A nuanced, passionate love story that will transport readers to King John’s England.
DiPastena (Loving Lucianna, 2014, etc.) offers a historical novel about a forbidden romance in 13th century England.
It’s December of 1213 when readers first meet Robert Marcel. Once a villein forced to do his master’s bidding or suffer dire consequences, he’s now a traveling minstrel no longer tied to someone else’s estate. Though his fortunes are still linked closely with the generosity of the upper classes, as a freeman he’s able to seek out his own opportunities. He owes his freedom to a daring escape he made some years past, aided by the young, lovely Lady Marguerite of Winbourne. However, he’s still highly sensitive to the plight of the lower orders. When he discovers that he’ll be singing for the now-mature Lady Marguerite at her betrothal dinner, he can’t help but feel his heart stir. He vows to speak with her despite being in “a castle filled with her father’s knights.” The stage is set for a love affair pitted against the social system of the time. Lady Marguerite’s options are decisively limited (“Her father meant to pass her from his own harsh control to the brutal possession of this man beside her”) but she can certainly relate to a quest for personal liberty. But when she and Robert fall in love, will they ever be able to make it work? The novel effectively incorporates aspects of the time period, ranging from the popularity of fables about Reynard the Fox to the use of dried yarrow leaves. As a result, readers hungry for historical details will find much more than lutes and swords, although the story has its share of both of those, as well. The story is at its best when it weaves in scenes of action, such as a tournament of knights. Occasional scenes can prove melodramatic, however, such as when Lady Marguerite’s “anger flashed behind her tears.” However, the tone throughout is one of grandiose emotions and epic decisions—one that’s designed for a man like Robert, who “understood the call of loyalty and love.”
A nuanced, passionate love story that will transport readers to King John’s England.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9862396-1-8
Page Count: 612
Publisher: Sable Tyger Books
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these...
Figuratively and literally shattering moments of hoRRRRRipilication in Chamberlain, Maine where stones fly from the sky rather than from the hands of the villagers (as they did in "The Lottery," although the latter are equal to other forms of persecution).
All beginning when Carrie White discovers a gift with telekinetic powers (later established as a genetic fact), after she menstruates in full ignorance of the process and thinks she is bleeding to death while the other monsters in the high school locker room bait and bully her mercilessly. Carrie is the only child of a fundamentalist freak mother who has brought her up with a concept of sin which no blood of the Lamb can wash clean. In addition to a sympathetic principal and gym teacher, there's one girl who wishes to atone and turns her date for the spring ball over to Carrie who for the first time is happy, beautiful and acknowledged as such. But there will be hell to pay for this success—not only her mother but two youngsters who douse her in buckets of fresh-killed pig blood so that Carrie once again uses her "wild talent," flexes her mind and a complete catastrophe (explosion and an uncontrolled fire) virtually destroys the town.
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these youngsters who once ate peanut butter now scrawl "Carrie White eats shit." But as they still say around here, "Sit a spell and collect yourself."Pub Date: April 8, 1974
ISBN: 0385086954
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1974
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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