Despite sweet moments and intriguing historical insights, this fictional tale about a beloved novelist lacks an...
In this second installment of a “what if” trilogy, Jane Austen experiences the wonders of marriage.
Hemingway’s (The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen: Volume I, 2015, etc.) sequel picks up after Jane’s wedding to the fictional Ashton Dennis. On the homefront, Jane enjoys marital bliss— including a robust sex life—and the difficulties of running a large estate. Despite a few missteps, she eventually has the downstairs staff and her judgmental mother-in-law under control. And happily for Jane and Ashton, they soon find themselves getting ready to welcome a new baby into the fold. While Jane wrestles with the ramifications of her marriage and impending motherhood (particularly a loss of time to devote to writing), Ashton focuses his money and attention on the wonders of technology. Letters between Ashton, Jane, and her sister, Cassandra, detail conversations and experiments involving railroads, high-efficiency stoves, gaslighting, and textile ventures. While these conversations are largely positive, the more complicated pieces of communication involve slavery and the abolitionist movement. Jane and Ashton find themselves drawn into the fray, and their ultimate commitment to helping end the slave trade in England jeopardizes their investments and friendships. Hemingway continues to present a well-researched work of historical fiction about the esteemed Austen. The letters Hemingway presents include historical figures such as the abolitionist William Wilberforce, as well as details about politics, society, and technology in early 19th-century England. Yet the missives are also emotionally satisfying, as they reveal glimpses into the very plausible thoughts and feelings of the characters. The strongest aspects of Hemingway’s story involve Jane and her struggles to reconcile her new identity as wife and mother. Unfortunately, the accounts of science and politics can drag on too long and ultimately detract from Jane’s storyline. Though Jane sets aside her writing and has a baby, there is not much tangible action moving the plot forward. Hemingway seems to be largely laying the groundwork for the final book in his trilogy. Readers will likely be hoping for more adventures and more about Jane in Volume III.
Despite sweet moments and intriguing historical insights, this fictional tale about a beloved novelist lacks an action-packed plot.Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5354-4495-8
Page Count: 330
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 13, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A deeply satisfying novel, both sensuously vivid and remarkably poignant.
Norwegian novelist Jacobsen folds a quietly powerful coming-of-age story into a rendition of daily life on one of Norway’s rural islands a hundred years ago in a novel that was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize.
Ingrid Barrøy, her father, Hans, mother, Maria, grandfather Martin, and slightly addled aunt Barbro are the owners and sole inhabitants of Barrøy Island, one of numerous small family-owned islands in an area of Norway barely touched by the outside world. The novel follows Ingrid from age 3 through a carefree early childhood of endless small chores, simple pleasures, and unquestioned familial love into her more ambivalent adolescence attending school off the island and becoming aware of the outside world, then finally into young womanhood when she must make difficult choices. Readers will share Ingrid’s adoration of her father, whose sense of responsibility conflicts with his romantic nature. He adores Maria, despite what he calls her “la-di-da” ways, and is devoted to Ingrid. Twice he finds work on the mainland for his sister, Barbro, but, afraid she’ll be unhappy, he brings her home both times. Rooted to the land where he farms and tied to the sea where he fishes, Hans struggles to maintain his family’s hardscrabble existence on an island where every repair is a struggle against the elements. But his efforts are Sisyphean. Life as a Barrøy on Barrøy remains precarious. Changes do occur in men’s and women’s roles, reflected in part by who gets a literal chair to sit on at meals, while world crises—a war, Sweden’s financial troubles—have unexpected impact. Yet the drama here occurs in small increments, season by season, following nature’s rhythm through deaths and births, moments of joy and deep sorrow. The translator’s decision to use roughly translated phrases in conversation—i.e., “Tha’s goen’ nohvar” for "You’re going nowhere")—slows the reading down at first but ends up drawing readers more deeply into the world of Barrøy and its prickly, intensely alive inhabitants.
A deeply satisfying novel, both sensuously vivid and remarkably poignant.Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77196-319-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Biblioasis
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
In Clavell's last whopper, Tai-pan, the hero became tai-pan (supreme ruler) of Hong Kong following England's victory in the first Opium War. Clavell's new hero, John Blackthorne, a giant Englishman, arrives in 17th century Japan in search of riches and becomes the right arm of the warlord Toranaga who is even more powerful than the Emperor. Superhumanly self-confident (and so sexually overendowed that the ladies who bathe him can die content at having seen the world's most sublime member), Blackthorne attempts to break Portugal's hold on Japan and encourage trade with Elizabeth I's merchants. He is a barbarian not only to the Japanese but also to Portuguese Catholics, who want him dispatched to a non-papist hell. The novel begins on a note of maelstrom-and-tempest ("'Piss on you, storm!' Blackthorne raged. 'Get your dung-eating hands off my ship!'") and teems for about 900 pages of relentless lopped heads, severed torsos, assassins, intrigue, war, tragic love, over-refined sex, excrement, torture, high honor, ritual suicide, hot baths and breathless haikus. As in Tai-pan, the carefully researched material on feudal Oriental money matters seems to he Clavell's real interest, along with the megalomania of personal and political power. After Blackthorne has saved Toranaga's life three times, he is elevated to samurai status, given a fief and made a chief defender of the empire. Meanwhile, his highborn Japanese love (a Catholic convert and adulteress) teaches him "inner harmony" as he grows ever more Eastern. With Toranaga as shogun (military dictator), the book ends with the open possibility of a forthcoming sequel. Engrossing, predictable and surely sellable.
Pub Date: June 23, 1975
ISBN: 0385343248
Page Count: 998
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1975
BOOK TO SCREEN
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