Tree Fever

Marcia Sweet, formerly head of the Douglas Library’s
Information/Reference Unit at Queen’s University and editor of the
Queen’s Quarterly, is currently an information consultant and
freelance editor.

The heroine of this lyrical novel, which is set in Ontario’s beautiful
Muskoka region, is a fifty-something woman who is enraged by the
imminent felling of the beloved trees she has known since childhood. Her
confrontations with powerful developers and local government lead her to
a reconciliation with her daughter, romance, and greater
self-understanding.

This novel’s greatest strength is its vivid evocation of the Muskoka
setting. While there are perhaps too many characters, each is
interesting and most are well developed. On the other hand, there are
occasional lapses into purple prose (“[His] earth-brown eyes ...
wrapped themselves around me”), psychobabble, and a preachy New Age
mysticism that serves only to detract from the story.