Benjamin Percy, author of The Wilding, was part of the WHAT FRESH HELL IS THIS panel at the Brooklyn Book Festival this past Sunday. I had the pleasure of listening to him read a selection of his forthcoming release from Graywolf Press, and then followed him down to the signing area to get his 'John Hancock" on a hard covered edition of the novel.
Here is the books description from Goodreads:
"Echo Canyon is a disappearing pocket of wilderness outside of Bend, Oregon, and the site of conflicting memories for Justin Caves and his father, Paul. It’s now slated for redevelopment as a golfing resort. When Paul suggests one last hunting trip, Justin accepts, hoping to get things right with his father this time, and agrees to bring his son, Graham, along.
As the weekend unfolds, Justin is pushed to the limit by the reckless taunting of his father, the physical demands of the terrain, and the menacing evidence of the hovering presence of bear. All the while, he remembers the promise he made to his skeptical wife: to keep their son safe.
Benjamin Percy, a writer whose work Dan Chaon called “bighearted and drunk and dangerous,” shows his mastery of narrative suspense as the novel builds to its surprising climax. The Wilding shines unexpected light on our shifting relationship with nature and family in contemporary society."
In order to win a copy of this novel:1- Simply post a comment to this thread sharing a camping or 'in the woods' experience you have had.2- Include your email address or a way for me to contact you so we can notify you if you win.This giveaway is available Internationally and will end on September 22nd. Upon it's close, I will choose one winner at random, emailing them and announcing them here on my blog.Good Luck!!
Eh the woods/camping. I think nature is BEAUTIFUL but not liking bugs/snakes/dirt/my hair getting icky etc. put camping lower on my to-do list. I'm sure you could have guess that by meeting me this weekend that I'm not too outdoorsy.
ReplyDeleteEvery camping/woodsy experience goes like this-- "EW! OMG! Ehh get that bug! What is that? I heard an animal! I'm going to get eaten. Are you sure a snake isn't going to get in here? NO--I refuse to poop in the woods!" Etc. Etc.
I really do love nature though..which is why I keep torturing myself :)
You know where to find me if I win!
IN the woods??? No way!!! My in the woods expierence would be reading the book!
ReplyDeletedonnafig26@yahho.com
I'm not entering, but this is great! It's so neat that you got to see him/hear him read!
ReplyDeleteJamie, you made me laugh! Hahah! I used to love to camp in the woods with my friends ( with no tents, only blankets on the ground!) every weekend. Now, with my fear of spiders and bears, you couldn't PAY me to do it! Hahaha
ReplyDeleteAshley, yeah, it was really cool to see him read and meet him. I think he thinks Im a bit of a loopy girl though. I had foot-in-the-mouth disease when I met him.
ReplyDeleteDonna, have you ever lived near the woods, or were you always a city girl?
When I was in 2nd grade we were 'camping' with Indian Princess with the YMCA. We were in a cabin with bunk beds and me and another girl decided to share a top bunk. Well in the morning they found me outside sleeping on the ground. I had apparently rolled out the window during the night and slept through the entire thing.
ReplyDeleteshannonjean14@yahoo.com
Oh my god, Shannon! Were you always such a heavy sleeper? That is nuts! I hope you were not hurt or half frozen.... We did a cabin camping trip in a nature reserve for the weekend once with school. I remember being miserable and chilly (It was late sept/ early oct) and I was closer to the boys than the girls, so finding a bunk partner was horrible.
ReplyDeleteNot entering the giveaway but wanted to stop by and say hi and thanks for visiting my blog :) I'm expecting a copy of ROOM in the mail within a week or two, so I'll be sure to pop back and let you know how I liked it!
ReplyDeleteYour welcome. And I'm very happy to hear ROOM is on it's way! Cannot WAIT to hear what you think of it!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid my family would pack all our camping gear, food, and water into our speedboat and launch it from the Iowa side of the Mississippi River, cruising down the wide, fast, mud-brown river, all six of us (and, one time, our pet raccoon), until we spotted a sandy island we liked. We’d beach the boat, tie it to a tree, and camp out for a night or two or three – however long it took to discover the particular disadvantages of this beach (biting black flies, not enough firewood, the arrival of other campers, whatever). Then we’d pack up and head down river to another, hopefully better, spot.
ReplyDeleteIn the afternoons we’d watch rich people (or so they seemed to us) partying lavishly on houseboats and cabin cruisers as they drifted past us. “They have toilets,” my sister told me. At night we lit huge bonfires and sparklers and bottle rockets while my parents got drunk on Sangria my mother made. Every morning huge barges would sneak along the fog-covered river, barely visible, their warning horns like the moans of enormous ghosts. I was seven or eight and thrilled but vaguely frightened by all of this – by the awful scope of the Mississippi, by the way it could sweep you fifty feet downstream in a matter of seconds. I’d recently become obsessed with Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” and couldn’t shake the sensation that a body of water this big and fast had to be dangerous somehow.
I was right. A thunder storm arrived one night and pounded us with rain for ten hours. At dawn we discovered the disadvantage of this particular island we’d selected: it was low-lying. The tent we had pitched thirty feet from the river was now just five feet from the rushing water. We scrambled out, started packing up, and naturally… our boat wouldn’t start. My dad hitched a ride across the river to a small town that had a boat shop that would sell him parts, and my mom and us kids crept up the shoreline, watching as the rain subsided but the river rose.
He was gone a half hour, an hour, two hours. My mom, who’d never in her life lost faith in him, eventually cracked, started shaking, couldn’t hide her fear from us.
We watched the piers on the opposite shore through my dad’s binoculars, wondering when and how he’d get back to us. After a while we saw a big slow houseboat crossing the river, heading straight for us. “He must’ve gotten a ride with them,” my mom said. “He’s coming, get ready.” But as the boat got closer my sister, who had the binoculars, started to laugh. “It’s him,” she said, and gradually we could all see it too: he hadn’t hitched a ride, he had rented the houseboat and was behind the wheel wearing a fat, satisfied grin as he came to rescue us.
Valerie Laken
laken AT uwm DOT edu
Wow, Valerie. That was an amazing story and you tell it so well! Hooray for your father and the houseboat... and really, a pet raccoon? How cool is that?
ReplyDeleteMy camping experience was when I was in a tent with 10 othwer scared kids it was all of our first time camping and the bugs and forest noises got us scared!
ReplyDeletecarla
cpullum(at)yahoo(dot)com
Thank you to everyone who participated in the giveaway! I loved to read your camping stories (or lack thereof!)
ReplyDelete