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Dec 03, 2014gusmcrae rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
Charles Frazier is a beautiful writer. He has a way with words that creates incredibly vivid worlds and characters. I found myself drawn into Nightwoods from the start. Luce is a woman who likes to live apart from everyone else. She finds her solitary existence in a run-down former lodge in the North Carolina mountains to be enough for her. When she is suddenly given care of her late sister's twins, she finds her life upturned. The children are quite strange--perhaps even damaged. Frazier weaves a beautiful tale as Luce finds ways to reach the children, despite their oddities. I truly enjoyed watching her learn how to connect with these children. The novel also follows 2 side tales--one of a the grandson of a local who comes back to town (and finds love with Luce) and one of the children's step-dad, a criminal named Bud who is bent on finding the money he thinks the children stole from him. One comment on Frazier's writing. It is not light in any way. If you're looking for a fast read, or something that doesn't require a little bit of thought, you'd be better off looking elsewhere. I found passages of this book somewhat difficult to get through--particularly later in the novel and especially those ones focused on Bud. Most novels speed up for me as they go along--as they draw me in. And this one, kind of slowed down some for me. It's just the lazy reader in me that had a problem, though, so I can't really complain about Frazier's writing.