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Lost Nation (Paperback)

by Jeffrey Lent (Author) "They went on ..." (more)

4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: GROVE/ATLANTIC; Reprint edition (Mar 14 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 080213985X
ISBN-13: 978-0802139856
Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 14 x 2.8 cm
Shipping Weight: 431 g

Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #736,004 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

From Amazon.com

In his second novel, Lost Nation, Jeffrey Lent follows Blood, a mysterious rogue attempting to make a new life for himself in Indian Stream, an ungoverned territory in 19th-century northern New Hampshire. Intending to start a trading business, Blood brings with him rum, supplies, and Sally, a 16-year-old girl he won in a card game from the madam of a brothel. A rugged "man of contradictions," Blood is learned and occasionally kind, yet capable of considerable cruelty and violence. Rumors quickly circulate in Indian Stream regarding his troubled past, and Blood is made a scapegoat when conflicts escalate in the area following his arrival. As Blood's history is gradually revealed, it becomes clear that his only chance at redemption is through confrontation.

Demonstrating his gift for narration, Lent has created a rich and entertaining novel from this somewhat familiar outline, filled with well-developed characters and stark, evocative descriptions. In its epic, unflinching style and omniscient voice, Lent's prose is reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy and Faulkner, to whom he is often compared. Wolves, scoundrels, and barbaric natives abound, and Lent never shies away from the gritty, realistic detail appropriate for the novel's harsh setting. Though light on profundities, Lost Nation should offer readers many engaging reasons to return. --Ross Doll --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

While the classic western naturally concentrates on the West, there were pockets in the East that were as wild as Dodge City, and Lent has found one in his second novel. Northern New Hampshire in 1838 was a long way from Nathaniel Hawthorne's civilized Boston. The ominously self-named Mr. Blood trails a mysterious past into the area, bringing "twin hogsheads of black Barbados rum," some casks of gunpowder and a 16-year-old whore named Sally whom he purchased in Portland, Maine. When Blood opens his tavern, he warns Sally to be wary of the clientele, which is good advice. Trappers, outlaws and Indians wreak havoc on each other in the cold wilderness. When the high sheriff of Coos County decides to bring a little law and order to the region, he and his men are ambushed. While Blood tries to mediate a truce, his past catches up with him in the person of two boys who have come from down south, Fletcher and Cooper. Unbeknownst to Blood, these are his sons. Fletcher falls for Sally, and when Blood is arrested by a Canadian force for complicity in the murder of a French-Canadian trader, Sally goes to Fletcher for help. Lent's novel strains under the stylistic influence of Cormac McCarthy, making its way in long sentences with a paucity of commas and a surfeit of gore: "Crane had been bound hand and foot, his arms tight to his sides, and buried up to his neck in a small beaver bog that was boiling with mosquitoes and deerflies. Very precisely his eyelids had been cut away." However, it tells a rousing tale that will surely please the readers of his first, bestselling novel, In the Fall.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
They went on. Read the first page

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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

20 Reviews

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

4.2 out of 5 stars (20 customer reviews)

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Most helpful customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Lost Nation, Dec 4 2003

By	John M. Wetterau - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Lost Nation by Jeffrey Lent is the story of a man named Blood and a girl that he wins in a card game and takes to northern New Hampshire where he builds a tavern/cabin and sells her to customers for a dollar a trick. Blood is haunted by early misdeeds; he is merciless and unforgiving.

In the "lost nation" territory between settled New England and Canada, life is primitive. A few trappers, a handful of subsistence farmers scattered along streams, Indians, and men on the run make their own agreements and keep their own justice.

The situation is ideal for Jeffrey Lent's skill in story telling, his passion for nature, and his need to delineate a stark and brutal view of human nature. The accurate and evocative descriptions of land and weather on almost every page layer a realistic cloak over what is really romantic darkness--a rejection of simple happiness, humor, self-sacrifice, our better angels, if you will.

As the reader, unable to stop, moves deeper and deeper into the story, the desire to be done with the book grows proportionately. The book is memorable but mad, less than the sum of its beautifully written parts, perhaps, but more than most novels, a considerable accomplishment.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Last Chapter Made Me Angry!, Sep 1 2003

By	R "William" (Florida) - See all my reviews

A beautifully-written book and wonderfully executed plot. Although not easy to read due to the author's unusual -- "self-indulgent"? -- syntax and use of grammar. Once you get into the swing of it, it's not bad. First half of the book sort of plods along but in the second half the action gets moving and the book is hard to put down. However, what's with the epilogue? Are we supposed to know who the mother is? And is it Sally? IF SO, Jeffrey Lent, why not just TELL us, instead of making it your private game -- which is the feeling your book left with me. The only reason I didn't give the book "five stars" is because I felt, strongly, that the author was trying hard to "write above" his readers. Why? The only reason I can come up with is that Mr. Lent is taken with himself and wants us to be taken with him, too. Rather than concentrating on just telling us a good story -- which he has! -- he had to make sure we had to "work" to get through it! And, again, that epilogue! Why?

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3.0 out of 5 stars Why the "postlude"?, Aug 31 2003

By	Dian C. Gainer "lover of good books" (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was gratified to read Richard A. Mitchell's review and agree with him that I do not understand what Mr. Lent was attempting to accomplish in his epilogue, which takes the reader forward 50+ years into Sally's life and introduces several new characters with only the most cursory explanation of how she arrived at her new station in life. Better, I think, to have left her escaping the last scene of the novel with Blood, Fletcher, and Cooper dead. I found no reference to what I feel is a dissapointing epilogue in the "official" reviews of this book; thank you Mr. Mitchell. Still, I will suggest that my husband read this novel.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars This is Literature
I have just finished reading Lost Nation after reading Lent's other book, In the Fall. I cannot remember being so captivated by an author. Read more

Published on Aug 21 2003 by Joseph J. Patrissi

3.0 out of 5 stars Unrelentingly Grim
As children growing up in America we read a lot of stories about the American frontier which were probably a bit too idealistic, but which nevertheless for the most part were... Read more

Published on Jul 24 2003 by Paul McGrath

3.0 out of 5 stars Lent is Unique
Jeffrey Lent's writing style is unique. I, personally, find it difficult to read. His syntax is not common and his descriptive sentences and passages are often over-written... Read more

Published on May 13 2003 by Richard A. Mitchell

5.0 out of 5 stars A short review.
Reading Lost Nation was an authentic experience.

The characters have depth. The struggles are real. The author is invisible to the reader.