In the High Peaks
















Monday, April 21, 2014

Do Read The Lie, If It's on Your 2014 List!

I loved the experience of reading The Lie by Helen Dunmore. (Please see my previous entry for the book cover, links, and other comments.) I've heard comments from people who have not liked the ending, but I can sweep the ending aside, because it was only a few lines long and not the point of the book, not at all! But, you folks are right, I would've completed this novel in a different way, and I like to think of that ending so much that I can forget the few words about the real ending.

But I implore you not to cross this book off your list, solely because of the ending. I think it's exquisitely written, sensitive, incredibly "subtle," as one reviewer noted, and well worth the time spent. I liked it nearly as much as her previous novel, The Greatcoat, which is high praise from me, because it was one of my top reads of 2013.

Where do I head next?
I'm working on the gothic I mentioned a couple of weeks ago--The Fate of Mercy Alban by Wendy Webb. I'm reading it on the Nook and must say that it is very well done. Set on the wild, windy shores of Lake Superior in the U.S.  Marvelous setting and plot!

And I'm continuing to be enthralled by books revealing 17th-century colonial New England. This is my first time examining this period of time, and it is so fascinating. I'm particularly interested in the cataclysmic event of that century, King Philip's War, the Indian war that killed more English colonists (percentage-wise in terms of population) than Americans in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and World Wars I and II). Furthermore, this war, sadly, decimated the Native American population in New England. To think I studied American history in junior high school, high school, and college and never heard it mentioned. What a heinous omission.

4 comments:

  1. Don't get me started on the history midwestern high schools, etc. taught us. Pathetic. This book sounds very interesting and I've never heard of this battle either growing up in Michigan. So much American history we never learned or learned about incorrectly. This book sounds very interesting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, Pam,
      I was interested in this war from childhood because my father's father was a WWI veteran. As I discovered in adulthood, he wasn't on the frontlines--he was in the rear dealing with getting food provisions to the front. So whenever I heard or came across anything about the war I always "perked up my eyes and ears."

      Delete
  2. I'll add this post to my post, Judith.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Caroline!
      It seems there's a post previous to this one. I'll try to add this to a follow-up. Always behind the times!
      Judith

      Delete