Okay- so I didn't love it. Brooks tells the story of a woman named Anna who lives through a year of the plague in the 1600's. Anna loses her family, most of her village, & her best friend. I found the story incredibly grey & sad, with absolutely not nearly enough of the wonder that is should have contained. I expected to find this wonder & simply put, never did. I found that the writing was awkward & choppy, instead of rhythmic or smooth. I didn't feel propelled forward, but rather stuck. My expectation was that A Year of Wonders would contain beautiful & inspiring examples of growth & strength from its narrator, but again... I felt that the book was overall, grey. The upswing- I'm certainly happy to not have to deal with something as horrific as the plague. I've never had to experience such grief, & I hope I never do.Next on the list- I'm going to give The Fabric of the Cosmos a shot. I'm not sure I'll finish it {it may be far too cerebral}, but my dad has such a strong interest in physics & how the world functions... He loved this book & I'm going to at least try & skim something out of it, if only in an attempt at having a somewhat intelligent conversation with him regarding the relativity of time.
3 comments:
Dang that is too bad- the premise and title make it sound more interesting. I think I will have to pass on this one, I am not in the mood for sad and grey.
Ok - A voice from another generation here. I found this book riviting and incredibly vivid. The heorine was inspiring and I find Geraldine Brooks a magnificent storyteller. No matter that it was a story about the plague. It captured many basic human responses to grief, loss, and devestation, and was compelling in that the preacher, Michael, though strong and outwardly pure, was in fact a very flawed man who simply did not understand the atonement or repentance...sad indeed. One of the great things about this book which, after all was based on a true story, was that it makes the reader think - not only during the read, but afterwards. Read reviews on Barnes and Nobel or Amazon and decide for yourself if it's worth a try. I penned some 75 vocabulary words from it which, at the very least will expand my command of the English language.
Read on!
We agree to disagree (on just about every point)! Oh well. We share good ideas with eachother (and most of the time both enjoy).
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