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    Orchard
    Orchard
    Orchard
    Audiobook8 hours

    Orchard

    Written by Larry Watson

    Narrated by George Guidall

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Sonja Skordahl, a Norwegian immigrant, came to America looking for a new life. Instead, she settled in Door County, Wisconsin, and married Henry House-only to find herself defined by her roles as wife and mother. Destiny lands Sonja in the studio of Ned Weaver, an internationally acclaimed painter. There she becomes more than his model and more than a mere object of desire; she becomes the most inspiring muse Ned has ever known, much to the chagrin of the artist's wife. When both Ned and Henry insist on possessing Sonja, their jealousies threaten to erupt into violence-as she struggles to appease both men without sacrificing her hard-won sense of self.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMay 2, 2008
    ISBN9781436121309
    Orchard
    Author

    Larry Watson

    The author of many novels, including Montana 1948 and Orchard, Larry Watson is the recipient of the Milkweed National Fiction Prize, among numerous other prizes and awards. He teaches writing and literature at Marquette University and lives in Milwaukee.

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    Reviews for Orchard

    3.5/5

    71 ratings9 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Don't be fooled by the simple plot. This is more than a story about a husband and wife. This is a historical piece. [The reader will drop in on 1947 and 1954 and learn about emerging technologies, and my favorite - how to be unladylike (chew gum, smoke, drink alone, swear or sweat).] It is a cultural commentary on what it means to be a foreigner in a strange land, language barriers and all. This is a heartbreaking romance. It is what happens when grief complicates a marriage, misunderstanding about propriety tangles it, and opportunity finally destroys it. The grief of losing a child to an avoidable accident serves as the catalyst for a downward spiral for all involved. Orchard begs the question who is the bigger betrayer, the one who builds an emotional obsession or the one whose carnal desires explode in a single act? Is emotion infidelity more of a sin than a physical one? Larry Watson is becoming one of my favorite authors.
    • 2/5
      L. Watson is an excellent author. Unfortunately, after readingl fifty percent of this book, I could not get into it and have decided to put it aside. Not an easy choice.
    • 4/5
      4.5****

      From the book jacket - Sonja Skordahl came to America from Norway looking for a new life. Instead, she settled in Door County, Wisconsin, and married Henry House – only to find herself defined by her roles as wife and mother. Destiny lands Sonja in the studio of Ned Weaver, an internationally acclaimed painter. There she becomes more than is model and more than a mere object of desire; she becomes the most inspiring muse Ned has ever known, much to the chagrin of the artist’s wife. When both Ned and Henry insist on possessing Sonja, their jealousies threaten to erupt into violence – as she struggles to appease both men without sacrificing her hard-won sense of self.

      My reactions
      This is a lovely, character-driven gem of a novel. The four central characters – Sonja and Henry House, and Henrietta and Ned Weaver – share a desire to be recognized, and the frustration of being overlooked or disregarded.

      Well, maybe not Ned, who is a misogynistic narcissist who believes he can behave any way he wishes as long as it is for the greater glory of art. I really disliked Ned, but loved how Watson wrote him. Henrietta, in contrast, seemed rather passive/aggressive in her approach to her marriage and relationships with the other characters. She truly did not understand Ned or his behavior, so evident by her final act / offer to him.

      Sonja was a mystery. Clearly in pain and unable to find solace with her husband, though I do wish she had tried harder to break through his wall of silence. And speaking of Henry … What a complex man! I was conflicted about my feelings for him – liking and admiring him on one hand; disgusted and disappointed in him on the other.

      As in the other novels by Watson that I’ve read, Orchard is written with a strong sense of time and place. Of course, I am very familiar with Door County, Wisconsin, so that may have some bearing on my reaction. Still, set in the 1950s, I think the rural vs tourist-centered nature of the place really comes across, as does the isolation of winter or the glory of summer.
    • 3/5
      I read this because I read Montana 1948 and loved it. Let's just say the darkness of this story urged me on so that I could reward myself with something lighter.
    • 1/5
      The story itself is kind of interesting. It's about an artist who uses local women as models and usually has relations with them, but finally is destroyed by a jealous husband of one of those models. She is a young, beautiful but naive, woman who he uses surreptitiously as a model. Her husband initially is not aware of her modeling job until one of his friends tells him about seeing his wife naked posing for the artist. This, naturally, enrages him and brings about the novel's denouement. I found Watson's writing is less than stellar. Not that mine is, but I expect to read books where the writer expresses his thoughts clearly in beautiful, engaging, or entertaining prose. Watson's is, for the most part, rather pedestrian and sometimes cumbersome and stilted, such as this statement:“The sound of the gunshot, because it had, for echo’s effect, the box of the house and the emptiness of the surrounding fields, was both persuasive and clanking”Also he often uses metaphors that one wishes he hadn't, such as:“silence lasting as long as ten ticks of the clock hanging over the stove”Writing like these two statements is what turned me off against this novel.
    • 5/5
      At first I felt something Updike-ian in this story. I'm thinking COUPLES and all that wife-swapping, as Watson introduces not just his two principal couples, Henry and Sonja House and Ned and Harriet Weaver, but also the writer and his wife and the tavern keeper and his. Ned Weaver, the painter, is the axis upon which all of these lives seem to turn. His art is paramount. Other people's lives and marriages are all, it seems, held hostage to that art. But in the end, this story is pure Watson, as it builds slowly and inexorably to a climax that could not be more fitting. And that climax is followed by a thoughtful look at how every life has been irretrievably changed - all because of art. And yet one wonders how lasting will the art itself be. Here I'm thinking Ozymandias. All that screwing around and in the end ... Now I'm thinking Romeo and Juliet: "All are punished!" This is a beautifully written and altogether human book. This is art.
    • 4/5
      Watson is a great writer, with very sparing prose that somehow manages to provide fantastic descriptions of people and places. Montana 1948 is another excellent choice of his.
    • 4/5
      Watson's writing is strong and lyrical, in this novel tracing the trajectories of two unhappy marriages in 1950s Wisconsin. Ned Weaver, an amoral but brilliant artist, hires Sonja House as his model. Sonja, emotionally reeling from her son's sudden death and her ever-decreasing disconnection from her husband, revels in Ned's attention. Each character's actions have a ripple effect, leading ultimately to a confrontation in the final chapters.Watson is a terrific writer, but my own enjoyment of the book was somewhat hampered by a strong distaste for three of the four main characters. Poor Sonja, treated her entire life like a possession rather than a person - I wanted her to find some earthly happiness along her her immortality in some great paintings.
    • 4/5
      The same fine writing & sense of place as Montana 1948 set only slightly later (the 1950s) among the year-round residents of Door County, Wisconsin. The story--about a couple who own an apple orchard and who lose a child, after which the beautiful mother agrees to pose nude for a local artist of international renown--is less plausible (especially the ending) & less compelling. It's a story of love, grief, jealousy, art, & local color.