A fascinating, gritty and brutal story about relationships and human resilien...moreReview by John originally posted at Layers of Thought.
4.5 stars actually.
A fascinating, gritty and brutal story about relationships and human resilience set mainly during the American Civil War. Learn about some of the awful history behind Chinese immigration in America. And don’t be deceived by the cover – this is not a cutesy love story.
About: Johnny Tom is a Chinese immigrant in the US during the mid-1800s, and like most Chinese is subject to the most brutal and horrendous racial discrimination. He eventually escapes slavery and runs away with a native Indian woman, living a hard but relatively peaceful life in a hideaway settlement out in the wilds. When the Civil War breaks out, the Confederate army sweeps through and forces Johnny and other men to join up.
Detested and ill-treated by the Confederates, he manages to escape and offers his services to the Union army, fervently believing in their anti-slavery cause. Unfortunately he finds his treatment at the hands of the Federals isn’t much better than he received from the Confederates, but he is tough and determined and manages to start making a name for himself thanks to his wisdom, kindness and fierce fighting abilities. Twice he is captured by the Confederate army and manages to survive stints in their abysmal prisoner-of-war camps; he also survives several battles before finding himself lined up with the Union army at Gettysburg.
Meanwhile Era, the daughter that he had with his Indian wife, had to survive her own horrors. But she eventually goes in search of her beloved father which leads to her becoming a battlefield nurse for the Confederate army, while secretly spying on behalf of the Union. She experiences the worst butchery, both as a result of the fighting and at the hands of an ill-equipped medical system that hacks away at survivors in crude attempts to save their lives. Exhausted, horrified and depressed, she forms a bond with an amputee whom she helps recuperate, eventually falling in love with the Confederate soldier. She is now tremendously conflicted – her father and her lover fight for different sides in the war, and she is forced to secretly undermine the efforts of her lover’s army in exchange for the Federals supposedly helping her to track down her father.
As the murderous war heads towards a bloody climax, so too does her increasingly fraught relationship with her lover.
John’s thoughts: This is a powerful novel. I was somewhat misled by the book’s cover which might lead you to expect romance and chivalry; but what you get is one of the most brutal accounts of war and discrimination that I have ever read. Certainly at the book’s heart are powerful, complex and loving relationships, but the backdrop and the circumstances are truly horrific – which I have to say made for a riveting read.
The three main characters in the book are all fascinating and Davenport does a great job of fleshing out their complex personalities. Johnny Tom in particular is a wonderful person who endures his awful experiences with a wisdom and purity that shines from the pages. Era and her lover are much darker and grittier characters that are nonetheless quite believable. It’s interesting and intriguing to learn that two of the three are based on actual ancestors of Davenport. Clearly she had to create and embellish the story around them, but some of the factual foundations are true.
As I got through the book I had no idea how things were going to end up - which is a good thing. I don’t want to spoil the read for anyone so I can’t say much about the ending. Personally I wasn’t quite sure that I liked the ending, as the tale went from gritty realism to something that wasn’t quite so believable. But a few days after finishing the book I’ve come to appreciate it more.
The book was educational for me on a few fronts. For example, I hadn’t realized the depths of discrimination that Chinese immigrants faced in America; and, while I was already well aware of the brutality and mass destruction of the Civil War, I hadn’t realized quite how barbaric was the medical treatment of soldiers that survived the battles.
All in all this is a very good and highly recommended read. I’d rate it 4.5 stars. Seek it out if you like historical fiction, Civil War literature, realistic war novels or really gritty love stories. In particular, if you want to learn more about some of the sad history of Chinese immigration in America, this is a good place to start. (less)
A historical novel set in England and Alaska during Victorian times. It has Native Ala...more3.5 stars actually. Original review posted at Layers of Thought.
A historical novel set in England and Alaska during Victorian times. It has Native Alaskan mythology with a bit from the British Isles woven through it.
About: Marie is a young woman who has grown up without her mum. Living with her wealthy father in England, the household’s cook tells Marie stories that lead her to believe that her mum was a selkie – a mythological creature that is seal in the ocean and human on land. It becomes a key belief for Marie and draws her to the sea.
When Marie’s father, decides to marry Marie off to a much older and overweight widow, Marie barely escapes by pretending to want to help in the efforts to Christianize the native population at a small mission in Alaska. It is after all close to the sea. Full of hope and wishing to connect with her selkie heritage, she arrives in Alaska to live with a very devout woman, who controls her every move and her kind husband who has an understanding for the Native Alaskan culture.
As the outpost’s teacher, Marie is asked to help the local children learn and become Christian with strict bible quoting lessons. However Marie has other ideas about how to teach the Natives and finds that she feels connected more to them than with her own people.
Thoughts: This was an engrossing historical novel that has mythology from two cultures embedded in it. I truly enjoy stories that contain myth, and with this particular novel one can almost consider it as having a slight speculative edge. Apparently the author has done some in-depth research into Native Alaskan heritage, so the novel has given a glimpse into a not very well know culture and created an intriguing subject mater to learn about.
Set during in the late 1800’s, when women had very little say about what they could do with their lives and were required to live within strict rules of conduct, our main character had to use indirect manipulations to evade things like her planned marriage. She goes even further to violate the cultural mores of the time but I will not spoil this dramatic story for you. But because Marie is a heroine who dares to go against these required behaviors, with consequences, it gives the story a feminist flavor.
I enjoyed Selkie Dreams with its romance, mythological core and its absolute drop-off-a-cliff shocker of an ending. I was completely blown away. It’s a 3.5 stars in my opinion and recommended for those who like strong female leads, reading about different cultures, stories set in Victorian times, and historical fiction with a touch of romance.(less)
Shellie (Layers of Thought)
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Books:
genre-historical-fiction
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