Historical Fiction Archives - Page 5 of 10

Yoss

by Odo Hirsch

I am not so good on historical writing, but I think this story is supposed to occur in a time and place like the European Renaissance. The main character is a fourteen-year old boy named Yoss who leaves his isolated village to see the world. He ends up in a sprawling city full of corruption at every turn. The boy is not unintelligent, but has led so sheltered a life that he doesn\’t realize that the first men he meets are thieves. Taking advantage of his ignorance, they involve him in a crime for which the penalty is hanging. He escapes their company and falls in with some beggars instead, who give him a different picture of what life in the city is like. Then two thieves get caught and Yoss is of course included in the accusations. Fortunately he is saved from prison by the very merchant he had helped to rob- not realizing that the man keeps him in conditions equal to slavery. He is a hard worker, cheerful and trusting, and the merchant\’s employees can\’t help but like him. So when the merchant\’s wife wants to meet Yoss (for reasons of her own) the overseer has a hard time refusing. Yoss ends up not only in the secluded upstairs region of the household, but also begins keeping company with a hired artist working on a ceiling mural. The painter figures Yoss might as well help if he\’s going to hang around all day, so he begins learning rudiments of that trade. Meanwhile the thieves are trying to find a way to escape prison, one of them wants revenge, and when the merchant finds out that Yoss has been frequenting the upstairs and his overseer practically lying about it, he wants to throw to boy out (where he could face hanging). It\’s all a pretty pickle, and when the boy thinks about it himself, he can\’t figure how it all came about, why he should be the centre of everyone\’s concerns when he wanted none of the doings himself. He only wants to get home to his village again.

The first time I tried this book I couldn\’t get into it, but this time around I found the story engaging and all the characters interesting on different levels. I will probably want read it again someday.

Rating: 3/5 341 pages, 2001

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Current Reads, Historical Fiction, Young Adult

The Woman at Otowi Crossing

By Frank Waters

In a remote area of New Mexico, Helen runs a tea shop at a now-defunct railroad station. She is feeling rather adrift with the shutting down of the railroad, when her life starts to change. A daughter she had abandoned practically at birth comes to visit, hoping to build a relationship with her mother and ecstatic at the prospect of visiting pueblo ruins (she\’s a budding anthropologist). Helen experiences a change in consciousness, an opening to the oneness of things, a closeness to the slow methodical way of life embodied by the Navajo around her. It grows into a kind of spirituality that causes a rift between her and her long-time lover Turner, an aspiring news reporter. Then a secret government project moves in, taking over a local boys\’ school and blocking off large areas of the desert. In spite of the sworn secrecy and distance he\’s supposed to keep from the locals, one young scientist on the project, Gaylord, becomes involved with the anthropologist girl. The tea room becomes frequented by men from the secret project \”up the Hill\”, the reporter tries to find out what\’s going on up there, and gradually all their lives become intertwined.

I learned fairly soon that the big secret was the making and testing of atomic bombs. The beauty of the southwest setting and the quiet local people is a stark contrast to the dry scientific nature of the terrible project. The horrific potential looming, the shock of people when they found out what was going on, the ridiculous festiveness they brought to the test sites when it was revealed to the press. The characters are a study in contrasts too- the anthropologist a spoiled, passionate headstrong girl, her mother so calm and knowing, understood by few. I really didn\’t get a clear picture of what the legend was that grew around her; even though it was stated numerous times that the locals came to respect then revere her, including her in their sacred ceremonies. I liked how real these characters seemed- complex people each with their own reasons, each of them had something that appealed to me or I could in some way relate to.

Yet I had to force myself thorough to the end, even though I really wanted to like the book. It has a very slow start. The writing can feel rather jumbled; the descriptions of the scientific work was completely unclear to me and the narrative is interspersed with odd present-day snippets showing different individuals reminiscing about the events of the story, as if interviewed by the author. I didn\’t get it. I didn\’t quite get the spirituality that unfolded with Helen, although I liked the glimpses into Navajo culture and faith. But once again, that was not very well-explained and it was only a bit familiar to me because I\’ve read a few other books featuring pueblo groups in the southwest.

It reminded me in some ways of Fire on the Mountain.

Rating: 2/5 314 pages, 1966

More opinions:
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Tags: 2/5- Just Okay, Current Reads, Historical Fiction

Witch Child

by Celia Rees

Mary\’s grandmother, the woman who raised her and taught her healing skills, has been denounced as a witch and put to death. In fear for her own life, Mary flees England to cross the ocean with a group of Puritans who are also seeking to escape persecution. The journey is long and difficult; they finally arrive to discover their companions who had gone ahead are no longer in the original settlement, but have moved deep into the forest. Mary goes along with trepidation- she has no friends in this new land, but doesn\’t really fit in with the Puritans either. She is constantly afraid of coming under suspicion. Her behavior doesn\’t fall under their strict code of living, and when she wanders into the forest to collect herbs, cautiously befriending a native american boy, the colony begins to suspect her. It\’s obvious they want a scapegoat to blame for their troubles, but it disgusted me how the other young women in the colony tried to manipulate the villagers\’ fear against her for their own gain. I found this story riveting and succinctly told; was a bit curious about the sequel but the opening passage from it included at the rear of the book dissuaded me of that- it appears to go in a different direction I\’m not much interested in. I do really like the cover image of this book- it\’s such a simple yet compelling image.

Rating: 3/5 261 pages, 2000

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Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Current Reads, Historical Fiction, Young Adult

The Dark Horse

by Marcus Sedgwick

In a small, struggling coastal settlement during ancient times, life is difficult and getting harder every year. Crops are failing, the fish no longer abundant, winters cold and long. The people are barely surviving. Then they discover a small ragged girl in a wolf cave, and bring her home. She has an uncanny ability to communicate with animals which they mistrust and fear, even as it could save them from starvation. But there is more to her obscure past. While scavenging for food on the shoreline, the wolf girl and her adopted brother find a mysterious, beautiful wooden box among the flotsam. They take it home, but the girl is plagued with a deep fear of it. Then a stranger comes among them, asking for the box. At the same time, rumors are arising of a warring tribe descending from the north, and the tribe is in turmoil as their leadership falters. All these events are in some way connected to the wolf girl, and as they try to first deal with then flee their oncoming fate, she might be their entire undoing. This is a fast-paced story. Well told, with sparse yet vivid language. It definitely kept my attention. Even to the very end, I was never quite anticipating where the story would turn next.

Rating: 3/5 224 pages, 2003

more opinions:
My Favorite Book
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Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Current Reads, Historical Fiction, Young Adult

People of the Book

by Geraldine Brooks

A woman working in the very specialized field of book conservation is brought into Sarajevo to study and write a report on a very rare, ancient Jewish book called a haggadah. She finds bits and fragments of things within the binding and pages- a piece of insect wing, a grain of salt, a single hair, a dark stain and so on. These fragments get taken in turn to other specialists who can reveal something about their nature, and from that historical fiction is spun about where the book came from, where it had traveled, who held on to it and how it changed hands. This book had high promise for me, but I got bored and then disgusted with it. The character of the conservator became annoying. And her constant affairs with colleagues. And her nasty relationship with her mother. After fifty pages I began skimming. At first I was reading the present-day portions (still interested in the details of preserving very old books) and more or less skipping the historical parts which quickly became dense with history too light on character development- I simply could not become interested in any of them. The first piece about a young woman who joins resistant forces hiding in the mountains during the Bosnian war, held me. The second one, about some depraved people (equally desperate) in Vienna, did not. That\’s when I started just thumbing through. I did pick up again the final historical chapter about the actual illustrator, way back in ancient times, the description of the immense labor and time it took to create such beautiful pages was interesting, the constant drama and liaisons were not. Then I started reading the current narrative again and instantly lost focus when it turned into a mystery and crime scene at the end. I didn\’t want to be reading that kind of story. And I\’m not, anymore. Moving on.

Abandoned 372 pages, 2008

Tags: 0/5- Abandoned, Historical Fiction

The Book of Negroes

by Lawrence Hill

Moving story of woman who was abducted and sold into slavery at the age of eleven. She was forced to march for months from her village to the coast, then suffered the horrors of passage on a slave ship. She was sold to the owner of an indigo plantation (I had never read of how indigo dye was made from raw plant material; the brief description in the book prompted me to look more info up online). Later she was sold again to a well-to-do Jewish man and worked in his household in the city. She carried with her skills as a midwife first taught by her mother in Africa, and was eventually able to earn some of her own income as a slave \”hired out\”. Also never forgot where she came from, never lost her burning desire to know more, to learn, and to return home. She learned to read and write, always taught and helped those around her when she could. Her life is a long tale of one degree of suffering and indignity after another. She is torn from her loved ones time and again. I was amazed at the fortitude that kept her going, at the passion that remained between her and her husband, even though they did not see each other for years and decades at a time. She became known as an educated woman among her community, which caught the attention of white people- not always to her benefit. During the Revolutionary War, she was employed to write up a ledger keeping records of blacks who wanted to leave the States- they were promised freedom as Black Loyalists if they had served the British cause. She ended up in Novia Scotia, where after years of struggling to survive, realized that this new life was not living up to its promise. Then she travelled to Africa in a longed-for effort to find her home village, and then eventually ended up in London where she proclaimed her story to help the emancipation effort.

It\’s a long story. I started to loose interest about the point where she moved off the plantation, but the end of the book picked up again, because this was a part of history I knew little about. It was a lot like Roots, but did not feel quite as emotional or powerful to me. This book has been published with another title: Someone Knows My Name.

Rating: 3/5 486 pages, 2007

more opinions:
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Buried in Print
Daisy\’s Book Journal
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So Many Precious Books, So Little Time

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Current Reads, Historical Fiction

The Known World

by Edward P. Jones

This book at first intrigued me with its topic: a free black man who himself owned black slaves, in the years before the Civil War. It’s a Pulitzer Prize winner and some of my family members have recommended it to me. So once again I’m disappointed in not liking, or being able to even read, the book. It introduces far too many characters right from the beginning, an intricate web of relationships throughout this imagined county in Virginia, which I’m sure is satisfying when you see how it all fits together but was difficult to get into. It jumps back and forth in time, doesn’t settle on any one character to focus on, and is packed with facts that distract from the storyline. Sometimes each sentence is so crammed with detail it’s difficult to figure out what the author meant to say. I got the impression he just wanted to show off his research. It does not make for easy reading. I couldn’t get very far, no matter how high the accolades. And this was the third time I tried the book. It’s not getting another chance, sorry. I have too many other things to read.

Rating: Abandoned

388 pages, 2003

more opinions:
Reading Reflections
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Tags: 0/5- Abandoned, Historical Fiction

Cold Mountain

by Charles Frazier

Set in the closing of the Civil War, this is the story of two people, both trying to survive dismal times and remake their lives. Inman is a seriously injured soldier who decides to simply walk out of the hospital, head home and find his pre-war sweetheart. Disgusted with all the waste and killing he has seen and participated in. He walks miles and miles through ruined land, giving help when he can to those who need it, eluding scouts combing the countryside for deserting soldiers, running into all sorts of people, sometimes hearing and relating their stories alongside his own. The alternate storyline is that of his girl Ada, who struggles to pull her father\’s farm back into working order after his death. She was never taught any practical skills (loved books and art, but that would not feed her) and is floundering when another young woman Ruby shows up on her doorstep offering to assist and teach in return for a partnership- not as a hired hand or slave, but eventually a friend. Piece by piece you learn the way of these characters\’ lives, where they have been and where they hope to go, how they scratch a living from every day and plan for a brighter future amid violence and decay. There are some really disgusting people in here, and others who shine when they have no reason to. Ruby teaches Ada some woodslore and how to work with the land. I don\’t know how accurate the depiction is of what times were like during the Civil War, but it seemed a vivid and realistic picture to me. I never gave this book much thought before, seeing its blue spine on my shelf so long, but now I would like to read another by this author. Perhaps Thirteen Moons…

Rating: 3/5 356 pages, 1997

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Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Current Reads, Historical Fiction

My Ántonia

by Willa Cather

This is the story of an immigrant family adjusting to life on the Nebraska prairie during the early 1900\’s. It\’s about one girl in particular, the oldest child of a Bohemian family. Told by their neighbor Jim, it details the family\’s early struggles and how things changed throughout the community as they grew into adulthood. The hard work on the farm, living with deprivation, struggling to learn new ways in a new country, missing the old land. I found the personalities of Ántonia\’s parents intriguing- one caustic and demanding of respect, the other gentle and longing for home. Jim describes Ántonia as a strong, curious, determined girl who worked hard. Later she moves into town to work in a rich family\’s home, but retains her love for the countryside. I won\’t tell you all what happens, but I did admire Ántonia, how she held staunch to her morals, how she made the best of a bad situation, how she was beloved by her children and esteemed by her close friends in the end. It was interesting to see the portrait Cather builds of a frontier town, and how the fortune of several characters didn\’t turn out as you might expect.

But in spite of all that, it was a book I just couldn\’t get into. Partly because I have been preoccupied of late, but also because the story felt distanced to me. Jim the narrator never really tells much about himself, he seems to be a bystander without much personality. And the story of Ántonia is told in a rather dry fashion- events reported, things described, but without much emotion (at least, it didn\’t come through to me). It\’s more the story of a town and of the wide landscapes, and I wasn\’t quite in the mood for that. In fact, the entire thing came across to me as a grown-up version of a Little House on the Prairie story. Which is not at all meant to be insulting- Wilder\’s books are very good!

This is one of those books I\’d always meant to read, and it\’s a classic, so I feel kind of bad not appreciating it more. As if I\’m missing something. I\’ve heard it\’s one of her best novels so now I have misgivings to try any more Cather, which disappoints me as well. Maybe later down the road…

Rating: 3/5 290 pages, 1918

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Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Classics, Current Reads, Historical Fiction

Dandelions

by Eve Bunting

This is the story of a family that moves west across the plains in a covered wagon: a father, expectant mother and two daughters. They settle on a claim in Nebraska Territory, but there are no near neighbors. The pictures show how wide, flat and empty the land seems. The older girl narrates the story, telling how lonely they feel. They have to do everything for themselves: sow the crops, dig a well, build a house. When driving three hours to the nearest homestead they can no longer see their sod home, swallowed up in the expanse of prairie grasses. Near the end of the book the older girl accompanies her father into town while her mother and younger sister stay with neighbors (there\’s some sibling jealousy here!) She\’s anxious about leaving her mom and sister behind, but excited to see the town. It\’s full of shops, dust and strangers. Just as they are leaving to return home, she spots a clump of bright yellow flowers growing in a corner- dandelions. She wants to dig them up and take home to her mother. Of course we see dandelions as a pesky weed, but the tough plant was a spot of brightness to them. And it made me smile to see what they did with the flowers: planted them on the sod roof of the house! So they could see it from afar, a bright patch of gold above the prairie grass. The illustrations are oil paintings by Greg Shed, with lifted out areas that show the texture of canvas underneath. I remember learning this painting method in art school and I really admire how it\’s done here.

Rating: 4/5 52 pages, 1995

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Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Current Reads, Historical Fiction, Picture Books

Tag: Historical Fiction

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