The Wilding

Selected as one of the "Best of the Northwest" for fall/winter 2010 by the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association

Chosen by the Powells Bookstore chain for their "Indiespensible" Books Subscription Club

“Benjamin Percy’s The Wilding is a tour de force meditation and treatise on the nature of violence, the violence of nature, man in the wild, and the wild in man—cleverly disguised as a page-turning adventure. Not just a “must” read, but a need read, this book is timely, terrifying, terrific.”

"There are a hundred ways to feel frightened and lost in a forest, and the excellent, savvy Benjamin Percy can evoke them all. THE WILDING, a brilliant literary novel that feels at times almost like Geoffrey Household's classic Rogue Male, seems to have been written on his vibrating nerve-endings. This book is filled with dread, sadness, tension and a tireless vision of mankind's thoughtless devastation of an ancient and more authentic way of life. It is almost impossible to put down. James Dickey must have been whispering to Ben Percy in his sleep."

Pam Houston, bestselling author of Cowboys are My Weakness and Sighthound

“The Wilding is a compelling action narrative, universal in its dimensions while utterly grounded in specific particulars. Ben Percy is a stunning storyteller. His fearful wildernesses, both physical and psychic, kept me up through the night.”

"The Wilding is a virtuoso blend of beauty and violence, hope and despair, tough and touching, lust and terror, literary craft and genre plotting. Like James Dickey, Benjamin Percy drags his characters into the wilderness--into a canyon as black as a gaping mouth, where they struggle to stay alive and in control of what makes them human--but for a new generation of readers concerned with the vanishing West."

"The Wilding is one of the best novels published this fall, and if you haven't read Percy before, it's the perfect introduction to a remarkable American voice."

The Wilding - "Percy's excellent debut novel (after the collection Refresh, Refresh) digs into the ambiguous American attitude toward nature as it oscillates between Thoreau's romantic appreciation and sheer gothic horror. The plot concerns a hunting trip taken by Justin Caves and his sixth-grade son, Graham, with Justin's bullying father, Paul, a passionate outdoorsman in failing health who's determined to spend one last weekend in the Echo Canyon before real estate developer Bobby Fremont turns the sublime pocket of wilderness into a golfing resort. Justin, a high school English teacher, has hit an almost terminally rough patch in his marriage to Karen, who, while the boys camp, contemplates an affair with Bobby, though she may have bigger problems with wounded Iraq war vet Brian, a case study in creepy stalker. The men, meanwhile, are being tracked by a beast and must contend with a vengeful roughneck roaming the woods. A taut plot and cast of deeply flawed characters--Justin is a masterwork of pitiable wretchedness--will keep readers rapt as peril descends and split-second decisions come to have lifelong repercussions. It's as close as you can get to a contemporary Deliverance."

"The Wilding wraps its arms around some big themes: the vanishing wilderness, a dissolving marriage, and the shell-shocked re-adjustment to domestic life after combat. It's a lot to pack into 250 pages, but Percy manages to do it with remarkable ease. His sentences have the simplicity and beauty of Shaker furniture, but he also writes meaty action scenes that never feel like they depart from the book's emotional core. No matter if we're facing danger in the jungles of Manhattan or the deep woods of Oregon, life really boils down to two questions: Will we live? and Will it hurt when I die? Percy takes his characters right up to the edge and forces them to stare, hard, into the maw of the mystery any attempt to answer them reveals."

"Percy's novel perfectly captures our ambiguous attitudes toward the natural world, the tensions between rural and urban, the way that untamed wildness carries both grace and terror."

"The Wilding emerges as creative, unique and deeply thought-provoking. More so, it speaks of an author with many more tricks up his sleeve."

Bookpage - For the complete Bookpage review click here

"If it's a thriller you're after, "The Wilding" doesn't disappoint, taking a story as old as the woods and fashioning it into something a bit sleeker and more psychological — a bit closer to where we live."

Los Angeles Times - for the complete Los Angeles Times review click here

"Percy’s writing in this novel is recklessly passionate, ferocious and fast-paced, but his thinking about these subjects is profound and carefully reasoned."

Hayden's Ferry Review - for the complete Hayden's Ferry Review article click here

“The Wilding is an urgent and haunting look at the darker side of our nature and at our often futile attempts to control and manage the natural world."

Kansas City Star - for the complete Kansas City Star review click here

"Benjamin Percy’s debut novel, The Wilding, reaches out and mauls you like a raging grizzly bear."

Ames Tribune - for the complete Ames Tribune review click here

"It's Deliverance meets Sometimes a Great Notion"

The Oregonian - for the complete The Oregonian review click here

"...his writing is as natural, dark, and deep as the woods he writes about. At 31, Percy is as promising a writer as anyone on a certain New York magazine’s list of promising writers under 40."

The Boston Globe - for the complete The Boston Globe review click here

"Percy is very good at wreaking havoc with his many interconnected plots and then remaking, metaphorically and literally. He is also a courageous realistic who presents unpalatable truths."

Observer-Dispatch - for the complete Observer-Dispatch review click here

"Just as Percy demonstrates how men manage danger, he's equally adept at revealing the odd ways men also create it. Percy's rendering of their psychological dance is masterful."

Orion - for the complete Orion review click here

"..powerfully written first novel......he delineates his characters with a knife-sharp psychological edge."

National Public Radio

NPR's "You Must Read This -- Three Adventure Tales to Awaken Your Natural Spirit"

OTHER GREAT REVIEWS:

New York Times Sunday Book Review - click here to read the complete review

The Dallas Morning News - click here to read the complete review

Time Out Chicago - click here to read the complete review

Three Guys One Book - click here to read the complete review

The Collagist - click here to read the complete review

The Rumpus - click here to read the complete review

Print edition only reviews have been published in:

Esquire

Outside

Mens Journal