Customer Reviews

Cape Cod

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Martin brings the plight of the Pilgrims to life. He also manages also to so us once again that these were people and not icons. While fiction, it is easy to visualize the petty argumnets and personality struggles within this group that most of us assume was a cohesive unit with a united purpose. Using his now familiar device of switching back and forth from now and then, Martin paints a living picture of the early history of the Cape. This was the last of Martin's books that I read prior to Citizen Washington. I hesitated because I thought the topic limited but I ended learning and enjoying a compelling history of a special niche in American history.

Martin demonstrates an uncanny ability to tell the great stories (Annapolis - US Navy) a the small (Cape Cod) and make them breathe.

At least not in William Martin's novel of the same name. In Martin's CAPE COD there are feuding families, long-held secrets, regional history and, tying it all together, a mystery - as well as those wondrous beaches and that natural essence of 'The Cape' (as we New Englanders know and love it) that he brings to life in this story.
From the first pages of this novel, in which whales inexplicably beach themselves, Native Americans and White men clash, and the Pilgrims, noble, flawed and human as they were, suffer the awful indignities of the relentless voyage to the New World, we're off on a William Martin-style adventure. As is his BACK BAY and ANNAPOLIS, the story unfolds through the eyes of (sometimes warring - always interesting) families, and jumps back and forth in time. This enables us to feel the historical events that are going to impact on the modern-day intrigue. I have always liked this about William Martin's stories. This sense of what it was like 'then,' how people felt, how they acted. We get to enjoy a well written tale and learn a thing or three along the way. Martin's respect for, and love of, history is evident throughout CAPE COD, as it is in ANNAPOLIS, BACK BAY and CITIZEN WASHINGTON. And his reverence for 'The Cape' will be evident to every reader, especially we Cape lovers! For us, that's a bonus. To read CAPE COD is to feel, in those pages, that essence of 'TheCape,'that infuses us as soon as we have crossed the Sagamore and the Bourne bridges....CAPE COD is a wonderful story, a lesson in our history, and the kind of enlightening adventure we have come to expect from William Martin. As usual, he delivers! Read this book...Perhaps sitting in a lounge chair on a sunny summer day at the edge of Old Silver Beach...You'll be glad you did....

As a devout reader of Michener, Rutherford and Jakes, William Martin's Cape Cod is just as good as anything written by those authors. I judge historical novels on how well they capture the 'sense of place' of the region they focus on. I have spent summers in Cape Cod when I was very young and am currently delving into the genealogy of New England families, and for me, Cape Cod really captured the historical and present-day feelings of the land and the people extremely well.

I am a history buff here at Harvard and search for novels that capture the power and essence of the time they cover. I have found such a novel in Cape Cod by William Martin, a riveting, very well researched tale of power, romance and intrigue. I could not put it down, a comment I rarely use.

Cape Cod is the kind of book you can't put down. Makes you question many of the characters actions; making you, the reader involved in the Bigelow/ Hilyard fued. A wonderful book to learn from about being human and human actions.

I read "Annapolis" and became a fan of William Martins'. Now... I've read what has to be his best! This book you will not want to put down. I read it at work and at home....Next..."Citizen Washington" (George is one of my favorites) Well...off to the shopping cart I go!!!!!

Martin's fast-paced biographical style combines historical facts with current-day struggles, making this a great work for anyone living in and loving eastern Massachusetts. Tracing the history of two Mayflower families in their personal, economic and political struggles provides an entertaining way to learn more about American history! A must-read book!

This book is, without a doubt, one of the best books I have ever read. The characters aren't loveable, but they are so human and real that it pulls you right into the story. The plot never gets dull, as it keeps changing time periods with different points. Even though I just recently finished it, I feel as though I could pick it up right now and read it again. It is relatively long, but completely worth the time that it takes to read.
The ending isn't as good as it could be, meaning about the last 3 pages, but considering how amazing the rest of the book was, that doesn't really bother me at all.

This book is a must read for anybody who owns property on, or has become intimately involved with Cape Cod. The historical aspect of two "firster" families brings out the strife and the reality of coming to the new world without the glamour given it in our grade school history books. It involves areas that have been known to me all my life on family trips, but more so in adult life with summers overlooking Nauset Beach, complete with Bay seals, stranded hump backs, beaches closed to protetect the Piping Plovers and so much more. It shows today's all too familiar struggles of property owners striving to keep the beauty that is Cape Cod. People who no longer even consider the upper Cape south of Chatham, a part of Cape Cod proper any more.

This is a wonderful version of the settling of Cape Cod. The story begins before the boats arrive in the New World and follows a family's struggle through the present time. The history is interwoven with his fictional town. I read this after I visited Cape Cod for the first time and loaned my copy to a friend from the area. It didn't find its way home and I bought another copy. Highly recommended. The flashback chapters which are worked into the story may be confusing, but stick with it, this is a great book. My novels are set just north of Cape Cod on the Cape Ann coast and I'd love to read his take on Cape Ann.