The Sawtooth Complex

by Susan Lang

The Sawtooth Complex is a fascinating novel that deals vigorously with the dilemmas of human life on the planet. Our willy-nilly destruction of the exquisite natural world is set against the efforts of some people to protect and care for the biology that sustains us. Most characters are torn by contradictions, both personal and political. A few are avid developers; others seek a balance between humanity and nature. Several touching love stories develop and falter among them. The true hero, Maddie Farley, is an inspiring and reluctant monkey-wrencher who lives most closely to the earth. The natural world she inhabits is invoked with poignant accuracy and love. Ultimately, nature itself blows up everyone’s world in a startling forest fire that overpowers the land and the people, laying waste to most everything. The writing about this thrilling climatic event is terrifying, spellbinding, very intense and powerful. And then a miracle occurs. In the wreckage left behind, the author, who is no sentimental idealist or doomsday prophet, finds reason to hope. The story is engrossing, entertaining, and really makes us think. It’s a fine addition to our best environmental and human–humane–literature.

246 pages, Paperback

First published September 8, 2015

Reviews

[Michaela Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A love song to the desert of the southwest, The Sawtooth Complex explores the dilemmas of humans' relationship to the natural world and, through the various points of view of a group of wonderfully vivid characters, weaves a heart-wrenching tale of destruction and rebirth. I fell in love with Maddie, a wise, wild woman, who knows every rock and shrub and tree as well as she knows her own body.