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Clearcut
Set in the gloriously rugged backwoods of the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s, Nina Shengold’s gripping debut novel follows three people in search of new lives deep into uncharted terrain of the body and heart.When rough-hewn loner Earley Ritter picks up a hitchhiker one rainy night, he can’t imagine how much it will change his life. A "shake-rat" who salvages cedar stumps left when loggers clearcut, Earley seems to have little in common with Reed Alton, a gifted Berkeley dropout. But when Earley meets Zan, the fiery and mysterious woman Reed has been following, erotic sparks fly in unexpected directions. Thrown together in the splendid isolation of the woods, with passions and tensions mounting, the unlikely trio achieves a fragile balance that–like their idyllic patch of forest–will be shattered by violence. At once a page-turning psychological drama and a colorful, wildly comic recreation of a lost time and place, Clearcut explores the boundaries that divide us, and what it takes to cross them.From the Trade Paperback edition.
352 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
February 13, 2025
Earley has a pocketful of dimes and he’s feeling good about his independent scrap logger life today. He’s seeing a married woman on the weekends and he’s about to take a much needed shower at a public camping ground with his dimes.
Earley can’t imagine his day getting any better. Upon picking up a young man named Reed hitchhiking to Alaska from Berkeley California on this early 1970’s morning on a rainy Washington state coastal forest highway he is about to discover a whole new meaning of abundance. However the bliss of the situation is not fully appreciated till it disappears much like the handful of dimes in the front pocket of his favorite jeans. The pocket with the hole.
Earley can’t imagine his day getting any better. Upon picking up a young man named Reed hitchhiking to Alaska from Berkeley California on this early 1970’s morning on a rainy Washington state coastal forest highway he is about to discover a whole new meaning of abundance. However the bliss of the situation is not fully appreciated till it disappears much like the handful of dimes in the front pocket of his favorite jeans. The pocket with the hole.
November 1, 2011
While it has some blazing, appetite-whetting erotic passages about fornication, landscape and even snails (really) this isn't a "book about sex." It's a love story daring to present ardor in the compelling guise of the mysterious, unreasonable, many-headed hydra that pulls from the unlikeliest of people (that's you, dear reader) the courage to cross boundaries, consequences be damned. All for love, presented as a pricey one-two punch of both carnal and soul fulfillment. (Makes you remember that Cupid is armed with A WEAPON.)
Shengold does not dwell on the question of "was it worth it?"; she skillfully leaves that option up to the reader. (For me, it seemed well worth it more than a few times, but I was under the book's spell, not in my right mind. Or was I?) There are hefty prices to pay for liberties offered and taken in Clearcut, that's for sure; the vicarious thrill one gets from the risk-taking is part of the book's appeal.
There is much to draw one in to the backdrop of misty mountains and surrounding grubby towns (and townfolk) of an early 70s Pacific Northwest; organized tree huggers are replanting as old-school lumberjacks are felling the forests and all meet in bars, on rutted roads and in beds (of cloth, moss, and fire... really). The distinctive setting, in which mostly single, childless people are thrown together with little to distract them, helps create a hothouse atmosphere for all kinds of things to grow, some expected, some definitely not.
Shengold deposits us into the mind of Earley Ritter, a loner, a "shake-rat" who carves up cedar stumps left behind by loggers and sells the wood. Earley is nearing thirty, a bearded, scarred 6'5" refugee from a violent upbringing in Waycross, Ga., hacking away near his remote trailer in the woods. Into his life hitches the slight, privileged musician Reed, who is on the trail of the beguiling Zan.The brigade of planters she has joined is so full of personality an entire novel could be written just about them. Zan is irresistible in the way a cliff is to a hang glider, a woodstove to someone with frostbite, or a drink to an alcoholic; she seems as much an elemental part of the rich earth, fuel smell and fleshy skies as Earley. To say sparks fly is an understatement.
Then it gets tricky and very unpredictable, as Reed, endowed with gifts both musical and otherwise, has a way of getting under one's skin too. As the tale unwinds, more aspects of each individual character come to light through crises, isolation, violence and raw human need. The picture that coalesces is of people with appetites they didn't even know they had; once awakened, these appetites can only be satisfied through action. There is no talking this stuff through.
Although it takes place in the early 70s, the characters and situations are universal. You've met people like the deeply flawed heroes of Clearcut. Unless you are in the minority, though, you've probably not crossed forbidden lines with such folks. After reading Clearcut you may be a little more risky next time. Or, like me, you may just wait for Shengold's next book. Or...
Shengold does not dwell on the question of "was it worth it?"; she skillfully leaves that option up to the reader. (For me, it seemed well worth it more than a few times, but I was under the book's spell, not in my right mind. Or was I?) There are hefty prices to pay for liberties offered and taken in Clearcut, that's for sure; the vicarious thrill one gets from the risk-taking is part of the book's appeal.
There is much to draw one in to the backdrop of misty mountains and surrounding grubby towns (and townfolk) of an early 70s Pacific Northwest; organized tree huggers are replanting as old-school lumberjacks are felling the forests and all meet in bars, on rutted roads and in beds (of cloth, moss, and fire... really). The distinctive setting, in which mostly single, childless people are thrown together with little to distract them, helps create a hothouse atmosphere for all kinds of things to grow, some expected, some definitely not.
Shengold deposits us into the mind of Earley Ritter, a loner, a "shake-rat" who carves up cedar stumps left behind by loggers and sells the wood. Earley is nearing thirty, a bearded, scarred 6'5" refugee from a violent upbringing in Waycross, Ga., hacking away near his remote trailer in the woods. Into his life hitches the slight, privileged musician Reed, who is on the trail of the beguiling Zan.The brigade of planters she has joined is so full of personality an entire novel could be written just about them. Zan is irresistible in the way a cliff is to a hang glider, a woodstove to someone with frostbite, or a drink to an alcoholic; she seems as much an elemental part of the rich earth, fuel smell and fleshy skies as Earley. To say sparks fly is an understatement.
Then it gets tricky and very unpredictable, as Reed, endowed with gifts both musical and otherwise, has a way of getting under one's skin too. As the tale unwinds, more aspects of each individual character come to light through crises, isolation, violence and raw human need. The picture that coalesces is of people with appetites they didn't even know they had; once awakened, these appetites can only be satisfied through action. There is no talking this stuff through.
Although it takes place in the early 70s, the characters and situations are universal. You've met people like the deeply flawed heroes of Clearcut. Unless you are in the minority, though, you've probably not crossed forbidden lines with such folks. After reading Clearcut you may be a little more risky next time. Or, like me, you may just wait for Shengold's next book. Or...
August 28, 2018
I think what I enjoyed most was the setting of the Northwest woods in the late 1970s. It's written so beautifully and in such great detail. There were times where, at first I thought it was moving too slow or that it was unnecessary, but I had nothing but appreciation for all the descriptiveness once I finished the book. I really liked Earley. He has a routine and mainly keeps to himself. I think that's why he picks up Reed. He had become too set in his ways and was unaware of how lonely he was until he had people around that cared about him. Funnily enough, I believe Reed mirrors that, but he knows it. Zan was your typical free spirit hippie, who went wherever the wind blew her. The three of them found something they were looking for when they were all together. In a very unconventional way, this is a love story, and they all experience heartache within the group. It wraps up nicely in the end, with a message of hope after loss.
March 16, 2009
This book was interesting...I picked it up not knowing what to expect and found myself sucked in from the first page. The novel took turns that I really didn't expect - but still, it was intriguing. I thought the characters were well-developed. You really got into the head of Earley and therefore were really able to understand the choices he made and why he made them.
February 2, 2008
take 70's porn and mix it with loggers and tree planters. then set it in washington state. add a tragic death at the end. horrible. i can't believe i finished it. i love nina shengold's play homesteaders, however.
May 7, 2015
Lots of longing, desire and misty, rainy atmosphere in this one.
September 8, 2008
Interesting story. Kind of convenient, and the characters seem fake. I liked the setting, though.
October 2, 2009
Excellent! I've become attached to these characters and will miss them! Nina Shengold is a local author- what a talent!!
April 8, 2011
A cross between Brokeback Mountain and Threesome.
February 21, 2025
This was an impulse purchase at a library book sale, based on the back cover blurb and the fact it was set in the Pacific Northwest. I thought it would have something to say about the tensions between environmentalists and loggers in the 70s, a time of crisis and change in the Pacific Northwest. Instead, it was a sleazy love triangle tarted up with scenes verging on soft-core porn. There were a few nice descriptions, but it wasn't floating my boat.
After I was about a quarter way in I went back and read some Goodreads reviews, and found out 'This won't end well'* and skipped ahead to the end. Indeed, the lovers were doomed, although I didn't read enough to find out exactly why, nor do I really care enough to find out.
* This is my favorite new quote from the somewhat schocky zombie film The Dead Don't Die'. Adam Driver says this multiple times to his boss, Bill Murray, the sheriff of a small town being overrun by zombies. Murray finally turns on him and asks how he knows it's going to end badly and Driver replies "Didn't you read the script?" in a very meta nod to the audience.
After I was about a quarter way in I went back and read some Goodreads reviews, and found out 'This won't end well'* and skipped ahead to the end. Indeed, the lovers were doomed, although I didn't read enough to find out exactly why, nor do I really care enough to find out.
* This is my favorite new quote from the somewhat schocky zombie film The Dead Don't Die'. Adam Driver says this multiple times to his boss, Bill Murray, the sheriff of a small town being overrun by zombies. Murray finally turns on him and asks how he knows it's going to end badly and Driver replies "Didn't you read the script?" in a very meta nod to the audience.
July 15, 2017
"Clearcut" is both rich and steamy, full of the tension of regular people caught in unusual circumstances. Writing from the point of view of another gender is always hard, and Earley Ritter is such a ruggedly tough guy. But Shengold inhabits his heart and soul so completely, revealing a depth and tenderness that feels totally honest and true. This is exactly the kind of book I often look for and can't find -- a self-aware blue-collar sensibility with a strong spiritual connection to nature. I loved all the lumbering terms and small-town details. I adored the intriguingly mysterious and confoundingly complex characters -- all perfectly drawn, without a hint of condescension. Spectacular dialogue all the way through, too. This book titillates in all the right ways.
June 4, 2017
I read this book quickly- if anything, the pacing is fast and even I, a slower reader nowadays, buzzed through it in an afternoon. I like Ritter's character, he's an out-and-out fantasy man, but this is a book and it's a good story. The sexy bits don't bother me, rather I was annoyed by Zen. She seemed silly and irrelevant, however, I wished she played more of a role in the actual ending than the climax of the story. Having her scram after the events made her less of a character and more of a plot device.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 2, 2021
If you've ever spent any time in the rainforests of Washington's Olympic Peninsula, you'll know that strange and wonderful things grow there. You'll also feel wet and cold through much of this book thanks to Shengold's atmospheric prose. She introduces us to a love triangle that's the strangest threesome since...well, since ever. The only thing that warms the rainforest is the sheer blazing heat of this love story. And you will remember the ending for the rest of your life.
June 2, 2018
Characters are so underdeveloped that you don’t even care when one of the main characters dies. They all think they’re in love with each other and they don’t even know anything about one another. The events were predictable. Felt like the ending was a cop out. She didn’t know how to end it so she just had him die.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 21, 2020
A throuple forms in logging country. There's logging and throupling.
July 27, 2022
I picked this up at a Little Free Library box a few blocks from home. The cover looked promising, but it was tawdrier than I expected — a ménage à trois in 1970s Washington state between a strapping 30 year old "shake rat" from Georgia, Earley Ritter, who forages clear-cut cedar stumps in the woods and lives a very marginal physical existence, and a young Berkeley dropout named Reed Alton, who headed north, chasing after his hot tree-planter girlfriend, Zan. The three become very good friends, but there's trouble lurking in paradise.
May 29, 2017
This is one of those books I keep coming back to again and again. Watching the characters navigating how to build relationships while working through unlearning the jealousy and societal norms they've been trained to take for granted is wonderfully realistic.
The love, passion, trepidation, and heartbreak at the conclusion are so viscerally felt when reading, the setting comes alive through Shengold's prose (in a way that a certain later novel featuring vampires also set in Forks, WA never quite manages), and each relationship in the triad is distinct, even through the lens of the main character's identity exploration.
I'm generally pretty wary of any "Bury Your Gays" tropes, but the heartbreaking ending here is foreshadowed from the start, and reminds me a bit of Bridge to Terabithia in that manner. It also helps that all three of the main characters are outside of the realm of heteronormative expectations. I also find myself liking that Shengold illustrates distinctions between ethical non-monogamy and the decidedly not ethical sort (cheating/betrayal) with a deft touch by showing, rather than telling.
Most of all, this is one of the rare books I get more from each time I re-read it, and one of the few books I'm actually eager to re-read every few years.
The love, passion, trepidation, and heartbreak at the conclusion are so viscerally felt when reading, the setting comes alive through Shengold's prose (in a way that a certain later novel featuring vampires also set in Forks, WA never quite manages), and each relationship in the triad is distinct, even through the lens of the main character's identity exploration.
I'm generally pretty wary of any "Bury Your Gays" tropes, but the heartbreaking ending here is foreshadowed from the start, and reminds me a bit of Bridge to Terabithia in that manner. It also helps that all three of the main characters are outside of the realm of heteronormative expectations. I also find myself liking that Shengold illustrates distinctions between ethical non-monogamy and the decidedly not ethical sort (cheating/betrayal) with a deft touch by showing, rather than telling.
Most of all, this is one of the rare books I get more from each time I re-read it, and one of the few books I'm actually eager to re-read every few years.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 3, 2015
What is it about Forks WA? Another book about a love triangle, this time without sparkly vampires but with an ecological message.
Earley is a 29-year-old shake-rat (someone who goes to a forest clear-cut and cuts stumps down for shingling) originally from Georgia - he has a broken-down truck and lives in a bus parked up in the woods. His showers are taken in dime-per-minute campsite showers, and his life is anything but going somewhere. One incredibly rainy day he picks up Reed, a trust-fund hitchhiker who left Berkeley to head to Alaska (but first, he wants to see Xan, the girl he's in love with).
Reed and Earley end up working together, sharing the bus and daily chores. Reed's newness to the job frustrates Earley but they find a way to make it work, particularly as Reed's skills grow. And then there's Xan, who is in love with Reed but flirts with Earley.
The love triangle is messy but, unlike most, the twist of who ends up with whom may surprise readers. The characters don't really change (although Reed grows up some over the course of the book), and the ecological message isn't pounded in - both of which would have made for a more compelling book.
Earley is a 29-year-old shake-rat (someone who goes to a forest clear-cut and cuts stumps down for shingling) originally from Georgia - he has a broken-down truck and lives in a bus parked up in the woods. His showers are taken in dime-per-minute campsite showers, and his life is anything but going somewhere. One incredibly rainy day he picks up Reed, a trust-fund hitchhiker who left Berkeley to head to Alaska (but first, he wants to see Xan, the girl he's in love with).
Reed and Earley end up working together, sharing the bus and daily chores. Reed's newness to the job frustrates Earley but they find a way to make it work, particularly as Reed's skills grow. And then there's Xan, who is in love with Reed but flirts with Earley.
The love triangle is messy but, unlike most, the twist of who ends up with whom may surprise readers. The characters don't really change (although Reed grows up some over the course of the book), and the ecological message isn't pounded in - both of which would have made for a more compelling book.
February 19, 2014
Gripping is not even accurate. I found myself shaking my head in disbelief at some of the things the main character says and thinks. She has written a fantasy about what she wishes men thought. I also skimmed over a few passages that seemed to have little or nothing to do with the plot. Calling this literature is a real stretch. If you want a twisted and tragic backwoods romance novel with predictable cliche characters then this is the book for you. Don't go in with high hopes lest you be disappointed.
August 26, 2011
This book brought me to Forks before Twilight came out! Back then the town was one of the most depressing shut down places I'd been (and I've been to many shanty towns throughout the world). But in this book was a fantastic glimpse into the life of a burly logger - as a young woman I was pleasantly surprised by how much of a connection I was able to make to Early. The sex scenes I really didn't care for, but I never do. It
February 3, 2008
An unlikely threesome comes together against the backdrop of the logging industry in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970’s. This tale is in turns passionate, tragic, and violent. Limits and friendships are tested and no happy endings are in sight though redemption is not completely out of reach. Lyrical and sexually charged, this is a worthwhile read.
August 29, 2008
This is a bright and extremely easy to read story. A little disturbing however, since my grandpa gave it to me to read. The 3 some and gay logger scenes were not raunchy, but each chapter seemed to contain one.Hard to picture my lil grandpa with his handmade clay coffee mug reading this book in his little leather barcalounger, while my grandma watches Ellen in the background.
May 9, 2024
Shengold knows how to get into the heads of males. The dialogues are authentic 70's rural. This is a lusty tale of how love can sneak up to one from an angle least expected. No moral judgments here just an enlightenment that few seem to know.
May 29, 2007
i still find it weird when my dad recommends books that are so much about sex. but this is a pretty good one. nothing amazing, i don't think.
February 4, 2010
What I thought was going to be a story about clear cutting in the Pacific Northwest turned out to be mostly about a bizarre love triangle.
July 15, 2010
Very sexy and quite sad at the end. I appreciate how much the protagonist grows in this story.
October 24, 2011
One of the best book I've read in a long time. Wonderful characters, setting, and dialogue. Waiting for the sequel.
January 21, 2013
Earthy and genuine. Reading this book took me back in time.
February 10, 2013
Well done, the POV was fascinating.
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September 17, 2015I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13599636
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13599636
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