Daniel Mason returns to the New England landscape with Country People, a fantastical journey through family and folklore that serves as a witty, uplifting, and gorgeously written follow-up to his 2023 acclaimed novel North Woods.
Moving the setting from Massachusetts to Vermont, this latest work shifts from a multi-century historical exploration to a deep dive into literature, myths, and the fundamental human drive to uncover hidden meanings.
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Narrative and Setting
The novel follows Miles Krzelewski, a 45-year-old husband and father who relocates his family from California to a faraway forest in Vermont after his wife, Kate, a Milton scholar, accepts a visiting professorship.
Accompanying them are their children, Wesley and Olive, and their truffle-hunting Italian dog, Giuseppe.
While the transition brings a charmed life filled with pristine nature, affordable lemonade stands, and grass baseball fields, Miles struggles to remain fully grounded.
Supposed to finish his 12-year overdue PhD dissertation on Russian folktales, Miles instead becomes captivated by the local countryside and its colorful inhabitants.
He soon encounters a series of picturesque eccentric characters, including a local exterminator known as the "Rat Man of Vermont," a biochemist turned orchardist who practices scything, a snowflake photographer on a scooter, and a trekking guide named Hugh who claims the Earth is hollow and contains a portal to an underground world first discovered by a 19th-century pastor.
Literary Execution and Value
Mason masterfully prevents the fantastical elements and whimsy from collapsing by securing the narrative with solid foundations and deeply interconnected literary roots.
