Naomi

A Damning Indictment of Slavery

Revisado: 06-29-20

As Cora flees her the plantation where she grew up, she encounters the horrors of the antebellum South that took pleasure in the dehumanization of human beings to justify their exploitation. Powerful, memorable, and beautifully written.

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Victor Hugo’s Gothic Masterpiece

Revisado: 04-28-20

This is a true Gothic novel, with its dark foreboding atmosphere, grotesque characters, and tragic story. Looming over al is the great gothic cathedral itself, Notre Dame de Paris, which Hugo sees as much as an expression of its period as a great book might express the culture of a post-Gutenberg age.
At the center of the book is the deaf, hideously deformed, but noble-hearted hunchback, Quasimodo, and his selfless love for the beautiful Gypsy, La Esmeralda. Notre Dame is Quasimodo’s home. He was abandoned there and adopted by the archdeacon, Dom Claude, an alchemist and sorcerer, who carriees within him a burning desire for Esmeralda. Esmeralda herself has fallen passionately in love with the handsome, self-consumed Phoebus, a captain of the king’s archers. The characters and the settings in 15th century Paris are vividly drawn and brought to life in Homewood’s masterly rendition.

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Tediously comical

Revisado: 08-22-18

This is not Dickens ‘s best work. It’s full of boring side plots and tediously caricatured characters that don’t contribute to the main story. The love interest is introduced as an afterthought because every novel needs a love interest.

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A treasure house of finely drawn characters

Revisado: 08-11-17

Mollie Gibson's life is upended when her father, a beloved and well-respected country doctor, remarries to a former governess. The new Mrs Gibson enters Mollie into the social scene with the hopes of snaring an appropriate (wealthy and well-connected) husband. More importantly, Mollie has a new best friend, her step-sister Cynthia. Cynthia is the kind of tall blonde beauty who turns heads when she walks into the room, but underneath the elegant poise and the winning ways, is an insecure girl, who wonders if she deserves the love and admiration that she receives. Mollie on the other hand is not afraid to be herself -- genuinely concerned about the people around her, as well as open and honest.

This book is full of richly described characters; Mollie, Cynthia, Mr and Mrs Gibson are each unique individuals. Not only do you understand who they are, but how they became who they are. Also finely drawn are the people of the community: Squire Hamley and his sons, Osborn and Roger; and Mollie's friends in the village and the surrounding countryside. The interactions between Mr. and Mrs. Gibson and between Mr Gibson and the Squire are portrayed with wit and perception.

Prunella Scales narrates this book perfectly, giving each character his or her individual voice.

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Action-packed classic brought to life

Revisado: 12-03-16

Dickens is known for his sympathy for the downtrodden, but he also knew that the commoners could be brutal, vengeful, and vicious. Whether the mob are crowding a court to see if a young man will be drawn and quartered for espionage or following the tumbrel to the guillotine, the mass of ordinary people comes as alive as the individual characters. Caught between phlegmatic London and violent Paris throbbing with revolution are the honorable former aristocrat Charles Darnay, his beautiful and loyal wife, Lucy, and Lucy's father, Dr Mannette. Accompanying them between cities are the loyal banker, Jarvis Laurie, and an alcoholic lawyer, Sidney Carton. Simon Vance brings alive all of these characters as we share their moment in history.

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A jaded view of the early suffragist movement

Revisado: 10-30-16

Henry James's Bostonians are two young women, Olive Chancellor who is plain and severe, and beautiful Verena Terrant, a charismatic speaker. Realizing that Verena's speeches will attract audiences feminism, Olive takes her in and cultivates her talent. Unfortunately, Olive and the movement have a rival for Verena's affection -- Basil Ransom, a conservative Mississippian, who wants Verena to become his wife and dedicate herself to his happiness.

I was disappointed in the superficiality with which James presented the feminist movement. Early feminists were often concerned with the hard lives of working class women, who married young to men who were often abusive, and lived in constant struggle. These women had no birth control and bore large families. Their children who were often sickly. Those who did not die young had to leave school early to support themselves. Women often died in childbirth or were left widowed to support large families.

Verena is portrayed as socially naive. She talks in airy abstractions and never seems to connect with the reality of women's lives. Everyone wants to use her: Olive for the movement, her parents to bring them fame and money, and Basil to prove the feminist movement false.

Henry James's books are always about the upper classes, but the human interactions are interesting enough that this usually doesn't bother me. In The Bostonians, however, James's lack of social consciousness bothered me deeply.

i also found the reading to be stilted and stiff.

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Family Saga in a North Dakota Town

Revisado: 12-10-15

Louise Erdrich creates the world of Argus, North Dakota, settled by German and Polish immigrants. Her principal character is Fidelis Waldvogel, a World War I sharpshooter who emigrates to the US and establishes himself as a master butcher -- in charge of all aspects of meat production from slaughtering the animals to mixing the spices for home-made sausage. Fidelis's wife Eva follows him to the US and together they raise 4 sons. Intertwined with their story is that of Delphine Waska, daughter of the town drunk and companion of acrobat and bootlegger Cyprian. The Waldvogels and Delphine are beautifully delineated and their stories are well told. The town of Argus is richly portrayed, whether the residents are coming together to form the singing club of the title or to dig some over-adventurous boys out of a collapsed cave. Although small and isolated, Argus is not untouched by history -- the depression and World War II. Unfortunately, Erdrich tends to throw in side plots that lead nowhere -- like the story of Delphine's friend Clarice and Hawk, the sherriff and Step-and-a-Half, the town ragpicker.

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Unforgettable characters and indelible description

Revisado: 05-03-15

"David Copperfield" follows the experiences and adventures of the title character from birth to young adulthood, when he has become a successful writer. As such, it concentrates more on the people that Copperfield interacts with than with a clearly defined plot. We are introduced to unforgettable characters, among them, the hero's evil stepfather, Mr Murdstone; the greathearted Daniel Peggoty; the feckless but charismatic James Steerforth; the slimey Uriah Heep; and the verbose and melodramatic Mr Micawber. Dickens was no slouch at describing women; here he gives us David's eccentric Aunt Betsey; his kindhearted nurse, Clara Peggoty; his child wife Dora, and the beautiful, headstrong Em'ly. These are brought to life by Simon Vance.
In addition, the settings come alive for us, whether the characters are in London,Canterbury, Yarmouth, or -- venturing abroad -- the Swiss Alps.

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A beautiful story of love and God's grace

Revisado: 12-08-14

This is the story of Lila, a vagrant working her way day by day through Iowa during the 1930's and '40's, and how her life is affected by the kindness and casual cruelty of the strangers that she meets. Even Lila is not sure who she really is; all she knows is what she has been told by a woman named Doll who rescued her from neglect and mistreatment. We never know any more about Lila's or Doll's origins than Lila herself knows, and we find that don't need to know more. Ms Robinson writes with deep respect and love for the poor -- those who live from hard-working hand to desperate mouth. Eventually Lila meets Reverend John Ames, an elderly minister who has lost both his wife and his young son. The two fall in love, marry, and have a child, knowing that John may not live long enough to see the boy grow up. The growth of their love, of Lila's quest to understand her place in the world, and of John's struggles to reconcile his Calvinist faith with the lives around him and his own lived experience are beautifully and sensitively told both in Robinson's writing and in Maggie Hoffman's reading.

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Vividly drawn characters

Revisado: 11-24-14

I highly recommend this novel about abolitionist and feminist Sarah Grimke and her slave, Hetty/Handful, who alternate as narrators. On her 11th birthday, Sarah Grimke, a daughter in an upper class Charleston family, receives an 11-year-old slave as her present. She is horrified, and tries the free the little girl, but is frustrated by her parents. The book tells the story of Sarah's struggles to free herself from the conventions of Charleston society and Handful's struggles to free herself from slavery. The characters, who include many historical figures (Denmark Vesey, William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, etc), are vividly drawn. The horrors of slavery are fully detailed -- the workhouse, the lash, and the prohibition against literacy -- and the difficulties faced by Handful, her mother Charlotte, and her sister Sky, as well as how they evade them, are realistically told. The repression faced by Sarah and her sister Angelina are also described realistically. At the end of the novel, Sue Monk Kidd provides an interesting commentary that distinguishes the parts of the story based on historical fact and those woven from her own imagination.

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