strange and random happenstance: Revolutionary War

Time's Convert by Deborah Harkness
Published by: Viking
Publication Date: September 18th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
Rating: ★★★
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Phoebe Taylor is about to become Phoebe Alice Najima Catherine Taylor de Clermont. In just ninety days. Ninety days that will test her and Marcus's sanity because they have decided to abide by vampiric tradition after Diana and Matthew did things their inimitable way, upending all customs and decrees, which means Phoebe and Marcus aren't allowed contact during this time. For mated supernaturals it is nearly impossible to remain apart. Yet their family will make sure they follow the rules, no matter how weak their own resolve becomes. While Phoebe is transformed in luxurious surroundings with every need catered to, from delivered kills to a banquet of blood, Marcus is visiting Diana and Matthew at their home in Limousin, France, Les Revenants. Vampires are notorious for hoarding secrets. And a vampire will never tell another's story. It is forbidden. Yet being unsettled in mind and body Marcus feels the need to unburden himself. As Phoebe undertakes the journey he himself took hundreds of years earlier, he wants to tell his story. He wants to talk about Marcus MacNeil and Diana is only too happy to oblige. Filling in the blanks of his past with Philippe's correspondence and information she gleans from the internet. Marcus was born in Western Massachusetts in the year 1757. His father was a violent drunk and Marcus would do anything to leave the small town of Hadley. The first time he ran away he ended up fighting in the Battle of Bunker Hill. He might have been young be he was a crack shot. Little did he know that that day was his first exposure to the supernatural world he would one day inhabit. At the advice of an ancestor of Diana's he returns home. His entire life is consumed with learning what medicinal knowledge he can and rereading Thomas Paine's Common Sense. Because what the war needs more than a crack shot is doctors who understand what Washington and his men are fighting for. When he murders his father to save his mother and sister during one of his drunken rages Marcus flees. He takes on the assumed name of Galen Chauncey and is soon helping the sick and wounded wherever he finds them. When he helps a wounded Marquis de Lafayette he seals his fate. The Marquis is there with Matthew and under Philippe's protection. So years later, when Matthew finds Marcus dying of the fever, Matthew explains to him that he can be saved. He can live forever. Marcus was so delirious he would have agreed to anything. Needless to say what came next was quite a confusing time. Revolutions weren't living up to their ideals and Marcus had traded one overlord for another. Yet as his dear friend Thomas Paine said, "Time makes more converts than reason." And Marcus had all the time in the world. And soon enough Phoebe will be by his side.

When it was announced that there was going to be a companion book in the All Souls series focused on Marcus I was, without exaggeration, completely indifferent. I actually wasn't even going to buy it but I'm a completest and one day when I was at Barnes and Noble it was majorly discounted so I figured I'd pick it up. It's now been sitting on my bookshelves for almost a decade gathering dust. The reason to finally read it wasn't just because I was rereading the original trilogy with an eye to finally picking up The Black Bird Oracle, the main reason was Edward Bluemel. So Edward Bluemel played Marcus in the television adaptation of the original trilogy. He was well cast and was in the ascendant, with roles on Killing Eve and Sex Education. I particularly enjoyed him on Belgravia: The Next Chapter. And then came My Lady Jane. I can not adequately express my obsession with this series and Edward Bluemel and his bubble butt as Lord Guildford Dudley. I randomly think of this show and his wicked smile and bedroom eyes and for a few moments in this chaotic world I am at peace. And I also just realized that for Carrie I have Prime Video Ultra so I could watch the series again without ad interruptions. Excuse me for the next few hours.... OK, I'm back. So Edward Bluemel gave me an image of Marcus that let me connect with the character and be willing to dive into Time's Convert. Previously in this series there have been glimpses of Marcus's life, a talented doctor turned during the American Revolution who has grown to be a snarky scientist who finds the love of his life while searching for clues as to his father's survival when Matthew and Diana timewalked. Here we get his history, but it felt like we were doing it as a speedrun. Here's his abusive childhood, here's his revolutionary ideals being crushed in America and France, here's what happened in New Orleans. A key point of the series up until now is how secretive vampires are. Their histories have to be prized out of them and here's Marcus trauma dumping because he has to stay away from the love of his life for ninety days while she transforms into a vampire. Yeah, so there's the whole parallels between him and Phoebe, whatever, it all just felt too slight because the trouble with Marcus is that it all boils down to Daddy Issues and a desire for freedom. First there was Obadiah, whom he killed, then there was Matthew AND Philippe, and then he made himself a Daddy in an attempt to find his "true father" and it was all a bit too much of the same. Because his Daddy Issues tie in to his desire for freedom, so I guess we could even label George III and Louis XVI as Daddy's, because they too don't understand his desire for freedom. The true freedom Thomas Paine wrote about. So Marcus spends a hundred some years trading one tyrannical overlord for another until Diana comes along and changes Matthew for the better and Marcus finally gets the found family of his dreams. Isn't that sweet? No. Not really. It was kind of pathetic. Deborah Harkness threw in some Diana and Matthew to bulk out the book, and the least said about Phoebe's transformation the better. I don't want to say that it was a self-fulfilling prophecy that I assumed Time's Convert would be the weakest in the series, because I really wanted to like it. The problem is it is the weakest in the series.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments

Labels: All Souls Trilogy, Deborah Harkness, Edward Bluemel, France, French Revolution, Marcus Witmore, Marquis de Lafayette, My Lady Jane, Phoebe Taylor, Revolutionary War, Season of the Witch, Thomas Paine, Time's Convert, Vampires

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
Published by: Back Bay Books
Publication Date: August 29th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 338 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
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Agnes Magnúsdóttir has been convicted of killing her lover and employer, Natan Ketilsson. She has been scheduled to be executed. Agnes is sent to an isolated farm at Kornsa, near where she grew up, to await her execution. The family of four living in the croft at Kornsa must allow Agnes into their lives for the duration because of the will of the District Commissioner, Björn Blöndal. Divided by prejudices, most the family doesn't trust the murderess, but over time, slowly, they do get to know Agnes, and she is far from what they expected. With the counsel of a local Reverend, Tóti, Agnes tells her story, knowing that nothing can stop her impending death.

Books based on actual events are tricky. My main problem with them is you know what's going to happen. Agnes Magnúsdóttir was the last execution in Iceland. Therefore Agnes is going to die. No matter how much you love or hate her this will not change the fact that the end of her story is a fixed point, she can not live. As for her imagined life, in some regards I was at an advantage and in some regards I was at a disadvantage. I knew nothing about Agnes and the legend that has grown up around her seeing as I'm not familiar with Icelandic history or urban legends or even Iceland when I started this book. This gave me a clean slate. I could view her story with no preconceptions. Yet Hannah Kent was obviously out to change these preconceptions. So how could I fully understand what she was trying to do without being fully aware?

What I felt this book lacked was a coda that showed how maligned Agnes was in her time. Some historical context after the fact that would have shown us exactly what the preconceptions were that Hannah was working against in writing this book. The national museum still has the axe and the chopping block used in Agnes's execution on display. Is this because of it being the last capital punishment, or the triumph over evil, or to remind them of a wrong they did as a country? The problem of trying to find out the folklore surrounding Agnes now, the wanton witch, is that the web is populated with Hannah's story of setting things to right, or at least giving us an unbiased view. So while we won't know the truth, I'd at least like a glimpse into the mindset of the times.

Burial Rites does suffer because Hannah is a first time author. The book lacks a polish that would smooth over the rough patches and the literary tricks she pulls out of her bag. I think that literary tricks are the bane of first time writers. They go to school, learn all these concepts and narrative techniques, and then decide to use them all in their first endeavor as a writer. The key to writing a good book is to let the story tell you what it needs, not to shoehorn in things just to show you can do it. I know at least one of my fellow book club members would agree with me that Hannah's annoying preference for "Head-Hopping" is something that needed to be worked on to avoid the disjointed nature it brings to the narrative.

For those of you who don't know the term, or have never experienced this technique in writing, "Head-Hopping" is when an author switches the point-of-view character in a single scene. One second you're in Agnes's head, the next you're in Tóti's head, and on and on. While it gives you a more direct connection to the characters then omniscient narration, it can be confusing at times and feel contrived. But then again, I've never been a fan of literary tricks. Nothing has or even will annoy me more then in John Scalzi's Redshirts that his first, second, and third coda were written in first, second, and third person respectively. That's just a writer being indulgent. Seriously, ask yourself does it benefit the story? If the answer is no, it benefits my ego, then cut it.

Yet I was able to look beyond these initial flaws because underneath there was a fascinating story that transported me to another place and time. Plus, seriously, if you're feeling bad about your life, it's not as bad as it could be, and this novel is here to prove it. Though it was looking from Iceland to the greater world view of the time that staggered me. Iceland is a country above the tree line, the use of wood in buildings at this time is rare and used only for the wealthy or places of importance. The country is bleak and dark and filled with mud, lots and lots of mud. Houses are sod with sheep bladders as the membranous windows through which the little light sneaks in. Summer days are spent preparing for the long winter days to come when all you do is stay indoors and knit.

If someone was to tell you that this was 1830 you might be in shock, I know I was. At this time Jane Austen had already come and gone. Queen Victoria would be on the throne of England in only seven more years. Napoleon had already stirred up France, bugged off to Egypt, been incarcerated, escaped, and died. The Revolutionary War in America was almost fifty years prior! If we think of these times do we think of an advanced country like Iceland, a country where one in ten people have written a book, and think, mud huts filled with knitters? NO! This just blows my mind. To think of this greater world view through the eyes of this story and this time just astonishes me. Sure, I could tell you you should read Burial Rites it because it's like Icelandic Brontës, but in truth it is so much more amazing.