Year of Wonders
Penguin (Non-Classics) - Penguin (Non-Classics)
Release date: 2002-04-30
Paperback
Author: Geraldine Brooks
Fiction, Fiction - Historical, Fiction / Historical, Historical - General, 1603-1714, Stuarts, Charles II, 1660-1685, Great Britain, History
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Year of Wonders
Date undefinedI just this moment finished reading Year of Wonder. Anytime I find myself talking to the pages as if they would me in reply I know it's a great read. I was elated to get to the end as the ending was not at all what I expected. As a matter of fact I scarcely imagined Anna & Michael's rendezvous, though I hoped for it once Elinor was gone.
The story is fluid & engaging & it drew me in like a friend confessing a her truth to me in confidence. I am glad that I generally choose what I read based on the way the cover looks. Year of Wonder like the painting on the cover is a sensual, full-bodied tale chocked full of historical references & language (including idioms that I had to research)that made the story most believable. I was swept into the story & enjoyed it immensely. I plan to add this to my own library so that I may read it again.
I highly recommend the book to anyone - man or woman, who has a taste for brilliant literary storytelling.
Year of Wonders
Date undefined'Year of Wonders' is a fantastically well-written novel based on the real English village of Eyam, where fictional residents chose to seal themselves off from the rest of the country in an effort to quell the spread of the plague in 1665. As conditions in the town worsen and the residents begin to die overnight and in mass numbers, resident and widow Anna Frith must help the Mompellions cope with the disasterous effects of disease, fear, religious zeal and murder. While the book was far more graphic than I expected, I was very affected by it -- it's not a novel you'll soon forget. I found myself doing a lot of research on the Plague and English history after finishing Brooks' fine work.
Year of Wonders
Date undefinedI'm writing this as a reader who went out and immediately grabbed "Year of Wonders" after reading and enjoying "March."
No doubt a ton of research went into "Year of Wonders" but I would caution potential readers with the fact that Anna Frith, the main narrator, is just too perfect. And this gives the book a strange quality. Anna tends the sick, she manages as a teenage widow and mother, she is dutiful, forthright, and everywhere. At the end, she is tending to the mental (and then physical) well-being of her employer, a vicar. The plague is all around her and she refers to her sadness but we never feel it. The voice is distant, disaffected. It's reflective. It's the old "and then something incredible happened" kind of thing. The incidents throughout the book feel set up to show us how much Brooks learned about the period--whether it's about alternative medicine of the period, flagellation, or bits about commerce and farming. There's no tension. Okay, there's very little. Anna never so much as coughs or has a bad health day. She seems to rise above the action, to float above it even as others around to depths of misery and despair. The last wrinkle, the bizarre turn of events with Michael Mompellion, felt tacked-on; the relationship between Mompellion and Anna only surfaces as a point of potential interest and conflict after the plague cloud has started to lift.
Definitely worth reading if you are a fan of historical fiction. Brooks has a terrific eye for detail and creating a compelling backdrop. The main action just never seemed to rise and take off.
