[Table of Contents]
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[May 2006]
[Feb
2006]
[Nov
2005]
BLOOD ROYAL
Vanora
Bennett, HarperCollins, 2009, £12.99, hb, 592pp, 9780007281930
This first in a series is the story of Catherine de Valois,
daughter of Charles, King of France. Brought up with her younger
brother Charles at the French court, dominated by the temperamental
Queen Isabeau, Catherine’s childhood is one of deprivation rather
than luxury. Her only friend is the poet and advisor of kings,
Christine de Pizan. Catherine longs to escape the intrigues of the
French court and does this through her marriage to Henry V of
England. Although this is a political marriage, Catherine appears to
fall in love with her kingly husband. It is only after his death
that all the skills she learnt, from dealing with the insanity of
her own father, Charles, and her trouble-making mother, are used in
trying to protect Harry, her son, from the political aspirations of
Duke Humphrey and the war-hardened Warwick. Henry’s death also
provides the opportunity for Catherine to renew her youthful
friendship with Owain Tudor, a dispossessed young Welshman. Owain’s
understanding and loyalty to both Harry and Catherine enable her to
find the peace and love that has always eluded her.
This novel is a skilful blend of fact and fiction. Weaving
together all the historically important figures of the time such as
Christine de Pizan, Jehanne, who is burnt for heresy, and Cardinal
Beaufort, it provides the reader with a glimpse of the hardships of
life, even in courtly circles, during a period of war between
England and France. Personally, this period is not historically one
of my favourites, but Vanora Bennett’s novel has made me think
again. Her characters, story, and fluid writing style sweep you
along in a pageant of medieval life. This is quite simply an
excellent read! --
Myfanwy Cook
THE
RED VELVET TURNSHOE
Cassandra Clark, John Murray, 2009,
£18.99, hb, 272pp, 9781848540293
In February of the year 1383 a rain started to fall before
Martinmas. It swept through France, Flanders, and Tuscany causing
floods and famine. Europe is dangerous. There is plague and the
Hundred Years War is causing political turmoil. Hildegard, the nun
heroine of Hangman Blind, is sent on a dangerous mission to
bring the Cross of Constantine from Italy to York. A disappearance,
a murder, and a grisly discovery in Bruges set in action a
terrifying course of events for Hildegard. She leaves Bruges
accompanied by the young, arrogant musician Pierrekyn, murder
suspect, and Talbot, her knight protector. They arrive at the
monastery on St. Bernard’s Pass during a snowstorm, and by now the
novel’s events are spiraling. For the next two-thirds of this story,
the reader is gripped by suspense, the revelation of characters
noble and bad, and a deep political secret that endangers King
Richard’s crown. Many want Hildegard’s mission to fail, and one
character plans a deadly revenge.
The story is ingenious, the plotting is suspenseful, the
characters are portrayed with depth and subtlety, the writing is
atmospheric. Cassandra Clark’s novel is literary, detailed, and
thoroughly researched, making it a delicious read for any lover of
historical writers such as C. J. Sansom or Philippa Gregory, with
the added advantage of an original, brilliantly portrayed and
unforgettable heroine. -- Carol McGrath
THE GLASS OF TIME
Michael Cox, Norton, 2008, $24.95, hb,
586pp, 9780393067736 / John Murray, 2008, £17.99, hb, 544pp,
9780719597206
Esperanza Gorst is an orphan, raised in Paris by her
guardian, the mysterious Madame de l’Orme. When she is in her teens,
Esperanza’s guardian places her in the home of Emily, Lady Tansor,
as a lady’s maid, and insists that Esperanza find a way into Lady
Tansor’s confidence. Though Esperanza is unsure why, Madame de
l’Orme promises to reveal the truth of the escapade through three
letters, which she will send periodically. As Esperanza receives the
letters and begins to learn the truth about her parentage and her
relationship with Lady Tansor, she finds there are numerous
questions waiting to be answered—and that she isn’t who she believed
she was.
This i
s a ghost story without ghosts, a tale of family
secrets revealed, past cruelties avenged, and a young woman who
finds herself coming of age in a way she could never have expected.
The epic, neo-Victorian narrative style, reminiscent of classic
works of 19th-century literature, made me feel as if I
were peeping through a keyhole and sneaking glances at a secret
diary as the story unraveled. It helps to have read Cox’s first
novel, The Meaning of Night, before beginning The Glass of
Time, since the stories are intertwined, and questions
left
lingering at the end of the earlier book are resolved. All in all, a
fantastic, extraordinarily detailed world to lose yourself in, and
an essential read. -- Nanette Donohue
THE
GREAT LOVER
Jill Dawson, Sceptre, 2009, £12.99, hb,
310pp, 9780340935651
The island of Tahiti holds a fascination for troubled souls.
Gauguin lived there in the 1890s. So too, in the early months of
1914, did poet Rupert Brooke, the subject of this vivid novel. He
died in the east Mediterranean the following year of septicaemia, at
the age of twenty-seven. Author Jill Dawson has delved into the
darkness of his life, at odds with the romantic, lyrical poet of
popular imagination.
The book begins in 1982 with a letter from Arlice Rapoto,
Brooke’s daughter in Tahiti. The recipient is ninety-year-old Nell
Golightly, formerly maid at the Orchard Tea Gardens, Grantchester,
where Brooke stayed before WW1. Arlice wants to know about the
famous father she never met: how he smelled and sounded, what it
felt like to ‘wrap arms around him’. The main part of the novel
takes us back to 1909, the story of Brooke and Nell—an intelligent,
practical girl who keeps bees—up to 1914, told in alternating
first-person narrative.
The fictional Nell, inspired by a postcard the author bought
when visiting the Orchard House, is a brilliant creation. She is
attracted to Brooke, struck by his beauty. He is a seamless fusion
of his poetry, letters, travel writings, essays, photographs, and
the author’s imagination. He is confused about his sexuality,
worried about his sanity and his ‘burdensome virginity’, which he
eventually loses to a school friend. He has lots of visitors: Lytton
Strachey, Virginia Stephen (Woolf), and other literati. The
constraints of social position ensure his relationship with Nell
develops at a distance: much observation, musing—she becomes in his
imagination ‘a sumptuous nymph … unearthly creature— bolstered by
snatched conversations and a naked bathe in Byron’s Pool.
A touching, engrossing story of a love affair and of a
damaged man unable to allow others to reach him. --
Janet Hancock
PALACE CIRCLE
Rebecca Dean, Broadway, 2009, $14.00, pb,
415pp, 9780767930550 / Harper, 2009, £6.99, pb, 608pp, 9780007268436
It’s been a long time since I was as caught up in a novel as
I was in Palace Circle. The action sweeps from London’s
glittering debutante balls to the crowded streets of World War II
Cairo, with seamless transitions between scenes and viewpoints and
never a dull moment throughout. In 1911, eighteen-year-old Delia
Chandler marries Viscount Ivor Conisborough, twenty-two years her
elder, exchanging carefree days at her beloved Virginia home for a
life of privilege at the Windsor court. She adjusts quickly,
captivating aristocrats and politicians alike with her Southern
charm and outgoing personality. Despite the casual acceptance of
love affairs among members of her circle, Delia believes her
marriage to be an exception to the rule—until she comes face to face
with Ivor’s gorgeous long-time
mistress.
After the births of her children, Delia finds happiness in
her own extramarital liaison until her husband’s posting to Cairo
separates her from her lover. Ivor’s role as advisor to King Fuad
and tutor to his son, Prince Farouk, becomes critical to British
interests as Egyptian revolutionaries gain ground and the
Nazis rise
in power. The two Conisborough daughters, Petra and Davina, grow up
in an ethnically diverse prewar Egypt but pursue different paths in
life. Their romantic entanglements are complicated by their father’s
politics and secrets from their mother’s past.
Dean writes with a light touch that reflects the
freewheeling spirit of the era; notables like Margot Asquith, Wallis
Simpson, and Winston Churchill breeze through the narrative as they
briefly interact with the fictional characters. Although the pacing
is brisk, Dean doesn’t neglect the smaller details that add so much
vibrancy to her settings. In all, Palace Circle is a saga
both intellectually lively and emotionally satisfying. Its four
hundred-plus pages passed by much too quickly; I wouldn’t have
minded four hundred more.
-- Sarah Johnson
WILD ORCHID
Cameron Dokey, Simon & Schuster, 2009, $6.99, pb, 200pp,
9781416971689
In this retelling of “The Ballad
of Mulan” for the young adult reader, told in the first person,
Cameron Dokey breathes fresh life into an archetypal story of a
cross-dressing young woman who goes to war in defense of her beloved
China and in place of her father. We are quickly won to the side of
its heroine, who came into the world as the blossom of an
unconventional love match. Her grief-stricken father does not come
home to meet her until Mulan is a teenager, and he’s forced into
retirement by war injuries and an angry emperor. He discovers a
daughter who loves climbing trees and learning forbidden skills from
her friend, Li Po. Father and daughter struggle through their new
relationship, but soon a new, very feminine wife joins the
household. She becomes pregnant just as the Huns advance again on
China and the Emperor sends out his call. Mulan takes up her
father’s armor and warhorse and joins Li Po’s archers. Her skills
bring her to the attention of the emperor’s youngest son, and she
joins him in a daring attempt to turn the tide of the invasion.
Elegant in its simplicity, Wild Orchid is also deep in
its exploration of conventions associated with culture—from expected
obedience of children, to the power of a mother-in-law, to gender
and class divisions. The novel’s heroine discovers that she is not
the only one struggling against expectations. For Mulan, courage is
key in facing the emperor, the enemy, or a father, as she asks for
the right to live a life based on love. Highly recommended. Ages 10
and up. -- Eileen Charbonneau
TWILIGHT OF
AVALON
Anna Elliott, Touchstone, 2009, $16.00, pb,
430pp, 1416589899
In Arthurian fiction, queens tend to fall into two groups:
the powerful and the powerless. Anna Elliott places Isolde among the
latter. To a large extent this is because she sets her version of
the story of Trystan (as she calls him here) and Isolde in a brutal
Dark Age (6th-century) Britain. It is Isolde’s misfortune to have
lost her male protectors at a time when women badly need them, and
to make matters worse she is mistrusted by almost everyone, for is
she not the daughter of Modred, Arthur’s son by incest with his half
sister Morgan? And of Gwynefar, who betrayed her husband? And did
not her father’s rebellion lead to the disaster at Camlann? And is
she not a healer like her grandmother, a reputed sorceress? She was
wed to Constantine, Arthur’s heir, but now he lies dead, and the
rulers of Britain, gathered to choose a successor, view her with
suspicion, if not outright hostility.
Surrounded by enemies, she is forced to marry the vicious
Marche, King of Cornwall, who predictably mistreats her. She
desperately needs a protector, but this is no medieval romance.
Trystan, when he does appear, spends most of his time in a prison
cell, leaving Isolde to struggle desperately for survival, not only
for herself but for all Britain as well, in the fortress of Tintagel
and on the wild moor to which she flees. Indeed, she helps him more
than he does her.
This, the first book of a trilogy, is a dark vision, inspired
by Geoffrey of Monmouth’s account of disunity and treachery among
the British leaders, and it maintains powerful tension throughout as
it exposes the suffering of those affected by their cruelty and
shortsightedness. Strongly recommended.
-- Ray Thompson
THE
PHYSICK BOOK OF DELIVERANCE DANE (US) /
THE LOST BOOK OF SALEM (UK)
Katherine Howe, Voice, 2009, $25.95/C$31.95, hb, 384pp,
9781401340902 / Penguin, 2009, £6.99, pb, 480pp, 9780141038117
This is a story that’s easy to lose yourself in. It
alternates between the early 1990s, when Connie Goodwin is working
on her doctorate in American colonial history at Harvard, and the
colonial Salem area, mostly in the early 1690s. Connie has passed
her oral exams, and when asked by her mother to ready Connie’s
grandmother’s long vacant house outside of Salem for possible sale,
she decides she can spend the summer fixing up the house while
finding a topic for her dissertation, which she needs to start soon.
She has never seen her grandmother’s house before and is amazed to
find it is centuries old, hidden by overgrowth. Shortly after she
arrives, she finds an ancient key containing an equally old slip of
paper with the word
s “Deliverance Dane” written upon it. Connie is
not one to ignore a historical
mystery, one which plays out for the
reader in the Interlude sections, in which we get glimpses of the
life of Deliverance Dane, her daughter, and granddaughter. Goody
Dane has the misfortune to live at the time of the Salem witch
trials. But what was her role? Why is she not mentioned in the
records of that time?
The alternating time periods do not distract but rather
interplay neatly. The Interludes, while shorter than the 1990s
story, give an atmospheric glimpse into that fraught time and some
of its lingering consequences. In Connie’s sections, the research
undertaken by the chair of the history department, the story of her
grandmother’s house, and the mystery of what happens to the men
connected to this house, all interweave with Connie’s search for
Deliverance Dane to create a book that is impossible to put down.
-- Trudi E. Jacobson
THE BOOK OF
NIGHT WOMEN
Marlon James, Riverhead, 2009, $26.95,
432pp, 9781594488573
The Book of Night Women is a
beautifully written, sweeping tale of Jamaican slavery set in the
early 19th century. The story centers on Lilith, a slave
born on the Montpelier Estate, a large sugar plantation, where life
is ruled by danger and fear. Lilith comes of age and kills a black
slave driver who attempts to rape her. This event marks Lilith from
the other slaves, who begin to both fear and revere her for they
sense that she possess a dark power hidden within. Members of a
group which calls itself the Night Women keep their eye on Lilith
and bring her into their secret circle. At their meetings, Lilith
learns they are plotting a slave revolt of massive proportion that
involves several plantations. She hesitates to participate, but the
Night Women see her as a force that could really help their cause,
and Lilith is torn between her feelings.
James portrays his dynamic and flawed characters in a
complex, stratified society where many boundaries, some known and
some unspoken, exist between slaves and their masters as well as
among the slaves themselves. The authentic voice of the narrator,
who remains a mystery until the end, moves the story along at a
brisk pace. Strong language abounds, and the entire novel is written
in a slave dialect which adds to the story, making it a realistic,
engaging read. James portrays the violence as it really was,
absolutely horrific, and does not hold back. One of the most
satisfying parts of the novel is James’s exploration of the power of
love to transform one’s thinking. This tale of freedom, hope,
survival, and unlikely love is unique and will continue to make
readers think. Marlon James is an extremely gifted writer whose next
book I eagerly anticipate. -- Troy Reed
Galway Bay
Mary Pat Kelly, Grand Central,
2009, hb, $26.99US/C$29.99/£18.99, 567pp, 0446579009
Ireland, 1848: Blight has killed the potato crop for the
third time in four years, there’s no work or food, the rents are
due, and you are being turned out of your home. Just as you decide
you must escape to America, your beloved husband dies, leaving you
with four young children and another on the way. So what do you do?
If you are Honora Kelly and her sister Maire, you forge ahead, doing
what you must to survive and give your children a better life.
Mary Pat Kelly’s Galway Bay is based on her
great-great-grandmother’s life, and what a tale it is. Honora Kelly
not only sailed to America with her unconventional sister and their
eight children, but she determinedly dragged them all to Chicago in
hopes of locating her late husband’s brother, Patrick. Once there,
Honora and her sister find work and watch as their sons grow strong
in the shadow of the upcoming Civil War, all the while trying to
maintain a sense of their Irish heritage.
Initially, I wasn’t sure that I would enjoy Galway Bay;
the author spends the first few chapters being what I thought of as
“too Irish”: repeating Irish folklore and using Irish words so often
that it became distracting rather than illuminating. However, as the
story continued, her characters took over the narration and led me
into their lives and hearts; I surprised myself after fifty pages or
so at how drawn into the story I’d become. Kelly does an admirable
job of giving the grim details of The Great Starvation, and her
characters’ desperation for survival literally swept me away. By the
end I was cheering them all on proudly and willing the story never
to end. This is not a pretty tale, but it is ultimately an uplifting
one. Highly recommended. -- Tamela McCann
A QUIET FLAME
Philip Kerr, Putnam, 2009, $26.95, hb,
389pp, 9780399155307 / Quercus, 2008, £7.99, pb, 448pp,
9781847245588
Framed as a war criminal, ex-SS officer Bernie Gunther is
forced to flee to Argentina with the likes of Adolph Eichmann for
company. He finds that his reputation gained before the war as a
Berlin police detective has preceded him. Bernie is instantly
drafted into Peron’s secret police with a mission to find a missing
girl. The clues lead him to link the disappearance with a murdered
girl in 1932, a case he nearly solved before his investigation was
terminated by the rise of Hitler. Before long he finds evidence that
the old nightmares of his Nazi days have been reborn in the new
world. Linking up with a beautiful, young Jewess, he launches an
investigation that puts him in deadly conflict with both the Peron
regime and the Nazi war criminals that the president so warml
y
embraced.
Fifth in a series, this entry loses nothing of the grit and
realism that made its predecessors so entertaining and satisfying.
There is still the wisecracking, sardonic Bernie, fighting for what
is right despite the many ambiguities forced upon him. The sharply
drawn sinister foes are here, too, only this time a plethora of
them, from a veritable who’s-who of escaped Nazi war criminals to
the Perons themselves, including the fabulous Evita.
This is a thinking man’s sort of fiction, one that transcends
its noir genre. The big questions—life and death, guilt or
innocence—are handled in an almost philosophical way. Punishment and
justice are especially elusive and ambiguous, especially when
applied to Bernie himself, who, despite all his efforts to the
contrary, finds himself indelibly tainted by the very bacillus he
fights against.
Philip Kerr has crafted a series of books that are at once
entertaining, informative, and vaguely disturbing. This latest
offering is perhaps the best of all, and it also stands as a
remarkable read on its own. Highly recommended.
-- Ken Kreckel
TUCK: The Legend
Triumphs
Stephen R. Lawhead, Thomas Nelson Inc.,
2009, $26.99, hb, 9781595540874
This is book three in the King Raven trilogy, the final
chapter of Stephen Lawhead’s interpretation of the Robin Hood
legend. During the rule of William Rufus in 12th-century
England, the Norman conquerors wanted to control the rich farmland
of Wales, along with the rest of the isle. Before the arrival of the
Normans, the young Bran was to become king of a small realm within
Wales. After his father was killed at the hands of the Norman
invaders, his realm was seized and ruled by a cruel overlord. This
novel begins as Rhi Bran and his band of outlaws, who lived secluded
in the dense forests of the land known as The March, fight to regain
control of his land. One of his men
, a small squat Friar
named Tuck, would become instrumental in trying to regain his throne
in this final book of the trilogy.
Steeped in Celtic mythology and political intrigue, Tuck
is also filled with suspense and action. The dialog is marvelous,
the settings in Wales and England breathtaking, and the characters
well drawn. I have read all three novels in the series, and really
hated to finally end this reading experience, one that I will always
remember; I will probably read these books again. I highly recommend
this series and would strongly advise beginning with the first book,
Hood. I anxiously await Mr. Lawhead’s next release. --
Jeff Westerhoff
THE OWL KILLERS
Karen Maitland, Michael Joseph, 2009,
£12.99, hb, 595pp, 9780718153205 / Delacorte, Sept. 2009, $25.00, hb,
480pp, 9780385341707
The year is 1321. Deep in the heart of the English
countryside, an isolated village is controlled by a sinister group
called the Owl Masters. A pagan group, they rule by fear,
terrorising the local population with accusations of sin bringing
retribution in the form of horrific death. The status quo is
disturbed by the arrival of a group of religious women who establish
a community at the edge of the village. The Owl Masters, who find
their power being challenged by the women, react violently and,
aided by the corrupt local priest, seek to destroy the community of
Beguines.
The story is told from the point of view of the main
characters in the book in a series of small but connected chapters.
The tension builds slowly but subtly with the conflict between the
religious community and the Owl Masters building to a satisfying
climax. The writing is taut, compelling, and atmospheric, evoking
the superstitious ignorance of the age. If you like gothic medieval
novels with venal priests, murder, witches, and strong-minded women,
this is for you. I loved it. Definitely one to keep, and highly
recommended.
-- Mike Ashworth
A BEAUTIFUL PLACE
TO DIE
Malla Nunn, Picador, 2009,
£12.99, pb, 399pp, 9780230711211 / Atria, 2009, $25.00, hb, 384pp,
9781416586203
South Africa, 1952. Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper is
sent to investigate the murder of Afrikaner police officer Captain
Willem Pretorius in the remote town of Jacob’s Rest. As Emmanuel
digs deeper into Pretorius’s double life, he must also stay one step
ahead of the dead man’s thuggish sons and Security Branch officers
intent on pinning the murder on black political activists.
Although this novel is gritty and hard-hitting (sometimes
literally), there is a seam of dry humour running through which
prevents it from becoming too grim. This is most obvious in the
characterisation of Hansie Hepple, the white teenage constab
le whose
complete indoctrination in the idea of white supremacy makes him
blind to where the evidence is pointing. Yet, according to the
absurd race laws, he outranks the black constable, Shabalala,
despite the latter’s greater experience and phenomenal observational
and tracking skills.
This may be Nunn’s first novel, but her experience as an
award-winning screenwriter is obvious in the confident way she
creates characters, evokes the setting, and structures the plot so
that there is no letup in the tension until the very last page. I’ll
definitely keep my eye open for her next book.
-- Jasmina Svenne
The Last
Dickens
Matthew Pearl, Random House, 2009,
$25.00, hb, 381pp, 9781400066568 / Harvill Secker, 2009,
£12.99,
hb, 384pp, 9781846550843
If you love reading Charles Dickens, this novel will be
heaven-sent. If you’re not a big fan of Dickens, you will be
after reading this novel. It’s that good and that much fun.
This erudite literary mystery has action and colorful
characters galore, both historical and fictional, and includes
flashbacks to Dickens’s tour of America in 1867 that demonstrate his
extreme fame, the public’s love for him, and the protective love his
confidants and entourage had for him as well. It’s a rousing story
of murder, the opium trade, and the cutthroat 19th-century
publishing business. With action taking place in India, England,
Boston, and other U.S. sites, the author maintains seemingly
distinct storylines. Just when you think they will never gel and
make sense, Pearl brilliantly links them together.
The book revolves around Dickens’s unfinished last novel,
The Mystery of Edwin Drood. After Dickens’s death in 1870, his
Boston publisher, James R. Osgood, sets off on a journey to England
to find if rumored additional chapters really existed. He fights off
opium dealers and thugs hired by rival publishers, gains the trust
of Dickens’s family members, and tangles with a villain of mythic
proportions. All this action might sound overblown, but it’s a
literary romp through 19th century culture and its
seamiest sides, not unlike much of Dickens’s work. It’s well written
and chock full of details on Dickens and his times. This reviewer
might question why the character of Osgood’s companion and love
interest is relatively undeveloped, but this is a minor quibble.
Highly recommended. -- Pamela Ortega
SILENT ON THE
MOOR
Deanna Raybourn, Mira, 2009,
$13.95/C$13.95, pb, 544pp, 978077832614 / Mira, 2009, £6.99, pb,
558pp, 9780778303046
Widowed Lady Julia Grey returns in this third outing to
openly pursue Nicholas Brisbane, a private investigator she first
encountered over her husband’s corpse. Her pursuit takes her to
Yorkshire, where Brisbane has been gifted an estate. A book set in
the 19th century on the Yorkshire moors begs for a hero
as brooding as Heathcliff, and Brisbane is that. He is as determined
to rebuff Julia as she is to make him admit his feelings for her.
All manner of obstacles conspire against the couple: Brisbane’s
half-Gypsy side and his renunciation of the Sight (which comes with
punishing headaches), the widowed mother and daughters who have lost
their family home to him and are
dependent on his charity, and Lady
Julia’s gruesome discovery among their dead brother’s Egyptian
artifacts.
This third installment is eminently satisfying. It departs
from the first two in that although narrated by Julia again, the
focus is on Brisbane returning to his roots. He shares a past with
the family he has dispossessed, and Julia learns even more about
him; neither of these things affects her love for him. As with the
first two books, plot points abound and yet nothing gets short
shrift. I feel inadequate to the task of conveying how completely
engrossing this was. Suffice it to say, I’m praying Raybourn
continues! -- Ellen Keith
Drood
Dan Simmons, Little, Brown, 2009,
$26.99/C$29.99, hb, 784pp, 9780316007023 / Quercus, 2009, £14.99, pb,
800pp, 9781847247957
In 1865, Charles Dickens, returning from a holiday with his
mistress and her mother, is involved in the disastrous railway
accident at Staplehurst. As Dickens wanders through the carnage,
helping to tend the injured and dying, he encounters a strange
figure, calling himself “Drood.” But who is Drood? Is he a figment
of Dickens’s imagination? Or that of the narrator, Dickens’s friend
and literary rival, the opium-addicted Wilkie Collins? Or that of
Inspector Field, the detective who claims that Drood is a master
criminal who must be brought to justice?
Normally, I prefer my fiction straightforward, with a
reliable narrator bringing us smoothly from point A to point B, but
Drood was a delightful exception for me. Reliable or not,
Collins is a vastly entertaining narrator, who, when he is not
fretting about Drood and the ever-present Inspector Field, is
shuttling between his rival mistresses, gulping copious amounts of
laudanum, and grousing about his friend Dickens’s greater success as
a novelist (though, as Collins never tires of reminding us, his last
effort outsold Dickens’).
As befits a novel with Dickens as a major character, Drood
is a doorstopper of a book, with a vast number of characters, most
of them historical. Though the novel by no means feels top-heavy
with historical facts, Simmons appears to have omitted no detail of
Dickens’s last years, with even a doomed dog of Dickens making
several appearances. The dialogue is sharp, with each character
having a distinct voice, and the descriptive writing is vivid, with
the grisly Staplehurst scenes being particularly memorable.
Familiarity with Dickens and his works isn’t a prerequisite
for enjoying Drood, though it certainly adds to the reader’s
pleasure. Those wanting a thoroughly original, deftly written novel
should make haste to read this one.
-- Susan Higginbotham
THE HELP
Kathryn
Stockett, Putnam, 2009, $24.95/C$27.50, hb, 464pp, 9780399155345 /
Fig Tree, 2009, £12.99, hb, 464pp,
9781905490431
In 1962 in Jackson, Mississippi, Skeeter, a young white
aspiring journalist, comes home from Ole Miss and decides to
document the struggles of African-American maids. The clandestine
project becomes a catalyst for change and impacts the lives of many
women, black and white. Not only Jim Crow laws and racial bias, but
class prejudice and gender roles are exposed in all their ugliness.
The story is told in three first-person voices, that of
Skeeter and of two of the maids she interviews, Minny and Aibileen.
Talking honestly to Skeeter about their struggles is an act of
courage on the part of Minny, Aibileen, and the other women they
recruit for the project. Skeeter herself must re-examine the
relationship she had with the maid who helped to raise her, and look
at her own position in society. As Skeeter grows into an independent
woman and a brave journalist, it becomes increasingly clear to her
that the lines that divide people
are artificial. Minny and Aibileen,
who risk far more than Skeeter does, find deep inner resources and
evolve as people. The characters’ internal struggles and the
external danger from white supremacists charge this novel with
enormous dramatic tension and make it practically impossible to put
down.
The Help abounds in vividly drawn female characters.
Skeeter, Minny, and Aibileen’s voices ring true. The maids’
employers emerge as fully believable people. Some are petty tyrants,
but Stockett draws a touching, humorous portrait of Miss Celia,
Minny’s boss, decent at the core but adrift from her poor, country
roots and floundering. This brilliantly written novel has wonderful
comic moments as well as heartbreak. I’d put it on the top of my
bookshelf, next to To Kill A Mockingbird. It is that
extraordinary. --
Phyllis T. Smith
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