R. Brevitz

The narrator made it hard.

Revisado: 05-10-21

I liked this book, but Lark, the little girl who’s the heroine and narrator of the story, sometimes displays the vocabulary and insights of a much older person. Anne of Green Gables can’t match her for big words, and they’re delivered with a straight face, not a suggestion that we’re hearing a child trying to sound erudite. It’s as if her narrative voice changes to that of an adult without notification or demarcation. Also, I’m not an expert on household customs of the 1930s, but Lark has a lot of responsibilities that don’t seem to match the usual life of a six-year-old. Boiling the kettle, weeding the garden???

However, the worst thing is the narrator’s rendition of (most of) the men’s accents. The women have rather neutral accents, but the men speak in a sort of Kentucky-Tennessee drawling twang. This is not how anyone from the Upper Midwest—certainly not Minnesota—talks. It was so dissonant that I almost abandoned the book despite the fact that overall I enjoyed it very much. Aside from Lark’s grown-up responsibilities, the portrayal of small-town Midwestern life is excellent, and the story of Lark’s parents’ unhappy marriage is very believable. (Although it seems an unhappy coincidence in the extreme that both Mama and her sister, another important character, have linked themselves to similarly unappealing men.)

Finally, an important thread of the plot, an exchange between Lark’s uncle and another woman (overheard by Lark, unbeknownst to them), is left dangling. When the author practically shouts, “Something is going to come of this! Wait for it!” and the reader dutifully waits . . . and waits . . . but nothing happens, disappointment and even a sense of having been cheated is the inevitable result.

Still, I liked The Cape Ann, and except for the accent error, the narrator was fine.

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Great story, but . . .

Revisado: 07-31-17

This was a tantalizing story built around a secret and an intriguing personality. I love unexpectedness in a novel, and it is here in abundance. The tone shifts, pleasingly to me, from the brittle (plenty of drawing room repartee) to the deadly serious (sorrow, regret, fear, desire). These are matched very well to a vigorous plot that hurtles forward from one surprising event to the next. It's a fun listen.

Except: narration is unsatisfying. Too many mispronunciations and misplaced emphases. Some of the voices she attempts are simply not believable. On the whole the narration was a distraction, not an asset. Golden Hill survives and still delights--but it could have been so, so much better if read by someone more at home in the language, and perhaps with a more mature voice.

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Just wonderful

Revisado: 07-24-17

I should have known the author is a poet. She makes this wonderful Western story--based on true, skimpily remembered events--a lyrical picture of life, courage, confusion, and sorrow. Her descriptions of Texas topography and weather are vivid enough to make you want to back up and hear them again. And her treatment of black and white and Indian people is both just and informed by her understanding that there are problems that can't be solved, thoughts that can't be changed--and life that just must be lived in spite of all that

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esto le resultó útil a 15 personas