Book 39: The Winter of the World

The Winter of the World by Carol Ann Lee

 

The novel begins with the train carrying the UK's Unknown Warrior to London, and its eventual final resting place in Westminster Abbey.  After this opening, which also has brief appearances by what will soon be the novel's two main characters, the novel flashes back a few months to earlier in 1920.  Alex Dyer, a journalist, is back in France to cover the rebuilding of Flanders and France, and the types of things that are being done to commemorate the war's dead.  While there, he ends up sharing his story with one of the men involved in the work at the cemeteries (I'm not entirely clear if he's a grave digger, gardener or a combination of the two).

 

Alex was a war correspondent during World War I for England, and while he didn't always agree with the way the war was being reported to the public, he did his job, and also appeased himself with the idea that he would publish the whole truth after the war.  Shortly before Alex leaves for France to cover the war, he meets his best friend Ted one last time and is introduced to Ted's fiance Clare with whom he immediately falls in love.  She, too, feels this attraction, but neither act on it nor does Clare use these new feelings for a different man as a reason to prevent her wedding.  With Clare as a nurse, Ted as an officer, and Alex working as a journalist, all three are on the Western Front at the same time, though there are only one or two instances of the group meeting up at any point.

 

In addition to showing Alex's perspective, the novel occasionally switches to Clare's views, and shows her feelings and thoughts, and the daily life of a nurse during World War I, dealing with the young broken men she sees.  After the war, she continues to work with these men, serving as an assistant to a plastic surgeon of sorts, a doctor that creates life-like masks for the men with facial disfigurements to wear so they can continue on with their lives.  Given the framing of the story, it is of course no surprise to discover that Alex and Clare indeed have an affair though they are clearly on the outs by the beginning of the novel, two years after the war.

 

The novel was strongest when it focused on the details of the war, and I think I would quite enjoy reading a novel or history book about nursing during WWI.  I also quite enjoyed the way the author portrayed the nation two years after the war - on the one hand, they want to move on and veterans have a hard time finding jobs but on the other hand, the nation is not done grieving and has not let go of its dead, as can be seen with the overwhelming support and reaction to the Unknown Warrior (I've actually seen the tomb twice, and it really is very moving).  Clare at one point even says that the nation is much more concerned about the dead but has forgotten the living, something she can see especially in her line of work.  It's easy to hail someone as a a war hero when he has given a limb for his nation, but no one knows how to react to someone that has basically lost their face with anything other than horror.  The love story was sudden but not necessarily bad.  However, there was one point at the end of the novel that just felt like it was done more to progress the plot than because it was a natural decision on the character's view.  I understood the character's motivation, but not why he would choose to act on it - it just didn't make sense to me other than to get to the next step in the story.  As a result, I felt slightly taken out of the story, and didn't care as much about something that Alex decides to do at the end.  Still, I liked the perspectives the novel did well, and would definitely be curious to read some of this author's nonfiction.

Book 28: Time and Chance

Time and Chance by Sharon Kay Penman

 

Taking up where When Christ and His Saints Slept left off, Time and Chance follows Henry II through the first fifteen years of his reign.  While there are quite a few things going on in this novel, and several wars and rebellions, the main events of this novel are the slow deterioration of Henry and Eleanor's marriage, and Henry's feud with Tom Becket.  Penman certainly shows a great grasp of the history and the different events going on, and shares this information with her reader in a generally engaging way.  I actually quite enjoyed the side trips to Wales to learn of Hywel and Owain as seen through the eyes of Ranulf, a brother of Maude and uncle of Henry II that Penman invented for the sake of her narrative (though Maude was the only surviving legitimate heir, she had around 20 illegitimate siblings, hence the addition of a half-Welsh half-brother).  However, I think I preferred When Christ and His Saints Slept, though this was still a good novel.  The main difference is that while it took me a bit of time to get into When Christ and His Saints Slept, once I was into it, I was sucked in.  I feel like this one started off strong but my interest vanned some in the middle and last parts.  It might just be me, but I feel like I spent less time in the characters' heads this time around, and more time being told facts.  This isn't a bad thing, but it made it slightly less engaging.

 

I also will say that part of it may be related to something else.  Henry and Eleanor are one of those couples I both love and hate to hear about.  On the one hand, they were both incredibly intelligent, capable and powerful rulers who had a passionate marriage.  On the other hand, it all falls apart.  While the series doesn't get there in this installation, Henry locks Eleanor up for over ten years, and she at one point encourages her sons to rebel against their father.  What started out as a strong partnership simply disintegrates.  Additionally, while Henry and Eleanor are brilliant, their offspring are decidedly less capable than they are.  However, these are all events that are still in the future of the series, though knowing it is coming makes it tough to read.  Eleanor has been tolerant of affairs conducted discreetly while they are apart, but in this novel Henry takes up Rosamund of Clifford as a mistress, in a situation that is very different from the ones before.  Additionally, Henry often ignores Eleanor's advice, leading to arguments, and between these two things, their marriage begins to weaken.  They also interpret each other's action in completely wrong ways - who knows how much of this is true to life, but in the novel, Eleanor feels slighted, and though Henry still loves her, he doesn't quite understand or see her perspective, nor does he even realize that she doubts his love due to her wounded pride and ego.

 

The other large event of Henry's life that this novel covers is his feud with Thomas Becket.  Harry originally promoted Becket to be his chancellor, and Becket has had great success in the position, fighting for the king's rights.  However, Harry has some issues with the church, many of which I even see as justified.  In order to bring harmony to his reign, he pulls strings to get Becket made the Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest religious office in the country, under the assumption that this way he'll have an ally in the church.  Unfortunately, things don't work out that way though it takes Harry some time to realize that Becket's and Henry's views of how Becket should act  are very different.  One character describes Becket as a chameleon, someone that is able to blend in wherever he is and succeed.  When a politician, he was going to be the most devious and best; now that he is serving as archbishop, he is going to be the most pious bishop possible and defensive of the church's rights.  One of the king's main concern with the church was his inability to punish wrongdoers within the church; for example, after a knight was murdered by a member of the clergy, the clergy member was prosecuted within the church where 12 men swearing an oath that the accused wouldn't do something like that is enough to get him off.  Even the ones that are viewed as guilty are merely banned from the church.  The king feels that he should have the right to prosecute these clergy members in his courts with actual evidence required rather than oaths and such.  When Becket refuses to budge, Henry makes demands that are excessive while Becket keeps arguing with him.  Basically, what seems like should have been a simple issue escalates because both men are prideful, stubborn and arrogant until both are in the wrong though they think they have right on their side.  Not everyone in the church even agreed with Becket but as their leader, the clergy follow him, and find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard palce.  In fact, it certainly seems that by the end Becket was trying to make himself a martyr which would certainly allow him to win the argument even if he wasn't around to witness the results.

 

Henry's relationship with his children is almost non-existent due to his continued absences and the demands of ruling such a large territory as he does.  Henry does not trust easily, and within this novel he feels that Becket, one of the few people he trusts, betrays him.  With the novel ending where it does, it sets up Harry to be faced with another series of betrayals in the sequel, this time by his own family.  While Henry was a good ruler from what I've gleamed, he didn't know how to share power or how to engage his family.  It will be interesting to see how Penman portrays all this.  Since this is a novel I understand that the focus will be on the drama and events, but I wouldn't mind hearing more about things that Henry implemented in his rule that improved lives, besides the fact that his existence as king ended a period of civil war.  He is always described as pragmatic, a man that will go to war if necessary but doesn't relish it among various other attributes (really, I just need to find a real non-fiction bio on the man).  I'm definitely planning on reading the third one in the series; however, once I am done with that, I think I am more likely to follow up with Penman's Welsh series or maybe even the stand alone The Sunne in Splendour (Richard III! - it's topical) rather than reading Lionheart - I know chronologically, it comes first, but I am far more curious to learn more about Wales at this point than about Richard.  Besides, when it comes down to it, I am much more interested in Henry and Eleanor than their offspring.

Book 27: A Letter of Mary

A Letter of Mary by Laurie R. King

 

While I was incredibly disappointed with the second Mary Russell novel, I had already purchased the third one in the series.  I decided to revisit the series this past week, and I have to say I liked the third installment much more.  While I felt like the last novel took too much time to get to the actual mystery portion, which then ended up being rather weak, this novel started the case almost right away.  A few days after a friend visits Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes, Holmes notices a piece in the paper requesting assistance identifying the victim of a hit and run.  Her description matches their friend's appearance, and the couple is quickly enroute to London to identify the body, and determine whether this truly was an accident.  Of course, all the signs point to foul play, and the rest of the novel involves Russell and Holmes trying to track the killer, determine who had the motive, the means and the opportunity.

 

There were a few other things that I found much improved in this novel from the previous two: Russell didn't get hurt during the investigation.  In the first novel, she ends up hurt while protecting someone, in the second she gets turned into a damsel in distress and has a long recovery period, so I was very happy when the narrator of the story didn't end up in a tight spot or a hospital in this one.  King also didn't bring up Russell's age until over halfway through so it was easy to ignore the fact that Russell is only 23 years old to Holmes mid-50s, and their relationship is described in very set and comfortable ways.  I found the weird sexual tension/relationship between Holmes and Russell distracting in the last one, while here they seemed more like friends or partners that happened to be married.  Still, there is something about this novel that was just slightly off to me, and I think it is related to Russell.  I don't dislike her as a character but I don't love her.  While I don't expect her to solve the case when Sherlock Holmes is there, the author intended her to be an equal.  While she is smart, there were a few times where she just seemed a bit slower about things than she should have been, and was made more fragile than I wanted, such as her near fainting spell at the morgue.  Maybe it's more accurate for the time period, but I could pass on some of these types of things in the character (the narrator states she has an issue with car accidents due to a past incident but I still could have done without the near passing out followed by her taking a long nap from exhaustion), especially since the novels otherwise emphasize her intelligence, resilience and uniqueness.

 

Before her death, their friend Dorothy Ruskin had given Mary a box containing an old letter, possibly written by Mary Magdalene and addressed to her sister right before the fall of Jersualem.  Two experts had dismissed the letter, and while Ruskin knew she would get nowhere with it, she still believed it was authentic, hence her gift to Mary.  As the pair of detectives pursue the case, the question becomes Dorothy was killed because of her work and the uproar this letter could cause to the Christian community (Mary as one of the apostles), her involvement with the Zionist movement or more personal reasons.  The novel involves various disguises and undercover missions to find the truth as well as various chats with Mycroft.  The story was relatively straightforward but it was a fun romp, and the setting in the past certainly helped matters.  I'd have to get further into the series to determine if I'd actually recommend it, but now that I'm three novels in, I'll probably continue onward.

Book 20: My Cousin Rachel

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne DuMaurier

 

As much as I loved DuMaurier's novel Rebecca, in ways it has made me more hesitant to pick up more of DuMaurier's novels, afraid that they couldn't possibly live up to Rebecca.  I have had this novel for awhile now (in fact if Amazon is to be believed, I've had this novel for over three years, meaning it's moved with me from Germany to Virginia to Georgia to Illinois/Iowa) but the monthly keyword challenge is what finally inspired me to actually sit down and read it since it has a word related to the February keyword "family" in it.

 

My Cousin Rachel, like Rebecca, is a gothic novel, and this one is set in some undetermined time in 19th century England - a time when people used carriages and horses to go into town, when a letter from a different country took over three weeks to arrive, and telegrams and trains don't seem to exist or be in common usage yet.  The narrator, 24 year old Philip, has been raised by his cousin Ambrose in a house without women.  Ambrose was a bachelor for life, and didn't need any women around with their desire for order and cleanliness, and as a result, I didn't get the impression that Philip or Ambrose really understood them at all.  Due to health issues, Ambrose spends most winters on the continent, until one winter he visits Florence to explore the gardens, where he meets Rachel.  Philip only hears everything through letters, long delayed and occasionally sporadic, but Ambrose and Rachel get married, Ambrose extends his stay in Florence, and Philip feels jealous and neglected.  Eventually two letters arrive from Ambrose, both odd, alluding to illness, and carrying a certain tone of paranoia regarding Rachel, calling her his torment, claiming that she is watching and monitoring him.  Philip, being the loyal cousin that he is, races to Florence, only to discover that his cousin died three weeks previously, the letter only arriving after his departure, and Rachel has left the villa and the town.

 

Upon his return home, the will declares Philip heir to everything though he must remain under his godfather's guardianship until 25 years of age to ensure he is of sound moral character.  Philip blames Rachel for his cousin's death, thinking her a murderer, and is rather shocked when he hears she plans to visit his home soon.  Planning to confront her, he instead becomes fascinated by her, the woman in question not looking at like the woman he created in his mind.  During her stay, the reader continues to question what is going on.  Did Rachel poison Ambrose or did he die of natural causes?  His behavior was odd but Ambrose's own father died of a brain tumor with similar changes in attitude and personality.  I think this was the biggest difference to me between Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel - in Rebecca, I very definitely wanted to know about the past, and what mystery was being hidden on the grounds of Manderley while in the case of My Cousin Rachel I was more interested in how the relationships would develop.  Was Rachel a conniving murderer and opportunist?  Is she completely innocent?  Or is there some compromise between the two, where she may not resort to murder, but is certainly willing to manipulate people and situations for her benefit?  The interesting thing is that in a way I didn't even care because I actually quite liked Rachel, even though I was only getting Philip's perspective of her.  I didn't completely trust her, but I prefered her to Philip.

 

Even though he is the narrator, Philip does not come off in a good light at all.  Given his upbringing, not only does he not seem to understand women, he also has some views that could only be described as sexist and misogynistic, and not simply in the "he's a man in the 19th century" way.  Of course, I'm going to judge a character when he owns a library and says he doesn't spend much time reading.  He talks constantly about how awesome bachelor life with his cousin was, and how women just get in the way (of what?  your reading time that you don't use?  your hunting that you also don't seem to do?  walking around the estate restlessly?); he is also incredibly sheltered, having only ever left the estate to go to school, and then returned to the family home.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing but Philip seems to take glory in his unworldly ways, his lack of culture and also displays a certain amount of xenophobia (against those crazy Italians), showing little to no interest in expanding his horizons.  He often acts like a petulant child and is unwilling to take advice from others.  At first, he is ready to judge Rachel based on the letter from a sick man; later, when there is indeed reason to question her motives, he refuses to take anyone's advice and makes dramatic, thoughtless decisions.  Men in the novel refer to Rachel as impulsive repeatedly but as Philip's godfather rightly points out, that word applies just as much to him.

 

DuMaurier doesn't exactly give straight answers in this novel either - the end itself is up for question, and it's up to the reader to decide what they believe about Rachel, Ambrose and Philip.  From other reviews, I think I may have taken a more favorable view of Rachel then some others, but Philip honestly just pissed me off.  However, I think it worked for the novel because I wasn't rooting for him, and even I was questioning his decision making process in regards to Rachel.  Hopefully, it won't take me three more years to read another DuMaurier novel (is Jamaica Inn a good follow up?  I already have that one at home).

Book 16: The Traitor's Wife

The Traitor's Wife by Kathleen Kent

 

Originally published as The Wolves of Andover, this novel is a prequel to The Heretic's Daughter.  The heretic of the previous novel's title is the wife in this story, and it makes sense that they changed the title to reinforce the connection between the novels.  While I quite enjoyed The Heretic's Daughter, and how it explored life in a small community during colonial times, this novel was oddly structured.  Kathleen Kent is descended from Martha Carrier, one of the women to die during the Salem Witch Trials, and this novel attempts to give more of her back story.  The novel itself is fiction though inspired by family and local legends, including the question of Thomas Carrier's possible role as executioner of King Charles for Oliver Cromwell.  The problem seems to be that Kent decided that the courtship between Martha and Thomas wasn't enough for a full novel, and added in a story of political intrigue.  While she is probably correct in believing that the actual courtship couldn't have been expanded more, personally I think there would have been other ways to approach this, focusing on colonial life, even if it had simply been telling the story from a few more perspectives such as Patience, Martha's cousin, or Daniel, Patience's husband, for example.

 

Instead, the novel goes back and forth between chapters focused on Martha and chapters focused on King Charles II's special mission to track the traitor that killed his father in the Colonies.  Though Charles II has pardoned most of the people involved in the English Revolution, that pardon did not extend to people directly involved in his father's death, including judges and executioner.  Many of these are suspected to be hiding in plain sight in the Colonies but no extraction attempts have worked.  A spy master decides to send a group of five men to sneak up on Thomas Morgan, the executioner, suspected to be Thomas Carrier, and bring him back.  Unfortunately, the men chosen for this mission are a bunch of rough untrustworthy thugs so these chapters read more like a comedy of errors without the humor.  The story didn't add to the tension for me at all, because it just seemed like this mission was doomed for failure given the men's incompetence, not to mention that this is a prequel.  Additionally, each one of these chapters is told from a different perspective which also prevented me from getting too wrapped up in the story, given the lack of narrative continuity.

 

The novel was strongest when it focused on the story of Martha, the strong willed and sharp tongued daughter who gets to sent to her cousin's to work as a servant - and hopefully, meet a man that hasn't been driven off by her sharp tongue yet.  Martha is hard and harsh.  While I enjoy strong women, it took me a while to get used to her because in the beginning her behavior bordered on mean.  As I adjusted to the character, however, and she adjusted to her new surroundings, I became more interested in this part of the story.  Her relationship with Patience and its slow disintegration is well-written and very believable.  Unfortunately, as I said the novel was too mixed up about what it wanted to be - it failed as a story of intrigue but had too much in its pages to be a simple tale of domesticity and life in the colonies.  I wouldn't recommend this one unless the person has read Kent's previous novel and really needs to see how this went for themselves.

Book 15: Agent 6

Agent 6 (The Child 44 Trilogy) by Tom Rob Smith

 

I admit I had no idea that this series was intended as a trilogy until I saw Agent 6 at the bookstore last weekend.  I loved the first novel in the series, and while the second one didn't love up to it, I still enjoyed it.  Overall, I would say the same thing about this third and concluding novel.  Good, but nothing beats the first one.  I think one of the reasons for this is that Child 44 is a more intimate, and tighter story - it is all about tracking a serial killer while in comparison The Secret Speech featured a detour to Budapest (during the rebellion) while this novel spans three decades and includes scenes in New York and Afghanistan.  However, that also means that the novels cover quite a bit of Soviet Union history and some of the major incidents involving the USSR post World War II.  The other reason I think I generally preferred the first novel is that it is a story of disillusionment and redemption.  Leo, a dedicated and loyal member of the secret police who truly believes, begins to reevaluate his life, his actions and what the State really does.  The Secret Speech shows what happens when Leo's past comes to haunts him, even after he has changed his ways.  Agent 6, on the other hand, shows what happens when Leo loses his purpose in life and no longer has a reason to care.

 

The novel begins in 1950 when Leo is part of a security detail for the American singer/celebrity Jesse Austin who is visiting the USSR.  The Soviet government wants to make a good impression on this very famous supporter, and Leo plays an important role in keeping him happy.  At this same time, Leo has become interested in a woman he keeps seeing on his route to work, Raisa, a school teacher, and as readers of the series know, his future wife.  After using this to introduce the characters and set the scene for later, the novel flashes forward to 1965, nine years after The Secret Speech.  Raisa's star has risen within the school system, and she has organized a trip to the US for a select number of music students to perform at the UN in New York.  As one of her conditions, her adoptive daughters Zoya and Elena will accompany her, though Leo must stay home - due to his resignation from the KGB, he is black-marked and somewhat ostracized, which means no trips outside the country.  Unfortunately, it quickly turns out that Elena has become a pawn in some type of conspiracy and things begin to unravel after Elena visits Jesse Austin, pleading with him to attend the children's performance.  Austin's life and livelihood have been destroyed by the McCarthy hearings and FBI harassment as a result of his public support of Communism.  While Elena completely believes in her cause, it becomes clear that she is being used for a nefarious purpose.  As the novel progresses, the question is what is the actual plan, and how will it affect Leo and his family?  After it all goes down, the reader is left with a cover story for a botched conspiracy and three dead bodies.

 

From here, the novel flashes forward seven years for a quick interlude, before ending up in Afghanistan in 1980.  Leo continues to struggle with the question of what happend in New York fifteen years ago, but has given up hope of ever getting to New York or finding the answers, instead spending his days in an opium filled haze.  However, events in Afghanistan are about to conspire to give him an opportunity to move forward and fulfill his vow to discover the truth.

 

While I enjoyed the book, I feel like the biggest issue wasn't the novel itself, but rather the advertising.  The backcover, for example, reads "3 decades, 2 murders, 1 conspiracy," putting the focus on the conspiracy.  However, it seems rather clear in the first half of the novel what the conspiracy's intent was, even though there was one piece that didn't make much sense to me and it still didn't compute by the end.  Leo is driven by the question of what happened, and what caused his family to lose a member, but the story's focus isn't on solving this mystery - instead, it is about Leo's reactions, his despair, and his search for meaning.  In Child 44, Leo's purpose in life was the State.  Once he became disillusioned with it, his family and his wife became his life - this novel explores what happens when this is taken away as well.  Given how much I grew to like Leo over the course of the other novels, I can't say I'm happy with how things ended up for him, but I am glad to see his story wrapped up.  I would also argue that it helps to read the three novels in this series close together because I think some of the impact was reduced for me because it had been such a long time since I had spent time with one of the other characters.  I would definitely recommend the series, but as I said above, the first novel is the strongest.

Book 14: Bridge of Scarlet Leaves

Bridge of Scarlet Leaves by Kristina McMorris

 

As Bridge of Scarlet Leaves opens, Maddie Kern is hiding the fact that she is dating her brother's best friend, Lane Moritomo, from her brother TJ.  Maddie has spent her entire life preparing for entrance into Julliard, devoting endless time to violin practice.  With her parents out of the picture (her mom is dead, her father indisposed), TJ sees himself as in charge of his sister and her future, attempting to protect her from any distractions such as dating and men.  While Maddie and Lane are already aware of the judgments they could face from American society due to their different racial backgrounds, they choose to elope, only to wake up the morning after the wedding to discover that Japan has attacked the US at Pearl Harbor, making Lane an instant target for hatred.

 

TJ, already under pressure to keep his scholarship due to declining academic and athletic achievement, feels especially betrayed when he discovers the secret elopement, and comes to blows with his best friend.  The rest of the novel follows these three main characters through World War II as they must choose loyalties and sides.  Lane and his family end up in an internment camp, and Maddie eventually gives up her dreams of Julliard to follow Lane to the camp.  TJ enlists, and gets sent to the Pacific Theater of the war.  McMorris covers a lot of territory in this novel, and one female character even ends up playing baseball professionally (which immediately made me want to watch A League of Their Own again).  After facing judgment from Lane's family, Maddie begins to develop an understanding of Japanese culture as she struggles through hardships with his family.

 

The thing is that this novel is basically a very by the numbers World War II novel.  I enjoyed it while I was reading it, and I certainly understand McMorris's motivation behind writing it  - her father was Japanese, her mother Caucasian, and when she discovered that in addition to all the Japanese in the internment camps, an additional 200 non-Japanese people lived in these camps in order to be with their families, she was inspired to write about them.  She even talked about a few other things I hadn't really seen too much of before, such as the Japanese-American Soldiers assisting in the Pacific Theater (I am mostly familiar with the Japanese American troops in Europe), and the fact that there were actually some factions of Japanese in the internment camps that were pro-Emperor (a minority, but still not something I had previously seen referenced).  This is not a bad book, by any means, but I didn't quite connect with the characters, and feel that they are rather forgettable.  It may be that McMorris tried to cover too much territory - Lane enlists into the Army from the internment camp, TJ ends up as a a POW, basically covering every possible occurrence of the war.  Considering that most of the topics covered in this novel have already been visited by many other authors, it needed characters I could really care about to stand out, and they are just too bland to distinguish this novel from any others in the pack.  If someone wanted to read about Japanese internment camps in America, I would recommend A Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.  Interested in Japanese-American units in World War II?  Read Hawaii by James Michener.  For books about the horrors of the POW camps the Japanese ran, I would direct readers to Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides or Tears in the Darkness.  If, however, you tend to devour anything World War II related like I do, and you have already read all those amazing books listed above, this novel certainly isn't a waste of time.  It's a sweet story, if somewhat predictable, and will certainly fill the fix.  I've also read good things about the author's other novel, Letters from Home, and will certainly be giving it a shot in the future.

Book 12: The Winter Ghosts

The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse

 

I try to be much more discerning about books I purchase nowadays, meaning I'll get a pile together, and sit at the cafe with some coffee, read a few pages to see if I like the writing style while also looking at ratings on Amazon or Goodreads.  I don't do it with every book, and sometimes I like the premise of the novel so I'll just decide to give it a chance without the screening process, but I figure I need to stop buying so many books that then end up in my growing to read pile (actually I have a to read pile that I really consider books I want to read soon, and then a whole other, larger stack of books that I have and will read eventually if that makes any sense).  I bought this one over a year ago, before I had started being quite so picky because it mentioned World War I in the description.  I read a lot of novels about or related to World War II, but World War I interests me as well; I just don't think it grabbed the American imagination in quite the same way and don't always see as many novels or books in general on the topic.  I just couldn't get into this novel a year ago but I think that had more to do with my mood at the time.  Due to the Keyword Challenge, I decided to give it another shot this month since it contains the keyword "winter" in the title.  I looked it up on Goodreads before I started reading only to discover that this was a ghost story!  You'd think maybe the word "ghosts" in the title, and the fact that the back description talks about people being haunted would have clued me in, but I thought they were metaphorical ghosts and that people were haunted by the past, not by actual ghosts (also I never read the quotes from magazines or other authors because just like movies, there is always going to be someone willing to say positive things about even horrible novels).  I'm glad I figured that out before I started reading this, because it definitely would have been unexpected and surprising otherwise.

 

Bones and shadows and dust.  I am the last.  The others have slipped away into darkness.  Around me now, at the end of my days, only an echo in the still air of the memory of those who once I loved. (p. 9)

 

I am having a hard time really deciding how I felt this novel.  The majority of the novel is a flashback to 1928 in the French Pyrenees area, though it opens and closes in 1933.  In 1933, Freddie enters a bookstore because he wants its owner to translate an old piece of parchment written in Occitan for him.  The rest of the novel is his explanation of how this document came into his possession.  In 1928, our 27 year old narrator is traveling through France, still grieving his brother's death which occurred 11 years before.  Freddie was too young to fight in World War I, but his brother and a majority of his unit were killed in battle in 1916.  As the second, much younger brother, Freddie never had a substantial relationship with his parents, and George's death hit him especially hard, though he was unable to get any comfort from his parents.  He is now drifting, trying to move on but also not quite wanting to let go, and unable to understand how everyone else can be looking forward, to the future.  He understands that his grief isn't unique, that just about everyone lost someone in this war, but he still feels isolated and disconnected.

 

Following a car accident, Freddie ends up in a small village, Nulle, off the beaten path, and is invited to the yearly festival that happens to be occurring that night.  While at the festival, he meets a woman, Fabrissa, and feels more interested in his surroundings and life than he has in a long time.  He is completely fascinated by Fabrissa, enjoys their conversation, and eventually they share their stories of loss.  The novel is very slow moving, meandering even, and the ghost story and plot are incredibly obvious and straighforward to everyone but Freddie.  The author does have a nice turn of phrase, and while the novel is 263 pages, given the amount of indentation on the pages and the font size, it really is probably only half to two thirds that long.  On the one hand, it's almost impossible to say much about the story without feeling like it's a spoiler but on the other hand it doesn't feel like a spoiler because it is obvious what is going on.  I've seen many reviews describing this as a classic ghost story, and while I get that, I prefer my ghost stories with a little bit of mystery.  I like the ones where the protagonists have to do research to determine the identity of the spirit, and then more research to find out what happened to that person.  They don't have to be scary, but as I said, I like that sense of revelation as the story progresses.  The reason I think this is labeled as a classic ghost story is because Freddie finds himself transported into a different time, witnessing events (even if he doesn't realize it), and I at least got the sense that this was a "one night of the year" kind of situation.

 

In medieval times, the Pyrenees served as a type of center and refuge for Cathars, members of a heresy that the Catholic Church disagreed with, and this faith group was eventually persecuted to extinction.  While Mosse alludes to the region's history, she doesn't explain much.  I thought that was fine for the novel itself, but when she discusses her inspiration for this story in the afterword, I wished she would have added a paragraphs or two about what the Cathars actually believed, what their heresy was etc.  I looked on Wikipedia and it didn't give much of an answer instead focusing on the wars and the persecution, not so much what they were being persecuted for - I gather this is partially because the Catholic Church did such a good job of rooting them out and destroying them that not too many specifics are known.  Overall, I think this novel would have worked much better as a short story - there just wasn't quite enough there to justify an entire novel (and as a matter of fact, this is actually the author expanding on a short story she had previously written).  What is there is very straightforward, though I kind of liked it.  I would also say while Freddie was a bit longwinded and needed to get to the point a bit more quickly, there are some rather well written sentences in here.  While I don't think I'd recommend this one, I am still curious about the author's other novels.  I am not sure what that means since usually if I don't like a novel or feel either very apathetic or ambivalent about it, I have no interest in anything else by that author, so I guess there must have been something here to hold my interest even if I can't quite place my fingers on it.  Then again, it may just be as simple as the fact that her other novels also address the Cathars and my interest in the subject is now picqued.

Book 8: Gates of Fire

Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae by Steven Pressfield

 

I can't even say how long this novel has been sitting in my to read pile at this point.  I like ancient history, and I know quite a few people who enjoyed this so I guess I always felt like it was something I should read but never quite felt like I was in the mood for it.  Basically, this year I'm trying to read at least a few novels that have been sitting around forever, so I decided to take a stab at Gates of Fire.

 

This is the story of the Battle of Thermopylae as told by Xeones, a Spartan squire, to Xerxes, the Persian ruler, and recorded by his historian.  Xeones's words make up the majority of the narrative, but the historian has a few parts, which are italicized, adding background information as well as telling of the events that occurred during the rest of the war between the Greeks and the Persians.  After the Battle of Thermopylae, Xeones is discovered, clinging to life (though he wants nothing more than to join his comrades in arms in death but someone must tell their tale), and Xerxes orders for his story to be transcribed in order to gain some type of understanding of what types of men withstood his forces for such a long time against insurmountable odds.  While Xeones explains that he is a simple man, merely a squire, and not one of the three hundred peers and nobles that the Spartans sent, he defers and tells his story for the record.

 

Xeones is not from Sparta, coming originally from Astakos, but he has not entered into Spartan life in the normal manner of an outsider, either.  The Spartans did not conquer his people in war, and turn him into a slave; instead, Xeo's home is attacked by the Argives when he is young, and he decides then that he wants to join the Spartans in whatever manner possible because they "make men."  After hiding in the forests for two years with his cousin Diomache and his family's teacher and slave, Xeo makes his way to Sparta.  Eventually gaining the position of squire, he comes into contact with the great men and warriors that will make up the three hundred peers.  As Xeones reflects back on his life, attempting to explain exactly how Spartan society creates the warriors it does, he jumps back and forth in the timeline quite a bit, being reminded of tangents as he remembers various anecdotes and stories.  Usually, I don't mind jumping around in narratives but since it took me a while to get used to the rhythm of the plot, the names and places, it did hinder me in getting as absorbed into the story as I normally would have.  While Xeo becomes friends/ starts out as a squire for Alexandros, eventually Alexandros's mentor Dienekes takes Xeones as his second squire, placing his squire Suicide as Alexandros's because a young man needs an older wiser man to keep him out of trouble.  Xeones tells of a variety of different Spartans, and Dienekes and his wife were the ones that were of the most interest to me.  A large portion of the narrative is also dedicated Alexandros, and I can see where the author was going with the character - a type of underdog, a man that is almost too honest, kind hearted and earnest for his warrior society yet still tries to fight honorably, but something about the character just didn't interest me at all.  I believe that was the other reason for my initial difficulty with enjoying the story - too much of the beginning is about Alexandros.

 

In fact when Xeones discusses some of the initial training for the teenaged boys, he discusses one teacher in particular that had it out for Alexandros - it basically sounds like every coming of age story ever with the bully and everything.  Still, once the novel shifts to the events of Thermopylae, it is impossible not to get wrapped up in the flow of the battle, the heroics of the characters and the tight brotherhood they form in the face of adversity.  While the first few chapters certainly held my interest, I wasn't quite sure how I'd feel about the novel overall, especially during the training scenes.  However, I ended up enjoying it quite a lot, even if it wasn't quite a style I usually read that much.  I always feel like I should be more interested in military history and the tactics involved, but usually I'm happy reading about the socio-political events surrounding the war rather than stories of the battles themselves.  I can't say I'm going to rush out to read more novels like this, but I'm glad I have finally tackled this.

Book 5: When Christ and His Saints Slept

When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman

During a somewhat recent BN trip (it was last year), I noticed Sharon Kay Penman's novel Lionheart on display, and while I had no desire to read about King Richard, it reminded me that I had meant to check this author out based on a previous recommendation. When I saw that this novel concerned Maude (or Mathilda) and Stephen of Blois, I was of course drawn to it.  My guess is that most readers who are familiar with this time period are probably so due to Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth.  Certainly, that was my first introduction to this war of succession fought in 12th century England (and Normandy).  I also read the nonfiction book She-Wolves about two years ago, and Mathilda was one of the women highlighted in the book.  As a result, I certainly looked forward to reading another piece about her.  Additionally, this novel is the first of the Henry and Eleanor trilogy.  I may be under the mistaken impression here, but it seems like Henry II has either been ignored in recent history or gained a bit of a bad rap.  Certainly, he had an eventful reign, and his interactions with Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, and his tumultuous relationship with his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, appear to have overshadowed much else.  My first introductions to Henry II weren't positive since the first time I heard of him was in The Pillars of the Earth which involves a scene featuring Becket's death (and since Philip is a monk, the reader sees his perspective which is that a king's involvement in church affairs is bad), and my second interaction with him was in the German historical fiction novel Die Lowin von Aquitanien (The Lioness of Aquitaine) which naturally focused on Eleanor and how she was wronged.  Certainly, I understand and share the current fascination with Eleanor, a strong woman in a time when women were expected to be silent, but it seems that it has left her husband on the sidelines.  It wasn't until I started reading Ariana Franklin's series of medieval murders, starting with Mistress of the Art of Death, that I started to reevaluate my opinion of Henry II.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find any recent nonfiction biographies on him, and even today, a search on Amazon links to books that are out of print or would cost about $40 to purchase (and yet there is a new book on Thomas Becket out - I may eventually check it out just for the Henry II references but I am not sure if I really want to read about a church figure).  However, even Eleanor's biographers, such as Alison Weir, are actually rather generous towards Henry II, and emphasize some of his foresight and strengths as a ruler.  It is completely fascinating to me that in general people seem to think good things when they hear Richard the Lionheart, and while he was certainly a great warrior, he was not nearly the man or the administrator that his father was (who was also a great battle commander).  In fact, he and his brothers all rebelled against their father at one point or another because they wanted to rule.  I guess it helps when you get a good nickname, though, and when you are still a better option than the brother that succeeds you.

 

At seven hundred pages, this novel is certainly a commitment, and it's not just due to its length.  It's not a light, breezy read - Penman is very detailed and while her narrative is engaging, it is not for the faint of heart.  The novel spans over fifty years, beginning with intro chapters when Stephen of Blois is only 5, skipping ahead to the events of the White Ship, when Henry I's only legitimate male heir dies, leading to his decision to make Mathilda his heir, and going through the years leading up to Henry I's death until the eventful decision of Stephen's to claim the throne as his own rather than let his female cousin have her inheritance.  The novel follows the years of war, the endless allegiances and changes in fortune, finally ending with Henry II claiming his throne upon Stephen's death.  Given that this is historical fiction about famous events that actually happened I hope that I do not have to worry about spoiler alerts - obviously, it is known historical fact that Henry II becomes king of England.

 

While Penman mostly focuses on the leaders and the famous men and women, she throws in occasional vignettes from random people to add different perspectives, so there are quite a few characters that appear for a few pages never to be seen again.  Many of the key historical players share names, but Penman does a good job of distinguishing them by using variations of names, so that Stephen's wife Mathilda is referred to by the Latinized version of the name, while the empress is referred to as Maude, the vernacular version of it, and her niece is Maud (obviously this distinction wouldn't be of much help in an audio book version).  While it has always been easy for me to side with Maude since clearly the throne was hers to inherit, Penman did not portray Stephen as a villain even if he did usurp his cousin's inheritance.  He was a product of his time, afraid of what a woman ruler might do, convinced by others to do the wrong thing.  The problem is that while Stephen appears to really be a kind, good and honorable man, he does not have what it takes to be a strong and good ruler, too forgiving, too easily swayed and unwilling to make the tough decisions, leading to lords that have no respect or fear of their king, leaving them to do as they please.  Maude, on the other hand, makes her share of mistakes as well, though clearly, she would have been judged differently if she had been a man making the same mistakes.  However, Maude is uncompromising and keeps using her father as an example of how a king should act, not factoring in that men will react differently to a woman doing these things than to a man doing them.  Her marriage to Geoffrey of Anjou is a disaster because neither is able to compromise or willing to make even the smallest concessions.  Stephen and Maude are both frustrating - in some ways, Maude was more frustrating because I kept thinking if she had only just been a bit more pliant, more willing to listen, maybe things could have been different.  Later in the novel, she softens or at least gains a certain amount of self awareness that helps her character even if it is too late for her bid for the throne.  Stephen, on the other hand, was incredibly likeable but he just didn't have the right mettle.  On their own, they may have been decent rulers, but as two rulers fighting for the crown they were disastrous, as their blunders kept prolonging the war, giving the lords and earls time to switch sides over and over again for small grievances and real or imagined slights.  As Maude eventually notes, one thing that she and Stephen have in common is that their worst wounds are self inflicted.  Unlike Stephen, Maude was blessed with incredibly supportive brothers, especially Robert, and a few other very loyal supporters while Stephen is mostly surrounded by opportunist.

 

Penman does a great job of building a variety of characters, showing how they grow and change over the years.  She peppers her novel with a variety of strong and supportive women and wives which was nice to see given how easily this novel could have simply focused on men and war with Maude (and Eleanor) as the exception.  While Henry II doesn't start to take center stage until more than halfway to two thirds through the novel, she makes sure to show the boy's development, demonstrating his early intelligence and precociousness.  When I was less than halfway through the novel, I figured I would finish the trilogy but would probably need a bit of a break before picking up the next in the series.  However, at some point, the narrative really started to flow for me, and I am now quite looking forward to continuing on with Eleanor and Henry's story, even though I know it ends unhappily.  I don't plan on reading the sequel right away, but it will certainly be sooner rather than later.

(Of course one thing that is truly amazing is that after this 19 year civil war, the almost exact same thing happens again about three hundred years later with the Wars of the Roses, another ravaging series of battles with ever changing allegiances.  And there are even more wars in the years between these two huge succession oriented ones.)

Book Challenges

While I've been participating in the Cannonball Read for what will now be five years running, I thought it might be fun to add some other book challenges.  I'm always reading about different ones peopel are doing on book blogs, and I feel like it could help me branch out a bit as far as my reading goes and hopefully discover new authors.

The first one I want to do is the Mount TBR Challenge as I'm sure my dad will be glad to hear.  The idea?  Read books from your to read pile or "mount."  Any books owned prior to 1 JAN 13 qualify.  Guess it's a good thing I went on my post Christmas shopping spree before 1 Jan.  I'm going to start at Mount Vancouver (36 books) though I can always go for more.

 

 

The next one that appeals to me is one that has a list of keywords for each month, and the idea is to read a novel each month that has one of those key words in the title.  Sounds like it could be fun.  I know I have at least one book in my TBR pile that includes the word "winter" so that would take care of two birds, one stone.

I read a lot of historical fiction.  Not as much as I used to, and I try to incorporate nonfiction more, but in general, I'd say fantasy and historical fiction are my most read genres.  In fact I just started the first of historical fiction trilogy.  As a result, I'm going to sign up for the 2013 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, aiming for Medieval level with 15 books.

I don't think I'm really going far out of my comfort zone on any of these but I figure I'll get to read some interesting reviews this way, and feel a bit more obligated to work through my pile of unread books rather than simply adding more to it.