An informative but often plodding tale that’s more likely to appeal to history buffs than casual readers.
Kreis’ (The Labyrinth, 2014) historical novel explores the dangers and rewards of Colonial North America, as seen through the eyes of a Puritan woman.
This book follows Lizzie Price as she moves from a settlement in Deerfield, Massachusetts, to Native American camps to the bustling city of Montreal over the course of her eventful life. She moves from Northampton to Deerfield with her family at the age of 13 but becomes unhappy with the trappings of a Puritan lifestyle. She resists her community’s disdain for fun, as well as its emphasis on marriage; instead, she’d rather read her secretly obtained books or take a swim at her secret place in the Deerfield River. She’s in danger of being labeled a spinster at 19 when she begins a romance with Andrew Stevens, also known as “Skagit,” a fur trader who, as a child, was taken from his settler family by Native Americans. However, the couple’s happiness is short-lived. Soon after Andrew changes his lifestyle to become respectable enough to marry Lizzie, Native Americans raid Deerfield. They rip Lizzie away from her new husband and kill or capture most of her family and her fellow Deerfield residents. Lizzie’s Native American master eventually entrusts her to the care of Catholic nuns in Montreal; there, she must try to put her broken community back together and decide what the trajectory of her life will be. Kreis’ historical research comes through clearly in this novel, which shows various aspects of daily Colonial life in great detail and offers maps to provide context for the characters’ travels. He also paints clear pictures of various Colonial locations, and readers, who may only be familiar with famous Colonies such as Plymouth and Jamestown, will appreciate its broader glimpse into pre-revolutionary North America. However, there are occasional passages that uncomfortably focus on teenage characters’ sexual development—specifically Lizzie’s. Readers may also find themselves quickly overwhelmed by the novel’s ponderous length and large cast of characters.
An informative but often plodding tale that’s more likely to appeal to history buffs than casual readers.Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2015
ISBN: 978-1505678925
Page Count: 418
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A mother and her child-prodigy daughter struggle to survive the Holocaust by telling stories and remembering the power of...
Rosner’s debut novel is a World War II story with a Room-like twist, one that also deftly examines the ways in which art and imagination can sustain us.
Five-year-old Shira is a prodigy. She hears entire musical passages in her head, which “take shape and pulse through her, quiet at first, then building in intensity and growing louder.” But making sounds is something Shira is not permitted to do. She and her mother, Róża, are Jews who are hiding in a barn in German-occupied Poland. Soldiers have shot Róża’s husband and dragged her parents away, and after a narrow escape, mother and daughter cower in a hayloft day and night, relying on the farmer and his wife to keep them safe from neighbors and passing patrols. The wife sneaks Shira outside for fresh air; the husband visits Róża late at night in the hayloft to exact his price. To keep Shira occupied and quiet the rest of the time, Róża spins tales of a little girl and a yellow bird in an enchanted but silent garden menaced by giants; only the bird is allowed to sing. But when Róża is offered a chance to hide Shira in an orphanage, she must weigh her daughter’s safety against her desire to keep the girl close. Rosner builds the tension as the novel progresses, wisely moving the action out of the barn before the premise grows tired or repetitive. This is a Holocaust novel, but it’s also an effective work of suspense, and Rosner’s understanding of how art plays a role in our lives, even at the worst of times, is impressive.
A mother and her child-prodigy daughter struggle to survive the Holocaust by telling stories and remembering the power of music.Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-17977-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.
Hunter’s debut novel tracks the experiences of her family members during the Holocaust.
Sol and Nechuma Kurc, wealthy, cultured Jews in Radom, Poland, are successful shop owners; they and their grown children live a comfortable lifestyle. But that lifestyle is no protection against the onslaught of the Holocaust, which eventually scatters the members of the Kurc family among several continents. Genek, the oldest son, is exiled with his wife to a Siberian gulag. Halina, youngest of all the children, works to protect her family alongside her resistance-fighter husband. Addy, middle child, a composer and engineer before the war breaks out, leaves Europe on one of the last passenger ships, ending up thousands of miles away. Then, too, there are Mila and Felicia, Jakob and Bella, each with their own share of struggles—pain endured, horrors witnessed. Hunter conducted extensive research after learning that her grandfather (Addy in the book) survived the Holocaust. The research shows: her novel is thorough and precise in its details. It’s less precise in its language, however, which frequently relies on cliché. “You’ll get only one shot at this,” Halina thinks, enacting a plan to save her husband. “Don’t botch it.” Later, Genek, confronting a routine bit of paperwork, must decide whether or not to hide his Jewishness. “That form is a deal breaker,” he tells himself. “It’s life and death.” And: “They are low, it seems, on good fortune. And something tells him they’ll need it.” Worse than these stale phrases, though, are the moments when Hunter’s writing is entirely inadequate for the subject matter at hand. Genek, describing the gulag, calls the nearest town “a total shitscape.” This is a low point for Hunter’s writing; elsewhere in the novel, it’s stronger. Still, the characters remain flat and unknowable, while the novel itself is predictable. At this point, more than half a century’s worth of fiction and film has been inspired by the Holocaust—a weighty and imposing tradition. Hunter, it seems, hasn’t been able to break free from her dependence on it.
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-56308-9
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
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