A melodramatic historical tale that’s too eager to offer moral lessons.
A blacksmith leaves his native England in search of a better life for himself and his wife in this love story set in the 17th century.
John Dairyman was destined to be just what his name indicated—a poor dairy farmer, just like his father, James. But when he’s 12 years old, he’s given a chance to apprentice with William, the local blacksmith—a lucky opportunity to improve his future prospects. John is an indefatigable worker, and uncommonly gifted—more like an artist than a tradesman—and his talent becomes widely recognized. However, William, an “intolerant and fiendish master,” subjects John to cruel humiliation and physical abuse. At one point, William nearly burns his own barn down and blames it on his apprentice. Around the same time, John falls in love with Chastity, a beautiful neighbor. She not only teaches him how to read and write, but also introduces him to Christianity—a revelatory experience that changes his outlook on life, which Prater (The Long Road Home, 2014) describes in achingly earnest terms. To avoid William’s wrath, John feels compelled to sign papers of indentured servitude and sets sail for Boston, but he falls prey to an unscrupulous captain who takes advantage of his skills. Chastity follows to become a governess in the New World, where she turns into the target of a man’s predatory advances. The backbone of Prater’s intelligent story is John’s unbending character and his uncompromising submission to obligation. The author also artfully captures how human immorality can easily surface when opportunity allows it. However, the narrative often devolves into sententious proselytizing, and at times, the prose can be almost childlike in tone: “James knew an amazing gift had just been given him. The offer of such a gift filled him with warmth. He felt joy beyond all that could be imagined. He thought, So this is what I have been missing.”
A melodramatic historical tale that’s too eager to offer moral lessons.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-973631-21-7
Page Count: 314
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Hoffman (The Red Garden, 2011, etc.) births literature from tragedy: the destruction of Jerusalem's Temple, the siege of Masada and the loss of Zion.
This is a feminist tale, a story of strong, intelligent women wedded to destiny by love and sacrifice. Told in four parts, the first comes from Yael, daughter of Yosef bar Elhanan, a Sicarii Zealot assassin, rejected by her father because of her mother's death in childbirth. It is 70 CE, and the Temple is destroyed. Yael, her father, and another Sicarii assassin, Jachim ben Simon, and his family flee Jerusalem. Hoffman's research renders the ancient world real as the group treks into Judea's desert, where they encounter Essenes, search for sustenance and burn under the sun. There too Jachim and Yael begin a tragic love affair. At Masada, Yael is sent to work in the dovecote, gathering eggs and fertilizer. She meets Shirah, her daughters, and Revka, who narrates part two. Revka's husband was killed when Romans sacked their village. Later, her daughter was murdered. At Masada, caring for grandsons turned mute by tragedy, Revka worries over her scholarly son-in-law, Yoav, now consumed by vengeance. Aziza, daughter of Shirah, carries the story onward. Born out of wedlock, Aziza grew up in Moab, among the people of the blue tunic. Her passion and curse is that she was raised as a warrior by her foster father. In part four, Shirah tells of her Alexandrian youth, the cherished daughter of a consort of the high priests. Shirah is a keshaphim, a woman of amulets, spells and medicine, and a woman connected to Shechinah, the feminine aspect of God. The women are irretrievably bound to Eleazar ben Ya'ir, Masada's charismatic leader; Amram, Yael's brother; and Yoav, Aziza's companion and protector in battle. The plot is intriguingly complex, with only a single element unresolved. An enthralling tale rendered with consummate literary skill.
Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4516-1747-4
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
Constructed with delicacy, lyricism, and care, Hertmans’ novel still feels occasionally static.
A Christian woman and a Jewish man fall in love in medieval France.
In 1088, a Christian girl of Norman descent falls in love with the son of a rabbi. They run away together, to disastrous effect: Her father sends knights after them, and though they flee to a small southern village where they spend a few happy years, their budding family is soon decimated by a violent wave of First Crusaders on their way to Jerusalem. The girl, whose name becomes Hamoutal when she converts to Judaism, winds up roaming the world. Hertmans’ (War and Turpentine, 2016, etc.) latest novel is based on a true story: The Cairo Genizah, a trove of medieval manuscripts preserved in an Egyptian synagogue, contained an account of Hamoutal’s plight. Hamoutal makes up about half of Hertmans’ novel; the other half is consumed by Hertmans’ own interest in her story. Whenever he can, he follows her journey: from Rouen, where she grew up, to Monieux, where she and David Todros—her Jewish husband—made a brief life for themselves, and all the way to Cairo, and back. “Knowing her life story and its tragic end,” Hertmans writes, “I wish I could warn her of what lies ahead.” The book has a quiet intimacy to it, and in his descriptions of landscape and travel, Hertmans’ prose is frequently lovely. In Narbonne, where David’s family lived, Hertmans describes “the cool of the paving stones in the late morning, the sound of doves’ wings flapping in the immaculate air.” But despite the drama of Hamoutal’s story, there is a static quality to the book, particularly in the sections where Hertmans describes his own travels. It’s an odd contradiction: Hertmans himself moves quickly through the world, but his book doesn’t quite move quickly enough.
Constructed with delicacy, lyricism, and care, Hertmans’ novel still feels occasionally static.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5247-4708-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
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