Category: Book Review

Set in England during the Dark Ages and spanning a decade of time from 997-1007 CE, this is a prequel to the Kingsbridge Trilogy which consists of the following titles:

• The Pillars of the Earth (1989)
  • World Without End (2007)
  • A Column of Fire (2017)

I first encountered this series when I read The Pillars of the Earth in 2008. I immediately fell in love with it and it catapulted up to one of my all time favorites, which it still remains. Unfortunately, I did not write a review of it at the time, so I may have to “force” myself to re-read it so I can opine on it with due diligence. However, I have enough recollection of it to remember it as a wonderful historical of epic proportions with a narrative to get lost in and characters to both love and hate. World Without End, which I encountered in 2010 lived up to its promise and expectation as a long-awaited sequel. Sadly, I was disappointed in A Column of Fire which I read last year. I would not say it was a horrible read, and I would not totally discourage it from being added to one’s reading list. I just didn’t find it as gripping and engrossing as the other two books.

Now, on to the true subject of this review. Like the others, this story follows the lives of a diverse set of characters from varying stations of life.

First, there is Edgar, a young boatbuilder from a poor, hard-working family. His life as he knows it, and his dreams are shattered when his town, his father, and his lover are destroyed in a Viking raid. Edgar, his mother, and his two brothers must relocate and start over amidst an existence that is even more difficult than it was before. Though poor and containing only the knowledge and training instilled by his father, Edgar possesses an innate intelligence for building and craftwork that goes beyond just boats. Likewise, he has a moral compass that keeps his sight on what is true and just beyond what even the laws of the land at the time may dictate. Yet, his station in life hinders him at times to make a difference in the ways he would like.

Second, we have Ragna, a noblewoman from Normandy who travels to England to marry the man she believes to be her true love and soulmate. She, too, is a compassionate person who strives to render justice to those under her rule with fairness and a tender heart. This requires a delicate balancing act on her part so as to not appear weak and lose the people’s respect for her. This is compounded by her struggles to not be undermined by her husband’s family and the power they fight to maintain for their own selfish wants rather than the benefit of those under their domain.

Third, we encounter a monk named Aldred. Though a member of a small abbey, he harbors hopes to one day to see it evolve into a place of great religious learning. Pious and dedicated to the copying and illustrating of sacred texts, his battles take place against Bishops and other religious leaders who are religious in name and title only, not in their beliefs or interests in what is holy. Power and what having power gives them is the only thing their sight is centered upon.

It is the lives, dreams, and intertwining paths of these three individuals that provide the framework for this book. Like the first book of this series, here too is a grand historical adventure of near epic proportions. I say near epic, because it does draw much closer in scale and quality than did the third book. It definitely sits in the category of those books that I would choose to read again in the future. It’s one flaw, though some may see this as an asset, is that it does follow so closely in format to the other books. In that, the plot lines and story arcs are quite predictable for those who have consumed all of the prior ones. This in no way ruined the reading journey for me. I just found myself able to see where the character’s stories were taking them, so there was some lack of suspense and worry as to how their stories would wrap up. I suppose this is an inevitable outcome of reading a prequel. Yet, I still thoroughly enjoyed the journey because though I knew how their stories would end, there was still the unknowing part of how they would get there. That did make it all worthwhile. Follett lives up to the expectation of this reader, at least, and gives us a very satisfying beginning to a beloved series.

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Simultaneously heart-breaking and heart-warming, this fictionalized story based on true events evokes sorrow and smiles and can bring about sleepless nights as the reader becomes invested in knowing what happens to the five siblings who are the heartbeat of this novel.

The true events that this story is inspired by surrounds the dealings of Georgia Tann who in the 1930s ran a corrupt adoption agency in Memphis, Tennessee. Children of poor families were kidnapped or deceitfully signed over into her care by parents not aware of what they were agreeing to. After placing the children in orphanages ran by the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, Ms. Tann then facilitated adoptions of the children into homes of wealthy couples.

The Foss siblings are indeed part of a poor family that lives on a shanty boat with their parents on the Mississippi River. However, they are well-loved and cared for to best of their parent’s abilities and are in no way abused or neglected by them. When their father has to reluctantly take their mother to a hospital due to problems that arise during childbirth, Rill the oldest sibling at twelve years old is placed in charge of the others until the parents can return. It is during this time the five children are caught in the web of Georgia Tann’s horrible schemes when they are taken from the boat and moved to an orphanage.

The novel actually jumps back and forth in time with the second story-line set in the present and following the actions of Avery Stafford. Avery is a lawyer, born into a wealthy family of prestige. She has returned home to Aiken, South Carolina to assist her ailing Senator father. As a successful federal prosecutor she is also being groomed both by her family and her father’s aide as a potential successor to her father’s Senate seat if his declining health continues. Additionally, she is being not so subtly pushed by her mother and future mother-in-law into setting a long awaited wedding date. A chance encounter with an elderly woman at an assisted living facility sets her on a journey that raises questions about a possible long-held family secret, as well as her willingness to continue on a path that seems more set by her family than her own choices.

Lisa Wingate has produced an engaging narrative that as I stated above at times breaks the reader’s heart as a witness to the sufferings endured by Rill and her siblings. Yet, there is an inspirational message in there as well as we see what determination and strength within a loving family bond can bring about. Personally, I found the sections that detailed Rill’s part of the story in the past as a much better written part of the book. The descriptions of place and events seemed much better crafted than the present day portions of the story. That said, the weaving together at the end of the book of the two separate story lines and their ultimate intersection bring about a satisfying ending to both. Taken together, both story lines shed light on the balance that must be taken in choosing to what extent our bonds to our families must be adhered to. Rill teaches us that there are times when we must fight with all we have to stick together. While, Avery’s lesson is that there are times when one must fight against some constraints that are placed upon them. In the end, however, both lessons show that love and devotion are key in handling each situation.

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Whitehead takes us on an unconventional journey through a bleak time of history in the United States. Although he uses the factual backdrop of a period of slave-owning times, he reimagines and creates an alternative landscape in which to tell Cora’s story. Cora, a slave on a plantation in Georgia, is asked by another slave named Caesar to attempt an escape via the Underground Railroad. The factual part of the story resides in the accounts of the violence and inhuman treatment of the slaves at the hands of their owners, the slave-catchers, and all others who have a hatred of black people. Yet, the story veers off into a different world in various ways with the foremost being the fact that the Underground Railroad is here conceived as an actual railroad system built in underground tunnels running from South to North. Additionally, the several stops Cora makes along her travels from station to station and her experiences living in those are not factual to the histories of those places during this time period. Yet, it is within this re-imagined landscape where Whitehead is able to explore and examine various attitudes and treatments that history in a longer period has thrust upon (or attempted to thrust upon) minorities both here and throughout the world. Among these are forced sterilization, genocide, and re-settlement of their “own kind” in certain established areas.

For me, one of the most poignant parts of the book was when we find out what happened to Cora’s mother, herself a runaway slave who escaped when Cora was young. Cora never finds the answer to that mystery and her feelings of abandonment play a big part in the person she becomes. Although the overall narrative highlights the brutality of the slave experience, Whitehead also weaves in the truth that cruelty and kindness are not linked to one’s skin color. We see a hierarchy among the slaves wherein some perpetuate violence within their own ranks, while others go to great lengths to look out for the weak within their own population. Likewise, we have depictions of white owners whose actions make our blood boil, whereas we also see those among the white population who risk their own lives to help those traveling on the underground railroad.

It is difficult to state that a book such as this was a pleasurable or enjoyable read due to the horrific portrayals of violence found within it. Yet, I can say it is definitely a worthwhile read. It can seem a little disjointed in the way the narrative voice switches from person to person and sometimes from time period to time period. But, Whitehead ultimately weaves all these voices in so that at the last disembarkation from the railroad everything has fallen into place.

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 A story about one day in the ordinary life of an ordinary woman planning a party in 1920s London.  Yet the novel is anything but plain and ordinary.  For the most part, the reader is carried along on a stream of consciousness that meanders from the title character’s mind and into and out of others that she either directly or indirectly comes into contact with during the day.  This makes for a challenging read because the tributaries of differing thought processes are not always clearly defined, and thus I often found myself attributing a particular musing to the wrong character and having to backtrack when it seemed too out of place.  Altough the events themselves occur on a single day in June, the narrative is not hindered by time or space.  Past events are recalled and ruminated upon as they relate to the particular individual’s situation at the time.

Woolf’s intent at the time was to create a piece of work that was different and that did not fit into the traditional model, which incidentally speaks to the type of person Woolf was in her own right in that she did not see herself as a traditional type of woman in her society.  In this aspect, she can claim success.  This book is best appreciated and understood when the time period of the events are kept in mind.  Coming on the heels of World War I, it speaks to the upheaval and uncertainty that many people felt at the time. At heart, Mrs. Dalloway and all those around her are grappling with the questions of self-discovery as they reflect on who they were in the past and who they are now in the present and how the answers to that will affect the future.

I cannot confidently at this time assess my overall opinion to this book.  I confess I struggled through it at times and probably would have abandoned it early on had I not had other factors spurring me on to do so.  One, is that I wanted to read it before re-reading The Hours by Michael Cunningham which was inspired by Mrs. Dalloway. Second, is that I have compiled several different lists of books to be read in the future and this was on one of these lists.  (I will explain these lists in in more detail in an upcoming post.)  So, despite my struggles, tempations to abandon, and the self-inflicted pressure of feeling I had to read the book, by the time I neared the final third of the book I was actually looking forward to picking it up as opposed to dreading it as if it were a chore. The book is deserving of a better effort from me as reader and the English major in me recognizes it as a treasure of gems wating to be mined more in depth than what I did at this point in time.  My second reading of The Hours did in fact ratchet up my own understanding and appreciation for the work. I hope at some point to return to it again and venture out with Clarissa Dalloway as she steps out to buy flowers for her party on a June day in London.

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Cunningham attempts to capture the spirit of Walt Whitmans’ work Leaves of Grass in this unique tripartite novel.  Inhabiting the past, present, and future, a separate but related cast of characters revolving around a man, woman, and youg boy exhibit Whitman’s idea that “every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”  Each story takes place in New York in different time periods.  The opening story is situated within the period of the Industrial Revolution and looks at humanity’s reaction to this new age of machines.  The middle story, set in the current era, presents a society still dealing with terrorist jitters and explores the dangers of impressionable minds exposed to an irrational group-think mentality.  The final futuristic setting comes full circle in that now we encounter a machine (in the form of a man) musing on the ways of humanity.

This is not a book for the passive reader wanting only to be entertained.  Instead, it demands active engagement.  Having only read through it once as of this writing, I remain intrigued by the work, yet undecided as to my satisfaction with it as a whole.  Parts of it were fascinating, yet others left me unsatisfied and scratching my head in wonder.  Whether that dis-satisfaction arises from the quality of the writing or my inability to connect certain dots is a question that can only be answered following a second reading.

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