by Anne Marie MacDonald (512 pgs)
Rating: 4
The Piper family from Cape Breton starts ignominiously with a cross racial elopement of a young man (16) and a young Lebanese girl (13). Neither of them are truly ready for the responsibilities of married life and the girl particularly is not ready for the realities of motherhood. With their three daughters the family survives the first and second world wars, economic depression, and intercultural/racial misunderstanding.
Fall On Your Knees is an extremely well written book. MacDonald manages to cover sometimes shocking material in a way that doesn't feel like a play for shock value. This family has secrets and MacDonald's writing frames them and sets them up for discovery. It covers the history and time of pre war Canada in way that blends almost unnoticeably into the narrative.
Recommended to people who like family dramas or who have an interest in genealogies.
Showing posts with label Historical Fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Historical Fiction. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
5. The Historian
By Elizabeth Kostova
Rating: 2 (656 pgs)
Our narrator is a teenage girl being raised by her father, an American diplomat. Through her recollections and the journals of her father, a story filled with mystery and dark overtones emerges. The novel takes us from America to Britain on to Turkey and into the Eastern Bloc. The story is sinister.
The Historian, I'm sorry to say, is a good story crippled by bad structure. Kostova's voice is well developed and engaging but the format she chose for the story hinders momentum and, in some places, breeds confusion. I have a hard time recommending this to people although, as I said, it is a good story. I will definitely pick up her next book, I feel Kostova is an author worth giving a second chance and may very well develop into a very good writer.
Not recommended.
Rating: 2 (656 pgs)
Our narrator is a teenage girl being raised by her father, an American diplomat. Through her recollections and the journals of her father, a story filled with mystery and dark overtones emerges. The novel takes us from America to Britain on to Turkey and into the Eastern Bloc. The story is sinister.
The Historian, I'm sorry to say, is a good story crippled by bad structure. Kostova's voice is well developed and engaging but the format she chose for the story hinders momentum and, in some places, breeds confusion. I have a hard time recommending this to people although, as I said, it is a good story. I will definitely pick up her next book, I feel Kostova is an author worth giving a second chance and may very well develop into a very good writer.
Not recommended.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
2. Timeline
by Micheal Crichton (512 pgs)
Rating 3
Quantum physics allows an unscrupulous billionaire to develop technology that allows time travel. Time travel specifically to feudal France. There are problems though and a archaeological team gets sent into the past to retrieve their mentor. It's not as simple as it seems though. Feudal France was not an easy place to survive in.
Timeline is a pretty typical Crichton book. The plot line was interesting, the characters were plastic, and the science sketchy...at best. That being said, I don't regret reading it. The history was very enthralling and seemed to be fairly well researched. If the characters were a little two dimensional, they were also quite plausible. The end is a little jarring but ties things together fairly well.
Recommended only if you have time on your hands. Not recommended as science fiction.
Rating 3
Quantum physics allows an unscrupulous billionaire to develop technology that allows time travel. Time travel specifically to feudal France. There are problems though and a archaeological team gets sent into the past to retrieve their mentor. It's not as simple as it seems though. Feudal France was not an easy place to survive in.
Timeline is a pretty typical Crichton book. The plot line was interesting, the characters were plastic, and the science sketchy...at best. That being said, I don't regret reading it. The history was very enthralling and seemed to be fairly well researched. If the characters were a little two dimensional, they were also quite plausible. The end is a little jarring but ties things together fairly well.
Recommended only if you have time on your hands. Not recommended as science fiction.
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