Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague
by Geraldine Brooks
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Book Summary Information
Author: Geraldine BrooksEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2001-08
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Viking Adult
Book Reviews of Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague
Book Review: A "wonder" at some, and not so on others...
Summary: 4 Stars
Wanted to give it 3 stars because some parts lagged a bit or else became much too introspective for me.
But then again, there were bits that were really emotional and heartwrenching (to the point that I actually felt a tightening in the chest) that made the overall impact of the novel subtle yet still powerfully staggering.
The ending was a surprise, but I suppose that the author felt the need to tweak things a bit to hone in the lasting message she wanted to impart...(how the heck could anyone really know why authors write as they do?)
One thing is for sure, stories of survival and the naked, unabashed portrayal of human failings in the midst of turmoil are what make such reading experiences always a new discovery of yet another dimension of ourselves.
Summary of Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague
A young woman's struggle to save her family and her soul during the most extraordinary year of 1666, when plague suddenly visited a small Derbyshire village and the villagers, inspired by a charismatic preacher, elected to quarantine themselves to limit the contagion.Geraldine Brooks's Year of Wonders describes the 17th-century plague that is carried from London to a small Derbyshire village by an itinerant tailor. As villagers begin, one by one, to die, the rest face a choice: do they flee their village in hope of outrunning the plague or do they stay? The lord of the manor and his family pack up and leave. The rector, Michael Mompellion, argues forcefully that the villagers should stay put, isolate themselves from neighboring towns and villages, and prevent the contagion from spreading. His oratory wins the day and the village turns in on itself. Cocooned from the outside world and ravaged by the disease, its inhabitants struggle to retain their humanity in the face of the disaster. The narrator, the young widow Anna Frith, is one of the few who succeeds. With Mompellion and his wife, Elinor, she tends to the dying and battles to prevent her fellow villagers from descending into drink, violence, and superstition. All is complicated by the intense, inexpressible feelings she develops for both the rector and his wife. Year of Wonders sometimes seems anachronistic as historical fiction; Anna and Mompellion occasionally appear to be modern sensibilities unaccountably transferred to 17th-century Derbyshire. However, there is no mistaking the power of Brooks's imagination or the skill with which she constructs her story of ordinary people struggling to cope with extraordinary circumstances. --Nick Rennison, Amazon.co.uk
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