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Dawnlands, by Phillipa Gregory

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Published 2022

The year is 1685, King Charles of England has died and King James is set to gain the throne. This news causes Ned Ferryman of Boston, Massachusetts to set sail for home. He plans to join the Duke of Monmouth’s challenge to King James. Before he can board ship he observes a gang of slaves, mostly Native Americans, heading to the docks. One of them manages to call him by his Indian name, and he recognizes a child he once knew in the wilderness, who has now grown into a young man. Ned ends up purchasing this slave, it’s the least he can do to repay the tribe’s kindness to him in years gone by. They board ship before he discovers that the young man is actually a young woman, who is passing as male to keep from being assaulted. Ned hatches a plan to pose the young woman, still posing as male, as his servant. Not a slave, but a working man in his service. Once they reach England he will give her freedom but for now, keeping her with him will provide for her safety. However, once they reach England, Rowan, as he calls her, will not leave his side until her debt to him is repaid. She follows him to enlist with the Duke, and sets out on the march to overthrow the new king. Ned is injured and taken prisoner, but Rowan tricks the guards into letting her in dressed as a washerwoman. She knocks Ned out and steals his clothes, posing as him on the ship where the prisoners are to be transported to Barbados to serve a ten year indenture. Ned, when he comes to, dresses in the washerwoman’s clothing and escapes back home to the wharf.

Meanwhile, in London, Livia Avery, whose ties to Ned’s family are based on deceit but whose son has been raised as their foster child, has gone to court as the queen’s favorite lady in waiting. She has not seen any of the Stoneys, or her son for many years but now that the queen has elevated her she uses her son as a pawn in her attempts to gain favor at court.

Alinor, Ned’s sister, is getting old and lives with her daughter Alys and her husband at the wharf where their warehouse is located. As Livia’s plots thicken, she rewards her son Matthew, with the gift of the lands where Ned, Alinor and Alys lived prior to coming to London many years ago. Alinor returns to her old home but instead of living in a small hut beside the ferry she now lives in the priory, owned by the crown and given to Matthew by his mother as a gift from the queen. Here, she remembers her affair with Livia’s husband many years before and his refusal to protect her when the townspeople descried her as a witch. She survived the ordeal but fled with her daughter to London and had not returned. No one is left who remembers her or her family, although tales are told about the mermaid who fell in love with a man, but who was cast back into the sea.

It appears I have missed a book in this series, will have to find it and read how the main characters ended up in this novel. I learned a lot about this period of history in England, and the US. More details on how cruelty to Native Americans and slaves was the norm during those times

Barkskins, by Annie Proulz

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Published 2016

The author of The Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain now tells the store of two immigrants to the New World. Both are from France and have signed on as indentured servants to a man who puts them to work chopping trees in what is now Canada. People at that time believed the forests to be indestructible, since the wilderness was so vast compared to what they had seen in the Old World. The native Americans did not cut the forests and made their homes from animal hides instead of lumber. Since they were at least partially nomadic they did not want immovable homes made of wood. Even though the original Americans had been on the land for many centuries, the forests were virgin. The timber was cut mostly for export back to the Old World, much of it for ships’ masts.

Rene Sel and Charles Duquet are the two men whose stories the author follows through many generations. Rene Sel remains with his master for many years and is rewarded with a piece of land of his own. He is forced to marry his master’s cook when the master’s new wife believes he is having an affair. But the marriage is a happy one, and their children go on to inhabit America. They do not achieve much wealth since they are part Native American and during that time were largely treated as slaves or at best, expendable. Charles Duquet, on the other hand, is a rebel from the very beginning. He is plagued with ill health, in particular suffering from bad teeth. When the pain becomes overwhelming, he runs away into the forest where Sel and the master can hear his painful moans. No attempt is made to recapture him, the forest at night being deemed too dangerous to enter. Years later Rene hears of a man with bad teeth, or no teeth, having had them all pulled, who has made a reputation for himself as a fur trader, one of the best in the new country. When the old master hears of this, he is enraged and sets out to find and recapture his servant, who has not worked his time to pay for his passage. Duquet goes on to found a wealthy family, trading in furs and timber from the new world.

Life during this time in Canada and North America is pretty dismal. Lawlessness and corruption are rife. The book was a struggle to get through at times, because the life it portrayed was so fraught with peril from all sides. I did get a new awareness of the plight of the Native Americans, how much they gave and how much was taken from them at the beginning of colonization. Disease killed many, but greed killed many more. This is a very long book. It reminded me in some ways of Jane Smiley’s saga of the Iowa farm family, but hers is modern day and split into three novels.

This Time Tomorrow, by Emma Straub

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Published 2022

Time travels by a forty year old woman who desperately wants to find a way to save her father. Alice Stern and her dad Leonard are New Yorkers through and through. When the narrative begins Leonard is in the hospital and is unresponsive. Alice hasn’t been able to converse with him in weeks. She knows the end is near but is having trouble facing it. On her fortieth birthday she meets her best friend Sam for dinner, but the meal is cut short by an emergency involving Sam’s young son. Alice goes on to some of her favorite haunts, determined to have a big time on such a milestone. Forty years old, still single, still in the same apartment and the same job after more than a decade. Having had too much to drink she decides to go by her Dad’s place but can’t find her key to the house. She slips inside the old guardhouse, used now days to store gardening tools. Alice curls up inside and falls asleep. When she awakes, she is sixteen, it’s her birthday but twenty four years earlier. She’s in her old bedroom at home, and her Dad is in the kitchen having breakfast. Leonard doesn’t notice anything is amiss but Alice is both delighted and scared. Delighted that she has her Dad back, healthy and laughing, his old self. But scared that she’s losing her mind. She remembers a lot of things about that sixteenth birthday, where they went for lunch and her party later that night. As it turns out, the time travel lasts one day. When she gets back to her forty year old self, not much has changes. But Alice has plans. She begins travelling back and forth between her forty year old self and her sixteen year old self, hoping to change both her Dad’s life and her own so that she can hold onto him for longer. She wonders what would’ve happened if she had not let the love of her life get involved with another girl at her sixteenth birthday party. Would they have been happy? Will convincing her Dad to quit smoking keep him healthier longer? All these questions Alice has a chance to explore. By going back in time and changing just a few things, important things like taking care of yourself and speaking up for herself instead of letting things ride. How will this affect the years going forward.

It’s an interesting concept, not sure I agree with it but I enjoyed seeing how it turned out.

Avenue of Mysteries, by John Irving

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Jaun Diego and his sister Lupe are dump kids. That means they live in the dump outside the city of Oaxaca, Mexico. They scavenge the garbage for any kind of valuable. A couple of things set them apart. Juan Diego has taught himself to read by salvaging books, thrown out by the Jesuits who run a monastery and orphanage nearby. Lupe has the ability to read minds, however, she is unable to communicate and no one can understand her but Juan Diego. When Juan Deigo’s foot is crushed in an accident, the two kids move into the orphanage. Although not strictly orphans, their mother, Esperanza, works as a cleaning woman for the church, and also walks the streets at night. Rumors are that the dump boss is their father, but Esperanza never says for sure. She is struck down by the huge statue of the Virgin Mary while standing on a ladder to clean it. From there, Juan Diego and Lupe are shuttled into the circus because the doctor says it will be a good profession for Lupe, with her mind-reading abilities. Juan Diego must go with her because he’s the only one who can understand her gibberish

Juan Diego goes on to become a writer in his adult life, but not before losing Lupe, and being adopted by a former priest and his lover, who move to Iowa to teach at the University. By now he is travelling to the Philippines, to fulfill a promise he made as a child to the good gringo, a hippie in Oaxaca to avoid the draft. The good gringo dies before he can make a pilgrimage to see his father’s grave, which Juan Diego sets out to do, aided by one of his students. But Juan Diego is taken over during his travels by a mother and daughter team, who take charge of his itinerary, and his life. Strangely, a photo taken of the three of them in front of a sightseeing spot shows only Juan Diego, the mother and daughter, Miriam and Dorothy, do not show up in the photo at all. Juan Diego should be taking his beta blocker prescription, but because of the two very attractive women, he takes Viagra instead, alternating his doses and choosing to forego the beta blockers many times in order to find pleasure with one or the other of the two women. Also, the beta blockers interfere with his dreams, which is the only place he can reconnect with his former life as a child in Mexico. All advise him to leave the past behind, but that cuts out those he loved the most, his sister Lupe, Senor Eduardo and Flor, who adopted him and took him to America.

Lots of religion in this story, with strongly held views for and against by the different characters. Miracles, or not, depending on who’s doing the interpreting. According to Lupe, only she and her brother Juan Diego are the miracles.

World Without End, by Ken Follett

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I attempted to read this book when it was first published, after I enjoyed reading Pillars of the Earth, by the same author. At the time it struck me as too violent, so I put it aside. Just finished this whopper of a book, one thousand pages long. A group of youngsters in the area of Kingsbridge are playing, and one of the girls, Caris, whose father is a wealthy wool merchant, leads them into the forest. In those days, the early 1300’s, the forest was where outlaws lived and children were absolutely forbidden to go there alone. But Caris was headstrong and confident, and the other children followed. Two brothers, Ralph and Merthin, and a young pickpocket, Gwenda, went along. Gwenda had a three-legged dog she called Hop, who followed her everywhere. Once in the forest, Merthin wanted to show off a new bow he had made, but could not summon the strength to launch the arrow more than a few feet. His younger brother Ralph, however, easily fit the arrow to the bow and promptly killed Gwenda’s little dog. About this time, they see someone coming, and fearing outlaws, hide in some bushes nearby. Instead of outlaws, the children see a knight lean against a nearby tree, clearly exhausted. Two men approach and demand he surrender a letter, but the knight attacks. At this point Ralph notches another arrow and kills one of the men. The rest of the children run away except for Merthin, who sees the knight is seriously injured, but has killed the other man who attacked him. The injured knight enlists Merthin’s help to hide the bodies, then to dig a hole at the base of the tree and bury a pouch inside. He tells Merthin that he must keep the secret of what has happened, or he will be killed.

Back in the city Gwenda goes with Caris to her home, and is given a puppy. She stays for dinner even though she is not of the same class as her new friend, and she and Caris begin a friendship that will last for decades. Gwenda must return to her home where her father is a known thief and where he routinely sends her out to steal on market days and fairs. When things become really desperate he trades her to a man for a cow, and Gwenda is tied up like livestock and led away. Her father has told her the man is going to marry her, but just outside of town he turns off into the forest, making his way to a group of outlaws camped there. There are many men there but only a few women, so she knows what they plan. But Gwenda is tough and determined and with a bit of luck, escapes and heads back to Kingsbridge. She is followed by the man who traded a cow for her, and just as she reaches the bridge leading into the city, it collapses. She and her new owner fall into the river below, neither of them knowing how to swim. But Gwenda learns from her little dog how to stay afloat, and in all the confusion of hundreds of people, carts and livestock all thrashing about she is able to get away from her pursuer. When he tries to follow, she attacks him, holding his head under the water until he is dead. No one sees this event, and she is relieved, but upon returning home she realizes that her father will only sell her again if she remains there.

The knight who buried the letter ends up becoming a monk in the cathedral. Merthin becomes an apprentice to the town builder, and Ralph enters the service of the Earl of Shiring as a squire, hoping to become a knight himself. The loss of the bridge means the town’s merchants, and indeed the proiry which in this case, owns the town, will go bankrupt since traders can no longer reach the market, and will take their business to other nearby towns. Merthin convinces the merchants that the design of the old bridge was faulty, but he can build a bridge that will not fall. Caris becomes her father’s right hand woman in the wool business, but she also is an apprentice of sorts for a local healer, a woman who makes medicines for the townspeople. Monks run a hospital, and a few are trained at Oxford. Mostly what they prescribe is bleeding, cupping and prayer.

The story proceeds from these events, the children in the forest, the collapse of the bridge, Caris’ interest in medicines, Gwenda’s fearlessness and determination, Ralph’s physical ability and lack of morals, and most of all, Merthin’s ability to build. At times I was disappointed at the sheer misery of the lives of the people during this time, the story takes place from about 1330 – 1360. The plague comes to the city, and even in this book, which was published in 2008, long before the pandemic, nuns were covering their faces with linen masks when nursing those who were dying from the disease. My understanding was that the disease was carried by fleas but I don’t know about contagion between people once contracted. The story was compelling, with the characters developing over many years. A good book, but quite lengthy. Maybe the author is trying to portray life in those times with danger around every corner and requiring guile, usually, to make it through. The church and the nobility between them ruled almost every aspect of daily life. Not an easy time for anyone.

The Forever Girl, by Alexander McCall Smith

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Clover is born in the Cayman Islands and grows up alongside her friend James. From the age of six, Clover thinks James is the one boy in the world she most wants to be with. Of course, she doesn’t dare say so. She’s certain that James only likes her as a friend. Like most of their friends, Clover and James’ parents are not from Cayman. They work in the financial, or in James’ case, medical, professions that the attractive tax structure provides for foreigners. When these wealthy foreigners’ children go to college, they must leave the islands. At that point Clover goes to Scotland, which is where her father is from, her mother being from New York City. James goes to England and Clover adapts to not seeing her best friend. She even has a boyfriend, who by all accounts is a very nice guy. But everyone knows, including the boyfriend, that Clover’s heart is reserved for her one love. James and Clover don’t see each other much during this period. James also has a girlfriend, whom Clover meets briefly. They keep in touch via mutual friends from Cayman until after college when Clover decides to take a break and do some travelling. By this time it’s no surprise that she travels to be close to James, just happening to travel halfway across the world, not to see him of course, but making sure she runs into him coincidentally.

This is a sweet story, as always, by Alexander McCall Smith. I’ve read several of his books, many of them in fact, and there’s always something fulfilling about his stories. It helps sometimes to read something, not necessarily with a happy ending, but with a positive view of humanity. He always manages to see through to the goodness in people. Not all of them, of course. A few of his characters have goodness to a depth that I could only hope to reach. Always enjoy his writing.