Keturah And Lord Death
Front Street - Front Street
Release date: 2006-11-05
Hardcover
Author: Martine Leavitt
Juvenile Fiction, Children's Books - Young Adult Fiction, Children's Books/Ages 9-12 Fiction, Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9), Legends, Myths, & Fables - General, Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic, Love & Romance, Social Issues - Death & Dying, Death, Fiction, Interpersonal relations, Love
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Keturah And Lord Death
Date undefinedAfter being lost in the forest near her home for 3 days, 16 year-old Keturah sits and waits for death. Lord Death, as she addresses him, appears as a young lord on a black stallion. She expresses her desire to do one more thing--to find her true love. She uses her ability to tell stories to forestall her end. Lord Death is impressed with her, so he grants her one more day, and one more day, and yet another day. We follow Keturah as she searches for her true love among her poor village and as she tries to save the village from the coming plague that Lord Death said is coming.
The book immediately pulls you into the story. Without even trying, the characters are all well rounded and the story flows. I was really impressed how each word written drives the story forward--no fluff or fillers, just actual story. Even though we can see where the story will end, the journey is what is important.
I've added this to favorites and will read it again with pleasure.
Keturah And Lord Death
Date undefinedThis one has been getting lots of good press and was a National Book Award Finalist for 2006. KETURAH AND LORD DEATH is a sort of Scheherezade meets Beauty and the Beast meets the Persephone myth, in which a young woman is forced to spin a new tale each night to keep her captor from killing her. In this version, her captor is, in fact, Death himself (hence the Persephone connection), and he actually lets her go on the condition that she will return the following night with the end of the tale. Should she be able to find her true love in that time, he will release her from her promise and Death will no longer stalk young Keturah.
The story is set in the rather charmingly vague village of Tide-by-Rood, located at the far edge of the country of Angleland. The setting exuded a sort of The Canterbury Tales (Penguin Classics) feel, while the townspeople reminded me of the denizens of a Hawthorne novel, everyone suspicious of everyone else and nobody with the guts to question the status quo or talk about the things that need talking about. In the course of trying to save herself from Lord Death and her village from the plague, Keturah steps up and speaks out in order to unite the villagers under a common cause. I liked the setting, the names, and the people. The world Martine Leavitt set up is full of dark shadows and possibilities.
It was about 100 pages when things started to pick up for me. It felt like Leavitt sort of found her stride at that point. The writing felt a little deeper, the pace a little more controlled. The thing is, the book is only 216 pages long and the halfway mark proved a little to late to really suck me in. I felt like I was reading the abridged version of a full-length work. It needed to be either 100 pages shorter or 200 pages longer. As is, it felt too abbreviated. I never could get a handle on Keturah or Lord Death. Neither one felt fully formed. They were both shadowy compositions and every time I tried to glimpse them clearly, they slipped behind a tree and out of sight. I really did want to get to know them better but never got the chance because the book was over, she'd made her choice, and I was left with just a taste of something that could have been delicious but now I'll never know.
Keturah And Lord Death
Date undefinedWe have seen similar stories before: "Death Takes a Holiday", and "Meet Joe Black" are several examples that come to mind. Throw in a dash of Scheherazade, and you have Leavitt's version, "Keturah and Lord Death". This is a gentle retelling, suitable for young adults (it was chosen as a Junior Library Guild selection). Set during Medieval times, with all of its squalor and disease, beautiful 16-year-old Keturah lives in a small village with her grandmother. After being lost in the forest for 3 days, she has resigned herself to death. When it comes, she is surprised to find that Death is a lordly and darkly handsome man. When he grudgingly agrees that she is too young to die, he offers to spare her life in exchange for the life of one of her fellow villagers. Not wishing to condemn another, she is able to forestall Death, much like Scheherazade, by telling him a love story. She refuses to end her story, promising that if he allows her one more day, she will come back the next evening to finish her tale, and remain with him. Lord Death grants her request, even going so far as to tell her that if she can find her one true love before day's end, a love that is greater than death, he will relinquish his claim on her. What follows details Keturah's ingenious methods to continue putting off Lord Death, as she comes to realize who her true love really is.
This fast-paced story can easily be read in an afternoon. Leavitt peoples her story with the literary archetypes found in classical fairy tales: the village "witch" with 7 sons, the Lord and Lady of the castle with a son of marriageable age, the beautiful commoner who must perform tasks to gain her freedom and the happiness of those she loves, a magic charm with the power to reveal the man who will make her happy, and the mysterious man desperate for her love. I would highly recommend this book for both young adults and adults; it is a mythological story appropriate for all ages.
