Customer Reviews

Coldwater (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Set in the mid 1800's, this story portrays the austere existence of three sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, with their father, Captain Wolf, on a desolate, windswept island penal colony across the harbor from Sydney. The author patterns the personalities of the three sisters after the Bronte sisters, imbuing them with Puritan sensibilities and a desire to become published authors. Wolf believes himself to be an enlightened, well-read governor of the colony, wielding a firm but fair discipline over the convicts on the island; but the sisters gradually are exposed to the crueler, despotic and controlling aspects of his regime and begin to plot against him to wrest from him some control of their own lives.

The Wolf sisters are in their 20's and 30's, however the Captain will not consider allowing any of them to leave the island, and they fear they have no marketable skills or way of supporting themselves in the real world. Of course, their prospects for snaring husbands are limited to the officers on the island, none of whom have been particularly interesting or presentable, except for one who turned out to be already married. Fearful of their fate if their father is killed in the line of duty, they vow to write novels and achieve some notoriety and income.

Emily falls desperately in love with one of the Irish convicts who had been assigned to be her father's valet. When this infatuation is discovered, Wolf throws the main into solitary confinement. Wolf becomes increasingly paranoid and depressed and settles into a blight and malaise that prevents him from doing his job. The girls are fearful for their future, and Charlotte, the strong-headed leader of the group, works behind the scenes to get her father reassigned away from the island.

The pace of the action in the last chapters of the novel increase as the sisters are involved in an escape attempt and are caught in the violence of a prison uprising in which their home and many of their possessions are destroyed. The struggle of the sisters to thrive in the narrow confines of the life imposed on them by their father is commendable. In spite of their surroundings and limitations, they each become strong-willed, competent, educated young women, much like the Bronte sisters. Coldwater is an interesting, complex historical romance novel, but it certainly makes me thankful to be a woman in the 20th and 21st centuries, rather than the 19th century!

I loved the idea of this book! Mardi McConnochie deserves much praise for turning her curiosity about the elusive Bronte sisters into a work of fiction. She plunks the literary trio onto the island of Coldwater, a penal colony off the coast of Australia, where the sisters live with their unyielding father, Captain Wolf. Theirs is a life of isolation, with time spent on household chores, cooking, and sewing. Their fates are soon changed as each of the sisters grow weary of their stagnant existence. The dynamics between the sisters are important, and their quarelling and shifting alliances allow you insight into their different personalities and temperments.

The first half of the book is the most interesting and the elegant writing style is impressive. It is fun to realize that Charlotte and Emily mirror the characters of Jane Eyre and Catherine Earnshaw (both in acts and narrative style). That said, the second half of the book is a bit hokey and takes a melodramatic turn (lots of wind-swept hair, gasping, stormy weather, darkness, and screaming). It is supposed to be tragic but ends up reading as overwrought and a little bit silly (the reason for the three star rating). Still, this is a wonderful debut, and one that will leave you wanting for more details of the Bronte's lives.

Some of the greatest fiction written has come from small, unheralded writers far from the maddening crowds of New York. Read this fine novel and learn that truth.

Coldwater is an Australian penal colony in the 1840s, a time when the prison trade was one of Australia's most important businesses. But Coldwater is more than the average prison. It is the equivalent of America's Alcatraz Island ; a cold barren rock of an island separated from the mainland and without a successful escape attempt. The credit for its impermeability is given to the prison's governor, Captain Wolf, seen here mostly through the eyes of his three single adult daughters.

Life on a penal island is short on oppurtunity for women. Love prospects are few and, short of domestic chores, there is little to occupy their lives. Lack of intellectual oppurtunity, lack of romance and a lack of consideration from a career-obessed father create the perfect recipe for depression, rebellion and the familial breakdown that fuels the page-turning drama in this book. The drama builds and builds into a tremendous climax of destruction, loss and conflagration. And yet magically McConnochie ends this story of disturbance with a sweet romanitc ending.

The author, Mardi McConnochie, admits a fascination with the Bronte sisters and weaves that fascination heavily into her plot, even naming her three female characters Charlotte, Emily and Anne. McConnochie has done copious historical research for her novel and capsulizes her learning in a historic note at the end of the story. Her historic setting is true, the atmospheric essence is powerful. And despite the use of viewpoint that hops between the main characters(from 1st to 3rd person), diaries and snippets of textbooks, the author keeps the storyline free of confusion and wastes no words. I have never seen an author who handles changing viewpoints so deftly.

This a gem. It is a tremendous book. Written by a more recognized author it might be deemed a classic. Having been authored by this Aussie, it is sad that it may well be forgotten. I heartily recommend this novel for all readers.

What I didn't realize immediately when I began to read Coldwater, is that it is a combination of two stories - an imagined life of the famous Bronte sisters with a reordering of known facts including the setting - an Australian penal colony in the 1840s. The Bronte sisters' life admittedly had an early appeal for the author. Why an Australian penal colony she doesn't say, although she does add a historical note about a penal colony administrator with the name McConnochie: an ancestor, perhaps?

Author's motivations aside, she does make the effort to combine historical fact with a psychological portrait by dividing the story into a series of journal entries by and about the sisters and about convict life, as well as journal and incident reports by the father, who is the commanding officer. While the characters and relationships in the family are believably drawn, the plot drags at times and barely sustains our interest. The family is given most of the attention. The officers and convicts are given little space, except as a historical focal point. The psychology of this writerly family tyrannized by their mad father, and the examination of the cruelty with which he administers the penal colony lie at the heart of the novel. We are meant to come to the conclusion that the sisters are as much prisoners as the prisoners themselves on this remote island. However, it seems to me that tackling either the Bronte sisters in their original setting in Yorkshire, England or an Australian penal colony with a different cast of characters instead of throwing together such disparate topics would make a more cohesive book. Each is certainly worthy of its own study.

Excellent Read. I had the hardest time finding this book in the bookstores. The story is so unique, beautifully written - true literature. Not to mention intriguing (I read it in a day). It is a shame it has not gotten the recognition it deserves. Hopefully, her next book will get more publicity so this book will get some spotlight it deserves.

I was expecting a historical novel about the three Bronte sisters, and although a completely rivetting tale, and well written, it is NOT historical fiction. I was disappointed to find out at the end of the novel that it is 100% fiction, and these characters did not exist. I guess I expected more of an embellishment of history, and not 100% fiction. The sisters NEVER were on Coldwater, their father was never a warden, and their brother did not die when they were younger.

I enjoyed the fiction, I enjoyed the story and it was very suspenseful. I thought I was "learning" about the Bronte sisters in Coldwater, but actually, the author was using the Bronte sisters within her book.

This is a captivating story that's beautifully told. It's gripping and, in the middle and towards the end, full of suspense. The characters are intriguing. The way the story is told (through the eyes of different characters in the story) is quite effective. The ending is unpredictable..

Coldwater is a fascinating book about 3 women Charlotte, Emily and Anne who have lived there last 8 years on the island of coldwater, which just so happens to be a prison. No anne charalotte and emily are not convicts. They are the daughters of Captain Wolf, who owns the prison even as they go about there normal lives the prison is beginnign to affect them too. When a convict attempts to murder there father they're suddenlly faced with the notion of what would happen if he were to die? Where would they stay? Charlotte has the bright idea of becoming authors to make there money so they set out to do this, but then there life begins to take some unexpected turns.

Written in four different peoples views, this facsinating novel toys with the idea that your sourroundings now can affect you for the rest of your life. This is a truly magnificent story, but rememer does not end with a Disney ending. A wonderful book for young adults and adults

Pride and Prejudice was adapted into Bridget Jones' Diary and now after years of Jane Austen-mania, perhaps the Bronte sisters will become the next best (new but old) thing. Mardi McConnochie creates an alternate habitat for the three sisters and, in doing so, breathes new life into their somewhat mysterious lives. But the reader need not be familiar with the Bronte's lives or novels in order to enjoy this enticing tale. I highly recommend this book.

Coldwater, basically, is based on the lives of the 3 Bronte sisters; Charlotte, Anne, and Emily, writers of "Jane Eyre," "Agnes Grey," and "Wuthering Heights" respectively. McConnochie, taking what little is known about the three and reimagines their lives with this engrossing novel.

It is set on Coldwater, an island off the coast of Australia and home to a penal colony where their father is sort of the governor/prison warden. The sisters dream of being novelists and getting as far away from Coldwater as possible, where they are miserable. They decide to use their writing talents to earn money and help them to move back to England.

McConnochie tells the story through each characters eyes, switching narratives and at times even writing style. McConnochie does a great job, I think, of switching to each characters' unique personality. I can't say that I have read a lot of Bronte (I've only read Jane Eyre all the way through) but I think she may even switch writing style according to character because Charlotte and Emily's sections are in first person, while Anne's in third. An ambitious first novel, I think McConnochie handled it with style and I will definitely keep my eye out for more from her.