A few years ago, I kept a review from Entertainment Weekly of a book called Orchard, by Larry Watson. Tonight, I looked up some other reviews of the book, many of which call the book "a masterpiece."
According to EW: the book is "as technically flawless and quietly unnerving as its inspiration: Andrew Wyeth’s famed Helga paintings. When Sonja, a Norwegian housewife whose young son has recently died, begins posing for renowned artist (and notorious womanizer) Ned Weaver, the intensity of their enigmatic relationship — and their spouses’ suspicions about it — slowly wrench both families apart. Sonja’s and Ned’s frustrations unfold in exquisitely crafted flashbacks punctured by brief, searing glimpses of the day that Sonja’s husband finally confronts the painter and his muse. Ned’s pompous rants on the Importance of His Art are Watson’s only tonal missteps in an emotional and physical landscape composed in melancholy autumnal ochers and chilly winter grays. Grade: A-"
The San Francisco Chronicle calls it "a subtle story, exquisitely paced and rendered in lucid, chameleon-like prose. Dialogue and narrative unerringly reflect the novel’s emotional and physical landscapes, places of light, shadow and uncertainty that will dwell in the reader’s memory for a long time to come."
MostlyFiction.com has a positive review of the book here, and an excerpt from the book that you can read here.
I am not as excited by the rural, 50s Wisconsin setting, but am intrigued by what I’ve read about Watson’s writing and the subtlety with which this story unspools. Has anyone in EDIWTB readerland ever read this one?