Orchard : a novel /

Following his acclaimed series of Montana novels, set in the 1940s and 1950s, Watson has turned to more contemporary settings and themes, first in Laura (2000), about a poet and her influence on her lover's son, and now in this story of a talented but egotistic painter and the lives he touches in Door County, Wisconsin. When Sonia House, wife of an apple grower, agrees to pose for Ned Weaver, she unwittingly puts in motion a chain of events that leads to tragedy. Accustomed to having affairs with his models, the philandering Ned finds that his attraction to Sonia goes much deeper. Watson vividly captures the special self-centeredness of the artist, whose capacity for generosity, honesty, and wholeness is expressed only in his art, not in his relations with others (especially his saintlike wife, Harriet). As Ned and Sonia's husband struggle for possession of the surprisingly independent Sonia, Watson, flashing back and forward throughout the narrative, builds tension as he reveals inner lives. Another fine effort from a master of plainspoken prose. --Bill Ott Copyright 2003 Booklist

Showing a deep maturity of thought and craft, Watson (Montana 1948; White Crosses) surpasses himself in his sixth novel, an uncompromising, perfectly calibrated double portrait of two couples in rural Wisconsin in the 1950s. Ned Weaver is a famous artist, Henry House an orchard keeper. Ned, like many creative people, is self-absorbed and cruel to his adoring wife, Harriet, with whom he has two grown daughters. Harriet, ignoring his serial adultery, has long ago accepted that Ned's art is what matters most in the world; she has "rehearsed her role so well that not even she could discern a difference between performance and belief." Henry House and his wife, Sonja, are younger than the Weavers; Henry was raised picking apples, and Sonja came from Norway to Wisconsin when she was 12. As the novel begins, they are grieving the death of their young son, who collapsed mysteriously one summer day just outside Sonja's kitchen window. Invited to pose for Weaver, Sonja accepts, not for the money or because she is attracted to Weaver, though her motives are unclear even to herself. When Henry finds out from his cronies that Sonja has been posing in the nude, he is wild with jealousy and plots revenge. Ned's paintings of Sonja inevitably call to mind Andrew Wyeth's famous Helga series. But whatever the novel's inspiration, it is in no way limited by the constraints of fact. Sentences and chapters unfurl with a sense of inevitability, and the narrative possesses an uncommon integrity. When Ned first paints Sonja nude, he marvels at her beatific poise: "The carpenter picks up his hammer, the artist takes brush in hand. This woman shed her clothes, nakedness her craft and art." Watson composes this marvelous novel with the same assurance. Agent, Ralph Vicinanza. (Aug. 19) Forecast: Watson has won his share of literary laurels, but his latest novel could be a contender for one of the major prizes. With a bit of handselling, it might match the commercial success of his previous big seller, Montana 1948. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Watson, whose Montana 1948 won the Milkweed Fiction Prize, tells the story of three people whose lives intertwine in the 1950s Midwest. Grieving over the loss of a child and her now unresponsive husband, Sonja House, a Wisconsin Norwegian immigrant housewife, agrees to pose as a model for internationally renowned painter and philanderer Ned Weaver. Her husband, Henry, an apple grower and a fundamentally uncomplicated man who finds solace in late-night drinking, is unaware of his wife's activities. For Ned, Sonja is unlike any other woman who has posed for him, and he becomes fascinated both by her and his reaction to her. After a time, their relationship is revealed to Sonja's husband, which changes all of their lives. Impressively, Watson bestows these central characters with distinctive, almost archetypal traits, and though other characters are not as chiseled, also memorable is June, Sonja and Henry's daughter. At the novel's forefront are the issues of loss, the yearning for intimacy, and marital disintegration, and Watson also raises telling questions about the value of permanence in art. This arresting novel is recommended for all fiction collections.-Maureen Neville, Trenton P.L., NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The art world is the only winner in this bleak look at an unhappy quartet: a painter, his model, and their spouses. Opening shot: a man with a pistol sliding pell-mell down a snow-covered orchard to reach an artist's studio. But Watson (Laura, 2000, etc.) plays with chronology in dizzying fashion, and that opening is a prelude to the climax. So let's back up. In 1946, Henry House marries Sonja Skordahl in rural Wisconsin. Though Sonja has yet to master the nuances of her second language (her dirt-poor Norwegian parents shipped her to the US when she was 12), she understands from the get-go that Henry can be as "unyielding as stone." He is a conventional man, an apple-grower like his father, and an outdoorsman. Character is destiny. If only Henry had sold his horse, Buck, at Sonja's urging, it would not have caused their little boy's death. In his grief, though, Henry turns to Buck, not Sonja. There's a dumb accident, again involving Buck, and Henry can't work. How to pay the bills? Secretly, Sonja poses nude for the internationally renowned Ned Weaver, whose pattern is to bed and discard his models in short order. But Sonja is different. Behind her sorrowful beauty is a secret he can't unlock. She represents the supreme challenge of his career, and he exercises patience, both as artist and philanderer. Meanwhile, tongues wag. Henry's equally conventional sister Phyllis scolds Sonja, but then, in a moving about-face and moment of transcendent sisterhood, accepts her credo. Sonja is not the property of either man: "I belong to myself." Thinking differently, Henry ruins all their lives, though Ned's wife Harriet, his faithful disciple, sells his paintings of Sonja for a cool four million. For a character-driven work, this is a disappointing bunch. Henry is a bore, Ned a stereotype of the artist as egomaniac, and Harriet short-changed. Only Sonja stirs the soul. Watson's sixth is graced by his customary fine detail work, but it's not enough. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.