Customer Reviews

Becky: The Life and Loves of Becky Thatcher

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I absolutely adored this book. It's a retelling of Tom Sawyer through Becky Thatcher's perspective, and it's romantic, charming and thoroughly entertaining. I really responded to the rich love story, but the historical setting also swept me away to a really fascinating time in American history. This is my next bookclub recommendation for sure!

I was extremely disappointed by this novel. The premise is intriguing, Mark Twain's stories from the feminine viewpoint. However, the actions of many of the characters are totally improbable for the times. Mark Twain wrote about the slavery issue with some accuracy. This author ignores historical accuracy completely. The character of Trenny, the black maid is less than one dimensional. In classic 'Political Correctness' the author states that the family has freed their slaves earlier and that the Black woman Trenny stayed with the family because she loved Becky's mother. Of course, the Judge insists on paying her a salary. This woman is a better mother to Becky than her own. This situation is played out in every current novel that has a black woman housekeeper/maid. It is getting very tiring. When Becky's mother decides to return to Virginia during the middle of the Civil War, Trenny goes with her and is out of the book. A freed black woman with her own money goes back to a slave state during the Civil War? Give me a break!

Next in the list of annoying improbabilities, is that Becky hugs Jim (of the novel Huck Finn) when he shows up on her doorstep. I do not believe that in that time any white woman would hug a black man no matter how much she liked and respected him. Then she leaves her child in the car of her sick sister-in-law and goes off to rescue her husband. Later in the novel the sick sister-in-law is miraculously better and pregnant. She has five children by the story's end. I don't think people recovered from consumption or TB!

It's a real shame that this author decide to skimp on accuracy. With a little more effort and research this could have been a great novel. Now it is just trash.

The story quickly gets boring and cheesy. I don't recommend this book unless historical romance is a particular interest of yours.

If you are a fan of Mark Twain for the beauty and vitality of his writing, you can skip this book. If you are sentimental about the characters and setting, you may enjoy "Becky" as a pleasant read. If you are both,as I am, you may alternately turn the pages and fume. The writing is simply not very good. Subplots appear and disappear. The author relies on our memories of the male characters rather than developing them on the pages of her own book. An emotional core is absent, particularly in its depiction of Becky as a mother. The character makes choices stunningly lacking in concern for her children's welfare merely to move the plot along. I'm glad a previous reviewer suggested "Finn." I hope it will better satisfy my Hannibal craving.

Okay, first off let me justify my review by saying that I absolutely adore Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Mark Twain is my idol. I have read and listened to the books The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn innumerous times.
This book did have a few good points. It was pleasurable to read about Huck, Tom, Mary, Sid and Becky. There were some humorous points. I also enjoyed the author's idea of Becky being more than a sissy girl.
On another note, this book was incorrect and poorly written. If it had not been about Tom and Huck I would have stopped reading it after the first chapter. There were far to many details and irrelevant information. It was tedious. I was willing to just leave it at that, forgive and forget, but Lenore Hart made a fatal flaw. She said Huck Finn could not read or write. That is incorrect. Huck could read. He read to Jim and he read the note in Miss Sophia's Testament. For that reason Lenore Hart is wrong in saying Huck Finn could not read thus he didn't write. Yes it could be like Huck to not write letters to acquaintances but not for lack of literacy. I also believe she portrayed the characters of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer wrong. She made Huck very spiteful and he held a grudge against Becky for a long time. Huck doesn't seem capable of holding a grudge for long. And Tom...well...he just didn't feel like Tom.
So if you want to waste time or get all riled up at the incorrect portrayal of the most beloved literary figures by all means read this book. If, like me, you are looking for a way to revisit your hero's I must kindly tell you to STOP. It isn't worth it. Nobody can make a Tom or Huck like Mr. Mark Twain.

Although I'm not a big fan of historical novels, I though Becky was great fun. I enjoyed Hart's depIction of Twain as child and adult; the slight suggestions that Huck was bisexual and perhaps jealous of Becky; and the transformation of Becky from the housewife (who'd settled for Sid and stifled the daring-do ways of her girlhood) into an feminist action character. I learned a lot from the period details, especially about the battles in the Midwest, something my Southern education omitted. I thought this book was good fun and that Hart did a great job of coloring the grown-up Twain and his characters. I hope someone makes this into a movie.

Lenore Hart helps Becky Thatcher out of her Twain-fit corset and that's all it takes, first the girl, then the woman, is off and running. I don't think you'll be getting her back in that thing. Or on a horse side saddle. Into a dress, maybe, on special occasions, but as a full-grown woman she's going to prefer the pants.

Best to make a little time before you start this tale because in all likelihood you'll be ignoring your life in favor of the book once you've begun. This book defines page-turner. But there's more to it than that: the whole bent world of Twain's exclusively male perspective here gets some straightening up. And it's refreshing, even for us guys.

Highly recommended.

In Becky: The Life and Loves of Becky Thatcher, Lenore Hart weaves historical fiction and gentle romance into Mark Twain's classic The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, with the caveat that the heroine, Becky Thatcher, is not the sniveling girl Twain portrayed her to be. The story begins with a grown up Thatcher, married to Tom's cousin Sid Hopkins caring for two children with Hannibal, Missouri facing the effects of a country on the brink of civil war. Though satisfied with her life, Becky has fond recollections of her childhood days - in flashback scenes the reader is brought to a fun alternate narration of Tom Sawyer - and still nurses secret affections for her first sweetheart.

Hart's novel plunges into adventure as the grown up Becky tries to save her husband from the war and convinces her family to follow the gold rush out to the Wild West. Along the way Samuel Clemens (the writer who adopts the pen name Mark Twain), Huck Finn, Jesse James, and, of course, Tom Sawyer make their way into Becky's tale enhancing the feeling that the book is a true account of a fictional character's life. Hart writes a believable story while maintaining a sort of southern charm that keeps it true to the spirit Twain's novels.

I really enjoyed this book. As a fan of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Becky seemed to me the book that would've been written if Mark Twain was a woman. I was enamored with the characters by the very first page and would recommend the book to those that love Twain's writing as well as any fans of historical romance. At times sweet, funny, tender, sad, poignant and exciting, Becky: The Life and Loves of Becky Thatcher earns a rightful place next to the classics that inspired it.

Book came in good time and in good condition. Would order from this person again. Book. Wea wrapped very well.

I finished reading Becky last night. For what its worth here are some thoughts. I've read all your books but this one is the best. The first word that came to me when I finished was like a "stream of consciousness" thought "full-bodied". I thought about the story and I thought about the word. It was still there this morning. Becky is resilient, sensitive, intelligent, self-reliant. She didn't wait, she acted but not without thinking. I like her feelings about Injun Joe, the trial, looking for Sid. She never lost that sensitivity in spite of her trials. The things she did throughout her life, the guilt, the contrast between the life she lived, the expectations of the narrow world she left. between what people wanted and what she wanted-what she was-all of it-she was able to leave where it belonged and move forward. She had her memories. They kept her going but did not control. She was her own person not really understanding all that happened but so what. She didn't laugh much but there was little to laugh about. Becky is full-bodied, vigorous, real. The characters have their own lives and can be pictured in my mind, Tom, Sid, Mary, the Judge, Huck Sam Clemens. They move in and out of her life like a running thread. The juxtaposition of events, the references to Mark Twain's book, the vivid descriptions of Hannibal-I've been there-Virginia City, San Francisco, the Civil war in Missouri,rough, ready and cruel. Would make a good movie with Sandra Bullock s Becky, Brad Pitt as Tom, Matt Damon as Sid, Johnny Depp as Huck. Good reading Lenore. Thanks, Barbara