The Pale Flesh of Wood Book Review

Full disclosure: I was given an ARC of this book from SparkPoint Studio in exchange for an honest review.

Content warning: this review discusses suicide, trauma, and grief.

Ever since I read Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, I became intrigued by stories of how families deal with losing a loved one. However, that book was so good that I put it on my best list last year. It would be a tough act to follow. The Pale Flesh of Wood by Elizabeth A. Tucker tries to fill that void with exploring how a daughter grieves her father after his death and contains tree-life metaphors, but the structure doesn’t fully work.

Normally, I would summarize the plot, but I wanted to use the one that Goodreads had. The Pale Flesh of Wood is about a family dealing with a sudden loss. “1953. WWII veteran Charles Hawkins sweet-talks his daughter, Lyla, into climbing the family’s oak tree and hanging the rope for their tire swing. Eager, Lyla crawls along the branch and ties off a bowline, following her father’s careful instructions, becoming elated when he playfully tests the rope and declares the knot to be ‘strong enough to hold the weight of a grown man. Easy.’

But when her father walks out back one November night and hangs himself from the rope, Lyla becomes haunted by the belief that his death is her fault, a torment amplified by her grief-stricken mother, who sneaks up to the attic and finds comfort in the arms of her dead husband’s sweaters, and a formidable grandmother, who seemingly punishes Lyla by locking her outside, leaving her to stare down the enormous tree rooted at the epicenter of her family’s loss.

Set among the fault-prone landscape of Northern California, The Pale Flesh of Wood is told by three generations of the Hawkins family. Each narrative explores the effects of trauma after the ground shifts beneath their feet and how they must come to terms with their own sense of guilt in order to forgive and carry on.”

Now do you see why I was intrigued by The Pale Flesh of Wood? I was under the assumption that it would explore how each family member grapples with Charles’s death. But, that didn’t really happen. One does get the mom Louise’s and grandmother Caroline’s points of views, yet it’s mainly from Lyla’s, which I liked. I’ll explain why later on. In addition, when I started reading it, I noticed a huge problem. It takes a third of the novel before we get to the part where Charles takes his life. On top of that, the chapters prior would hint at that incident, and I was like, “We know what’s going to happen!”

The Pale Flesh of Wood would have benefited from a different structure. It’s mostly told in a chronological way, but the framework is wonky because of what I mentioned earlier. It could have used a structure similar to that of Everything I Never Told You. In that one, the very first sentence mentions Lydia’s death. The family soon becomes aware of it and comes to terms with it over the course of the book. Or, The Pale Flesh of Wood could have used the conflict of Lyla wanting to remove the tree as the main framework as she flashes back to what happened with her dad and how she tries to move on.

Another issue I came across while reading this novel is that even though it’s set in the past (specifically from the 1930s to the 1980s), there’s not much that indicates as such. The only thing that I can think of is that Charles and his brother David are World War II veterans. Everything else could have happened in a different time period, and things would have remained the same. Historical fiction needs to be informed by the time period in which it’s set in.

Even though there are clear problems with the book, I still found some good things. For starters, I enjoyed reading the parts that contain the metaphor of trees and life. They were well done because they reflect Lyla’s growth and how she came to terms with her dad’s suicide. Speaking of Lyla, she’s the best part of this novel. I enjoyed reading about her journey to forgiveness. She’s not a perfect person, for she makes some stupid decisions. Also, she had a complicated relationship with her dad since he was neglectful and insensitive. This makes her ability to move on from his death more difficult.

The Pale Flesh of Wood by Elizabeth A. Tucker is a decent novel. It contains a good metaphor of trees with life, and the main character Lyla and her conflict is multifaceted. However, my biggest gripe with the book is the framework. Even the synopsis is better structured than the actual novel. I would only recommend this to writers looking to create stories about family tragedies. Reading flawed books like The Pale Flesh of Wood can make them appreciate the better ones like Everything I Never Told You.

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