Tag: historical fiction

Review 2773: #RIPXXI! Benbecula

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I accidentally started reading the Darkland Tales in order. These are books by prominent Scottish authors about various episodes in Scottish history. This time, I read #6, so I’ve skipped a few, but I also read this for my Walter Scott prize project and it fits for RIPXXI!

Benbecula is about an 1857 series of murders on Benbecula, a small Scottish island. It is narrated by Malcolm McPhee, the oldest brother of the murderer.

The McPhee family gets by earning a small amount harvesting seaweed. The mother spends all day tending the fire while the father is weak and can only do easy work but prefers life to be clash-free. The adult children are all unmarried. Marion is a hard worker but grim. John seems to be mentally challenged. Angus can manipulate people but can’t be controlled and is left to do what he wants. Malcolm is a bit of a bully.

Angus goes off to work for a while for a farmer, but after he returns, he’s subject to fits of uncontrollable rage and has to be restrained. After he disturbs everyone by wildly ringing the church bells, authorities recommend he be committed, but the McPhees can’t afford the fees. When a doctor examines him for involuntary committal, he seems perfectly rational.

We read this with dread, because we get plenty of warning about what’s coming, as Malcolm tells the story from some years later, living alone in the family house drinking and wallowing in his own filth. There are more mysteries ahead, though.

This novel is atmospheric despite being sparely written. It definitely left me with questions. There is an Afterword that accounts some of the facts of the case.

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Review 2772: The House at Old Vine

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The House at Old Vine is the second book in Norah Lofts’ Suffolk trilogy. Like the first book, it changes narrators, but as each section is considerably shorter than the first section of the first book, the effect is of linked short stories.

The novels follow a house and a family through time, beginning in the Middle Ages. This one begins sometime before 1496 and ends in 1679 and has half a dozen narrators. Each section is separated by an Interlude, which briefly tells more about what happened next.

In 1496, Josiana Greenwood tells the story of her life and her doomed love. Some of the characters from the previous book are still in the periphery. Josiana is a bastard child whose mother refused to tell her parents the identity of her child’s father. Her grandparents have treated both her and her mother like the lowest of laborers, but when she is 13, her grandfather wants to sell her off to a much older man who disgusts her. To protect her, her mother takes her to the nuns at Clevely, where she is educated and meets her true love. We know from the beginning that her love, Walter Rancon, is going to be burned by the church as a Lollard, but the story goes back in time to divulge other facts and secrets, including the connection to the family of the original serf who accumulated the property, Martin Reed.

In 1565, the background of the story is the reign of Elizabeth and a Catholic priest in hiding. Elizabeth Kentwoode is a child who has been thoroughly spoiled by her grandfather. She is quite a vicious child, and she shows what she will do to keep her string of blue beads.

In 1620, Elizabeth Kentwoode, now a redoubtable woman sometimes called Madam, selects Barbara Hatton to be the wife of her nephew John. Barbara is in love, but shortly after the wedding, Elizabeth lets her know that John has a long-time lover, a bar maid, who looks a lot like Barbara.

In 1645 during the English Civil War, Anthony Flowerdew is a spy for Parliament trying to find Royalist supporters when he comes to stay at the Old Vine, now a respectable inn which had first been run by Madam and now by Mrs. Kentwoode (Barbara). Anthony falls in love with Barbara, now a widow with a son, and decides to quit being a spy.

In 1670, Ethelreda Benedict is a girl from an island in the fens who has barely ever met anyone besides her father when he dies. She has to leave the island and eventually gets a position at Old Vine, now a boys’ school run by Anthony Flowerdew and his stepson Chris Kentwoode. A sort of leech on the place is Barbara’s relative Canon Hatton, who while everyone has plain fare, sits in his room and eats only the best food. Yet the others think he has nothing.

In 1679, Oliver Stanton, one of Anthony Flowerdew’s old students, breaks with his father and returns to Old Vine hoping to get Flowerdew’s help in finding work. There he finds Flowerdew as an old man struggling to support the school by himself with Ethelreda Hatton now doing all the work and the Cannon still hulking by his fire. Chris Kentwoode has died, and the number of students has dropped off. Oliver takes a job as a teacher there and soon begins to feel sorry for Ethelreda, who is overworked and mistreated by her husband.

Some readers may find this format keeps them from being involved in the characters, but I felt some interest in some of them. Although it would have spoiled some surprises, I would have liked to see a chart tracing the characters’ relationships, at least the ones from the last book, as sometimes it was difficult to follow how they connected to the original characters.

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Review 2756: The Captain’s Daughter

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Of course, Alexander Pushkin is a revered 19th century Russian poet, but I’m not much of a poetry reader. So, I was interested when perusing the offerings of NYRB Classics to see that he had written a novella.

The Captain’s Daughter is a historical novel that ends in 1774, and Pushkin’s intent was to write about Pugachev’s Rebellion in terms of a romantic adventure novel popular at the time. Perhaps not its intent is the occasional glimpse of the power of wealth and position at the time. I didn’t really find the novel comic, although some of the dialogue is clearly meant to be, but the NYRB edition includes an article by one of the translators about the difficulties of translating the wit in the novel.

The opening, though, is probably meant to be comic. Pyotr Andreich Gunyov, son of a nobleman who is extremely wealthy (he is said to own 300 souls [i. e., serfs] at a time, a note informs us, that most landowners owned less than 60), informs us he was enrolled as a sergeant in the Semyonov regiment before he was even born and considered to be on leave until he was old enough to serve. I was too taken aback by this to find it funny when reading it but now I realize it was probably an exaggeration. Maybe?

However, once Pyotr Andreich is seventeen, his father decides he needs toughening up, so instead of sending him to the Semyonov regiment to live it up in the city, his father sends him to serve in Orenburg under his old friend Andrey Karlovich. Orenburg is apparently in the middle of nowhere at the time, protected by a small outpost.

On the way there, Pyotr Andreich, accompanied by his servant Savelich, is caught in a snowstorm with their guide. The guide not being suitably dressed, Pyotr Andreich gives him a hare-skin coat and some vodka. This encounter will prove to be significant.

At Orenburg, Pyotr Andreich finds a pleasant commander and not much to do at Fort Belogorsk. He almost immediately falls afoul of another officer, Shvabrin, who has been transferred there because of dueling. Pyotr Andreich also falls in love with Masha, the captain’s daughter, and wants to become engaged to her. Unfortunately, his father doesn’t agree.

Then they all begin hearing about a revolt of Cossacks and peasants supporting Pugachev, who claims to be the Tsar. When the fort is eventually surrounded by a huge number of insurgents, they defend themselves as best they can but are overrun. Pyotr Andreich would have been hung with the rest of the officers (except the rotten Shvabrin, who has gone over to the other side), but it turns out that Pugachev is the guide that Pyotr gave his coat to, so Pyotr is set free, but he has to leave the now orphaned Masha, in disguise as the priest’s daughter. Pytor is determined to rescue her somehow.

Although a sort of adventure novel, it isn’t really exciting, and Pushkin misses some opportunities to make it more so and to build suspense. It also makes an assumption that readers already know about the rebellion, so that the short novel has quite a few annotations. Of course, a 19th century Russian audience would probably know all about it.

The short novel is very readable and entertaining. I was just surprised at the omissions.

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Review 2755: The Heart in Winter

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Kevin Barry is certainly an evocative writer, but after reading my second book by him, I’m still not sure I like him. The Heart in Winter combines romance with brutality and some readers deserve a warning about foul language.

In 1891 Butte, Montana, the mines are booming, and the town is full of drunks and whores. Tom Rourke, a boyish Irish immigrant, spends his days helping a photographer or writing letters for illiterate miners and his nights drinking and doping. One day, mine captain Long Anthony Harrington comes in for a wedding photo of himself and his brand new wife, Polly. Their romance has been an exchange of letters, and Tom can tell that the wife dislikes her new husband. Tom is smitten.

Three weeks later, they put into action Tom’s poor excuse for a plan. While Polly’s husband is at work on the night shift, Tom will burn down the rooming house where he lives so that in the confusion he can steal the landlady’s money, and then they will steal a horse and escape to San Francisco. It’s turned toward winter, the perfect time to be traveling in the mountains. (I’m being ironic here.)

Of course, their plan fools no one, and the outraged Harrington hires three Cornishmen to track down the fugitives with the instructions to bring back Polly and do whatever they want to Tom. For their part, after a first burst of speed, Tom and Polly are honeymooning in someone’s cabin.

Of course, there’s a feeling of doom throughout the novel, and things don’t go very well for the couple. The novel is adventurous, with quirky characters, and gritty.

Another caveat, though. Barry seems to know nothing about what it would be like to travel in these mountains in winter. His inexperienced travelers would probably be dead in days.

I read this for my Walter Scott prize project.

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Review 2751: The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family

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When I realized that the family in this novel was the Netanyahus—I mean, the Netanyahus, as in the prime minister of Israel, I was not looking forward to this book. However, it is part of my Pulitzer Prize project, and in fact won it, although I have never heard anyone talking about it.

Before I start my review, I’m beginning to find the quotes and book blurbs ridiculous, I have to say. Maybe some people actually read the quotes to select a book, but I avoid them then and only sometimes read them later when I am perplexed about a book’s reception. Here are some of the words on the back of this book—“genre-bending,” “exuberant,” “funny beyond belief.”

First, let me address “genre-bending,” which apparently applies to this novel because it combines nonfiction and fiction. Excuse me, but isn’t that what any historical fiction book based on real events does? Isn’t that the definition of historical fiction except perhaps in the case of some light romances or maybe gothic novels?

The novel is set at a small college in upper New York state, where Ruben Blum is the only Jewish faculty member—an American History professor—in 1959-60. Blum is asked to serve on the hiring committee when it interviews Ben-Zion Netanyahu, a scholar of the Spanish Inquisition and its treatment of Jews. Although Netanyahu is living in the U. S., he is from the new nation of Israel. Blum doesn’t know how he’s supposed to judge the applicant’s knowledge since he knows very little about Medieval Europe, and he finally realizes he’s been chosen because he’s Jewish and he is mostly needed to provide hospitality.

For about the first half of the book, there was a lot of standard campus satire. My husband, whose first wife is an academic, always says that politics on campus are so brutal because the stakes are so low. I started wondering where the exuberance lay or when the book was going to become funny beyond belief as it made stereotypical humor out of two holidays with the in-laws, examined the different beliefs Jews have about Zionism, and explained Netanyahu’s beliefs.

I suffered through a ridiculously long, glowing letter of recommendation, which was countered by an even longer letter telling Blum that the reason Israeli scholars were gushing so much about Netanyahu was because they wanted him out of the country. Okay, that was kind of funny, but not funny beyond belief.

Finally, more than halfway through the novel, the Netanyahus show up for the interview and lecture—not just Ben-Zion but all of them: his wife Tzila and his three young sons—Jonathan, Benjamin (yes, him), and Iddo, ages 13, 10, and 7. And their behavior is outrageous. The book picked right up, and I can only assume that the critics who are gushing about it can only remember the second half.

I won’t say what they do—that’s the fun—only that in essence if not in detail, this part is based on a true story told to Cohen by Harold Bloom—although Cohen hastens to assure us that his character Ruben Blum is not meant to be Harold Bloom (right).

All I can say is, tearing things down seems to be more the style of these characters than building them up, and I guess that has continued up to today.

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Review 2743: These Days

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These Days is the last book I had to read for the 2023 Walter Scott prize shortlist, and boy, it made me feel uninformed. Of course, I knew about the bombing of England during World War II, but I had no idea that Belfast suffered similar bombings. But of course, I realized, that’s where they built the ships.

The book blurb makes it sound like this book is only about two sisters, Emma and Audrey, but it also spends time with their mother Florence and their younger brother Philip. Audrey is engaged to be married, to Richard Graham, a doctor who works at the hospital with her doctor father. Emma has volunteered to serve in a first aid station. Florence has been somewhat detached as a wife and mother, still grieving her first love, who died during World War I. Philip is just being 13.

It’s April 1941, and so far, things have been quiet. Emma has befriended an older woman named Sylvia, and they fall into an affair. For her part, Audrey doesn’t seem particularly excited about Richard or being married, more like she’s trying to convince herself.

Then one night when Richard and Audrey are at a dance, the attack comes full force. Richard has to go to the hospital, so Audrey finds herself in a shelter all night. Emma has been with Sylvia and has just turned back toward the first aid station when she is knocked unconscious by a blast. Florence and Philip spend the night huddled in a shelter.

The devastation is terrific. Whole neighborhoods are gone and hundreds of people are injured, killed, or missing. And this is the first of four major attacks.

This was certainly an eye-opening book for me. We have long associated Belfast with sectarian violence, but there was none of that in this novel, just a common fear of the Belfast Blitz. Earlier in the book, a transfer to Audrey’s job from England remarks at how much easier it is there to get decent food and goods. Well, that changes.

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Review 2742: Precipice

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It’s the eve of the First World War, and Venetia Stanley (sharing the name of her famous ancestor, subject of the novel Viper Wine) is having an affair with Prime Minister Asquith, more than twice her age. Perhaps it’s not a sexual affair, but it is certainly an emotional one. Asquith is known for his relationships with young women, but this one seems to be more serious.

In an incident that seems unrelated to the rest of the novel for a while, Venetia decides to meet Asquith at a party instead of going on a pleasure cruise with the set she hangs out with. During the cruise, two young men drown as part of a bet. The investigation brings in the character Detective Sergeant Paul Deemer, who notices Venetia’s name on the guest list and calls on her to take her statement.

Periodically, we check in on Deemer as he is recruited into Intelligence after the war starts, his job to find German spies. But most of the time, the book follows the relationship between Venetia and Asquith, leaving me wondering when and how the characters would link up.

Asquith’s behavior is frankly shocking, especially during war. Riding around in his limo with Venetia, he shows her a confidential message and then wads it up and throws it out the window. He encloses confidential and even secret telegrams in his letters to her and asks her opinion. Some of these actions make her uncomfortable, and she doesn’t know what to do with his letters, locking them in a box. He writes her several times a day.

The stories finally begin to link up when Deemer is assigned to find out about several messages turned in by the public. The conclusions of the initial investigation end with Deemer assigned to intercept Venetia’s correspondence.

This is not the taut thriller that Harris often produces. I found it interesting but got a little tired of reading especially Asquith’s letters, which are cringingly romantic. As the affair continues, Asquith writes Venetia letters during cabinet meetings and seems more obsessed by her than concerned about the war. Venetia in turn begins trying to find a way to escape the relationship.

I had very little sympathy with him, although I began slowly to sympathize with Venetia. It was interesting to learn about politics of this period and this odd relationship, but this wasn’t one of my favorite Harris novels.

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Review 2736: Venetia

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I’ve already reviewed Venetia for this blog, but my purchase of a new Folio Society copy seemed like a good excuse to reread it.

Venetia Lanyon has lived an isolated life, mostly with only her brother Aubrey for company. Her late father having refused her a London season when her aunt offered one, she has only attended a few local dances. However, she has two suitors—Edward Yardley, a worthy neighbor, and Oswald Denny, a quite young man who emulates Lord Byron in his careless dress and sulky manner. Venetia is interested in neither of them and plans to make a home for Aubrey, a studious teen with a bad hip, after her older brother Conway returns from the wars to take up his position as head of household.

But two incidents complicate this plan. One is her encounter with Lord Damerel, a neighbor she and her brothers called the Wicked Baron when they were children because of his unnamed crimes that made his family disown him when he was young.

Although Demerel, mistaking her for a village girl, offers her an insult, he is taken aback by her reaction, and she soon finds him to be a companion who shares her sense of humor. When he rescues Aubrey from a bad fall, the three of them begin a comfortable friendship.

Then strangers arrive. Without so much as a letter of warning, Conway has married a shy, biddable girl and sent her before him with her extremely unpleasant mother to establish his household.

Now, we’re set up for Heyer’s usual romance with lots of striking characters, a good deal of lively, funny dialogue, and an engaging, sparkling heroine with an unconventional mind.

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Review 2729: Mrs. Kimble

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In 1969 Richmond, Virginia, Birdie Kimble is blindsided when her husband Ken leaves her to run off with a teenaged student at the college where he’s a pastor. The young mother of two children, she has no idea how to cope and takes to drinking instead. Her bills unpaid, her car breaking down, and her children unfed and uncared for, she comes close to having her two children, Charlie 6 and Jody 2, taken by protective services.

A few months after leaving Birdie, Ken Kimble appears in Florida with his young girlfriend Moira at her parents’ house. Although Ken is in his 40s, he now looks like a hippy. There, he meets Joan, a Jewish reporter from New York who is staying in the house she inherited from her wealthy parents while she recovers from a mastectomy. She likes Ken and invites him to stay after he and Moira break up. Soon, he has transformed himself into a real estate dealer with the help of her uncle—oh, and he’s discovered he’s part Jewish. She becomes Mrs. Kimble number two.

There’s another wife to come after Joan dies of a recurrence of her cancer, leaving Ken a wealthy man. This time, he marries Dinah, the girl who used to babysit for him and Birdie.

The tales of these three marriages are told from the points of view of the wives with an occasional look at what’s happening with Charlie. This is the story of a man who is charming, but it seems as if there’s no there there, a man who reinvents himself to get what he wants with no regard for morals or ethics.

It was interesting to me to read that Haigh began this novel as a story about Birdie and her children but became interested in exploring Ken Kimble. However, that’s what she doesn’t do, or only by inference. Despite some obvious preferences—for very young women, for example—Joan, who is near his age, is probably only acceptable because of the money—he is basically unknowable. And the section about Birdie, which is the longest, was almost unbearable to me because she is so hopeless and helpless. I’m sure there are women like this, but I just wanted her to snap out of it. She finally does, sort of, but it takes years.

I found the book relatively interesting, but it is not a favorite.

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Review 2728: Held

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Held is a poetic musing on some deep subjects framed in the fluid story of mostly one family, with a perplexing few sections about Marie Curie. It begins during World War I and goes forward for some time before looping backward and forward between (mostly) descendants and ancestors.

Returning painfully disabled from World War I, John reopens his photography studio. John and his wife Helena have a deep connection, but John is troubled by his war experiences. After he hires an assistant, an image that shouldn’t be there appears in a photograph, making him wonder if some essence of the dead exists after death.

John and Helena’s story takes up about a third of the book, and then we travel forward to 1951 and a very short section in which Helena agrees to model for a famous artist and awakens her own artistic tendencies, buried since the death of John. We also briefly meet their daughter, Anna.

Then it’s 1984, and Peter, Anna’s partner, is relieved to welcome home his daughter Mara, a doctor who works in war zones. Mara has met Alan, a journalist, who seems to share with her the same deep loving connection that each member of this family has with the others, and with their friends.

These are some of the bones of the stories, but these characters are thinkers as well as feelers, and they consider some weighty subjects. Nature is also intimately entwined in these stories.

I understand that many readers have found this novel difficult, especially because of its fluid structure and many characters. None of this bothered me, but I am not a person who dwells on the meaning of life, so I felt I was missing a lot of the more esoteric content. I still enjoyed it. It’s absolutely beautiful, and the kinds of relationships depicted are to be admired. The characters are good and kind.

I read this for my Booker Prize project.

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