Theresa Smith's Blog, page 100
July 10, 2019
Book Review: You’ll Never See Me Again by Lesley Pearse
About the Book:
You have to keep running if you want to survive.
When her husband returns shell-shocked and broken from the Great War and his mother makes her life a misery, Betty Wellow discovers how bitter and hard life can truly be. But it is not until a devastating storm sweeps through their small fishing village and endangers her life, that she sees her chance to escape – and takes it.
Fleeing to Bristol, she changes her name to Mabel Brook and takes a position as a maid. But tragedy strikes once more after the sudden death of her mistress and she is cast back onto the streets.
Penniless and alone Mabel suffers a brutal attack before being rescued by a psychic named Nora Nightingale. There she gets her first taste of those who receive messages from the dead and realises she may have this gift herself.
But it isn’t long before Mabel receives her own message and is forced back to the very place she has escaped. A place of heartbreak and perhaps even murder – but Mabel realises that to secure her future she must confront her past one last time.
Heart-pounding, exhilarating and ever suspenseful, Lesley Pearse’s You’ll Never See Me Again is a tale of one woman’s fight to find her destiny.
My Thoughts:
I’m quite partial to Lesley Pearse’s historical fiction. It’s reminiscent of past favourites Catherine Cookson and Josephine Cox: stories of strong women overcoming adversity and forging new paths for themselves against a backdrop of British history.
You’ll Never See Me Again was an engaging read from start to finish. Betty/Mabel was a kind-hearted and considerate woman, and in a moment of extreme anguish and fear, she makes a decision to disappear from her existing life and begins another. This decision is not without consequence for Mabel and it weighs on her heavily, never really leaving her conscience. Even long after she’s settled into her new life, a situation unfolds where she is faced with a moral dilemma that puts her new life at risk and she acts unselfishly by returning to the home she fled to help a person who really doesn’t deserve Mabel’s consideration. As far as characters go, Mabel was well fleshed out, not without her flaws but infused with a sense of morality that served her well on many occasions.
The novel is set against the backdrop of the Great War in regional England. It deals with many themes: soldiers returning with shell shock; the Spanish flu epidemic; the changing class dynamics; and the discontent associated with the large numbers of German soldiers kept in POW camps in the countryside. There’s a shocking scene of hatred in which a man receives the telegram to let him know of his son’s death and he reacts by brutally attacking a German prisoner working on his farm. It’s one of those moments that steal your breath: the volatility of grief and having the enemy on your doorstep, working your land in the way that your son should be. It was such a clear moment of trauma within the story and handled very well within the context of the times in which the story was set.
This was a time of social change throughout England, yet much of it was out of necessity rather than progression, which was still to come. Justice wasn’t always aligned with the crime, not just in the above example in the case of the farmer, but again, later in the novel, when Mabel herself is brutally attacked. She is discouraged by the police and counselled to just quietly get on with her life lest she make herself look bad by pressing charges. Another area touched on was the notion of spiritual mediums hosting large-scale communions with the dead. England had never seen such loss, men dead from the war and even more people dying from Spanish flu. I thought this was an interesting angle to introduce into the story, less about whether you believe in this sort of thing or not and more about the morality of taking money to ease people’s suffering by providing them with messages from their dearly departed. It certainly seemed like a profitable industry. I liked how Mabel grappled with her unwanted talent in this area.
So, there were certainly a lot of themes explored with some depth throughout this novel. It’s a very busy story but it all moves along and comes together in the end quite well. The second half of the novel put me in mind of Downton Abbey, just the setting, era, and issues, along with some of the characters, sans the opulence and wealth. I really enjoyed this one and I recommend it highly to fans of historical fiction set during WWI with a focus on life on the home front and the changing social issues of the era.
Thanks is extended to Penguin Random House Australia for providing me with a copy of You’ll Never See Me Again for review.
About the Author:
Lesley Pearse was brought up in South London in various orphanages from the age of three. She learned about the Soho club scene and the music business during the Sixties with the late John Pritchard. Her novels have sold over ten million copies worldwide. Lesley has three daughters and three grandchildren and lives in Bristol.
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You’ll Never See Me Again
Published by Penguin Random House Australia
Released on 2nd July 2019
July 9, 2019
Book Review: Claire Malone Changes the World by Nadia L. King; Illustrated by Alisa Knatko
About the Book:
A new generation of children…
They are not afraid of taking responsibilities any more, but they are rather keen on addressing problems. Claire is one of them. The moment she sees the broken swing and the cracked slide in the children’s park in her neighbourhood, she decides to take action. Not surprisingly, her way of reaching a solution is an interesting and innovative one. You will love the journey of Claire, a strong and ambitious girl, so much that you will want to read this book over and over again.
My Thoughts:
It’s been a long time between picture books for me, but not so long that I have forgotten the elements that use to draw me towards one. Claire Malone Changes the World is a quaint story about a little girl with the world at her fingertips and a big social conscience in the making.
I liked how Nadia shows both the negative and positive aspects of children having access to the internet. As much as we all might like to limit children’s online access, the fact is, it’s a big part of their world. Even if we limit usage at home, they’re using it at school. But what does all this online news and endless galleries of images from around the world do to children? Is it worrying them? Are they becoming fearful of this world they live in? Are they viewing life without hope or are they developing a social conscience? I feel that all of these questions are explored with depth in this children’s story. Through the character of Claire Malone, Nadia puts a new spin on children’s understanding of global issues and their online access, applying her trademark insight and understanding on what makes young people tick.
For me, a big part of the appeal of a children’s book is the illustrations. Not only do they need to be aesthetically pleasing, they need to also assist with telling the story. Children often pick up a picture book on their own, leafing through and ‘reading’ it to themselves. The more closely aligned to the story the illustrations are, the more a child is able to make sense of the story themselves. I loved the illustrations in this book, not only the style and proliferation of colour, but the way in which they told the story. This is a great match between author and illustrator and it would be lovely to see Claire Malone go on some more adventures of childhood empowerment.
Claire Malone Changes the World is a lovely picture book and I think it would make an ideal addition to many a children’s book case.
Thanks is extended to the author for providing me with a copy of Claire Malone Changes the World for review.
About the Author:
Australian author, Nadia L King was born in Dublin, Ireland. Nadia is a children’s author and short story writer.
Nadia’s first picture book ‘Claire Malone Changes the World’ is due for release in Europe by Dixi Books in November, 2019.
A second edition of her debut young adult novella, ‘Jenna’s Truth’ is published by WA boutique publisher, Serenity Press. Kirkus Review has described Jenna’s Truth as “a deeply affecting, valuable story and educational tool.”
Her short stories for adults have been published in Australia and internationally.
Nadia lives in Western Australia with her family.
To connect with Nadia, please visit her website.
About the Illustrator:
Alisa Knatko was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. From her earliest childhood she was passionate about drawing. Having worked in academic art, digital design, advertising and even web design, Alisa found her ideal field in freelance illustration. Her style is a mixed technique that includes balanced composition, graphic appeal of lines, expressive poses and minimalistic colour scheme with random patterns and textures. Alisa gets her inspiration from the beautiful city of Saint-Petersburg, her two little kids, ballet dancing and just sitting in a local coffee shop, contemplating people passing by.
Claire Malone Changes the World
Published by Dixi Books
Released November 2019
Purchase at: Amazon
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July 8, 2019
Book Review: The Binding by Bridget Collins
About the Book:
Imagine you could erase your grief.
Imagine you could forget your pain.
Imagine you could hide a secret.
Forever.
Emmett Farmer is working in the fields when a letter arrives summoning him to begin an apprenticeship. He will work for a Bookbinder, a vocation that arouses fear, superstition and prejudice – but one neither he nor his parents can afford to refuse.
He will learn to hand-craft beautiful volumes, and within each he will capture something unique and extraordinary: a memory. If there’s something you want to forget, he can help. If there’s something you need to erase, he can assist. Your past will be stored safely in a book and you will never remember your secret, however terrible.
In a vault under his mentor’s workshop, row upon row of books – and memories – are meticulously stored and recorded.
Then one day Emmett makes an astonishing discovery: one of them has his name on it.
THE BINDING is an unforgettable, magical novel: a boundary-defying love story and a unique literary event.
My Thoughts:
Every so often you read a novel that is so blinding in its brilliance: uniquely plotted and beautifully written. For me, these sorts of reads are almost always historical fiction, and more often than not, they seem to contain a dash of magical realism with a gothic grace. The Binding is many things: a story of love, betrayal, society at its most depraved, of class and the abuse of power for both profit and entertainment.
‘He didn’t give me time to answer. Before I had time not to believe him he’d leapt the stream and was halfway across the next field, his feet slipping in the mud, his clothes already soaked and dripping. Maybe I should have followed him; but somehow it went from too soon to too late, without the right moment in between.’
Imagine a world in which books are feared. Written by specialist binders who hear your secrets and then bind them up into a book, a sacred object that takes the place of your memories, the things you can no longer live with. No one can speak to you of it; not the secret nor the binding. But imagine now a world where greed and depravity play their hands, using the power of book binding to cover abuses and crimes, over and over, leaving victims like empty vessels, bound again and again, their books no longer secret and protected, but traded for profit.
‘I can’t settle. It’s as if someone is just ahead of me, leaving every room just before I open the door. No matter where I go I have the same sensation, as if the warmth of someone else’s breath still hangs in the air.’
The Binding tells its story in three parts. It’s a novel that spins the reader around and takes them in several different directions. I recommend reading the physical book instead of an eBook if you can. It’s truly beautiful and enhances the reading experience. You are reading a book about beautiful books after all. I know this review is rather vague, but I don’t want to even drop a hint of a spoiler and it’s one novel where the less you know going in, the better. Trust me on this, if you love historical fiction, magical realism, gothic undertones, and tragic love stories, then The Binding needs to be your next read.
‘But he grips my shoulders and holds me steady. I let him take my whole weight. I can hear his heartbeat. When I raise my head he stares at me, eyes intent and hesitant. It sends a sting of exposure through me.’
The Binding was recommended to me by Carpe Librum.
About the Author:
Bridget Collins trained as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art after reading English at King’s College, Cambridge. She is the author of seven acclaimed books for young adults and has had two plays produced, one at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The Binding is her first adult novel.
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The Binding
Published by HarperCollins – GB
Released on 31st December 2018
July 7, 2019
Book Review: The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt by Andrea Bobotis
About the Book:
One spinster sister must unravel the complicated secrets of her family to reveal their true legacy.
Judith inherited all the Kratt family had to offer – the pie safe, the copper clock, the murder that no one talked about. She’s presided over the house quite well, thank you very much, admittedly with some help from her companion, Olva.
But her wayward younger sister suddenly returns home after decades, sparking an inventory of all that belongs to them. Set in the hard-luck cotton town of Bound, South Carolina – which the Kratts used to rule but which now struggles to contain its worst instincts – the new household overflows with memories.
Interweaving the present with chilling flashbacks from one fateful evening in 1929, Judith pieces together a list of what matters. Untangling the legacy of the family misfortunes will require help from every one of them, no matter how tight their bond, how long they’ve called Bound home, or what they own.
My Thoughts:
The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt opens with a newspaper clipping:
“ Murder Stuns Distinguished Family
Quincy Kratt, age 14, sustained a fatal gunshot wound to his person in the early hours of Friday, December 20. Young Mr. Kratt was a scion of the cotton industry in Bound, South Carolina. His father, the influential businessman Brayburn Kratt, is one of our local captains of that industry. The principal suspect in the shooting is a negro called Charlie Watson, who is employed by the Kratt Mercantile Company and whose whereabouts are as yet unknown.
York Herald, Saturday, December 21, 1929.”
And instantly I was caught up in this novel. My mind immediately attributed Quincy’s death to an accident, but it’s apparent from the first chapter that Quincy was in fact murdered. Which just added a whole other layer of intrigue, because why would a fourteen year old be murdered? In all of my imaginings, I did not even come close to guessing the full tragedy beating at the heart of this family. But let’s rewind a bit. Before we get to Quincy, I want to introduce you to Daddy Kratt.
“It’s a question of what we own. Do you own your own life? If you have never had to ask that question, you are fortunate indeed.”
Daddy Kratt is a self-made man, born poor, but smart, he moved to Bound as a young man with the profits of luck rattling around in his pocket. He ingratiated himself with the richest family in town, made himself indispensable to them before marrying their daughter and sliding in to undercut and steal their business dealings. At the time we meet him, in 1929, he owns everything in Bound, from the businesses and rural enterprises that employ people to the houses he rents out to Bound’s poorest residents. If there’s a business he doesn’t own or have a few fingers in, then he’s working on a way to acquire it. That’s where Quincy comes in.
Quincy, at fourteen, is a master spy. His job as such is to lurk, eavesdrop, spy, blackmail, and report back to Daddy Kratt. He runs a little racket on the side of course, because he’s fully aware that while his father utilises his talents whenever he wishes, his father has no time for him beyond this. In fact, despite being the only son, his father appears to despise him. Not so with Judith, the eldest daughter. At sixteen, she is running the accounts for Daddy Kratt’s department store. While in no way affectionate towards her, he appears to have an appreciation for Judith that elevates her, an esteem for her intelligence. Quincy can’t seem to help himself from hating Judith for this, despite their mutual fear of Daddy Kratt. Rosemarie, the youngest, doesn’t factor all that much except to skip out on punishments and disappear for hours on end, effectively shirking any responsibility for anything at all. She’s very much a nothing character but she has her role to play as a catalyst twice over within the story.
It’s Judith that Daddy Kratt seems to be shaping into his right hand. He asks the most abominable things of her, and out fear, and to some degree, pleasure of being the favoured one, she always complies, even if her actions and those of her father’s sit uneasy within her. An example is collecting the rents. Daddy Kratt brings Judith along on this pilgrimage, sending her in to each poor family to collect the rents owed that they have no chance of paying. For each family who can’t pay, he makes Judith repossess some of their belongings, items of no value to him, yet mean everything to them. A child’s toy wrenched out of crying arms, or an elderly man’s pipe snatched from his lips; Kratt is a disgraceful man who is blatantly shaping his daughter into his own image. Judith knows these things are wrong, yet she complies every time. It’s not until Daddy Kratt asks Judith to organise a lynching mob for a man she works with, and respects, that she actually stops and examines her own conscience and draws a line in the dirt.
“Quincy always knew everything that was going on around him and everything that was about to happen. It was a kind of ecstasy for my brother, at least I imagined it in this way, that in his final moments on earth, he would be taken by surprise.”
When we meet Judith in 1989, she is the matriarch of her family’s estate, the keeper of all of their belongings. She rattles around the mansion with Olva as her companion, yet it’s apparent from the outset that their relationship is not as straight forward as I initially assumed. Olva waits on Judith, and this seems wrong, that a black woman would be the servant of a white one, still in the same position that she was back in the 1920s. But as the story of the past unravels, we see the complexities that layer Judith’s relationship with Olva. When Rosemarie returns to the family home, she’s intent on rocking the boat, deliberately provoking Judith and undermining Olva’s position. But Rosemarie in actuality knows nothing about her own family, having chosen to run away at the age of thirteen, right after her brother’s murder. It’s been sixty years since anyone in the family has seen her.
“It’s a luxury to be able to write or speak in the way you want.”
There’s a lot of sadness within this story and a lot of hatred too. The racism is profound, but likely in keeping with the times and the context of the Kratts position within a small town in the South in the early decades of the 20th century. But even in 1989, it’s not subtle, and as well as racism, we also see the effects of being labelled as inter-generational white trash. As Judith creates an inventory of the contents of her estate, the story from the past unwinds. With the clever use of the inventory, Miss Judith Kratt’s last list has items added to it at the end of each chapter, the list growing alongside the recollection of the horrors of the past. It’s cleverly done. Whilst in many ways this novel is utterly depressing, it’s a portrait of small town America from times gone by. The contrasting of 1929 and 1989 is interesting, to see that racial and class dynamic sixty years apart within the one small, and frankly, dead end southern town. There’s a lot of violence within the novel, but again, it’s all within context. Overall, it’s a beautifully written novel, passages of gorgeous prose with even the most horrendous things depicted with an elegance that lend weight and purpose to the depravity. The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt is an impressive novel, a slice of American history put under the microscope within the context of one family, that many might wish was left in the shadows.
“That last trip to the depot, Judith and I shared the most extraordinary sunset. The earth was both affirming its vastness and reflecting the sprawling wilderness of our souls. Right in front of us, the clouds broke, and the westerly sun asserted itself. It had been waiting behind the depot and , given the opportunity, reached long arms of light straight through the abandoned building, undeterred by two sets of murky windows, until it assembled that light in golden planks on the ground in front of us. I reached over and took Judith’s hand in mine. We would rest our eyes on that place until we couldn’t any longer. We would watch. We are watching . Before us, a house of light is being built, one that will be gone tomorrow.”
Thanks is extended to Sourcebooks Landmark via NetGalley for providing me with a copy of The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt for review.
About the Author:
Andrea Bobotis was born and raised in South Carolina and received her PhD in English Literature from the University of Virginia. Her fiction has received awards from the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest and the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, and her essays on Irish writers have appeared in journals such as Victorian Studies and the Irish University Review. She lives with her family in Denver, Colorado, where she teaches creative writing at Lighthouse Writers Workshop. The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt is her debut novel.
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The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt
Published by Sourcebooks Landmark
Released on 9th July 2019
July 5, 2019
Six Degrees of Separation: From Where the Wild Things Are to The Light Between Oceans…
Time for Six Degrees of Separation!
You can find the details and rules of the #6degrees meme at bookaremyfavouriteandbest, but in a nutshell, everyone has the same starting book and from there, you connect to other books. Some of the connections made are so impressive, it’s a lot of fun to follow.
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The starting book for July is Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.
Goodreads description:
One night Max puts on his wolf suit and makes mischief of one kind and another, so his mother calls him ‘Wild Thing’ and sends him to bed without his supper.
That night a forest begins to grow in Max’s room and an ocean rushes by with a boat to take Max to the place where the wild things are.
Max tames the wild things and crowns himself as their king, and then the wild rumpus begins!
But when Max has sent the monsters to bed, and everything is quiet, he starts to feel lonely and realises it is time to sail home to the place where someone loves him best of all.
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Right from the moment I saw it was this book, one particular connection popped into my head and I haven’t been able to shake it since so I’m just going with it. My current copy of Where the Wild Things Are was a gift for my children from my oldest and dearest friend. She also gifted to me another book many years ago which I adored and still do, being the first book in what is hands down my favourite book series: Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati. Now, my initial connection with these two books was that they were both gifted by the same friend, but notice something else? They both contain the word ‘wild’ in the title, so double points (joking here of course, there are no points).
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From here I’m using the North American wilderness link to jump to Girl in the Woods, a memoir written by Aspen Matis, which documents her journey hiking the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail leading from Mexico to Canada, as a means of dealing with being raped at college.
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So while on the topic of rape, my next book is Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, an incredibly powerful novel that spent some time on the banned books list in the US. After reading this novel, I watched the movie with my then 14 year old daughter as a means of opening up discussion about the important content.
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Speaking of my daughter, she has recently borrowed Star-crossed by Minnie Darke from me, as she has a beginning interest in astrology. This was such a fun read, and you don’t need to be into astrology to enjoy it!
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Another book with ‘star’ in the title is John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, which I love! I shed so many tears while reading this book, it’s no exaggeration when I say I was sobbing, head in my hands, the whole works.
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Much the way I was while reading The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman…
And there you have it! From Where the Wild Things Are to The Light Between Oceans. Until next month’s #6degrees…
#BookBingo – Round 14
Now, this category is a lot harder than it might seem because I really don’t read all that much fiction written by men, occupational hazard I suppose, given my focus and work for the Australian Women Writers Challenge. The last book by an Australian man I read filled the crime category, but I’ve finally read another! I really should read more from our Aussie men, I always enjoy what I’ve read.
Written by an Australian man:
The Rip is a novel about homelessness and addiction, about people who have felt the sharp edges of life and become tangled in too deep. It’s also about loyalty, and reaching out to other people, no matter how many times they say no. And it’s about vulnerability, how incredibly vulnerable young people are when they are addicted to drugs and live on the streets. It’s this vulnerability that has remained with me, etching itself into my consciousness. We think we know all about predators, but what we know, from our cosy homes with locking doors and safely tucked up children is nothing compared to what street kids face. That’s the powerful punch this novel packs, you think you know the story, but then the story actually shows itself to you, in all its glory, and you want to look away but you can’t.
The Rip was an edge of your seat read and I couldn’t put it down, I read it straight through in one evening. It really is a novel for our times. Highly recommended.
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For 2019, I’m teaming up with Mrs B’s Book Reviews and The Book Muse for an even bigger, and more challenging book bingo. We’d love to have you join us. Every second Saturday throughout 2019, we’ll post our latest round. We invite you to join in at any stage, just pop the link to your bingo posts into the comments section of our bingo posts each fortnight so we can visit you. If you’re not a blogger, feel free to just write your book titles and thoughts on the books into the comments section each fortnight, and tag us on social media if you are playing along that way.
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July 4, 2019
The Week That Was…
First week of the school holidays down. If that’s not a tragedy, I don’t know what is! I had a mental list of household jobs that I wanted to get through these holidays. I’ve done none. But there’s been plenty of reading and tea drinking happening so maybe my body is trying to tell me something…slow down, rest, and refresh. Term 3 is always a busy one in senior high school, I know I’ll regret it if I waste this break rushing around cleaning things that no one ever notices anyway.
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Much of my week has been consumed with a frustrating blog issue. On Monday, I could no longer comment on other blogs. I didn’t know how much I liked to blog chat until I could no longer do it. After much trial and error and emailing back and forth to Akismet, who handle the flow of comments on WordPress, I am back in action – four days later! They don’t know why it happened, but they changed some things to my user and assured me all should be well from here on in. Lets hope so! Thanks to Lisa from ANZ LitLovers for her assistance with sorting this out.
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I got this gorgeous card in the mail this week from an author:
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The artist is Christine Upton, who lives and works in the Murray River town of Corowa. I love Australian parrots, particularly cockatoos. I can imagine this as a large print on my living room wall. I get a lot of emails and messages from authors and I appreciate them all but every so often I’ll get a beautiful card like this in the mail. There’s something special about physical mail, I think. That time taken to send someone a tangible thank you. It’s a lovely gesture.
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Read of the week:
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Joke of the week:
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I watched last week’s episode of The Handmaid’s Tale over the weekend. I think they’ve officially ‘lost the plot’ and I mean that literally, not metaphorically. I don’t plan on watching anymore. There’s just far too much circling around and not enough forward progression for me. A real let down after my earlier enthusiasm for this season, but it wouldn’t be the first TV series I’ve ditched part way through.
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How perfect is this winter weather:
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The only time you’re probably jealous I live in the outback!
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I finally made a start on my classics challenge with a re-read of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Seven books to go!
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What I’m reading right now:
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Until next week…
July 3, 2019
The Classics Eight: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
About the Book:
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In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne takes readers back to the puritan days of the American colonies, into a society as unforgiving as its harsh New England winters. The story of Hester Prynne, who bears a scarlet “A” upon her breast as a symbol of her adultery, and that of her pious lover who atones in tormented silence, is one that has captivated readers since its publication in 1850. Adapted to numerous plays, films, and operas.
My Thoughts:
Originally published in 1850, The Scarlet Letter is a novel of historical fiction set in the puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649. It was one of the first mass-produced books in America. I’ve read it before, many years ago, but decided on a re-read as part of my Classics Eight challenge. It was put back onto my radar by my niece who had to read it for one of her Year 12 English units. Quite a slog for a school read, if you ask me. The dialogue is rather Shakespearean, in keeping with the era in which it’s set. I love the language within this novel, but it’s definitely more complex reading than what some other classics may contain, and I can’t imagine my daughter, who is also in Year 12, coping with this novel. The language would have put her off immediately. Now, given that this is a classic, I’m going to freely discuss it without a care for spoilers. So if you truly still don’t know what this novel is about, even after all of the various forms of adaptation, don’t read any further.
There is an introduction to this novel, written by Hawthorne himself in the style of what we commonly see nowadays under the title of ‘Author Note’, however it goes on for about 35 pages and is fairly dry reading. In the second edition, which I have, he has also written an introduction to his previous introduction. One can make some fairly spot on assumptions about Nathaniel Hawthorne based on this, and I mean no disrespect but he makes me chuckle a bit. I wonder what he might have done with a third edition… Anyway, the main and first introduction ends with Hawthorne describing how he found an embroidered letter “A” wrapped in an old document in the Customs House where he was working. Hawthorne learns the letter was placed there by a previous employee, Surveyor Pue, who had died suddenly before the Revolution. The document contains the story of Hester Prynne and her scarlet letter, and Hawthorne claims his novel is merely an expanded version of this document. In short, he claims The Scarlet Letter is a true story:
…it should be borne carefully in mind, that the main facts of that story are authorized and authenticated by the document of Mr. Surveyor Pue. The original papers, together with the scarlet letter itself, – a most curious relic, – are still in my possession, and shall be freely exhibited to whomsoever, induced by the great interest of the narrative, may desire a sight of them.
This has been proven untrue and is simply a literary device to make his story seem more authentic, just as he incorporated real people (such as Governor Bellingham and the accused witch Anne Hibbens) into the narrative. I think it’s important to point this out because there are no notes in the back of the novel to refute this introductory claim. There is a case from history though, from the era and location in which this novel is set, of a woman who was accused of adultery, but she was actually branded with her A. Perhaps Nathaniel felt this reality might have been too horrific for his story, hence he makes Hester’s A an embroidered letter attached to her outer garments. He also claimed that The Scarlet Letter was a romance, so the embroidered letter offers a more gentle punishment than an actual branding, although realistically, the puritans of early New England were not known for dishing out light punishments for anything. As to the whole romance aspect, more tragic love story in my opinion, but classics do this well, the angst and desperation of deep love. You just don’t see this in contemporary love stories and romance has evolved into a very different genre to when Nathaniel Hawthorne would have labelled his novel as such.
‘Love, whether newly born, or aroused from a death-like slumber, must always create a sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world.’
The major theme of The Scarlet Letter is shaming and social stigmatisation, both in terms of Hester’s public humiliation and Dimmesdale’s private shame and fear of exposure. Notably, their liaison is never spoken of, so the circumstances that lead to Hester’s pregnancy, and how their affair was kept secret, never become part of the plot. The focus is on after the affair, the consequences of their actions within the context of the society in which they live. This is largely why I struggle to acknowledge The Scarlet Letter as a romance. We aren’t privy to their romance, that’s all in the past by the time we join them. But I’ll let that go and move on now! I found it very interesting how Hawthorne conveys the extent of Hester’s punishment. On the face of it, she has to wear a big red A on her outer garments. So what? But Hawthorne likens this to a scar, a permanent stain that sets her apart. The longer she wears it though, the response from the community begins to change, and it affords her a certain notoriety that is not entirely negative. For Hester though, it results in a lot of shame and loneliness that pervades all aspects of her existence. While others can see it without really seeing it, this is not so for Hester. The A is imprinted upon her. Indeed, her own child doesn’t even recognise her without it on. Moving on to the father of her child, a young pastor named Arthur Dimmesdale. He keeps quiet about the affair, but we learn later that this was at the urging of Hester. He begins to sicken and also repeatedly carves an A into his skin over his heart, exactly where Hester wears hers, but his of course is covered and no one but him knows it’s there, the only outward indication that it is there being the tendency he has of always shielding the spot with his hand. I have always been in two minds about Dimmesdale. Did he make himself sick from the shame of sinning against the puritan laws of God, or did he make himself sick from allowing Hester, his love, to publicly bear his shame for years whilst he retained his wholesome standing within the community? In my more generous moments, I attribute both reasons to him, but there are plenty of occasions when I think the worst of him. In the end, it hardly matters. He dies, rather melodramatically from his shame, thus conveniently retaining his reputation as a martyr whilst also avoiding all of the responsibility of his own actions as well his obligations towards Hester and his daughter, Pearl.
‘It is to the credit of human nature that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates.’
Hawthorne shows some surprising insight about the treatment of women in puritan New England throughout this novel. I say surprising because he wrote this during the mid 19th century, hardly contemporary times and women still had few rights then. For someone from this era to raise his eyebrows at the treatment of women conveys much about just how grim it was to be a woman in 17th century New England. Hawthorne also demonstrates throughout the novel a rather progressive view about children. I say progressive because historically, the value of children has been very much reduced to property and purpose. From his 19th century gaze, Hawthorne is rather indulgent with regards to Pearl, Hester’s daughter. He paints her as an anomaly because in a time when children were very much expected to be seen and not heard, she made sure she was both. Consequently, she was shunned, not just because of her mother’s shame, but because she was suspected as being otherworldly. He gifts Pearl with a cheeky precociousness that is more reminiscent of an indulged 19th century child than a 17th century puritan one. Even Hester, her own mother, claims repeatedly to not understand her. But it’s this very precociousness and curiosity that makes Pearl intuitive about the people around her. She gives the story a third eye, for want of another phrase, a view of good and evil reduced to a childlike simplicity. She identifies her own father’s hypocrisy with discomforting clarity and intuits danger from the other children she encounters, pre-emptively striking against them as a means of self-defence. She’s often naughty, seemingly insensitive to her mother’s ongoing anguish. She’s quite a complex little character and Hawthorne created her with a fairly liberal hand, shaping her into an important character within the overall story.
The Scarlet Letter is a real treasure of a novel, in my opinion. It offers contemporary readers a view of a society that formed the basis of early American life. Hawthorne claims, from his place in 19th century New England, that the puritan ways still lingered, and not for the better; an interesting evaluation for him to publicly make. Of course, this part of America is the same one that conducted the Salem witch trials. It’s a society that was born out of fundamentalism, indeed, the colonists themselves had left England, the old country, in a bid to shrug off Catholicism and indulgence, with a view on beginning their lives anew in ‘purity’. Perhaps aspects of this linger there still. As far as classics go, The Scarlet Letter is a challenging read but a rewarding one. There is an omnipresent narration that reminds you right the way through that this is a cautionary tale, a love story doomed from the beginning. I think Hawthorne was a bit ahead of his times, with this novel anyway. I do really love a classic that is also an historical fiction. The impressions of an author writing about the 17th century from the distance of the 19th century is vastly different to a modern interpretation of the 17th century and therein lies its value sociologically. Needless to say, The Scarlet Letter is one of my recommended classics.
July 2, 2019
Challenge Check In – June
Another month down for 2019. Let’s look at the numbers.
#aww2019: 6 books
#AussieAuthor19: all done with this one. You can visit my challenge completion post here.
Book Bingo with Mrs B’s Book Reviews and The Book Muse: 0 but I’ve got this challenge scheduled up into October now, so there’s plenty of time to read to my remaining squares.
The Classics Eight: I’m on this. Really, I have a plan!
Total books read in June: 12
Same as last month! It’s school holidays now so I expect July will show a greater number of books read. A reading highlight for this month is having read three non-fiction titles! This is a lot for me – and each of them was excellent. I’ll be making inroads into the classics challenge these school holidays, I have bought The Women in Black and want to read at least one more while I have the luxury of time.
Until next month…
July 1, 2019
Behind the Pen with Carol Jones
I am delighted to welcome Carol Jones to Behind the Pen today, here to talk about her latest release, The Boy with Blue Trousers.
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What is your favourite character from one of your novels and why?
Little Cat from The Boy with Blue Trousers is my new favourite. She’s so feisty! Not all women in 19th-century China had bound feet and little freedom. In some parts of southern China, girls lived together in girls’ houses during their teens and some chose not to marry at all. Legend also has it that two well-known forms of kung fu originated with women.
What is your favourite scene from one of your novels and why?
I’m really happy with the scene in my new book where English governess Violet Hartley first realises that the boy in blue trousers is actually a girl. I won’t spoil it by telling you exactly what happens, but Violet’s response is a bit cheeky.
How far has your writing career evolved from when you first began to write to what it is today? Is this in line with your initial expectations?
Oh, my published writing career began decades ago with a series of high school English textbooks that I wrote with a friend. But I had already written a novel that never saw the light of day (thank goodness!). From textbooks, I began writing magazine articles for children’s magazines, then later young adult and children’s novels. I also wrote many books for the educational sector, both non-fiction and fiction. So it has been a long and winding journey to my current career as a writer of historical novels. I have loved every minute of it, although I had no expectations when I began. I went where the moment took me.
What inspired your most recent novel?
As a lover of Australian history I have always been fascinated by the story of the Chinese trek to gold. In 1856 and 1857, 16 500 hopeful immigrants from China landed in Robe, and had to walk 200 miles to the goldfields. Only one was a woman. I thought there had to be another woman hiding somewhere amongst all those men. During some of the most tumultuous times in history, women have disguised themselves as men to join armies and go to sea.
But a story is sown from many seeds. I had read about the ‘self-combed’ (so-called because they put their hair up in buns themselves rather than waiting until marriage) women of the Pearl River Delta of China while researching The Concubine’s Child and wanted to explore this idea in the character of Little Cat. Then too, I love characters like Scarlet O’Hara in Gone with the Wind and Becky Sharpe in Vanity Fair. I love their unapologetic selfishness, combined with an off-hand kindness, and wanted to create my own loveable rogue of a woman. And of course, my grandfather was briefly a bullock driver in Queensland in the 1920s and I thought it would be fun to make one of my main characters a bullocky.
How much research do you do? How do you balance the demands of getting the facts right and telling a good story?
That’s a good question. I do so much research, reading dozens of books, trawling the internet for old photographs and primary documents, talking to people about local history, and where possible, visiting the places where my books are set. I like to think that anything factual in the story is as correct as I can get it. Having said that, I do my best not to let research get in the way of telling a good story. The challenge is to create a compelling atmosphere, not give a history lesson. Sometimes this can be quite difficult, especially when you are writing for a variety of audiences. With The Concubine’s Child I was writing for English speaking readers in many countries, including Malaysia where the story was set. So I had to balance giving enough background information for non-Malaysian readers to engage with the story while not boring Malaysian readers with stuff they knew. It was quite challenging.
Do you read your book reviews? Do you appreciate reader feedback and take it on board, even if it is negative? How do you deal with negative feedback after spending so much time writing your book?
I do read my reviews if I see them. I don’t have thousands yet so it’s not difficult! And you do learn from them. Negative criticism that’s coming from a genuine place doesn’t worry me. I like to discover how readers respond to my characters and my story. However, occasionally you will get a review where you think clearly the reader was never going to like the book. They can be quite harsh, not because of the quality of the writing, but because something about the story offends them. In my case they might have strong views about writers only writing in their Own Voice, or they hate dual timeline stories etc. In cases like that I do wonder why they would bother reading it at all. Factors like this are obvious from the cover and blurb.
Where do you normally write? Is it in the same place every day or are you an all over the place writer?
I usually write at the desk in my study where I have a view of the water. It’s very calming (also very distracting). But when I’m revising I print my work out, then I like to veg out on the sofa. Preferably with a cup of tea.
What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
I love love love to travel, and now that my partner is retired and our children are adults we can travel any time. Travel is so inspiring too. Plus, I drag him along on research trips so he can drive while I take notes and photographs.
What authors and types of books do you love the most?
I think you can guess that I love historical fiction. Hilary Mantel, Philippa Gregory, Lisa See, Elizabeth Chadwick and Kate Morton are some of my favourites. But I’m quite an eclectic reader and will delve into sci-fi, fantasy, mysteries and contemporary fiction as well.
How has being Australian impacted on your writing and/or writing career?
I’m interested in the place where worlds meet: cultures, histories, environments, languages etc. And I think that’s probably because I’m Australian. In Australia we straddle two regions, Asia and the Pacific, plus we have a European sensibility from our colonial past. We still struggle to reconcile our First Nations with our immigrant history. We are a melting pot of so many cultures, and because we are such a large country our climate and environment have vast range. My personal heritage in Australia goes back to the 1840s with various European ancestors, yet my husband’s ancestors originated in China, via Malaysia. So our children, like Australia itself, straddle many worlds. In my writing, I would like to explore as many of these worlds as I can. I write to find out rather than to tell.
The Boy with Blue Trousers
1856, China
In the mulberry groves of the Pearl River Delta, eighteen-year-old Little Cat carries a terrible secret. And so, in disguise as a boy in blue trousers, she makes the long and difficult passage to Australia, a faraway land of untold riches where it is said the rivers run with gold.
1857, Australia
Violet Hartley has arrived off the boat from England, fleeing scandal back home. Like the Chinese immigrants seeking their fortunes on the goldfields, Violet is seduced by the promise of a new frontier. Then she meets Little Cat, a woman who, like her, is trying to escape her past.
As their fates inextricably, devastatingly entwine, their story becomes one of freedom, violence, love and vengeance, echoing across the landscapes of two great continents.
About Carol :
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Largely set in Malaysia, The Concubine’s Child was my debut novel for adults. Decades of annual visits to stay with my husband’s family, have given me an extended view of life in this culturally diverse nation, especially in the Chinese community. My second novel, The Boy With Blue Trousers, continues my interest in the Chinese diaspora but this time in 19th-century Australia, when many thousands of people from southern China made the long journey to Australia in search of gold.
I was born far away from Malaysia, in Brisbane, Australia, but have lived most of my life in Melbourne. I taught English and Drama in secondary schools before working as an editor of children’s magazines. I have been a full-time author since 1999 and am the author of several young adult novels as well as children’s fiction and non-fiction. Married with two twenty-something children, I live in a city apartment overlooking the water in Melbourne.
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The Boy with Blue Trousers
Published by HarperCollins Publishers Australia – Head of Zeus GB
Released on 17th June 2019
