A nostalgic examination of the effects of war, bigotry, and lost opportunities.
Historical fiction about a Croatian woman coming-of-age in war-torn Europe.
Raguz (The Labyrinth of Vukovar, 2016) begins this sweeping tale in the early 20th century as a young Jewish woman discovers that’s she’s become pregnant by her Christian boyfriend. Unable to confess to her family, Bertha Klein runs away to another Slovenian city and changes her identity. Later, Bertha dies during childbirth, leaving her seamstress friend, Lucia, to raise baby Emma. Lucia and her husband rear the girl as their own, treating her as kindly as they do their older sons. But Emma’s peaceful childhood is disrupted when the effects of war and poverty hit her small Croatian town. After Emma reaches her teenage years, Lucia secures her a job as a maid in a nearly empty castle, and the young woman dutifully sends her wages back to her family. Eventually, the quiet castle receives long-term guests, including a handsome young baron, Erik Farkas. Emma and Erik are drawn to each other, but they know that their social status will prevent any future together. Even so, they enjoy an intense tryst before Erik and his family members depart. Emma is even more devastated when she discovers that she’s pregnant. As she pines for her lost love, she raises her son, experiences relationships with other men, and tries to survive war and political strife. In straightforward prose, this story covers nearly a full century, chronicling historical events in Croatia and Hungary right along with those in Emma’s personal life. The tale is rich with detail about the intimidation tactics of the Communist regime in Croatia (“If you omitted something or dared to lie to us, you’ll be held accountable,” one militia man tells Emma), and about the hopelessness that many everyday people experienced, due in part to mass persecutions. That said, the story’s 700-plus pages could have been easily pared down without sacrificing any of the suspense that it manages to build during the wartime sections. Overall, though, Raguz tells an engaging tale that sheds light on its era.
A nostalgic examination of the effects of war, bigotry, and lost opportunities.Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5246-5395-8
Page Count: 744
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.
Another reboot of Jane Austen?!? Hadlow pulls it off in a smart, heartfelt novel devoted to bookish Mary, middle of the five sisters in Pride and Prejudice.
Part 1 recaps Pride and Prejudice through Mary’s eyes, climaxing with the humiliating moment when she sings poorly at a party and older sister Elizabeth goads their father to cut her off in front of everyone. The sisters’ friend Charlotte, who marries the unctuous Mr. Collins after Elizabeth rejects him, emerges as a pivotal character; her conversations with Mary are even tougher-minded here than those with Elizabeth depicted by Austen. In Part 2, two years later, Mary observes on a visit that Charlotte is deferential but remote with her husband; she forms an intellectual friendship with the neglected and surprisingly nice Mr. Collins that leads to Charlotte’s asking Mary to leave. In Part 3, Mary finds refuge in London with her kindly aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. Mrs. Gardiner is the second motherly woman, after Longbourn housekeeper Mrs. Hill, to try to undo the psychic damage wrought by Mary’s actual mother, shallow, status-obsessed Mrs. Bennet, by building up her confidence and buying her some nice clothes (funded by guilt-ridden Lizzy). Sure enough, two suitors appear: Tom Hayward, a poetry-loving lawyer who relishes Mary’s intellect but urges her to also express her feelings; and William Ryder, charming but feckless inheritor of a large fortune, whom naturally Mrs. Bennet loudly favors. It takes some maneuvering to orchestrate the estrangement of Mary and Tom, so clearly right for each other, but debut novelist Hadlow manages it with aplomb in a bravura passage describing a walking tour of the Lake District rife with seething complications furthered by odious Caroline Bingley. Her comeuppance at Mary’s hands marks the welcome final step in our heroine’s transformation from a self-doubting wallflower to a vibrant, self-assured woman who deserves her happy ending. Hadlow traces that progression with sensitivity, emotional clarity, and a quiet edge of social criticism Austen would have relished.
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-12941-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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