Weldon Applegate, the narrator of this funny story, is one of the most interesting, colorful characters I have met in a long time. From the time young Weldon traveled with his widower father, Tom, to Cordelia, Idaho, ostensibly to run the general store, Weldon dreamed of taking his place in the long family line of legendary lumberjacks, even though the trade is dying out. Tom inherited a mountain on the other side of the St. Anne River from Cordelia called the Lost Lot; Tom’s father won it in a card game. When the legendary lumberjack Linden Laughlin arrives in Cordelia, Tom is convinced to begin stripping the treacherous forest on his mountain. Ignoring the dire warnings of the Witch (a Finnish fortuneteller and apparently also Tom’s lover) that he will die if he returns to lumberjacking, Tom meets his demise courtesy of "two hundred feet of white pine in [his] face.” Weldon decides he will see his legacy through, so at the age of thirteen, he joins Laughlin and a host of other colorful lumberjacks in foresting the impossible terrain. Hard to believe a thirteen-year-old could have thought and did what Weldon did, but it was still an entertaining tale. ( )

A short tribute of sorts to hard men who do hard work and also a fable-like tale of a boy who comes of age among them. The narrative is replete with profanity but also vivid descriptions of a unique timber town facing the end of an era as Prohibition and technology take their toll on the way of life in Cordelia, Idaho. ( )

Een 99-jarige man uit Idaho blikt terug op zijn leven en het ambacht dat zijn familie al generaties lang beoefent: de houtkap ( )

If you know Josh Ritter's music, then you know his writing style through and through. His novels are no different. Filled with exquisite detail, they capture the imagination with fantastic characters and plot. Great Glorious tells the tale of a lumberjacking family from the perspective of ninety-plus year old Weldon Applegate on his deathbed. Lumberjacking as a profession, I must admit, is something I don't really think about that much (despite spending four years at a boarding school in the hardwood-dense White Mountains. Let me digress: I can remember huge timber trucks overloaded with enormous fresh-cut trees barreling down the winding narrow backroads of Maine. Narrowly missing by what seemed like only inches, these behemoths would rock my father's teeny Dodge Diplomat as they screamed by. My father's lips would be pressed into a grim line as his hands, white knuckled, gripped ten and two on the wheel. I know I heard a swear or two...). Speaking of swearing, Josh Ritter is such a quiet, soft spoken guy that the profanity was a bit of a surprise.
But, back to the plot of The Great Glorious Goddamn Of It All. Elderly Weldon Applegate looks back on his long life. From his hospital bed he remembers his family's land called the Lost Lot, a stretch of mountainside nearly impossible to log. Weldon's family has owned this land deemed too dangerous to describe for generations. It's where good men go to die for want of timber; timber so profitable, the monstrous Linden Laughlin wants it for himself despite the well known bad omens. Through magic and humor, Weldon recounts his battle (at thirteen years of age!) with Linden. Word of caution: there is unexpected violence.
I am always fascinated by character names and Josh's are exceptionally strange: Linden Laughlin, Unto Sisson, Oral Avery, Billy Lowground, Shorty Wade, Joe Moufreau (sounds like Joe Motherfukcer), Weldon and Tom Applegate, and Serwalter Scott (sounds like Sir Walter). There are more to enjoy! ( )

99-year-old Weldon Applegate is one of those ornery oldsters with a chip on his shoulder as big as a mountain, and a mouth loud enough to yell his story to all within shouting distance, even loud enough from his hospital bed, from which he narrates his 2 stories: the first, of how he got to that hospital bed, and the second, the story of his youth and his quick growing-up in timber mountain regions of the Norwest. It's full of lumberjack tall tales, puppy love, parental loss, avalanches, lumberjacking, heartbreak, and lots of big trees.

This was a really fun read, with a larger-than-life narrator who reminded me of Ove of the eponymous novel. Scrappy, and foul-mouthed, the story of his younger self makes the reader look behind the wheezing old geezer to see the humanity and vulnerability of his youthful self. The writing is vibrant and energetic, the pacing in both stories perfect. There are moments of triumph and heartbreak, laughs and near-cries. ( )