Hello friends! Today I want to bring your attention to Jonathan Evison’s book, Legends of the North Cascades, which is now out in paperback. A story that explores many aspects of life including living in the wilderness, being different and a father-daughter relationship, this book is a sweet literary fiction to dive into if you are feeling like contemplating life and choices. With two parallel timelines, one set around the time of the end of the last ice age, and the other in present time, the name aptly describes two legends from the North Cascades area. Let’s take a look at the synopsis and content notes and then get started.
Dave Cartwright has had enough. After three tours in Iraq he has come home to Vigilante Falls in Washington State only to find that he feels incapable of connecting to the people and the place that once defined him. Most days, his love for his seven-year-old daughter, Bella, is the only thing keeping him going. When tragedy strikes, Dave makes a dramatic decision: he will take Bella to live in a cave in the wilderness of the North Cascades.
So begins a compelling adventure, a story of a father and daughter attempting to cope with a breathtaking but harsh environment. Once they are settled in the cave, Bella retreats into a different world, that of a mother and son who had lived in that same space, but thousands of years before, at the end of last Ice Age. As the two dramas begin to merge, a timeless odyssey unfolds, both as a meditation on the perils of isolation and an exploration of humans’ indelible struggle to survive.
Perfect for readers of Peter Heller’s novels or Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone, Legends of the North Cascades is Jonathan Evison’s return to sweeping, multicharacter narratives like his New York Times bestseller West of Here and is an immensely satisfying read.
Content Notes include death of a parent/spouse, sexual assault, starvation, lack of food, war.
Thoughts on Legends of the North Cascades
Legends of the North Cascades is a thought-provoking book about life choices. Dave Cartwright is a retired marine. The time he spent in Iraq has deeply affected him. I found this to be an educational book into the disillusionment that can come from serving the country in wartime situations and how that has a ripple effect in life. At the beginning of the book, Dave and his wife have just had another fight. He wants to change and be better for her and their child, Bella, but fate does not give him the opportunity to prove himself to her as she passes away in a car accident. With nothing really left to live for except his daughter, Dave moves the two of them into the mountains, to live as humans used to long ago. Bella is almost eight years old and I enjoyed her point of view, seeing her father descend on a journey that puts them both in danger in some ways.
Legends of the North Cascades is divided into four parts: The Book of Dead, The Book of Doubt, The Book of the Living and The Book of Healing. This first part portrays the challenges of confronting grief, how different people react to it and face it. Dave makes a tough choice of relocating to the mThe four parts portray the cycles of growth that Dave and Bella go through, all the time strengthening their relationship. I loved reading about Dave as a father and his feelings towards bella. He treats her like an adult most of the time, and he is humble in a way that I hadn’t expected. In the wilderness, when he loses his way and she is confident of the path, she lets her take the lead. At the same time, even when she may have the intuition that he is going to lead them astray, she follows his lead until she can’t. They have a way of working together and supporting each other which is heartwarming to read about.
The book has a very interesting structure. At times, it felt like a report on the legend of Cave Dave, the man who took his daughter to the mountains and decided to live there. Many of the people from town are interviewed and asked about what they think of him. Most of them are fair and remember his pre-marine days, while always praising him for his love for his daughter. While society does have concrete views around how a child should be raised – in a house, in town – Dave prefers to let Bella learn from books and Nature. She enjoyed this sort of learning, though there are many times when she reflects on how different her life in the mountains is from the town. She prefers to be with her father though.
In the wilderness, Bella starts to have visions of a time long past, of a mother and son who used to live in the very cave she inhabits now. She learns of how life used to be at the end of the last ice age and the challenges of living in the mountains, the cruelty of men, the shortage of food. Through the son’s perspective, Bella comes to understand her own feelings towards her father. Her tug of war is between the possibility that someone will come and separate her from her father (one that he does not seem bothered by) and the person he is becoming.
Legends of the North Cascades is Dave’s life journey. From the circumstances that led to his enlisting to the struggles of integrating back into life. I found these lines from the book heartbreaking:
“When they were finally discharged, soldiers got a big pat on the back, maybe even a Purple Heart if they were lucky. […] They told them to mind your angry impulses, not to visit frustration on your spouse or kids. They told them that they were marines, that they would always be marines, They told them to drive on. Never mind Dave’ hip. Never mind that his nerves were so severely fried that he actually throughout he could small them smouldering inside his head. Never mind that his emotional facilities were in ruin.”
Legends of the North Cascades, Chapter: A Big Pat on the Back
As he dives into living on the mountains, reading vicariously from the library, confronting his past and redefining his future for himself and Bella, Dave, as much as he hates society, realizes that his family and support system are not just for him but also Bella. And for her sake, as well as his own sanity, he might have to return, and figure out a better way of living.
This was a beautiful read! Will you pick up this book?
Legends of the North Cascades is available now.
Be sure to check your local library and get this book through them so that it can reach more people!
Many thanks to the publisher for providing me a review copy through NetGalley.
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Cover image: Cover Photo by bady abbas on Unsplash
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