An entertaining historical soap opera.
Follett continues the trilogy begun with Fall of Giants (2010) with a novel that ranges across continents and family trees.
It makes sense that Follett would open with an impending clash, since, after all, it’s Germany in 1933, when people are screaming about why the economy is so bad and why there are so many foreigners on the nation’s streets. The clash in question, though, is a squabble between journalist Maud von Ulrich, née Lady Maud Fitzherbert—no thinking of Brigitte Jones here—and hubby Walter, a parliamentarian headed for stormy times. Follett’s big project, it seems, is to reduce the bloody 20th century to a family saga worthy of a James Michener, and, if the writing is less fluent than that master’s, he succeeds. Scrupulous in giving characters major and minor plenty of room to roam on the stage, Follett extends the genealogy of the families introduced in the first volume, taking into account the twists and turns of history: If Grigori Peshkov was a hero of the Bolshevik Revolution, his son Volodya is a dutiful soldier of the Stalin regime—dutiful, but not slavishly loyal. Indeed, most of the progeny here spend at least some of the time correcting the mistakes of their parents’ generation: Carla von Ulrich becomes a homegrown freedom fighter in Germany, which will have cliffhanger-ish implications at the very end of this installment, while Lloyd Williams, son of a parliamentarian across the Channel, struggles against both fascism and communism on the front in the Spanish Civil War. (Lloyd’s a perspicacious chap; after all, even George Orwell needed time and distance from the war to gain that perspective.) Aside from too-frequent, intrusive moments of fourth-wall-breaking didacticism—“Supplying weaponry was the main role played by the British in the French resistance”—Follett’s storytelling is unobtrusive and workmanlike, and he spins a reasonable and readable yarn that embraces dozens of characters and plenty of Big Picture history, with real historical figures bowing in now and then. Will one of them be Checkers, Richard Nixon’s dog, in volume 3? Stay tuned.
An entertaining historical soap opera.Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-525-95292-3
Page Count: 960
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
A Bridges of Madison Countylike affair gone awry during the late Depression years. Oliver (Seventeen Times As High As the Moon, not reviewed) takes as her heroine 20-year-old Alabama housewife Callie Tatum—ripe for the picking, although not by her redneck husband, Russell, with whom she ``does it'' every night without satisfaction. When dapper Birminghamite Clifton Wade appears in his expensive car, Callie is sexually aroused and soon fulfilled. Although she talks about the deep understanding she has with Clifton, as far as the reader can tell it's just sex—against a wall, in a cheap motel, but mostly in the little house Russell built for her when they were first married. Callie feels no guilt or shame until events occur that suggest divine retribution: She miscarries Clifton's child, and his wife commits suicide. Callie ends the relationship, but the damage is done. Her ruined reputation leads to attempted rape, actual rape, and finally murder. The town proves itself to be parochial and mean-minded during a trial in which Callie is judged as harshly as the murderer. Even Callie's mother fails her when she advises Callie to continue her life after the trial as much as possible the way it was before. Callie's silent, unemotional father, however, surprises her by encouraging her to attempt more—which she does. This feminist twist gives little punch to a book in which punches are scarce, despite its racy and gruesome themes. Mixing matter-of-fact with overwrought, the tone certainly doesn't help: ``The train rumbled along as confidently as a marching hymn. The familiar countryside...flew by like pieces of dreams.'' Heavy on simile, light on substance, and ultimately forgettable. (Quality Paperback Book Club alternate selection; paperback rights to Plume)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 1-881320-18-9
Page Count: 176
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
Once again, the Gears combine archeological findings with a tale of action and mystic hoohah (People of the Sea, 1993, etc.)and here, unfortunately, billows of talk. This time, the people are those whose remains and artifacts were discovered in Florida—people who lived about 8,000 years ago and were raiders, with darts the weapons of choice, who staked their dead in pond bottoms. Gentle Pondwader, a revered teenaged albino (dubbed the Lightning Boy), has a heavy burden. The seer Dogtooth has told him that inside his chest is a hatching Lightning Bird that will grow up and out. Obviously Pondwader has quite a future. But watching, and plotting to capture Pondwader, is cruel Cottonmouth—of the prime raiding tribe—who believes that the boy has the power to kill the Four Shining Eagles that will bring destruction on the world. Meanwhile, Cottonmouth also burns with desire for the woman he loved, the great warrior woman Musselwhite of another clan—the clan, he believes, that killed their little son Glade. Cottonmouth's warriors capture Diver, the woman's husband (thought dead at first), and use him as a magnet to attract Musselwhite, now married to Pondwader. Plans are made, alliances between clans sealed, and the stealthy creep to rescue Diver begins. Along the way, Pondwader does brave warrior things and has some first-class visions featuring the Lightning Bird and a doll once belonging to Glade. The characters are a talky bunch given to zingers like ``Great Muskrat Above'' and ``seagull dung!,'' or to sermonettes like this one from Cottonmouth to Diver: ``To be is to be related . . . Separateness is an allusion we create to justify our wrongdoings.'' Beyond such highfalutin expostulations, there's some nasty work with darts and sexual doings with Black Rain, Pondwader's naughty mother. Mythic fantasy, some action, and tiresome chat: not the Gears' best.
Pub Date: Nov. 27, 1995
ISBN: 0-312-85852-3
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1995
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