When too much description hinders a book

Sylvia by Bryce Courtenay

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Courtenay weaves a captivating tale of quite striking characters into a historical event from the year 1212. The medieval setting is abysmally dark and full of superstition, cruelty, ignorance, and church abuse. Belief in magic and signs and omens rules the populace.

Sylvia, after whom the book is named, rises from unpromising and abused peasant stock to become the petticoat angel. Sylvia's remarkable intelligence combined with her skill in calling birds, learning languages, and amazing the populace figures often in the scrapes she and her friends endure. They attribute miracles to her powers. But she herself struggles with issues of faith and whether she should be a nun.

Her skill is quickly recognized by reinhardt, the Rat Catcher (the piet piper of Hamlin) who adopts and protects her. His magic skill with the flute to call rats to drown in the river or still ravening dogs can also be called upon to accompany the astounding ability of Sylvia to sing either the Latin liturgy or folk songs. She sings like a angel. The two of them wander from town to town mesmerizing the populace until they seek help from a Jewish tailor whose wife sees their potential.

Very early in one of her retreats to the woodland where she can find quiet, Sylvia makes the acquaintance of one of the children who live on the streets. Through an unusual means which I won't disclose, Nicholas of Cologne becomes a preaching sensation and the leader of the Childrens' Crusade to Jerusalem.

This crusade, one of the most bizarre but true happenings of the period is described through the eyes of these three: Sylvia, Nicholas, and Reinhardt, the rat catcher/piped piper.

While the book took me deep into the historal period, I found myself scanning an skipping paragraphs. The author, in my opinion, is much too wordy employing too much description; telling rather than showing. As I read recently from CSLakin, "I really believe it’s true—not just in description but in just about every aspect and element in a novel. Less spoken, more implied. Less shown, more left up to the imagination."

And thus I have given it a 3 rather than a 5.





View all my reviews