Customer Reviews

The Fugitive Wife: A Novel

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There is so much to savor here I know I'll read THE FUGITIVE WIFE again. With the authority of careful research and the grace of a gifted storyteller, Peter Brown gives us a window to history, a love triangle, an unforgettable tale.

He parcels out the narrative, telling just enough to make the three main characters, Essie, Nate and Leonard, vivid and compelling, while holding back pieces we're both itching and afraid to know. We meet Guppy Totman, Plug Jefferson and so many other zany souls, Charles Dickens could take a lesson. Brown guides us expertly through century-old worlds of farming, trapping, chicken husbandry, mining and more. His language is rich and in tune with its time, and I stopped often to read a beautifully crafted paragraph twice, or three times.

"Abiding." Watch for this pitch-perfect, one-word sentence. The countless, lyrical phrases Brown finds to describe the sky, water, ships setting sail. Nuggets of heart-baring insight, dug deep from emotionally restrained characters. And humor. You will laugh out loud at the "five erect fingers of mortuary fortune," and more.

I'll warn you: a very creepy snake inhabits this novel. And, like the rest of THE FUGITIVE WIFE, Peter Brown brings it masterfully to life.

The Fugitive Wife is a rewarding saga reminiscent in some ways of great American stories of the nineteenth century such as Moby Dick, or The Scarlet Letter. It is a story rich in historical detail, with complicated and flawed characters wrestling with passions, adversities, and moral dilemmas. The author, Peter Brown, creates vivid visual scenes for the reader and more important has a great gift for hearing and rendering his characters' unique voices. The story is principally that of Essie who bears with and then finally leaves the husband who has near ruined her life. She casts her lot with men and women forging a way in a new frontier. But the story is also about the man left behind, his anguish and the shadow it casts on the future.

"A little curl had come into his voice like the creeper on a bittersweet." 'The Fugitive Wife' glides along on this kind of simple, elegant, and haunting prose; rich period details bring the story to life, and good old fashioned yarn-spinning (a la Ken Kesey) make it a pleasure to read. But it is the characters themselves- Nate, Essie, the gold-rush city of Nome, and above all Leonard Crummey, who make it impossible to put down. Beg, buy, or borrow this book and enjoy the ride.

I just loved this book mostly because the author helps us to see the shades of gray in both the most virtuous and the most sinister of the main characters in his book: Essie and Leonard. I don't want to give anything away, but it's so nice to not have everything wrapped up so neatly as it is so often in many novels. I will recommend this to my book group and can see a great discussion ensuing on loyalty in marriage, the nature of love, good & evil...everything we love to talk about!! Also loved to learn about the gold rush in Alaska at the turn of the century. P.S. I think Nicole Kidman is too frail and delicate for the lead part in the movie...much better role for Renee Zellweger.

Yes, I think there's a great movie here, but Hollywood needs to be true to the book. Not sure who the male leads would be but Julia Roberts would be Essie. Or maybe Nicole Kidman. Oh, I guess Ralph Fiennes could be Nate because he's kind of quirky about birds. One of the goofy Baldwin brothers (can't think of his name but it's not Alex) could be Leonard. Fugitive Wife is a great title and makes you want to know more. I saw it in an airport book shop, paid full price, and by gosh the story didn't disappoint. It felt so real to me. I could visualize scenes, like the ship SS Madsen sitting off the Nome harbor, with the tents and equipment of the many gold prospectors strewn across the beach. I truly fell for Essie, and rooted for her and Nate. When the story shifts to life on the farm, before Essie's gold rush adventure, it opens up a terrific view of life a hundred years ago that most know nothing about. You will not be able to anticipate the ending. Just savor the pages and know that you will be sorry when they're all gone.

Don't get this book if your main goal is reading about Alaska--that's what nonfiction is for. Buy this book because you love a good, well-told story, because you're addicted to complex, complicated, compelling characters. The Fugitive Wife is a superior novel, wrought with some of the most gorgeous language being crafted in contemporary fiction. The fact that you get lots of juicy inside-info on the history of gold mining in Alaska at the turn of the century is icing on the cake of this pulse-pounding adventure. But the true adventure involves the life or death leaps of the human heart, the risk-taking of trusting your instincts, the thrill-ride of giving yourself over to love that answers back as selflessly as it's given. For the cover price of this book, you get in return a journey you'll never forget, with characters who will stay with you long after the last page is turned.

The best historical fiction places us in the past and lets it view it through the eyes of someone we care about. This book does that and does it well. The period and place (Alaska at the turn of the century in the middle of a gold rush) are both fascinating, and the "back story" is spare and heart-wrenching. There are many characters in here, all well-drawn, but Leonard, with his limited way of understanding the world and weakness for the jug really broke my heart. I'm not going to offer a plot synopsis because there are plenty up here, I'm just going to recommend this book.

There are very few books that I can't wait to read and find out what happens next in the story. This is one of those books. The writing is superb and the story is wonderful.

I hope he writes another soon.

I picked up this book from the bargain table, and I really was not disappointed. The story follows Esther Crummey as she leaves her alcoholic husband in Minnesota and takes a job on a ship on its way to Nome, Alaska during the Gold Rush of 1901. Esther's husband manages to follow her to Alaska, where Esther needs to come to grips with what she needs to do - in light of having met a man who could possibly give her a life of happiness.

Although this synopsis sounds a bit trite and overdone, in the hands of Peter C. Brown it works well. More than anything is the place he has chosen to tell the tale - Alaska has a reputation of being rather exotic, and the Gold Rush period a time not very well known. Mr. Brown has done his research (supposedly his grandfather was in the Gold Rush, and he gleaned a lot of his knowledge from him as well as journals from that period), and it really comes through in the this novel. Having never been to Alaska, I felt as though I were there experiencing the tundra and creeks and rivers and beaches and the mud. I felt the chill and could see the men setting up their equipment and feel the hope of striking it rich. In this, a beautifully crafted novel.

As far as Esther's story is concerned, I was not all that impressed. It felt stilted and a bit dry, but then it was probably more true to life than most of us want to realize. The story of her husband, Leonard Crummey, was somehow much more enticing to me. Whereas Esther was simple, straightforward, and by the book, Leonard was complex, evolving, and complicated. To me, it seemed the bigger story involved Leonard more than Esther, and I enjoyed reading about him more than her. But that was just my opinion.

Overall, an easy to read book, almost escapism with the descriptions of Alaska, and engaging with characters that seem to come to life.

I wanted to read this book for one reason and one reason only. It's set in Alaska and I just can't resist books about the frozen north. Maybe someday I'll visit that area of the world. But for now, its books that take me there.

The central character, Essie, has all the characteristics of modern historical novels: she's smart and "feisty". In this case, she's a Minnesota farm girl who marries a man who has many faults. Her husband, Leonard, has had a hard life. He has a weakness for drink which causes many hardships in the couple's lives, one of which leads to the death of their young crippled son. Essie leaves him and goes to Alaska during Gold Rush times where, naturally, she meets a strong and desirable man.

But Leonard is not to be forgotten. He travels to Alaska to find her. That's the conflict and the conclusion is inevitable.

I think the author wanted the reading public to identify with Essie. But, personally, I identified with the husband. He is a complex individual with a troubled background. I felt I understood him and where he was coming from.

As I mentioned before, I wanted to read this book because of its Alaska setting. I was a bit disappointed. I guess I've read too many books already about Alaska to make the scenes in this book memorable.

The Fugitive Wife is a fast read and I enjoyed it while I was reading it. But I know it will soon be forgotten in the dustbin of books that didn't quite live up to their promise.