by Nina George
What a lovely life affirming book. It was truly uplifting.
The book starts out with a sad old Parisian man being asked to provide some furniture for a woman who has left her husband and who has nothing. He has little left, he has discarded most possessions but opens up a room he had closed off 20+ years before after the love of his life left him.
He finds a table and chair to give to the woman but finds opening the room brings back memories he had been trying to avoid of a woman he had an affair with.
He is now the owner of a floating barge on the seine, a bookshop. He seems to know the right kind of books to give people.
One of his neighbours is a quirky young man who recently wrote a very successful book and who seems to be hiding from his success and fans.
He visits the neighbour he gave the table to and she gives him a letter, an unopened letter that she found in the table. It is from the man's lover. He received it 20 years ago but never had the courage to open it. He has been living in grief and despair since she left him.
He is reluctant to open it but when he does he is devastated to find that his lover's letter tells him she is dying and asking him to come to see her before he dies. Now he feels worse than ever as he has failed her.
He decides to cut his boat free and sail to where his lover lived/was engaged to another man. He also is seeking to find out a who the author is of a book he particulary liked. His young author friend leaps on board as he is leaving, losing his wallet and ID in the leap. The men sail along the rivers of France making money by selling books or bartering books for food and other supplies. They meet another man who is seeking a woman he met years before.
While travelling Monsier Perdu ("lost') sends postcards to his lady neighbour and eventually invites her to join him in southern France. Both his male friends also find romantic attachments.
While the start of the book is sad the book is a touching affirmation of love and life. I really felt energized and inspired by it.
Sunday, 22 November 2015
Monday, 16 November 2015
Circling the Sun
Paula McLain
I read a previous book by this author, the Paris Wife. I think I enjoyed that one.
I did not enjoy this book. I forced myself to finish it. I did not enjoy the story and had no sympathy for the main character, Beryl Markham.
Beryl's father brought the family to Kenya in 1904. His wife hated it and went back to England with the son, leaving the daughter and father behind. A psychologist would have a field day with this, leaving your daughter but taking your son...
Beryl's father struggles to build a farm and a horse training business and is not successful. He brings a woman to the farm, a housekeeper/lover. Beryl learns horse training from her father. When her father sells the farm with plans to move to South Africa Beryl decides to marry a local farmer. She is only 16. They don't really know each other and the marriage is a disaster.
She eventually leaves her husband on the pretext of getting training to be a professional horse trainer. She has an affair with a black man. Her behaviour and her affair cause a scandal and she fights with her husband but he won't give her a divorce.
The book portrays lives of the rich/party scene in Kenya. Beryl meets Karen Blixen who is married but having an affair with a man who takes rich people on game hunts, Denys Finch Hutton. Beryl has an affair with him and gets pregnant, she aborts the baby.
She later is a kept woman, then goes on to remarry and have a disabled son whom she leaves in England with her husband and his family.
This woman seemed to have a sad life but you have to wonder how much she brought on herself with her wilfulness. I would have liked to have heard other people's impressions of her in addition to the author's sympathetic tone.
The book drones on over the first few years of her life and then covers her aviation career and the rest of her life in 50 pages. It was like the author herself had enough and wanted to get the book over with.
This book is a best seller but I can't say I agree with its popularity. I guess it is the appeal of the strongly independent woman.
I read a previous book by this author, the Paris Wife. I think I enjoyed that one.
I did not enjoy this book. I forced myself to finish it. I did not enjoy the story and had no sympathy for the main character, Beryl Markham.
Beryl's father brought the family to Kenya in 1904. His wife hated it and went back to England with the son, leaving the daughter and father behind. A psychologist would have a field day with this, leaving your daughter but taking your son...
Beryl's father struggles to build a farm and a horse training business and is not successful. He brings a woman to the farm, a housekeeper/lover. Beryl learns horse training from her father. When her father sells the farm with plans to move to South Africa Beryl decides to marry a local farmer. She is only 16. They don't really know each other and the marriage is a disaster.
She eventually leaves her husband on the pretext of getting training to be a professional horse trainer. She has an affair with a black man. Her behaviour and her affair cause a scandal and she fights with her husband but he won't give her a divorce.
The book portrays lives of the rich/party scene in Kenya. Beryl meets Karen Blixen who is married but having an affair with a man who takes rich people on game hunts, Denys Finch Hutton. Beryl has an affair with him and gets pregnant, she aborts the baby.
She later is a kept woman, then goes on to remarry and have a disabled son whom she leaves in England with her husband and his family.
This woman seemed to have a sad life but you have to wonder how much she brought on herself with her wilfulness. I would have liked to have heard other people's impressions of her in addition to the author's sympathetic tone.
The book drones on over the first few years of her life and then covers her aviation career and the rest of her life in 50 pages. It was like the author herself had enough and wanted to get the book over with.
This book is a best seller but I can't say I agree with its popularity. I guess it is the appeal of the strongly independent woman.
Monday, 9 November 2015
The Nightengale
by Kristin Hannah
This book is the story of two French sisters and their resistance activities during WWII.
The girls' father returns from WWI a broken man. When his wife dies he sends his daughters off to be cared for by another woman. The girls are both devastated at the loss of their mother and the abandonment of their father.
When one of the daughters, Vianne, gets pregnant he is furious. She marries her boyfriend and he sends his other daughter, Isabelle, to live with them. The girls don't get along and the second daughter is sent to various boarding schools from which she gets expelled or runs away.
When the French surrender to the Germans the French hope things won't change much but pretty soon the Germans are taking over Paris, claiming homes, goods, and food. The father sends Isabelle, who has once again been sent home from school, to live with her sister.
Soon the German presence is felt in the small village. Vianne's husband is off fighting. Her priority is to lie low and keep her daughter safe. Isabelle wants to resist and starts distributing French resistance newsletters in the area. Later she goes on to lead airmen who have been shot down over the Pyrenees and back to safety/freedom. The Germans know she is called the Nightengale but don't realize she is a woman. They are trying to track her down.
Meantime Vianne is forced to let a German officer board with her. The first one is a kind man. He even tries to help her out by getting food and other items for her. Vianne is asked to report jews and communists in the area and she is forced by her houseguest to name her neighbour. The woman is rounded up a short time later and Vianne takes on the woman's son, giving him a new Christian name.
When the German accidentally sees that Isabelle has attempted to save an allied pilot Vianne and Isabelle kill him.
The next German houseguest is a brute, he forces Vianne to have sex and threatens to hurt her children if she does not cooperate.
In the end Isabelle is reunited with her father and is surprised to find out he is preparing forged documents for jews.
Isabelle and her father are eventually captured. Her father says he is the Nightengale and is executed. Isabelle is sent to a concentration camp. She survives the camp but contracts TB or pneumonia and dies shortly after she returns home.
Isabelle's son has just moved her into a senior's home. He wants her to be safe. He is shocked when he finds out she is going to France for a reunion. He joins her on her trip. The book ends with Isabelle telling her son (who is actually the product of the German's rape of her)
the story of her life... but not all of it.
This book was superb. It was a great story and really gave you a sense of what life was like for the French during the war.
This book is the story of two French sisters and their resistance activities during WWII.
The girls' father returns from WWI a broken man. When his wife dies he sends his daughters off to be cared for by another woman. The girls are both devastated at the loss of their mother and the abandonment of their father.
When one of the daughters, Vianne, gets pregnant he is furious. She marries her boyfriend and he sends his other daughter, Isabelle, to live with them. The girls don't get along and the second daughter is sent to various boarding schools from which she gets expelled or runs away.
When the French surrender to the Germans the French hope things won't change much but pretty soon the Germans are taking over Paris, claiming homes, goods, and food. The father sends Isabelle, who has once again been sent home from school, to live with her sister.
Soon the German presence is felt in the small village. Vianne's husband is off fighting. Her priority is to lie low and keep her daughter safe. Isabelle wants to resist and starts distributing French resistance newsletters in the area. Later she goes on to lead airmen who have been shot down over the Pyrenees and back to safety/freedom. The Germans know she is called the Nightengale but don't realize she is a woman. They are trying to track her down.
Meantime Vianne is forced to let a German officer board with her. The first one is a kind man. He even tries to help her out by getting food and other items for her. Vianne is asked to report jews and communists in the area and she is forced by her houseguest to name her neighbour. The woman is rounded up a short time later and Vianne takes on the woman's son, giving him a new Christian name.
When the German accidentally sees that Isabelle has attempted to save an allied pilot Vianne and Isabelle kill him.
The next German houseguest is a brute, he forces Vianne to have sex and threatens to hurt her children if she does not cooperate.
In the end Isabelle is reunited with her father and is surprised to find out he is preparing forged documents for jews.
Isabelle and her father are eventually captured. Her father says he is the Nightengale and is executed. Isabelle is sent to a concentration camp. She survives the camp but contracts TB or pneumonia and dies shortly after she returns home.
Isabelle's son has just moved her into a senior's home. He wants her to be safe. He is shocked when he finds out she is going to France for a reunion. He joins her on her trip. The book ends with Isabelle telling her son (who is actually the product of the German's rape of her)
the story of her life... but not all of it.
This book was superb. It was a great story and really gave you a sense of what life was like for the French during the war.
Tuesday, 27 October 2015
At the Water's Edge
by Sara Gruen
This book is the story of three rich/spoiled Americans who head to Scotland to try to prove the existence of the Loch Ness monster.
Maddie and her husband Ellis are cut off from his father after a scandalous New Year's Eve party in 1944. Ellis and his best friend Hank decide the only way to redeem him in his father's eyes is go to Scotland and prove the existence of the Loch Ness monster. His father had tried to do this year before but was proved a a fraud.
Maddie comes from a very unhappy home. Her mother was a bit psycho and only doted on her daughter to make her husband jealous and to have someone to confide in and dump her troubles on. She runs away with a married man but comes back in shame when the man returns to his wife. She accidentally kills herself, taking pills while having a bath. She had expected someone to find her before her demise. Maddie's father had sent her away to a boarding school after a fight with her mother and after seeing the negative impact the woman was having on her daughter. He doesn't seem to have any affection for Maddie.
Maddie meets Ellis and Hank when she sneaks off to one of the family homes. She parties wildly with all the local rich kids and doesn't hesitate when Ellis asks her to marry him.
Despite the war the men find a way to get them on a freighter and they make their way to Scotland where they find accommodation in a small hotel Ellis has registered them in Maddie's family name because he fears a negative reaction to his own family, and he is right, eventually someone sees him and recognizes the resemblance.
As the men cruise the lake, the lakeshore and interview locals Ellis's behaviour to Maddie becomes more rude and dismissive. She had been diagnosed as having a nervous disposition but it is Ellis who is consuming all her pills. Maddie overhears a conversation between the two men indicating that Ellis married her as a result of a coin toss.
The people in town resent the two men not being in the war, both apparently have medical excuses, Hank has flat feet and Ellis is supposedly colour blind. She later realizes that Ellis has faked his colour blindness and threatens to out her. His behaviour to her becomes even more aggressive and he threatens to have her hosptitalized for her nerves. She is terrified that he will do this and she telegraphs her father asking her to help her get out of Scotland. Her father basically responds saying that she has made her bed....
As the men roam about Maddie is bored so she offers to help around the hotel. She becomes friends with the local women who work at the hotel and in the bar/kitchen. She is attracted to the mysterious man, a wounded soldier, who is running the hotel. He had been severely injured in the war but there is a bigger tragedy hanging over him. While he was at war his wife gave birth to a baby girl who only survived a few hours, shortly after his wife receives word that he is believed killed in the war... she is so distraught a the loss of her daughter and the news about her husband that she drowns herself in the loch. A tombstone in the cemetery has the date of the babies death, the death of the wife, though she is not buried there, and the month and year of her husband's assumed death, though he did not die.
Maddie finds out her father has died. She does not tell her husband. She is trying to get instructions on how to get access to the money and leave her husband, but then her husband receives word that his father-in-law has died. He is furious that he was not told. The book ends with the three Americans being at the loch and Maddie's husband tries to drown her. Angus, the soldier, rescues Maddie. The act has been caught on camera but her husband has destroyed the evidence. When Hank finds out all that Ellis has done, the drugs, the attempted murder he is furious and they have a fight. Maddie then learns that her husband has been found dead, having drowned in two inches of water. The officials deem in accidental and Maddie becomes, Lady of the Estate when she marries Angus and finds true happiness.
This was an engaging story, at first I was totally disgusted with the three spoiled and totally self-centered Americans but gradually came to have some little sympathy for Maddie. The book kept you guessing til the end, hoping for a happy outcome.
This book is the story of three rich/spoiled Americans who head to Scotland to try to prove the existence of the Loch Ness monster.
Maddie and her husband Ellis are cut off from his father after a scandalous New Year's Eve party in 1944. Ellis and his best friend Hank decide the only way to redeem him in his father's eyes is go to Scotland and prove the existence of the Loch Ness monster. His father had tried to do this year before but was proved a a fraud.
Maddie comes from a very unhappy home. Her mother was a bit psycho and only doted on her daughter to make her husband jealous and to have someone to confide in and dump her troubles on. She runs away with a married man but comes back in shame when the man returns to his wife. She accidentally kills herself, taking pills while having a bath. She had expected someone to find her before her demise. Maddie's father had sent her away to a boarding school after a fight with her mother and after seeing the negative impact the woman was having on her daughter. He doesn't seem to have any affection for Maddie.
Maddie meets Ellis and Hank when she sneaks off to one of the family homes. She parties wildly with all the local rich kids and doesn't hesitate when Ellis asks her to marry him.
Despite the war the men find a way to get them on a freighter and they make their way to Scotland where they find accommodation in a small hotel Ellis has registered them in Maddie's family name because he fears a negative reaction to his own family, and he is right, eventually someone sees him and recognizes the resemblance.
As the men cruise the lake, the lakeshore and interview locals Ellis's behaviour to Maddie becomes more rude and dismissive. She had been diagnosed as having a nervous disposition but it is Ellis who is consuming all her pills. Maddie overhears a conversation between the two men indicating that Ellis married her as a result of a coin toss.
The people in town resent the two men not being in the war, both apparently have medical excuses, Hank has flat feet and Ellis is supposedly colour blind. She later realizes that Ellis has faked his colour blindness and threatens to out her. His behaviour to her becomes even more aggressive and he threatens to have her hosptitalized for her nerves. She is terrified that he will do this and she telegraphs her father asking her to help her get out of Scotland. Her father basically responds saying that she has made her bed....
As the men roam about Maddie is bored so she offers to help around the hotel. She becomes friends with the local women who work at the hotel and in the bar/kitchen. She is attracted to the mysterious man, a wounded soldier, who is running the hotel. He had been severely injured in the war but there is a bigger tragedy hanging over him. While he was at war his wife gave birth to a baby girl who only survived a few hours, shortly after his wife receives word that he is believed killed in the war... she is so distraught a the loss of her daughter and the news about her husband that she drowns herself in the loch. A tombstone in the cemetery has the date of the babies death, the death of the wife, though she is not buried there, and the month and year of her husband's assumed death, though he did not die.
Maddie finds out her father has died. She does not tell her husband. She is trying to get instructions on how to get access to the money and leave her husband, but then her husband receives word that his father-in-law has died. He is furious that he was not told. The book ends with the three Americans being at the loch and Maddie's husband tries to drown her. Angus, the soldier, rescues Maddie. The act has been caught on camera but her husband has destroyed the evidence. When Hank finds out all that Ellis has done, the drugs, the attempted murder he is furious and they have a fight. Maddie then learns that her husband has been found dead, having drowned in two inches of water. The officials deem in accidental and Maddie becomes, Lady of the Estate when she marries Angus and finds true happiness.
This was an engaging story, at first I was totally disgusted with the three spoiled and totally self-centered Americans but gradually came to have some little sympathy for Maddie. The book kept you guessing til the end, hoping for a happy outcome.
Saturday, 3 October 2015
A Beauty
by Connie Gault
This is another of the books nominated for the Giller Prize this year.
In some ways it reminds me of the book "The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend" in that it is about a young girl that influences life in a small town(s), However, unlike the girl in Broken Wheel the main character in A Beauty seems to leave dissatisfaction and sadness in her wake.
Elena Huhtala has been abandoned by her father on a failing farm on the Canadian prairies. She is starving because there is no food and no money. She doesn't know that her father left her all the money he had but that one of her "friends" dropped into the house and stole it. A note the father leaves seems to imply that he is going to commit suicide.
Elena is swinging on a swing in the yard, so hungry she doesn't even feel it anymore. Neighbours pass by on their way to a town dance and invite her to come along. She agrees to do so. Elena seems to captivate men. Every man who sees her seems to want to marry her, or carry her off, even married men. A stranger arrives at the dance and takes many of the girls for a twirl on the dance floor. He dances with Elena and eventually invites her to leave with him and leave town. She agrees and he takes her to the farm to gather a few clothes. The young man is driving a fancy car. He lies to her and tells her he is a trader. In truth he is the son of a rich man who recently graduated. His father gave him the car as a graduation present.
They drive from town to town, she loses her virginity, he pays for all the accommodations, meals and even buys her some clothes. People they meet along the way and the people she meets later in the story all seem to be affected by her... realizing their lives are not what they had hoped for.
As they are driving across the prairies they come to a sign for a town called Gilroy. For some reason Elena asks him to stop the car and she walks off. He doesn't come after her. If he had she probably would have returned to the car. But he drives off. She arrives in town with no belongings and no money and starts telling fortunes for a dime per person. Again all the men in town are smitten with her. A young girl notices Elena arrive and even thinks Elena saw the girl walking along the tracks looking very lonely. The young girl is frustrated because her father isn't much of a provider and her mother insists that she carry a lot of the burden for caring for the many children in the family. Elena is given accommodation at a local widow's house. She eventually runs off with the young girl's father leaving the family even more destitute.
Some time later Elena's father returns and finds out that she left with a stranger. We find that he left hopefully that would be the impetus for her to leave town and find a better life.... it didn't work out that way. He sets out to search for her and makes his way to several of the towns she visited but he loses the trail. The young girl knows that her father and Elena took a train to Toronto but she doesn't divulge this. She does keep up a written correspondence with the father and also the man who originally carry Elena off. The young man married and had a family but his wife died recently.
Then one day Elena returns to Gilroy. We find out that she dropped the girl's father some time ago and has several relationships since. Elena learns that her father was alive and tried to find her. She decides to return to the farm where she finds him alive and well. The young girl contacts the man who took Elena away and he drives to the farm to see her. She doesn't want to see him but he decides to sit on the porch til she comes out and talks to him.... he doesn't have anything else to do.
This was a very unusual story. You wonder if anyone would really have this overwhelming power over people, you never really hear what Elena is thinking, you are only told what she does so you don't get any idea of her true feelings and motivation. The author did a wonderful job of portraying small town life, the gossiping, the relationships, the busybodies, the despair over the depression and the droughts, the infestation of grasshoppers. Some of the scenes seem to be magical realism, the storms, the sunsets, carriganna pods popping when Elena arrives at the widow's house. etc. What would have happened if the father's money hadn't been stolen? Would Elena have had a happier life and disrupted other people's lives less?
This is another of the books nominated for the Giller Prize this year.
In some ways it reminds me of the book "The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend" in that it is about a young girl that influences life in a small town(s), However, unlike the girl in Broken Wheel the main character in A Beauty seems to leave dissatisfaction and sadness in her wake.
Elena Huhtala has been abandoned by her father on a failing farm on the Canadian prairies. She is starving because there is no food and no money. She doesn't know that her father left her all the money he had but that one of her "friends" dropped into the house and stole it. A note the father leaves seems to imply that he is going to commit suicide.
Elena is swinging on a swing in the yard, so hungry she doesn't even feel it anymore. Neighbours pass by on their way to a town dance and invite her to come along. She agrees to do so. Elena seems to captivate men. Every man who sees her seems to want to marry her, or carry her off, even married men. A stranger arrives at the dance and takes many of the girls for a twirl on the dance floor. He dances with Elena and eventually invites her to leave with him and leave town. She agrees and he takes her to the farm to gather a few clothes. The young man is driving a fancy car. He lies to her and tells her he is a trader. In truth he is the son of a rich man who recently graduated. His father gave him the car as a graduation present.
They drive from town to town, she loses her virginity, he pays for all the accommodations, meals and even buys her some clothes. People they meet along the way and the people she meets later in the story all seem to be affected by her... realizing their lives are not what they had hoped for.
As they are driving across the prairies they come to a sign for a town called Gilroy. For some reason Elena asks him to stop the car and she walks off. He doesn't come after her. If he had she probably would have returned to the car. But he drives off. She arrives in town with no belongings and no money and starts telling fortunes for a dime per person. Again all the men in town are smitten with her. A young girl notices Elena arrive and even thinks Elena saw the girl walking along the tracks looking very lonely. The young girl is frustrated because her father isn't much of a provider and her mother insists that she carry a lot of the burden for caring for the many children in the family. Elena is given accommodation at a local widow's house. She eventually runs off with the young girl's father leaving the family even more destitute.
Some time later Elena's father returns and finds out that she left with a stranger. We find that he left hopefully that would be the impetus for her to leave town and find a better life.... it didn't work out that way. He sets out to search for her and makes his way to several of the towns she visited but he loses the trail. The young girl knows that her father and Elena took a train to Toronto but she doesn't divulge this. She does keep up a written correspondence with the father and also the man who originally carry Elena off. The young man married and had a family but his wife died recently.
Then one day Elena returns to Gilroy. We find out that she dropped the girl's father some time ago and has several relationships since. Elena learns that her father was alive and tried to find her. She decides to return to the farm where she finds him alive and well. The young girl contacts the man who took Elena away and he drives to the farm to see her. She doesn't want to see him but he decides to sit on the porch til she comes out and talks to him.... he doesn't have anything else to do.
This was a very unusual story. You wonder if anyone would really have this overwhelming power over people, you never really hear what Elena is thinking, you are only told what she does so you don't get any idea of her true feelings and motivation. The author did a wonderful job of portraying small town life, the gossiping, the relationships, the busybodies, the despair over the depression and the droughts, the infestation of grasshoppers. Some of the scenes seem to be magical realism, the storms, the sunsets, carriganna pods popping when Elena arrives at the widow's house. etc. What would have happened if the father's money hadn't been stolen? Would Elena have had a happier life and disrupted other people's lives less?
Monday, 28 September 2015
All True Not a Lie in It
by Alix Hawley
This book is by a Kelowna Author. It has been getting a lot of acclaim and is on the Giller Prize longlist this year, deservedly so.
The book is about Daniel Boone, told in the first person. It is about his early life as a young man, then on into the years where he marries and tries to settle down. But he is always restless to be out on the land and hunting. So even when he and his wife get settled he often moves her on.
He like many other adventurers at the time are trying to encroach further into Indian territory in the west. Boone wants to settle down in Kentucky. It seems to beckon him. The Indians of course are fighting back, at one point they capture his daughter and some other girls and Boone and others have to go rescue them.
In the latter part of the book Boone and others have set up a rickety fort. They leave their wives and families behind and head off hunting but are captured by some Shawnee. Most of the men are treated as slaves but for some reason the chief adopts Boone as his replacement son. Although he attaches a guard to him so he won't escape. Boone's people consider him their leader and are angry at him for not figuring out how they can escape. At one point Boone's "father" takes Boone and some of his friends to a British general. The others are sold but Boone's father refuses to sell him. They bartered the me for goods. Boone doesn't seem to feel much if any remorse for the loss/possible death of these people that looked up to him.
A black man living with the Indian's urges Boone to escape with him. But Boone chooses not to do this. The black man then tells the chief that Boone was thinking of escaping and he is imprisoned for a time. He eventually is wed to an Indian woman.
He is haunted by the thoughts of dead family members, and thinks of his first wife and family sometimes but not enough to want to escape. He does live in fear that he will be asked to lead the Indians to the fort and that will result in a massacre. Only at the end of the book does he attempt to return. But we do not find out what has happened to his wife and daughters.
This is an incredible book, the level of detail of the life and conditions is amazing. An incredible amount of research must have gone into it. The author gives so much detail you can see, feel and smell everything about what life would have been like at the time.
This book is by a Kelowna Author. It has been getting a lot of acclaim and is on the Giller Prize longlist this year, deservedly so.
The book is about Daniel Boone, told in the first person. It is about his early life as a young man, then on into the years where he marries and tries to settle down. But he is always restless to be out on the land and hunting. So even when he and his wife get settled he often moves her on.
He like many other adventurers at the time are trying to encroach further into Indian territory in the west. Boone wants to settle down in Kentucky. It seems to beckon him. The Indians of course are fighting back, at one point they capture his daughter and some other girls and Boone and others have to go rescue them.
In the latter part of the book Boone and others have set up a rickety fort. They leave their wives and families behind and head off hunting but are captured by some Shawnee. Most of the men are treated as slaves but for some reason the chief adopts Boone as his replacement son. Although he attaches a guard to him so he won't escape. Boone's people consider him their leader and are angry at him for not figuring out how they can escape. At one point Boone's "father" takes Boone and some of his friends to a British general. The others are sold but Boone's father refuses to sell him. They bartered the me for goods. Boone doesn't seem to feel much if any remorse for the loss/possible death of these people that looked up to him.
A black man living with the Indian's urges Boone to escape with him. But Boone chooses not to do this. The black man then tells the chief that Boone was thinking of escaping and he is imprisoned for a time. He eventually is wed to an Indian woman.
He is haunted by the thoughts of dead family members, and thinks of his first wife and family sometimes but not enough to want to escape. He does live in fear that he will be asked to lead the Indians to the fort and that will result in a massacre. Only at the end of the book does he attempt to return. But we do not find out what has happened to his wife and daughters.
This is an incredible book, the level of detail of the life and conditions is amazing. An incredible amount of research must have gone into it. The author gives so much detail you can see, feel and smell everything about what life would have been like at the time.
Monday, 7 September 2015
The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend
by Katarina Bivald
This book is a gem. It is the debut novel by a Swedish author.
The story is about a 28 year old Swedish woman, a bookworm, who has lost her job at a bookstore when it went out of business. Sara had been sharing letters with an elderly book lover, Amy, in Broken Wheel Iowa. The letters were largely about books but Amy but also tells Sara about the town. She invites Sara to come for a visit and Sara decides to take her up on the offer. What does she have to lose, she has no job and she is a disappointment to her parents.
However, when she arrives in the U.S. Amy isn't there to greet her. Amy has died. A neighbour comes to pick her up and she arrives at Amy's house as the funeral gathering is occuring. She thinks she should leave but the town's people encourage her to stay on, staying at Amy's place.
She agrees to do this and gets to know the half deserted town and its quirky residents. She is bored just reading and decides to take Amy's large collection of books and set up a bookshop in the store that was once Amy's husband's unsuccessful hardware store. The husband predeceased Amy. Sara is convinced that the people in the town aren't readers and she is committed to changing that. At first people just stand outside and watch her reading inside. But gradually they come in to talk and eventually borrow or buy a book.
Word of the bookstore spreads to the nearest town Hope and soon the unimaginable happens, people from Hope come to visit/shop in Broken Wheel. Sara's spunk seems to inspire the who town. The decide to have a fair and a town dance. They realized that Sara is the reason the town has been reinvigorated and the town's people conspire to have one of the few bachelors in town marry Sara so she can stay in the U.S. Sara and the young man actually love each other but are afraid to admit it and soon the immigration people arrive in town to investigate whether a marriage of convenience is being planned.
Things all work out well in the end. A lovely, quirky story. The author did an amazing job of portraying a down and out American small town and the petty politics, scheming, gossiping, etc. that occurs.
This book is a gem. It is the debut novel by a Swedish author.
The story is about a 28 year old Swedish woman, a bookworm, who has lost her job at a bookstore when it went out of business. Sara had been sharing letters with an elderly book lover, Amy, in Broken Wheel Iowa. The letters were largely about books but Amy but also tells Sara about the town. She invites Sara to come for a visit and Sara decides to take her up on the offer. What does she have to lose, she has no job and she is a disappointment to her parents.
However, when she arrives in the U.S. Amy isn't there to greet her. Amy has died. A neighbour comes to pick her up and she arrives at Amy's house as the funeral gathering is occuring. She thinks she should leave but the town's people encourage her to stay on, staying at Amy's place.
She agrees to do this and gets to know the half deserted town and its quirky residents. She is bored just reading and decides to take Amy's large collection of books and set up a bookshop in the store that was once Amy's husband's unsuccessful hardware store. The husband predeceased Amy. Sara is convinced that the people in the town aren't readers and she is committed to changing that. At first people just stand outside and watch her reading inside. But gradually they come in to talk and eventually borrow or buy a book.
Word of the bookstore spreads to the nearest town Hope and soon the unimaginable happens, people from Hope come to visit/shop in Broken Wheel. Sara's spunk seems to inspire the who town. The decide to have a fair and a town dance. They realized that Sara is the reason the town has been reinvigorated and the town's people conspire to have one of the few bachelors in town marry Sara so she can stay in the U.S. Sara and the young man actually love each other but are afraid to admit it and soon the immigration people arrive in town to investigate whether a marriage of convenience is being planned.
Things all work out well in the end. A lovely, quirky story. The author did an amazing job of portraying a down and out American small town and the petty politics, scheming, gossiping, etc. that occurs.
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