colored leaves floated in the spring and run. You had to fish them out of the kettle when you dipped water. All through the night you could hear nuts and acorns come rattling down.”

As I read, I realized the author’s conveyance of life experiences and the emotions of the early frontier could very well be those we might expect even in our own environment.

Consider the words of the last two sentences of the closing paragraph:

“…That’s how life was, death and birth, grub and harvest, rain and clearing, winter and summer. You had to take one with the other, for that’s the way it ran.”

So, I finished reading “The Trees” which was life in the woods, surviving in the crudest of conditions.

And it concludes in clearing the land for farming, therefore the second book, “The Fields” to be read next must bring Sayward and her family into life on the farm.

Then you can imagine the transition in the last book of the Trilogy into “The Town”. Great reading!

In later years, when everything had changed so drastically that her own father wouldn't recognize the place if he were to rise from his grave, she would often call this scene to mind. "This is the way it is," she would say to herself. "Nowhere else but in the American wilderness could it have been."

"The Trees" was recommended to me by Goodreads because of my interest in Colonial America and my penchant for shelving books with similar premises. I'm not usually one to blindly accept recommendations based on algorithms, but in this case, it worked out to my advantage.

It's the first installment of "The Awakening Land" trilogy, set in the late 18th century, just after the Revolutionary War. We follow the Luckett family as they journey west from Pennsylvania to the Ohio valley, eventually settling in what is now central Ohio. I didn't realize this was local historical fiction until I started reading, but it was a pleasant surprise. The characters refer to the area as "the Northwest Territory," and several of the locations they mention are familiar to me.

The Luckett family consists of Worth and Jary, the parents, and their four daughters: Sayward, Genny, Achsa, and Sulie, and their son, Wyitt. Worth is a "woodsie" in his late thirties who prefers the frontier to civilization, which is why he took his family west in search of their own land. Jary, also in her late thirties, has given birth to six children (one stillborn) and is already frail and worn out, made worse by her consumption. The children have a range of personalities appropriate for their ages, from the oldest in her late teens to the youngest, who is only four or five.

Once upon a time, Sayward wished she had a clock. Mrs. Covenhoven had one, and Portius Wheeler, the bound boy, carried a pocket clock that struck the hours, even though it was no bigger than his fist. Sayward reckoned that a clock was almost human, with its face, hands, and ability to tell the time. She imagined it would be a friendly presence to have around, hearing it ticking through the day and night. But a human could tell time the best, she thought, because some hours were fast and some were slow. Now, you couldn't tell anything from Sayward's face, but the hours of this last week had been the longest of her life. This was a time she never wanted to go back to and live again.

As is typical for the period, their lives are harsh. Illness and the threat of starvation are constant companions, but Worth proves to be a good provider, keeping the family fed by hunting and trading furs. Sayward, as the oldest, takes on a leadership role in protecting her younger siblings because of her mother's illness, while the children help maintain the cabin and eventually start earning goods by tending to their neighbors' livestock or learning to hunt themselves.

As more and more families and individuals move west, the Lucketts find themselves inadvertently becoming part of a larger settlement rather than just a few scattered cabins. The children grow up, the parents pass away, and families intermingle, and the Luckett family we knew at the beginning is not the same one we find at the end.

While this may sound like a "Little House on the Prairie" story, it's actually quite different. There are no underlying moral lessons waiting to be expounded upon or simple children's tales to be extracted and taught. Richter is not presenting a romanticized version of the frontier but a realistic and historically accurate one, brought to life through the characters' dialogue and the book's language. Conrad spent a great deal of time researching diaries and accounts of early settlers before writing this, ensuring that the dialect and speech patterns were authentic. I'm not a stickler for historical accuracy, but the dialogue and narration feel very much in line with the period, giving the book the feel of reading through a colonial journal and adding to its authenticity.

This leads to another point: because of the language and the way it's presented, "The Trees" is a very leisurely paced book. It's not a stereotypical action-packed adventure about a pioneer family fending off the usual dangers of the American frontier. In fact, there are only two sections of the book that I would consider exciting, and their impact was heightened precisely because of how slowly the story unfolds. Everything is told naturally, without feeling artificial or forced. It's as if Richter sat down without a preconceived notion of where the story was going (much like the Luckett family) and let the characters tell him the story.

In this way, it adds another layer of authenticity to the narrative. I wasn't waiting for an action sequence or watching the buildup of a false conflict that I knew would be resolved in the last fifteen pages. I had no idea what was coming, and neither did the characters, which made it engaging from start to finish. It's much more about character development and the relationships between the family and those they interact with. Because it's so character-driven and Richter takes his time establishing the characters, there is a lot of subtle and suggestive storytelling, revealed through the characters' actions and reactions. This rewards the attentive and patient reader, and perhaps even more so, the reader who revisits the book.

I appreciate this type of non-formulaic storytelling, where the characters are given room to breathe, the situations arise naturally from the characters, and suggestion is used to allow the reader to contemplate the characters' motives and emotions rather than having them spelled out directly. It sets the tone of exploration and discovery rather than relying on tropes and conventions, which is appropriate given the subject matter.

I enjoyed "The Trees," although as I mentioned earlier, it's a very slow-paced read and more of a character drama than an in-depth exploration of the period itself. It's a meticulously crafted snapshot of early Americana from a highly committed and talented author. The two main focuses are the language and the people, with everything else fading into the background, much like the heavily wooded landscape from which the book takes its name. It's not a book I would recommend to impatient readers or those with little interest in the post-Revolutionary period. But for those who are willing to take the time and immerse themselves in the story, it's a very good read and the first in a trilogy that I'm now eager to continue.

"Let the good come," Sayward thought, "for the bad would come of its own accord. […] That’s how life was, death and birth, grub and harvest, rain and clearing, winter and summer. You had to take one with the other, for that’s the way it ran."

I would not have read this book if it wasn't for the book club. I had never heard of it or its author before. I was somewhat prepared for its timeframe, but the dialogue, which was very authentic and realistic, was so antiquated and unusual that I had to keep reaching for my dictionary. This did break up the flow somewhat.

However, it does give an honest and unsentimental picture of frontier life in 1795 for the pioneers of the Ohio Valley, which was truly just a vast forest of trees. The Luckett family carves their lives out of this forest, confronting hardships and tragedies along the way. Thank goodness they have Sayward, who is dependable and courageously keeps the family together.

The book is sneaky good. The story and the writing put experiences in plain, simple terms that will fool you into being blown away by the events. Even the trees seem to become characters with temperament. I ended up really enjoying the book, and although it is part of a trilogy, it could be a stand-alone. I am interested in reading further and would recommend it to those who enjoy historic fiction of that era.

Overall, it was a pleasant surprise and a great read that offers a unique perspective on a bygone era.

This is described as "lyrical", but that didn't mean much to me before I read it.

What I think that means is that the writing itself is engrossing, and parts pop out with beauty that is surprising and wonderful. It's amazing to reflect on how much the plot did NOT move, yet it was so satisfying.

And it's not that nature is upheld on some pedestal, it is there and at times inspiring, but it's the stories of the people amidst such unfamiliar conditions that is gripping.

I'm looking forward to the sequels.

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Should you read these? The author's note on the last book sums up well why you might/might not be interested:

"Finally the author wants again to set down his obligation to those men and women of pioneer stock among whom he lived both in the East and West. Their lives and tales of older days gave him a passionate love for the early American way of thought and speech, and a great respect for many whose names never figured in the history books but whose influence on their own times and country was incalculable. If this novel has had any other purpose than to tell some of their story, it has been to try to impart to the reader the feeling of having lived for a little while in those earlier days and of having come in contact, not with the sound and fury of dramatic historical events that is the fortune of the relative, and often uninteresting, few, but with the broader stuff of reality that was the lot of the great majority of men and women who, if they did not experience the certain incidents related in these pages, lived through comparable events and emotions, for life is endlessly resourceful and inexhaustible. It’s only the author who is limited and mortal."