Alpha who?: musing thoughts on selected gender roles of page and screen

 “'No woman really wants a man to carry her off; she only wants him to want to do it.' ---Elizabeth Peters

Women want to be strong and self-serving; but they also want stories of initiative, of passion, of strength, of the man who will sweep them away. They work all day to make equal salary, to prove that what their foresisters fought for has come to light; but they curl up in the evening with their Jane Austen dvds or the latest chicklit or, egads, a Harlequin on their e-reader.

In many of these cases, women retreat into stories where gender roles are clearly defined:  the man is the 'alpha' in presence, physicality, initiative (he takes the lead in pressing the romance forward) and the ultra-protector.  The woman is offered solace, financial and familial stability. She may "tame the rogue", yes; but the rogue will still provide. 

The Alpha male drives women to read and recollect and sink into fictionland again and again....

But....

Do we need the alpha male for romance to be realized?

I read this article on Castle ( which I have watched intermittently; but confess to not having followed with any dedication) by Christian romance writer Jenny B. Jones who argues that every romance needs an alpha…. An alpha male at that and that her viewing of Castle was  conflicted by Kate Beckett, the heroine, and her having usurped the “male” role. I am not agreeing or disagreeing with Jones in this musing and this is certainly not a counter to her words ( as mentioned, I don’t follow Castle); but it turned my brain on and inspired me to share and muse and hopefully kick-start dialogue.

Fifty Shades of Grey, the erotic bestseller borne of Twilight fan fiction, inevitably paints a heroine who is very much the submissive: in every crass sense of the word when paired with the ultra-masculine dominant Christian.  Part of the sexual contract explored in the book requires Anastasia ( ironically surnamed Steele; because she is any matter but)  to completely resign her independent life, her will and her routine to her new counterpart.  One would hardly argue this is romance ---- rather than erotic exploration---but still--- it climbs the charts.  My hypothesis is this: partly for the shock content; partly for the alpha male.

What used to be characterized mostly as brute strength ( watch Victor Mature in, say, anything ) has redefined itself to strength of heart, character, wit and grace.  As easy as it is for women to want, umm, Thor, so are they attracted to the softer, more adorkable geeky heroes that are prominent in our world.  We want Superman, yes; but we really want Clark Kent, too. Question this? Look at the show Grimm -- Monroe, the geeky watchmaker who plays the cello, likes fine wine and has difficulty mustering the courage to finalize his crush on the spice shop lady it the fan favourite and not the dashing police detective with the dimple in his chin: the snuggly, be-spectacled vegan with the quick intellect, plaid, penchant for Christmas decorations and inescapable curiousity.

books. he likes books. score for Monroe

We want, ostensibly, to know that Clark Kent can be Superman. An alpha male who can hide the alpha or in whom the alpha is so carefully embedded--- and most of all, who can forge equilibrium with us. 

If we’re in it together --- then who cares who has the upper hand?  And, in a world where gender roles have changed, what does alpha really mean? Who defines strength and who can turn the roles over like a salt shaker and go to town?

The Hunger Games poses an interesting reflection of this.  Unlike Twilight where two brute alpha males are paired with ostensibly the weakest heroine in the history of the world, Collins gives us Peeta the ultimate literal breadwinner, Gale the Hunter and Gatherer and a woman who is just as strong and sufficient as either of her male counterparts.  While Peeta is not outwardly as “strong” ( I delineated quotations for emphasis) as Gale, he harbours an amazing sense of cunning reserve.  I recently re-watched the film and was, as at first viewing, immediately beguiled when lovely, quiet and stern Peeta plays to the crowd by turning and waving to the audience to win admirers lining the streets of the Capitol.  If, as I believe Collins means us to, we survey every one of Peeta’s steps as a plot in which to secure Katniss’ safety and his actions : whether meted out blatantly or seen in somewhat minimalized retrospect, to ensure that she is the winner of the Hunger Games, then strength, Peeta-fied, comes from creative intelligence, ingenious intuition;rather than the ability to snare a deer in the forest.  Strength deepened further by his long time affection for the girl who didn’t notice him.

I'll eat the berries if you do

When you pair a heroine who is as equally as “strong” to watch as the two prospective suitors rounding the triangle at what point do you establish the need for alpha in romance?  Is equilibrium enough?

My favourite romance of all time is the Blue Castle. Herein, Barney and Valancy meet as friends, they have an easy companionship, are kindred spirits, can laugh and can see that their camaraderie is laying a solid foundation for a life-long romance.

There is no love at first sight. Valancy notices Barney physically; but it is his elusively winsome manner that attracts her more and more…. She has to like HIM as a person ---with his freedom and nonchalant aura before she notices more definitive aspects of his physiognomy: that his eyebrows are mis-matched, the colour of his eyes, the thin dimples in his cheeks… his lackadaisical grace.  She falls in love with the person before he has a chance to exhibit the alpha.  She is more inclined to desire his freedom on an island and what that could serve her as a repressed woman than she is the prospect of him rescuing her.  While she dreams of princes who will ride from the walls of the Blue Castle and secure her favour, she acts in real life--- deciding to throw her affection on a man she views as a preternatural equal.

Barney, the automatic alpha, doesn’t necessarily need to save Valancy who, at the point in the novel when their relationship is developing has already made galloping strides toward self-sustenance; but CAN and shows he will…. Not in the fairytale way; but in Montgomery’s meta-fairytale way--- spiriting her away from unwanted suitors at the dance at Chidley Corner’s, rescuing her from Roaring Abel’s drunken debauchery when he sets off with her in their tin lizzie to Port Lawrence to see a film.

Sure, Valancy is alpha when she proposes --- but Barney immediately turns and gains upper alpha hand when he kisses her. That’s right.  Physical initiative is on his end, not hers.  She may have initiated the “let’s be friends for all time and live on your island… and by all time I mean the year I have left to live “ ; but Barney sealed it.

Both Barney and Valancy have alpha moments. Both are strong and willed and wise and winsome and funny and lovely and THAT is why they work: two halves to a whole.  Their passion develops and foremost in words and kinship before in physical consommation…..

When I speak of romance I speak of it as a genre: a genre which calls to mind knights in armour and ladies willing to be rescued. But I also call to mind the connection that most of us want to find in life with a significant other --- If we are what we read, watch, see, listen to--- then we must recognize that we are informed by the stories that shape us.  We become invested in the pairings that most closely match what we would like in our real life. Love triangles work so well because you can Choose Your Own Adventure:  Katniss and Peeta, Katniss and Gale, Bella and Edward (god help you) and match your personal preference to the movie playing in your mind. 

If, like me, you want equilibrium of smarts and chats and laughter where you allow that gender roles can be rooted in natural biological make-up; but there is room for personal growth and the colouring of personality and individuality, then you recognize that many guys have the desire to be the alpha : whether the alpha means smashing down things with a hammer or strongly staring resolvedly at a woman they have quietly loved for years. In the same way that females want to be seen as equal; but still get jelly in the knees when thinking that some man would protect, provide…

We don’t have to be one or the other and our romance does not have to define one or the other.  We should look at romance as a reflection of the best parts of human companionship: as a rainbow-flavoured, sunshine-y ideal, as the mecca, the i-ching, the best of ourselves.  Your self can ride a white horse or fall for a guy who has one; or be the guy who waits in the wings while another presses his suit.

It’s not clear cut, it’s not black and white because we are not cookie-cutter humans and we are melded with different shapes, attractions, desires….

Formulaic romance would like us to subscribe to one thing; personal preference re-imagines those scenarios: the best laid example of what we hope our lives to be in a fictional light.

I’ll take Barney, you take Thor….

There are many different kinds of love in the world --- and many different kinds of strength.

Film Review: The Raven

If you are looking for an Academy-award winning calibre piece of cinema, then this is not the place to find it. However, if you want some interestingly gothic-and-gore-infused representation of fan fiction in movie form, then you have come to the right place. With the insurgence in fiction of everyone from Alcott to Austen to Bronte to Twain solving crime, why should not the inventor of the macabre be given a turn?

Hi! I'm John Cusack and way hotter than the original.

Atmospheric, dreary, dark, claustrophobic, police-procedural, inventive, gory, blood-spurted and melancholy The Raven pits the world's greatest horror writer against a serial killer inspired to copycat his most famous works: The Pit and the Pendulum, The Mask of the Red Death, The Cask of Amantillado: if you have a weak stomach or thought that life-sized representations of the stories that kept you up at night would send you over the brink, then this is not the tale for you.  However, if you are fascinated to follow the breadcrumb trail of links and clues that lead you to search the recesses of your mind to excavate what you remember from the Poe canon, then hurrah!...  this is JUST like that episode of Castle where a criminal is inspired by Richard Castle's most famous novels and crimes ....except here.... the stalwart Inspector Fields of the Baltimore PD goes straight to POE --- the greatest horror writer and the greatest inventor of melancholia.

For those of us who know about Poe's life: his mysterious disappearance, his struggle to reconcile himself with his stand-up West Point career and this wife's death with the raging blood-red circumference of his imagination, his odd eccentricities, his alcoholism and his utter despair are couched here in the capable underplay of John Cusack.  There is enough fact blended in this utter fan fiction to give it some historical weight.   Not unlike the Guy Ritchie retellings of Sherlock Holmes, 1849 Baltimore, here, is a grey and bleak world of stolen shadows across cobblestones, sleek rain-slated windows and carriages groaning under devious weight.  And, speaking of Sherlock, we remember Watson mentioning Dupin don't we? In Study in Scarlet ? Yes. Yes we do!

I am over-acting in this scene, as I do all; but look! my coat! it doth swing! 

This is very much a police procedural and the smell of ink and death and the painful re-creation of horrendous Poe inspirations are all in front of you: so, if you have a weak stomach, this is not your film.  The horror, I must say, had a more grotesque "cartoony" feel which very much left it in the realm of popular imagination.  I enjoyed how Poe was regaled and horrified by seeing his work in actual light... how he struggled with the fact that his brilliant mind was responsible for inhuman horror.  Also, the story meandered into the realm (if weakly) of what is fact and fiction and at one point do authors become characters in their own stories: borne of the weaknesses subjected by the wrong interpretation of their work.

[---Also, Edgar Allen Poe has a pet raccoon.....  and he quoths the Raven at a pub where Higgins from N and S/ Bates from Downton is the barkeep.... true story]

An entirely amusing 2 hours at the movies and the perfect ending to a road-trip weekend I took through Kingston and Prince Edward County with two girlfriends.  We chuckled a lot at some of the reprehensibly cheesy lines and at Luke Evans attempt to chew the scenery, swallow it, spit it out and chew it again (he really was terrible in this film: interesting to note that Jeremy Renner was a first choice).

So, there it is: fan fiction on screen.....

Ode to My Book

hi book, i am jubilant.... i want to write your name with pink pen in my binder and draw hearts all around it, i want to say your name over and over again in dulcimer tones, i want to look up dulcimer to see if i used it correctly in a sentence, i want to imagine our white picket fence, i want to swing with you in a hammock. by a lake. with a picnic nearby. book, there is something about you that skips my heart beat, pounds a little delightful hammer in my stomach, that makes my breath go "oop!" and catch somewhere in my throat. i equate you with sunshine and lollipops, you're a rainbow-studded,gold-embossed,skittle-taste of adoration. book, you and i were meant to be. in that epic 'casablanca' type of way. compatible? damn right we are. book, sweep me up and hot air balloon me away.

Great Adaptations IV: 2011 BBC

It’s been awhile since Great Adaptations last showed up on le blog.  However, that was because even though I watched the 2011 BBC version at Christmas, I wanted to ensure that all North American friends had the chance to view it on Masterpiece Theatre.  Since my DVD arrived last week, I have spent many an hour carefully perusing it and experiencing each minute detail which has more sternly formulated my opinion that it is the best film adaptation to date. That’s not to say that it isn’t without flaws or that it doesn’t distance itself from the text; but its choices make a lot of sense and it “feels” like Great Expectations: from the murky marshes to the clouded, cloistered cobblestones of Pip’s London, through the satined lace of young women lined like a garland at a party as Pip takes Estella’s ivory hand to the decrepitly ravished wedding feast of the irreplaceable Miss Havisham.

The characterization is deft and taut and each of these well-known personages, who could easily become caricatures so inferenced are they in our cultural psyche, are instead the embodiment of pathos and light, of humour and heartbreak: of proof that, above all, Great Expectations is a narrative borne of extraordinary acts of unwarranted kindness.

It is no surprise that I am completely befuddled and bewildered by the continual influence this particular tale has on me: how it exposes my vulnerability, my strengths, and the darker tenets of human expectation: the trajectory, and further tragedy, begotten of our wanting something more…. But this particular series drew from creaked corner into luminous light the characters I have often felt between the pages of my well-worn novel.  During the Bicentenary Celebrations earlier this year, one statistic ( which I cannot cite, unfortunately) listed both Miss Havisham and Joe Gargery as two of the 10 best-known Dickensian characters.  Great Expectations---whether having been forced on readers in high school---or having been re-visited with stylistic enterprise in the 90s or whether (fortunately) given weight  in two current adaptations ( this miniseries and the upcoming Hollywood) film or even as a funky premise for a South Park episode--- is an inescapable portion of the Western canon.   Perhaps because we can see so much of ourselves in Pip, we can see so much of what we would like to be in the actions of Joe and Herbert and Magwitch, we enjoy the Soap Operatic twists and turns linking Estella, her bat-crazy adoptive mother and the sinister Jaggers and his erstwhile maid Molly---- it’s human relations: sex, power, money, loss of money, disillusionment, odd reconciliation at its best.

There’s crime, almost murder, escaped convicts,  boat chases, whirls of balls and abusive husbands…. Who wouldn’t want this? 

As ultimately complex as the tale is and as many characters as it introduces ( some completely left out of this particular imagining: most noticeably Biddy) it is, at its core, a sleek bildungsroman pitting a young and good-hearted orphan against the sudden Cinderella-like fate that follows him to his apprenticeship years as a blacksmith in the Kent Marshes.

This adaptation has received numerous BAFTA nominations for its craft and presentation and it is quite easy to see why:  it is a tangible and delectable world that you can smell and see and touch: it is gritty and horrible, it is crusted with the mould of Satis House and encrypted in the smoke billowing from the forge and as Pip sheds his cocoon to dress in the gentleman’s clothes that propel him out into society with his lovely pal Herbert, we see the finest threads carefully woven to speak their intricate tailorship: a perfect recognition of the period and the Era’s finery.

 

It also includes some of my favourite performances of some of the best-loved Dickensian characters.  For my part, I feel  that this adaptation’s Herbert Pocket, Magwitch, Joe Gargery, Pip and Miss Havisham are the best I have seen.

I encourage you to spend some time in this world. I have revisited it quite a bit.  This past week, I was traveling for work and ended up steeping some tea in my hotel room and catching it again on iTunes:  obsessed? Perhaps a little; but more enamored and bewitched that a dazzling presentation has wrought from my mind’s eye to camera’s lens a kaleidoscopic Victorian world I crave to seep into time and again.

Pearl in the Sand by Tessa Afshar

Pearl in the Sand is an exceptionally readable retelling of the Rahab story from the Book of Joshua in the Bible.

Rahab is sold into prostitution in the booming and lawless metropolis of Jericho at the tender age of 15 when her farming family becomes destitute.  There, she works her way up to become the key innkeeper in the city,  having earned enough money to build her own inn within the bordering infamous walls of the great city centre.  The more Rahab hears about the one true God of the Hebrews, the more curious she becomes.  Having always been conflicted by her forced profession, she wonders if there is a God of compassion to withstand the pagan gods of the temples peppering her town. When two Hebrew spies arrive at her inn, Rahab is met with a choice: act in a great and dangerous leap of faith, or ensure her comfort and safety and wealth are retained.

Unlike most fictionalized accounts of Rahab’s famous Old Testament story, the famous portion of Rahab and the spies takes only the first third of the book.  From there, we are walked through Rahab’s joining of the Israelites, immersing herself in their faith, eyeing from distance the great battles fought between Hebrews and foes and her growing attraction with great military leader, Salmone.

Both Rahab and Salmone are the crux of the story and are both equally well-developed: their lives and budding relationship interspersed with the great canvas which highlights the many famous acts and stories surrounding Joshua: from the tumbling of the walls by trumpeting fervor, through Aichan’s sin and some of the great battles fought, to the day the sun stood still.  Joshua, a well-rounded peripheral character and sage voice offers many intriguing moments of illicit faith.  I applaud  Tessa Afshar for colouring the story in such a unique light and focusing on tenets of the book usually left un-realized in other fictionalized versions of the tale.   Afshar is very confident in how her painting and portrayal of a troubled relationship will offer a great light when mended and string a strong lineage (from Rahab and Salmone’s son Boaz onward ) to the coming of Christ in the New Testament.   Afshar’s research is evident and I was captivated by the tent rituals of the Hebrew women, the focus on hospitalization and medicine after the gory battles of the field and the day-to-day life of a burgeoning nation as it struggled to find its own place ----away from the long provided-manna and leadership of Moses, leaving the wilderness years long behind.   I must also commend Afshar’s battle sequences. They were wonderfully rendered and were very realistic.  I felt my heart pulsing as she cited almost immeasurable odds.

Great Biblical fiction can do well at extrapolating an imagined (and believable ) backstory to a few verses blatantly transcribed.  I felt deeply for Rahab and her insecurities about her impurity and her past and her desire to become worthy of the God who will save her and the new husband who obviously loves her, no matter his initial reticence to wholly embrace her past. This was a strong theme painted and very encouraging to those of us who doubt how an unconditional love could reach us.   Stronger in thematic depth and precision,  I preferred the backlight to this story to the famous (overhyped?) Redeeming Love: a grandiose re-setting of a popular tale.

The book, however, is not completely without fault.  Afshar errs at breaking tone and timbre by inserting decidedly distracting modern humour and sarcasm.  Characters are said to “roll their eyes” and some of their familiar interactions complete detract from the verisimilitude surging through so much of the book.  Indeed, I ended up rolling my eyes. Afshar was forced in these moments trying so hard to mete her characters with human warmth and frailty: but rather than eliciting a smile, they just made me cringe in awkwardness.   That being said, 75% percent of the novel was expertly penned, the dialogue ( when not straining to match the perceived need for audience humour )_ was acute and the historical detail was fascinating.

Looks like Afshar has a new release out and I look forward to seeing how she colours in the lines of another strong Biblical woman!

Interview: Sara Humphreys author of 'Untouched'

Hello !  This is not a genre I usually read or review so I was excited to try a taste of Paranormal Romance.  I am so excited that Sara Humphreys was kind enough to answer a few questions about her new novel, Untouched . Please read the interview below.  I have TWO copies of Untouched available to American and Canadian readers so please leave a comment below and I will draw two names :)

1.     The Amoveo have surprising gifts—if you could have just one gift what would it be?
  SH:That’s a tough one but I’d probably go with telepathy. I think it would so cool to be able to have secret, intimate conversations with a lover in the middle of a crowded room.

2.     You are also a seasoned actress; did your tenure in television inform the way you write fast-paced scenes? Are the two mediums very dissimilar when approached from a creative standpoint?
SH: I haven’t worked as an actress in many years but there are certain similarities from a character development stand point. I got back into writing because I craved a creative outlet. Building worlds and developing characters is something you do as an actor as well. When diving into the mind of a character, it’s important to understand where that person came from because that drives where they’re going.

3.     If you were to write in a genre other than paranormal romance, what would you like to try your hand at?
SH: I’d probably go for contemporary romantic suspense or delve into the YA pool. You never know….

4.     Ok, can I just say how much I loved a "big-boned", normal looking heroine who attracted a sexy fox (literally)! Can you speak to this empowering choice?
SH: Easily. I am a “big-boned” gal. I was at my heaviest in my early teen years—I tipped the scales at about 230 pounds but by the end of high school, I’d lost quite a bit of weight. I’ve struggled with my weight for my entire life and I’m sure I always will but I never let it stop me from going after what I wanted. I enjoy writing imperfect heroines and heroes…who the hell wants to read about someone who’s perfect?

5.     What is currently on your night-table (or e-reader?)
SH: Enraptured by Elisabeth Naughton.

6.     I loved the New Orleans portion of the setting as I recently took a vacation there and think it works well for supernatural stories laden with portentous clouds. Can you speak to how the city inspired you creatively?
SH: My husband and I have visited New Orleans several times and stayed at the Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter.  We love it there and I feel like no matter how many times we go, we always find something new to see. It’s a city rich with history, mystery and color. In fact, we’re going back next week for a signing at the Carousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleone. I can’t wait!

7.      Finally. Casting call! Who would you cast in the film version of 'Untouched'?
SH: Plus size model Crystal Renn would be perfect as Kerry and Joe Manganiello, the hot werewolf on True Blood, would be a dynamite Dante. *sigh* A girl can dream….

My thanks to Sara for writing a spicy novel and for SourceBooks for providing a review copy.

UNTOUCHED BY SARA HUMPHREYS – IN STORES APRIL 2012

She should be seen, but never touched…

Kerry Smithson's modeling career ensures that she will be admired from afar, which is essential since mere human touch sparks blinding pain and terrifying visions.

Every good model needs a heavenly bodyguard…

Dante Coltari is hired to protect Kerry from those who know who she is—or more importantly what she is—and want her dead because of it. Nothing could have prepared him for the challenge of keeping her safe. But, strangely, his lightest touch brings her exquisite pleasure rather than pain, and Dante and Kerry have an otherwordly connection that might just pull them through.

“Red-hot love scenes punctuate a well-plotted suspense story that will keep readers turning pages as fast as they can.”

—Publishers Weekly Starred Review

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sara Humphreys has been attracted to the fantasies of science fiction, paranormal, and romance since her adolescence when she had a mad crush on Captain Kirk. An actress and public speaker, Sara lives with her husband--who is very considerate of her double life--and four amazing boys, in Bronxville, New York. For more information, please visit http://sarahumphreys.com, Like her on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/Amoveo and follow her on Twitter 

A Reluctant Queen: The Love Story of Esther by Joan Wolf

Hello friends! Happy Easter Monday! 

I read this book over the weekend and I found it ridiculously empowering---with the same empowerment I am always surged with when I retreat into one of the tales of the many, many amazingly strong women of the Old Testament.

The story of Esther and her marriage to King Ahasuerus is a popular and well-loved tale from the pages of Scripture: the love story of a beguilingly beautiful Jewish woman who hides her heritage in order to win the King's hand and his ear as she attempts to quell the plots of the King's grand vizier, Haman, who wants to initiate one of history's first genocides.  

From the beginning pages when we read of Esther's quiet life with her kind and wise kinsmen Mordecai to her unwilling renouncement of her Jewish faith in order to live by the King's Persian rules in hopes of being chosen as queen from his large Harem, this ancient world is filled with rich-tapered threads and the palpable scent of spices and mysticism.   Biblical fiction when done poorly can be ripe with redundancy; but Joan Wolf has a talented knack for creating a world and fleshing out characters often marginalized by the confines of their ancient text.  I was riveted from the moment Esther hears of Queen Vashti's untimely fate and through her first meeting with the King ( with whom she develops a completely unexpected rapport).  

Like the Book of Ruth, Esther is one of the Bible's Cinderella stories: it rewards a strong and innovative and resourceful woman and commends her for the risks she takes to save her people.  The King she is initially warned about melts into a kindly figure who shows unanticipated compassion; the villain is given just reward, and Esther and her Uncle are given the satisfaction of knowing that their Jewish relatives are saved from an awful fate.

One of the most interesting aspects of the Bible is how God used unexpected people: beautiful women, prostitutes, Moabite strangers, warriors and Queens to solidify his master plan. Esther is a strong and good-natured woman with a succinct devotion and unwavering loyalty to the right.  She deserves the sweet and slow romance which blossoms between her and the King.  She deserves the happy end to a troubled fate. 

I have already pre-ordered Wolf's retelling of the Rahab story and cannot wait to sink my teeth into more of her well-researched description.

For those who are not convicted by a religious sense, you can easily seep into this story regarding it as a powerful and well-penned chapter of political history. Wolf paints well Esther and Ahasurerus; but also Haman, the court Eunichs and servants who serve the Queen and the financially-sound Mordecai whose conviction propels Esther into the fate which secures her people and inspirationally launches the well-loved and still-practiced celebration of Purim.

Read this book!  Romantic! Historical! Colourful!  and a serene portrait of one of history's most memorable royals!

Good Friday

‎" He had the honesty and the courage to take His own medicine. Whatever game He is playing with His creation, He has kept His own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that He has not exacted from Himself. He has Himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life to and the cramping restrictions of hard word and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When He was a man, He played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace, and thought it was worthwhile.”---Dorothy L. Sayers

'War Horse'

Last night I saw the National Theatre’s Production of War Horse at the Princess of Wales here in Toronto.  Based on the best-selling novel by Michael Morpurgo and inspiration for the recent film (my review here), War Horse is a steady and episodic tale of the love between a horse and his boy amidst the turmoil of the Great War.

Raised from a foal by Devon farmboy Albert, Joey grows spirited and special: a plough horse even though a natural, thorough-bred hunter, and a constant companion to his adoring master.   Albert’s oft-drunk father Ted breaks a promise to his son and sells Joey to Major Nicholls when the bells toll and the outbreak of England’s war against Germany commences.  Joey finds himself on both sides of the lines in France and Albert, underage, runs to join the conflict in hopes to find his Devon Yeomanry and bring his horse back with him. A powerful and resonating tale as old as time: of an animal/human bond forged greater still by absence, War Horse is a touching story.

The play itself is magnificent, ultimately because the staging is so unique and the horse puppetry (propelled by humans at first visible through the skeletal structure of the horses until they blend behind the camouflage  of imagination) is so excellent.  The sets are simplistically haunting with a scrap of paper: as if torn from a novel or a page of Major Nicholl’s sketchbook spans the back of the proscenium arch matching the action of the players with sketches evoking Devon’s spires and farm fields and, later, the tyranny of the Somme and the action in No Man’s Land.  The action of the story is often interrupted by a wandering minstrel who sings old  Northern tunes while playing a fiddle.  While this was effective when backed with the harmonized chorus of the cast, it was sometimes off-setting and distracting: as you would settled into the quiet action and disturbance of a scene only to be drawn out by a repeated ditty.  The “canned” music which offers soundtracked canvas to the story can also seem a little melodramatic: sometimes silence is indeed better.

The play develops Joey and the physically grander Topthorn as living, breathing characters whose interactions with humans form the crux of the story. Indeed, it is through the eyes of the horses forced into War that humanity is exposed: from both sides uniting to untie Joey from barb-wire to the young French girl Emilie and the conflicted Calvary-officer Friedrich Mueller bonding over their common interest in the horses.  

Why War Horse works so well as a story is that it takes a bird’s eye (or horse’s eye) view of the War while evoking all sides of the War in an unbiased and gentle way: there are characters from torn France, Germany and England all moved by their exasperated situations and extracting the emotional investment of the audience.  Often, the horses are the common denominator in this bleak world of bloodshed and horror.

As mentioned, the staging is really quite remarkable: some scenes, including the trek of the soldiers and the horses bobbing along with a multitude of ships from Dover to Calais across the channel is artistically rendered and quite breathtaking.  The pulsing nearness of a life-sized tank and the ricocheting sounds of artillery and machine guns are also present and alive.  The audience is more drawn in by the usage of the entire theatre as a space for action: the horses and players widely use the aisles to run back and forth spreading the canvas of the stage to the entire theatre. I sat orchestra just right of center and had a beautiful view aligning the action; but still far enough back to not see every wire and detail. 

The story itself is  an exercise in simple magnificence: farm boy far from home trying to reconnect a severed bond between himself and his spunky horse.  The end of the story will move anyone to tears and the well-familiar lump in your throat will recur throughout the action.

This is a wonderful piece of theatre, expertly staged.  Further, it is a lovely homage to a hard-to-tell novel by one of the strongest writers in contemporary children’s literature.

The Messenger by Siri Mitchell

Siri Mitchell’s work is often featured here because I think (nay… I KNOW) she is one of the strongest historical voices in the CBA.  One such reason for commending her is her wide range. Unlike many authors of her ilk, she stretches boundaries by playing with narrative voice and writing well-researched books about a variety of time periods.  She is clever, intelligent, writes inspiring heroines dealt interesting hands in a myriad of historical eras and fills her prose with acute verisimilitude which reads in a flawless, effortless manner.

Here, Mitchell’s canvas is the conflicts embedded in the Revolutionary War.  Philadelphia: from its higher society to its low tavern world is peppered with spy rings, mystery, heart-pulsing tension, and cloaked faith even while humanity pits against each other.  The Messenger is divided between the voices and perspectives of young Quaker woman Hannah Sunderland and Colonial spy Jeremiah Jones. Hannah, desperate to aid her rebel twin brother during imprisonment is forced to live outside of her usually rigid and conservative realm.  Jeremiah, knows he needs the guise of Hannah’s innocence to help permeate the prison walls; but is initially unsure if this strict young woman is up to task.  Both Hannah and Jeremiah will have to test their own wills, trust in each other and step outside of their comfort zones to achieve their mutual purpose.

There is a love story in the novel; but it takes back-burner to the well-wrought tension at the forefront. Indeed, Mitchell  does well at plotting and propelling action forward simultaneously developing her characters and their growing attachment in stride.  There is a palpable sense of dramatic irony felt from the first few pages for the anticipating reader; but Hannah and Jeremiah remain realistic unsure of their growing dependence on each other.  Thus, their relationship is meted out slowly and in a believable manner.

I read somewhere ( perhaps on the thread Siri Mitchell contributed to on the Bethany House facebook page) that Revolutionary History was is not deemed overly popular in the CBA: I, however, was fascinated by this unique setting and immediately want more.  It made me want to revisit the beautiful HBO John Adams film and re-read more about our American neighbours and their hard-fought forge toward independence.  I  appreciated Mitchell’s inherent grasp of Quaker traditions: including the “thees” and “thous” implanted in dialect.  This put me in mind of Alice Henderson in Catherine Marshall’s Christy and allowed me to readily establish a narrative constant in my head when reading Hannah’s version of the story.

I also very much enjoyed the unbreakable bond between Hannah and her twin brother. I had often heard that twins can experience the misfortune of one another and that indelible invisible thread that forces Hannah to risk all to save her beloved brother was quite moving.

There is an adamant and abundant theme of grace and trusting; yet, none of the characters are “sickeningly” Christian.  In fact, Mitchell excels at penning heroes and heroines tested by faith and plagued by the doubts that withstand any time period.  None of her heroines are perfect; yet all strive to live up to the metrics of their conscience: which is all that one can ask given the frustratingly blurred line between dark and light so apparent during this time in history.

A few Siri Mitchell review from the backlogs:

Chateau of Echoes

A Heart Most Worthy

Visit Siri Mitchell on the web

I received this review copy from Graf Martin Communications on behalf of Baker Publishing Group.

Miracle on Regent Street by Ali Harris

Miracle on Regent Street is what would happen if Shop Around the Corner took Love, Actually on a date.

Evie is a sweetly good-natured stock-girl at the mythically nostalgic department store Hardy’s.  Hardy’s is her beloved: her parents met and wooed each other there, all good memories of childhood Christmases are confined in its spacious walls and its very essence reminds Evie of the eras by-gone she loves to recreate in decoration and wardrobe.  Though over-looked by the staff at the department store and known only incorrectly as Sarah the Stock Girl, Evie has formed a delicious type of family including the maven of the tea room and the delivery guy, Sam ( who has dimples --- you KNOW that's important to me ;) ).

When Evie learns, just before Christmas, that her beloved store may not make it through the holidays due to dwindling customers, she decides it needs a major revamp and makeover: one that will spirit it back into the past she loves. Using the glamour of Old Hollywood and her reverence for War Time fashion, Evie is like a little elf who sneaks in at night and revitalizes the department store from its minimalist and modern look to days of yore.  In turn, and largely without credit, Evie has overhauled the entire business and Hardy’s may make it after all….Evie’s love life, however, and her choice between a sweetly adorable teddy bear of a guy ( with a secret) and a dashing American who thinks she’s someone she’s not… may not be wrapped up with such a picture-perfect bow.

This is an adorable book, everyone. A co-worker snapped it up from a trip to the UK and brought it back to Canada before its anticipated release over our way. It’s a broad and breezy read tapered with an exceptionally acute sense of nostalgic fashion. It made me want to run out and buy a gold powder compact and brighten my lips a pearly, glistening red.  All of the ingredients you love in chicklit are right here --- including the fact that it is set in dazzling London weeks before Christmas --- but the department store family and scenario are what lend it a unique and colourful edge.

I quite enjoyed spending some time with these characters-- so choose a chilled March night, brew some tea, slink into an over-sized sweater and watch Evie come into her own.

Visit Ali Harris on the web

Another blockbuster adaptation...

I know I never reviewed The Hunger Games on the bloggie here. I read the first book about 4 years ago and the subsequent two; but by then everyone was talking about them and I didn't feel I had anything to add to the pot....


This past week, I re-read the first book ( again I say, four years since I read it ) so that I could refresh my memory before I saw the film with friends yesterday.  It is a good book.  It is VERY fast-paced. It is a grade 8 teacher's dream-book for thematic enterprise.... characterization is great, even in minor  characters. DYSTOPIA FOR THE WIN.

The film: The film PROVES how strong an adaptation can be when the author of the novels works on the screenplay and consults on the script. Although this world was slightly different than the one I had in my head ( this is what happens with fantasy, n'est pas?) this is an EXCEPTIONAL adaptation. Friends who had not read the books, missed some of the major romantic elements and a lot of Katniss' motivations, as we are bereft of her dialogue in the novels and the inner workings of her strategic mind.... I, however, thought it was strong.

Also, because, as mentioned, I have never jumped on the "let's all blog about the Hunger Games" ship, I am Team Peeta.

And with that..... go forth and film watch.

[I'm not even linking to the books or imdb. You all know what this is.  You are inundated with it. I don't need to give you background information]

oh also..... Gale is ridiculously miscast in my opinion. But, I am not on his team, so who cares?

The Accidental Bride by Denise Hunter

Cowboy Christian Chicklit? Does the genre even exist? Well, it does now thanks to Denise Hunter’s Accidental Bride: a whip-smart and sassy tale of Shay Brandenberger, a Montana rancher who is raising her daughter alone and Travis McCoy who left her high-and-dry at the altar when she was barely more than a teenager to earn fame and fortune on the Texan rodeo circuit.

In dire straits and threatened with the impending loss of her farm,  Shay begs God for a miracle--- what she didn’t bank on is Travis, a would-be guardian angel who steps in to ranch alongside her in the nick-of-time.

Hunter’s an extremely fresh and confident voice in the Christian contemporary romance genre. She has a knack for describing every day ranch life: from founder’s picnics to bull-wrangling and square dancing to little wood churches with age-old hymns drifting to the rafters.  Into this alluring canvas, she peppers her plot with two independently strong and striking people who are bound to be together; but just need a shove in the right direction.

When Travis and Shay learn that they are, indeed, and quite ironically ( and more than a little accidentally) legally married, they try to live in the same house without acting on their growing rekindled attraction.  But, soon, this marriage of convenience leads the way for accidental midnight-run-ins, sweet faithful gestures, stolen kisses and a whole lot of spice.

If you are looking for a summery light fiction read then I definitely recommend this thoroughly unique addition to the genre. I especially liked any scene where Shay’s delightfully brash friend Abigail showed up with her knowing sarcasm and winsome words: some in good advice, some just in healthy attraction for Shay’s new helpmate.

Buy the book on Amazon

Visit Denise Hunter on the web

Follow Denise on twitter: @deniseahunter

Moment of [Cover] Zen

I really love this cover. It takes me to my happy place.

The book (according to Dorothy Love's website is out Fall 2012

Turnabout's Fair Play by Kaye Dacus

This is the last in the Matchmaker’s series by Kaye Dacus. The first two novels focused on friends Zarah and Caylor: single, professional and intelligent women  in their 30s who navigate the Christian Singles Scene and dating world while hoping to bump into true love.  The third, features plucky editor Flannery McNeill: who wants nothing to do with handsome charming men and, to put it bluntly, is waiting for the perfect dork. 

As is the over-arching premise in the series, a set of feisty grandparents intends to pair up their grandchildren in order to ensure that they are marrying amongst each other and into comfortable stock.  Sports marketer Jamie O’Conner and Flannery are the latest to be eyed by the wily elder generation as the perfect match.  But, when Flannery and Jamie notice a spark between their grandparents, the matchmaking tables are turned.

Dacus knows the editing and publishing world very well as is quite evident in the novel. As this is the world I work in I was immediately familiar with the space and meetings and obligations of Flannery’s everyday life.  Dacus also, as often mentioned, has a wonderful grasp on the experience of single women in their 30s in faith-based communities. Not just average women; but thinking career women with wonderful jobs, a lot of backbone and a reluctance to settle for anything less than perfect.

Flannery and Jamie’s story played out in a lighter, bouncier fashion than the first two love stories in the series.  There is a lot of tongue-in-cheek here as well as some great epistolary moments featuring emails between the four main players in the book.  It was bubbly and light and kept the pace flying.  I appreciated the extra characters, like Jack Colby, Flannery’s boss ( who seemed gay to me--- an interesting portrayal in modern religious fiction) and Danny, Jamie’s longtime friend.

What really stole my heart and kept it the contradiction between Jamie’s killer good looks and polished demeanor and his passion for Arthurian legends,  gaming and online fanfiction.  Jamie is hilarious in his pursuit of all things pertaining to the legendary Sir Gawain. In fact, we learn that he and Danny would dress up to appear at blockbuster film openings of King Arthur movies (not unlike those Lord of The Rings fans we all know and…erm… love(?) )

This book was snappy and sweet and I like when a geek in chic clothing sets out to find a girl and gets one who, in turn, is just as hopelessly geeky as he is.

Cute book! Fun time! Back to finish the Ransome series and you will all have some more Kaye Dacus on the blog

The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais (mostly just to talk about quotes)

Have you read this? Read it. FUNNY STUFF!

Remember how the best part of the Nero Wolfe series is Archie Goodwin--- well, actually Archie’s amazingly sarcastic lines?---- get ready to love Elvis Cole ( if you don’t already love Elvis Cole)

I have read Robert Crais sporadically; but had never gone to the beginning of the series and this is a strong debut and so edgy; even for its initial publication...And while Elvis Cole isn’t EXACTLY like Archie Goodwin, it’s that sparkly sarcastic quipping and delineating observation of character that drives the book at breakneck speed.

Elvis has a Jiminy Cricket collection and wants to be Peter Pan. He’s funny. So funny. So fresh. I immediately thought of Spenser; but found Joe Pike to be more appealing (if as reserved on the talking front) as Hawk.

There are a couple of things I especially like about Robert Crais. First, his background is in screenwriting so there is a palpably tangible tension to his action that plays very much like a film rolling in your mind’s eye. Secondly, and somewhat famously, though often offered, Crais has refused to sell the rights to the Pike/Cole novels as he continues to write them---preferring his readers to have their own imaginative conceptualization of his characters.  While this is somewhat contradictory of one who has worked so steadily in the television market, it just shows that he recognizes the dichotomy between imagination and adaptation and further proves that he is not willing to sell out. For me, this shows a lot of authorial integrity.

I am just about finished Taken: which is night and day from Monkey’s Raincoat: and the most recently released Pike/Cole novel. It burns rubber this book flies by so fast; but Crais whittles down prose with intention, he knows what descriptors to leave in and where the mind can easily paint a canvas he refuses to fill in.

Now, for a couple of quotes from Monkey's Raincoat I laughed at and loved:

"It's easy to sound good. All you have to do is leave in the parts where you act tough and forget the parts where you get shoved around."

“I took a deep breath and smiled sweetly. “I’m going to check around outside,” I said. It was either that, or hit them with a chair”

“The rich black of the canyon was dotted with jack-o’-lantern lit houses, orange and white and yellow and red in the night. Where the canyon flattened out into Hollywood and the basin beyond, the lights concentrated into thousands of blue-white diamonds spilled over the earth.”

“I woke up just before nine the next morning and caught the tail end of Sesame Street. Today’s episodes was brought to us by the letter D. For Depressed Detective”

Read this

Buy it 

Happy International Women's Day

Happy International Women's Day ---to celebrate, I thought I would feature a woman who inspires me daily: my sister Leah.

Leah making some new friends

Leah is a professor at Tyndale University with a phd in Global Governance. She has dedicated much of her adult life to campaigning for education as a universal right.  She is so well-beloved in Africa, a continent she has traversed across doing research, working for CIDA and infiltrating with her passion for its culture and people, she has been affectionately known as Mama Africa.  Leah speaks Swahili and makes friends everywhere---with everyone. I have never met anyone with such a genuine love and zest for humanitarianism than Leah. She evokes Gandhi's immortal statement that we must be the change we wish to see in the world.

Recently, Leah was in Senegal under a taut political climate and there she was able to meet and befriend a Sengalese boy. She articulately recounted this experience.  Why Leah's experiences always stand out is that she goes expecting to be changed and allows it to happen. She does not approach a culture believing that she will be the change or inference it needs; rather, she becomes a vessel ready to be filled by the experience. If you go somewhere expecting to leave and indelible print, the result can be forced and can contradict the purest forms of  International Relationships in a developing world. If instead, you approach the situation as a blank, open page hoping to be intercepted by life-altering moments, then both parties will be positively effected by the ramification.

AMADOU  printed with permission by Leah McMillan
Yesterday I met Morninga on the street - a Senegalese man about my age who makes a living selling paintings, wood carvings, and various other artifacts.  His shop is directly across from the guesthouse where I'm staying, meaning that I was able to hang out in his shop for quite a while last night knowing that I could simply run back to my room when manifestations broke out (yes, it's more 'when' rather than 'if' right now).

Yes, he wants a white wife, but beyond that little barrier to our friendship, I really learned a lot from our chat.
Like all Senegalese at the moment, his shop was tuned into the radio.  It was blasting in Wolof (interspersed with the soundtrack from Chariots of Fire - no joke!) and he was able to translate for me the current tensions in the country.

In Senegalese culture, if you're talking with someone or a group of people for a while, you must take 'taya', small little cups of traditional tea.  So, as we were chatting away, his brother, about 12 years of age, came into the shop and offered me and Morninga the taya.  His brother, Amadou, only speaks Wolof, but I was able to say the few small words I now know.
He laughed at my butchering of his language, we became friends, and he left Morninga and I to continue our chatting.

This morning, Amadou was on the street and again I chatted with him - small greetings ('salaams') to start the day.

About an hour and a half ago, I was coming home when I ran into Morninga and Amadou again.  I entered Morninga's shop and again we began to chat, as I learned more about the political tensions in the country.
So, again, Amadou left and came back with the taya.

As I was getting ready to leave, Amadou began to say something to his brother in Wolof.  Morninga immediately began taking a painting off display and rolling it.  "Amadou wants to give this to you as a gift."
I quickly replied, " No, no, it's too much."  This painting was a fairly large size and could honestly get him quite a profit, especially living across from a guesthouse with so many tourists.

Morninga quickly interjected that this was a very special moment because it was the first painting Amadou had ever made.

In Senegalese culture it is rude to refuse a gift, but I felt very embarrassed, so I inquired further.
Why was he giving me such an honour with this special gift?!

Amadou, through Morninga's translation, began to explain that normally tourists simply walk by without greeting or stopping.  Amadou liked that I was kind to him, that I took time for the taya, and that I remembered him even the next day in the morning.  He saw me on the street playing soccer with other kids and talking to everyone and he could tell I had a kind heart that didn't care about the difference between black and white people.  I was so kind he wanted to do something special for me.  All this out of the mouth of a 12 year-old! 

Obviously I began to tear in the shop.
Then Amadou, a Muslim boy who has never in his life touched a woman outside his immediate family gave me another special honour - I got a hug :)  It was a VERY awkward hug...but a hug nonetheless.
I told Amadou that I will hang his painting in a special place in my home so I remember to pray for him everyday.

I'm not writing this story to brag about myself.  There are so many times when I rush through life too quickly, when I don't take time to greet people, to smile, to really get to know every person I meet.
But I do write this story to share with you about a little boy named Amadou.
A little boy who was wearing the same ratty t-shirt (labelled 'Burberry') two days in a row.  A little boy who probably owns nothing else to wear.

A little boy who found it in his heart to give me one of his most precious possessions - the very first painting he ever made.
Coming from an artisan family, this is probably his life's profession, especially given that he speaks only Wolof and no French (an indication that he doesn't go to school).  And I have the privilege of hanging his first painting in my home.

And you know what he wanted in return?  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.
He didn't ask for money.  He didn't as for "un petit cadeau".  He didn't ask for a visa.  He didn't even ask for me to marry his brother.

I dropped down on this country for merely a week, taking away so much, and giving back so little.
If you read the media out of Senegal right now, you'd think that this was a chaotic country, with thousands of angry, conflict-causing, rioters.  Boistrous.  Hateful.  Violent.

But in the short time I've been here, the Senegal I know is the one displayed by Amadou.  Caring.  Generous.  Thoughtful.
As I hear of teargas and grenades, as I hold onto the backseat while my car departs from the burning wreckage of protester barricades, as I run from stones thrown by protesters...

As the media makes sure that all of the above is the only story out of Africa...

I clutch my painting, I tear over dinner, and I remember...
Africa is not just politics, war, famine or hardship.
Africa, in its purest form, at its very heart, is Amadou.

A Menu for Romance and A Case for Love by Kaye Dacus

TWO ! TWO BOOK REVIEWS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE!

So, I think you all remember I bought a 3-1 Brides of Bonneterre set at a Christian bookstore about a month ago and I read Stand-in Groom right away.

Well, I just finished Menu for Romance and A Case for Love: featuring friends and family to the Guidry family: a prominent aspect of the mythical town of Bonneterre, Louisiana. Indeed, Bonneterre becomes a character of its own: a Cajun-laced spicy sphere of historic buildings, Southern charm, delectable dishes, sticky heat, sprawling plantations and a plentitude of events and weddings to be planned, by Anne Laurence nee Hawthorne (of Stand-in Groom) and Meredith Guidry and Major O’Hara, planner and chef alike.

I really enjoyed spending time in the world of these characters. The plots of each novel in the trilogy were easily usurped by the friendly nature of the characters. At more than one point in each tale, I was surprised not to look up and find myself sitting across from one of them over a glass of sweet tea.

 A Menu for Romance softly etches the slow-blooming love story between Chef Major O’Hara and event planner Meredith Guidry. Unbeknownst to both of them, they have each harboured a mutual flame for 8 years; however Major’s complicated family life and Meredith’s certainty that Major is attracted to the beautiful news reporter, Alaine Delacroix, keep their paths from crossing until much, much later in the story.  Like all good romances, you know before the characters do what will bring their eventual happiness and you wait, on baited hook, for them to catch up. Elements I appreciated about this story include the amount of knowledge Dacus displays about culinary arts and cooking shows.  I found all of these scenes in Major’s world to be authentic. Further, Major’s mother suffers from Schizophrenia and the compassionate scenes involving her care at a supervised facility, Major’s terms with his mother and their mutual love of John Wayne movies was a treat to read.

A Case for Love finds beautiful Alaine Delacroix at odds with charming lawyer Forbes Guidry when she understands that the Guidry enterprise might be over-taking her family business, she tries desperately to quell her developing interest in the charming lawyer in order to secure her family business and name. Several misguided turns, misunderstandings and a few ballroom dancing lessons help pave the way to eventual happiness. The strongest element of this novel is the characterization of Forbes. I must confess when I first “met” him in Stand-in Groom, he rubbed me the wrong way. I think this was intentional on Dacus’ part and she carefully fleshed him out into a fully-realized sympathetic character in the third novel. While he didn’t capture my heart to the extent Major O’Hara and George Laurence did (perhaps, like his romantic counterpart Alaine, because they both seem to physically represent the “traditional” movie-star couple), I did enjoy reading his ups and downs in the dating world. In fact, the dating world is explored more closely here than in the previous two novels due to one of Forbes’ successful enterprises: an online dating site called Let’s Do Coffee.

I really enjoyed the ballroom dancing sequences and the careful way Dacus coupled dance skills with the talkative and sometimes clashing relationship of Forbes and Alaine.

I am now working through the last two novels in the Ransomeseries: so Dacus will pop up on this blog again soon!

Happy reading all!

Visit Kaye Dacus on the web

The Merchant's Daughter by Melanie Dickerson

Over a year ago, I was thrilled to read and review The Healer's Apprentice by what I found to be an essential voice for the Christian teen market. I will be the first to say that the Christian market is decidedly lacking in strong fiction for teenagers; but Dickerson is changing that and she is a welcome voice. Like The Healer's Apprentice and its soft re-telling of the Sleeping Beauty tale, The Merchant's Daughter re-positions the Beauty and the Beast story in feudal England. The titular merchant's daughter, Annabel, becomes conscripted servant to Lord Ranulf le Wyse,  a harsh, enigmatic master to whom she is indentured to serve to pay a family debt. 

Ranulf le Wyse is a very Byronic figure who immediately put me in mind of Edward Rochester.  Due to an accident years earlier, his hand is disfigured, his face blighted with a scar and his blinded eye hidden behind a patch. Ranulf is the beast figure in the story: a worthy and brash counterpart to the beautifully-spirited Annabel.

This is a delicious love story; but not only because it believably metes out the growing attraction between the lord of the manor and his fair servant. Dickerson does well at infusing the novel with the Christianity which would have been prevalent to residents of this era and sphere. For example, the Holy Writ is available only through the Latin Vulgate. The denomination is completely Catholic and women are scorned for reading: especiall scripture. Annabel, having been once a wealthy merchant's daughter speaks and reads numerous languages and, as part of her servitude to Lord le Wyse, reads daily to him from his own treasured copy of the Bible. 

Often characterized in several of the re-tellings of this tale, is the role of an enchantress or seductress who serves at the initial fall of the Beast figure. Here, we learn that Ranulf is a widower once seduced by the beauty of one who did not love him; rather his station and monetary value.  To further emphasize the temptress motif, Dickerson does well at reminding the reader of the garish view of women during these primitive times.  Women, as preached by the priest at the pulpit, were seen to be the fall of man, seen to be deceptive forces, even more so if blessed with the beauty of one such as Annabel. Ranulf muses: "Beautiful women weren't to be trusted or allowed into a man's heart when that man was less than perfect. He'd learned that lesson well." At one point the priest explains how dangerous reading is to a woman: "I am not sure your motives are pure. A woman reading the Word of God? Are you able to interpret the Scriptures? You aren't even dedicated to God. Never said your vows. Nay. You are to rely upon your priest to give you the interpretation  of God's Word. I will tell you what you need to know."  As you can see, Annabel is victim of a patriarchal word where men were not only to be the studious conveyers of the scripture, they were in charge of interpreting it for women and the common public.  This is years before Luther and years before the veil was torn to allow for a public personification of the Holy Word. Annabel's desire to draw closer to the faith that has been represented to her in her minimal encounters with the Bible is often thwarted by the separation marring her to her position and her sex. 

Indeed, the greatest beauty found in the story is the pure-hearted nature of Annabel and it is this, rather than the physical grace of her movement and countenance that ultimately wins the hand of the Lord. Their relationship becomes further secured when they share the Holy Word together: Annabel thirsty to learn more about Christ in writing (so much so that she considers entering a nunnery just to be near it).

The research in this writing is wonderful and you really do feel like you peel back centuries to step into Annabel and Lord Le Wyse's time. I also found the descriptive writing and imagery to be a beautifully-woven tapestry; an apt canvas for Dickerson's renewal of a fairy tale.... like this sentence: "...she once again caught sight of the sky, which had bruised blue and purple with clouds and threatened rain"  or "...his shoulders swayed, like a hewn tree just before it collapses."

The faith in this book is well met with the time period, as mentioned. But, is rather inspiring as well. "How wonderful to know that Jesus didn't condemn women like the priest did. Even with a sinful woman, He didn't rant about how evil she was."  Nearing the end of the novel, Ranulf and Annabel discuss my favourite portion of the Bible, found in Romans 8:1 and the the theme of condemnation and Christ's atoning grace intercepts again.

For those who are familiar with the Disneyfied portrayal of the story: there is a rose, there is the sacrifice of Ranulf to put his love for Annabel before his own desire to keep her.... it goes on and on in a colourful carousel and the pages will rapidly slip between your fingers.

I found this to be even stronger than The Healer's Apprentice and I cannot WAIT until Dickerson's next tale.

Go read her blog

Buy the book

ORILLIAN books in the NEWS

While I have lived in Toronto for over a decade,  my hometown is Orillia, ON. where my parents still live.

Excitingly, a young up-and-coming author with Harper Collins Canada is also from Orillia.  I remember meeting Matt in passing and I wish him all of the greatest success on his new book.

I plan to read The Carpenter when my review schedule dies down a little bit and will let you all know if, indeed, it elicits the comparison to Mystic River, so boasted by the enthusiastic editor.

GO ORILLIA!  ...and fiction that shows apt shadier sides of Leacock's Sunshine City.

Read about The Carpenter in The National Post
Purchase on Amazon
Take a closer look at the Harper Collins Canada page