Rating: 
Summary: A great start, a confusing ending
Review: Beautiful language, great setting and history mark the beginning of this novel, and I enjoyed it till almost the end. The end, however, has confusing abrupt changes in one main character that could not have been anticipated; I felt hoodwinked by the author. Rushing the "afterward" into the final chapter, a huge chunk of life in a few pages disrupted the previously melodic flow of words. Started well, ended unsatisfactorily.
Rating: 
Summary: Superb book with flaws
Review: If I had rated Year of Wonders with 20 pages to go, my five star rating would have been unequivocal. To that point, this book delivered on every level. Unfortunately, the denouement was a little to convenient and way too 20th century in its sensibility. I don't want to give away any plot points, but it was almost like Brooks felt compelled to break the spell of the 17th Century with some 20th century "having it all" thinking. I just don't feel that anyone with Anna's background and experience (life-changing though they were) would be where she was (either physically or psychologically) when the book ended.Having said all that, I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes beautiful writing (this may be Brooks' first novel, but she writes like a dream)and the feeling of being transported into another time and place--if you want to feel good about living in the age of antibiotics, read this book. Anna is a great character, and is rendered in a wonderfully intimate manner by Brooks. Other characters shine as well (most notably the luminous Elinor). So, despite my minor, but not completely insignificant, quibble, I hope this book is widely read.
Rating:
Summary: Witness to a time of crisis
Review: Geraldine Brooks is a skilled journalist and she brings her talent of keen observation and attention to detail to this, her first novel, based on the true story of the English village of Eyam, Derbyshire. In 1666, when plague was running rampant, these people voluntarily chose to quarantine themselves and tend to the sick and dying rather than take to the road and try to run from this awful disease. Ms. Brooks does an outstanding job of getting into the heart and soul of what this experience must have been like and has created some full-blown and very human characters to tell her story Through the eyes of Anna Firth, a young widow who is a servant to the minister and his wife, the happenings of that fateful year are recounted in excruciating detail, using the rhythms and language of that long-ago time. As her children and neighbors suffer and die, she is witness to the extremes to which people will go in a time of crisis. I winced at the some of the supposed cures as well as some of the barbaric customs and punishments. I watched her friendship with the minister's wife flourish. I felt the torments of the flawed human beings who struggle with dark inner turmoil. And understood the role of religion in their lives. These are deeply complex characters and unexpected secrets surfaced as I got more and more into the story. I felt I was riding the wave of the book, unable to put it down and feeling I was walking right beside Anna in that small sad village with its shrinking population where fields lay fallow and apples rotted on the trees because everyone was either dying or tending to the sick. And then, just at the tide was turning and I felt the story was coming to a satisfactory conclusion, the author took me on yet another roller coaster ride as the last fifty pages changed directions, unearthing even more secrets and taking a turn that thrust Anna into a whole new adventure. I recommend this book highly even though I understand it is not for everyone. It is indeed upsetting. But it also shows the resiliency of the human spirit and adds perspective to what is going on in the world today.
Rating: 
Summary: Well-Told Tale
Review: Geraldine Brooks' Year of Wonders is a wonderful read and tells an interesting story. The novel looks at the plague in England from the perspective (based on truth) of a town that closed itself off from the outside world so as not to spread the disease that reaches their town early in the plague and early in the novel. The novel whizzes by quickly and easily, the interest maintained both by the horrific events and the fascinating cast of characters. The narrator's voice may appear a little too anachronistic at times with the prescience of knowledge only learned much later in the scientific world but the voice of this narrator Anna Frith strikes the right balance generally between sounding of a particular time and being easily understood by the reader. This is a quick easy read that should be a joy for fans of English history or those seeking a gruesome, yet enjoyable, tale.
Rating:
Summary: 1667 "YEAR OF WONDERS" is the BOOK OF THE YEAR 2001
Review: Wall Street Journal chick Geraldine Brooks comes back from Bosnia and other front-line trouble spots and takes a short hiking trip in the UK. There she comes upon the historical marker for the 1667 AD "Plague Village" of Eymm (emmmm). The seed is sewn for an engaging and brilliantly researched novel taking us right into the 17th Century English village. The challenges faced by the rapidly diminishing population where skills suddenly vanish as people vanish, endless challenges result in tremendous growth of character for many individuals. Sure, I only read 15 novels this year; but this was hands down the best. [Shame on the airheads at the New York Times for their negative review; in which they questioned Anna's ability to even read, let alone cope with challenges.] The New Yorker and the Washington Times (and Post) reviewers were more positive. Me, I reek praise in buckets! AAAAA+++++
Rating:
Summary: Well Written But Anachronistic
Review: Let me say at the outset that this is a pretty good book. Its title, however, is somewhat misleading. It is really not about the plague. It is more a coming of age story about a woman confronted with the disintegration of the world as she knew it. The fact that the catastrophe causing the disintegration is the Great Plague is almost incidental. Brooks has certainly done some homework on the subjects of the plague and seventeenth century England; and the results of this homework give context to her story. However, I didn't exactly feel transported to the time and place described. As historical fiction, the book has its failings. Many of the characters, the heroine Anna in particular, are anachronistic in their thinking and manner of expression. Anna is a mere widow of a poor lead miner in a small village. Yet by the end of the book, she has come to question the traditional social order and religion, including the very existence of God. She has also come to reject the age-old folklore basis of caring for the sick and, virtually on her own, developed scientific methods of thinking about the problems of disease prevention and cure. Such a transformation is way too much to expect of a seventeenth century peasant.
All that being said, I enjoyed the book even though it wasn't exactly what I expected. I am actually pleased that I picked it up under sort-of false pretenses. It's almost a "chick book", which would normally disincline me to read it with a ten-foot pole. The story, however, of how Anna and the other members of her village handle the catastrophe is well written, interesting and insightful. Human reaction to disaster is a universal and timeless story, as we, unfortunately, know only too well these days.
Rating:
Summary: Be prepared to read this in ONE sitting!
Review: Wow! What a great read! This was a fascinating historical novel, that I could not put down! Anna, the main character, I found to be a bit predictable, but the Rector - wow, what a complicated character! Reading to the end of the novel, it was his character that left me really thinking about everything that had transpired throughout the story. I won't give it away here, but Mr. Mompellion is not as he seems...........If you enjoyed "The Dress Lodger," you will truly enjoy this book as well.
Rating:
Summary: Evocative Historical Fiction Marred by Melodrama
Review: There's a lot to like about Geraldine Brooks' _Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague_. At its best, this novel is an evocative, well-written historical fiction that skillfully conjures up the day-to-day hardships of living in a small village overrun by plague and watching two-thirds of your friends, family, and acquaintances die horrible deaths. I really liked the focus on the diurnal struggles of a village increasingly depleted of its human resources. What do you do when the women who always prepared herbal remedies are dead? When young children are left parentless? The main character, Anna Frith, is a strong woman and something of a feminist role model; the plague brings out resources in her that she didn't know she had. Unfortunately, this novel is itself infected in places by melodrama and purple prose. There are a couple of minor eruptions early in the novel, but the big problem for this book resides in the last 30-40 pages. If the novel had ended on page 272, it would have been a much stronger novel. Regrettably, it continues until page 308. About five HUGE plot developments happen in this short space, which is startling enough in a novel that has been so well-paced up until this point, and several of them seem stretch credulity thin. There is also a surprisingly misogynistic passage from a previously likeable character in these final pages which really turned me off and seemed entirely inconsistent with everything we've learned about this character up until this point. I would still recommend this novel, as it does so much so well, but with the caveat that its quality rather falls off in the end.
Rating:
Summary: A moving novel of survival and controversy
Review: Geraldine Brooks' Year Of Wonders pairs Stina Nielsen's smooth and clear voice with the story of an isolated village where a housemaid becomes a healer and heroine during the 1666 plague year. Excellent historical background supports a moving novel of survival and controversy.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting and Evocative
Review: While it is not my habit to write book reviews, it is my occasional habit to recommend books to others which I have found to be worthwhile. I truly enjoyed Ms. Brooks' Year of Wonders for her simple but elegant writing style and her touching and sympathetic main character, Anna Frith. I won't comment much on the plot (since others have already done so) but I would say that Ms. Brooks' descriptions of Anna's life and times are very haunting and evocative. I normally don't like to become too bogged down with description, but I think the reader really becomes drawn into the sights, sounds and smells of Anna's 17th century world and her personal struggles which often seem uncomfortably close to our own modern ones. The epilogue did seem to be somewhat of an unlikely plot twist, but I am willing to put that down to my own prejudices. I enjoyed this book very much. Perhaps you will as well.
|
