I think I'm too young and too happy with my life to identify with the characters in this book. None of my "rough patches" have been similar to theirs. This all sounds awful to say, but it very well may be why I found this book so boring. Granted, a lot does happen and the pace of the narrative was excellent - I just never cared for the characters.
The Reading Group brings together five women for a year's worth of monthly book club meetings. While they do talk about the books (although extremely briefly) the novel is more about the lives and families of the women and how much can happen in just one year. The book takes place in England, all the characters are British - a fact that doesn't usually bother me, but this time I kept getting hung up on the unfamiliar slang. Not understanding all the references that were made might have softened the impact of certain events in the story for me.
It's pretty easy to sum up our ladies into stereotypical characters: one whose husband cheats, the divorcee finding love again, one suffering a female mid-life crisis, the one coming to terms with the mortality of a parent, and lastly the one who thought she knew what she wanted in life but really had it all wrong. I think the simplistic packaging each of these women can fit into really detracts from the ability to form an emotional attachment to them unless you've gone through what they're experiencing. And, while they endure more than just what their stereotypical definitions entail, I found myself unable to be sympathetic.
If you look at the book as a whole, without concentrating on the characters themselves, I do really like the message - that it's the hard spots in life that can bring a group of people together. Especially when women come together, the bond that forms is unbreakable. It's amazing having close female friends to talk to about everything. I just didn't feel like this message was the main trust of the book. To me, this book was written to prove the point that life can be crap and is a lot of the time, but things usually work out (Oh, and read books). Not really a message I need to wait 400+ pages to get to though.
Pick this up if a) you're in a book club or b) you're past the point in your life where everyone you know is newly married or first-time parents.
A little magic, some Salem history, and a missing book being traced through multiple generations of uniquely gifted women; The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane is a fictionalized account of a book containing recipes to heal just about anything. For me, the setting was the lure. Our main character, Connie, studies at Harvard and spends the one particular summer where we meet her in Marblehead, Mass. She's also in-and-out of Salem and Boston - my old stomping ground. So, the setting drew me in, but the story itself kept me speeding through the story.
The narrative shifts between the generations of women who have owned the Physick Book and Connie's search to find the book which has been lost for a few centuries. I'd say present-day when referring to Connie's part of the story, but her portion actually takes place in the early 90's, a more fitting setting since the lack of technology in everyday life at this time plays perfectly within in the story. Cell phones and laptop computers are replaced with pay phones and card catalogues.
Connie is in search of the Physick Book in order to uncover a new, original source from the Salem witch trials that will help launch her academic career. We see Connie's path to locate the book at the same as flashbacks to how the book was used centuries ago.
The great thing about this mystery story is it's not just about the mystery. Howe puts as much energy into her characters as she does the book and its historical context. We meet Connie's roommate, mom, academic advisor, grad student she's mentoring, and more as fully-formed characters (not just tiny side pieces). We get flashbacks into Connie's own memories as she begins to put the book's mystery together so we learn more about her beyond her search. Even Connie's Grandmother's house, Connie's home base in the novel, feels like a character. Howe doesn't assume that solving the mystery will be enough for the reader - she gives you so much more to be interested in.
Then, there's the element of magic. It's so subtle and yet important. No wands or any big fanfare, it just feels real. Unlike other books, the magic here is just an additive to our world, not some secret layer existing alongside the reality we know. It's something organic and feels like it belongs.
This book combines so many genres - historical fiction, mystery, fantasy - that is really does have something for everyone.
The second book in her Matched Trilogy, Condie takes YA fiction in a post-dystopian society with a strong, young female lead in a unique direction. Rather than concentrate on the action - essentially the fight against societal norms and control - Condie focuses on her characters and what leads them to the choices they make throughout the story.
In league with this focus on choice, Condie introduces a second narrator. While in Matched we only heard from Cassia, Crossed brings in the voice of Ky, her boyfriend, as a narrator. Both characters have led such different lives and are making choices from such different viewpoints that the action in the story really stems from the disparity in their thoughts and inner turmoils rather than any action taking place around them.
Because of this, I fell Condie kept the external action to a minimum. In Crossed, Cassia and Ky have both been sent to the Outer Provinces where a war is waging between Citizens and members of The Rising. Both of them escape their assigned locations and, along with some additional help, end up reuniting in The Carving - a cave system that felt a little Grand Canyonish to me. As they travel through The Carving trying to find the rebellion we learn about the history behind those who decided to live outside Society, Ky's past, and what both he and Cassia are willing to do for love.
This is a book about inner strength, about using what you know but also what you feel for others to make those hard choices that will define your life. It's so much more than the second part of an epic journey that could eventually bring down a corrupt way of life. I don't know what the final installment in this trilogy will hold, but I'm definitely looking forward to both the outcome for this world and of the lives of the characters we have really gotten a chance to know.
Mary Bennet, the middle sister in Pride and Prejudice never really had much depth of character. She wasn't an insatiable flirt like Lydia and Kitty nor of marrying age like Jane and Elizabeth. As a result, she floats through the story hardly noticed in Austen's extremely popular novel. This gives McCullough a lot of wiggle room to imagine a life for Mary well into spinsterhood.
Mary reaches her independence in her late 30's well after the marriages of all her other sisters and only due to the passing of her mother, the nosy Mrs. Bennet. Defying proper behavior of a single woman, Mary decides to explore the plight of the poor in England first-hand in order to write a book. She travels alone via transport used mainly by a poorer class of people which paves the way for all kinds of drama and intrigue.
In true McCullough fashion we're brought into a world where nobody is really happy to start with, yet they're all doing what need to be done to stay alive and take care of each other. While things improve for mostly everyone by the end the road isn't easy. Not everyone makes it. Full of lots of intense moments and heightened situations, Miss Mary Bennet's path to independence is an exciting story. The tone feels like a mix between a romance novel of today (without the sex) and a Gothic novel from the Victorian Era (without the supernatural element).
This was an interesting read although Mary doesn't feature as prevalently as I had thought before opening up the book. She's hardly a player until the last quarter of the novel. The narrative is more about the entire Bennet family and the people who have been pulled into their lives. I'd list this book as a quick, action-packed read good for a plane trip or somewhere where you have to sit and wait for a long time. If you really want to sample McCullough's work though and haven't read The Thorn Birds yet run out and get that today!
