Customer Reviews

The Sweet By and By

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

 

 

It does start out slow ~~ but once you get into the story, you become enmeshed with the characters within the story. Helen is a free-lance writer who is asked to write about Maggie Fox, one of the Spiritualist leaders in the 19th century. The two women's stories parallel one another and sometimes become entwined.

Helen is still coming to terms with the death of her lover who died tragically in Rome when she starts the research on Maggie. And throughout the telling of Maggie's story, Helen tells her story as well. And it is a fascinating insight into the grieving process. For some of us, it takes longer to get over the death of a lover than it does for some others. Helen was plagued with insomnia, the "knocking" sound that entered her house, watching her friends move on with their lives and the third-year anniversary of her lover's death coming up ~~ it was beginning to be too much. Also, the story was set in the deepest and most bitterest of winters as well ~~ like a frozen life slowly coming to a thaw.

It is an interesting read. It may not be one of my most favorite books in the world, but I've gained a new insight to what the Spiritualist movement really was to the Victorians. And I've gained an insight that not all is lost when a lover dies ~~ life still moves on. It is a haunting tale and one that you cannot put down easily ~~ but it's one that you're glad to have read.

I read this novel in two sittings, eager to learn how the lives and love stories turned out, and also fascinated by the historical accuracy, the textures of everyday life. Before I realized it, I was swept up in Maggie and Helen's intersecting worlds: those they make, those they inherit, those they intuit, those they're hauled into by others. One of the book's many charms is how wisely it reveals the values and passions (the erotic scenes are fabulous) of two women from very different eras who, nonetheless, have everything in common.

Jeanne Mackin's novel about Helen West, a freelance writer who is commissioned to produce a magazine article on Maggie Fox, the founder of the American spiritualism movement, begins simply enough with this premise, then spirals with increasing power and depth into a maelstrom of time and the human spirit. Mackin's writing skills gently but firmly take the reader by the hand -- we are led into the reality of the lives of the two women, moving gracefully back and forth across time as their indivdual stories unfold.

As her article progresses, and West learns more about her subject, parallels between their lives -- often very subtle -- emerge, drawing the two women, born over a century apart, inexorably closer to one another. Maggie's life is over, of course -- and in many ways Helen feels that her life is over as well. Casting a clear, discerning eye on Maggie's methods of sham and fakery, Helen senses a hint of reality, of true belief, at the core. Through a series of seemingly unexplainable incidents, Helen begins to sense light shed upon events in her own life -- light that seems to emanate from the life of Maggie Fox.

Unable after three years to gain any sense of closure following the death of her lover, Helen feels herself -- and her sanity -- slipping away. She feels a great burden of guilt from which she is unable to free herself. Opening the life of Maggie Fox for her article is like opening Pandora's box -- the more she learns, the more questions she has. Can the spirits of the dead really communicate with the living? Was everything Maggie Fox stood for really nothing but fakery and parlor tricks? Was Maggie's public 'confession' heartfelt, or was it simply revenge? Helen West searches for the answers to these and many more questions, both about the Fox sisters and about her own life -- and through her, Jeanne Mackin allows us to ask them of ourselves as well.

Mackin's own research into the lives of the Fox sisters goes very far in adding a great deal of plausability to her story. Maggie Fox and her sisters held 'sittings' and seances for the rich and famous of their time -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Horace Greeley, Abraham Lincoln's widow, and many other notables. The author lets us see that anyone -- rich and famous, or poor and faceless -- can feel enough pain, can ache enough to want to believe in the 'services' the sisters offered.

Her characters are developed subtly and completely -- they are human and believable. The burning questions in Helen's heart are ones we would well ask if we were in her shoes -- and Mackin's formidable, well-honed skills as a writer put us right there. This is an intelligently written, imaginatively conceived novel -- very entertaining and fulfilling, and well worth the read.

I found THE SWEET BY AND BY to be an outstanding book, a fascinating account of the Fox sisters and the early days of American Spiritualism, as seen through the eyes of a contemporary journalist. Well written and fast paced, Makin is an excellent writer. I enjoyed this book greatly and recommend it highly.

I agree with the professional review in that the book does start slowly, but soon the story is intertwined enough to keep you turning pages.

Mackin switches between Maggie & Helen (the two main characters, with similar situations, albetit 100 years apart) enough for you to eagerly anticiapte what will happen to the one or the other.

Overall, neither character is hugely likeable, but entirely human with their misgivings and shortfallings -- isn't that the case for us all?

Plus, the whole reason we learn about Maggie is because Helen is writing about her as an assignment for a magazine for which she freelances. It was fun to be part of the writing process for Helen.

I just picked this book up at the Historical Novel Society conference and started reading it that night. I've always been fascinated by the Spiritualism movement, and Ms Mackin makes Maggie Fox come alive for me. We understand why she did what she did--not just that crazy charlatan who snowed everyone. The other modern story is equally as compelling. Normally I like things a bit more action-adventure oriented but this is a book I'd recommend to anyone.

Mackin's narrator, while asserting that she is no "hagiographer of spurious mystics," is an engaging woman, solid in her station, widely conversant with the deeper reaches of the paranormal, and magically involved with her quest. Here she leads the mind in a chase as she finds herself tempted to believe in the return of departed spirits, in a prose that is as amiable to read as the palm of a hand. A haunting book in every way.

I liked this book a lot. I didn't expect to like it, wasn't even sure what it was about, and didn't realize until I read the cover after finishing it that it was based on a real person. Go figure. I did feel compelled to finish it in two sittings (would have been one, but there simply aren't enough hours in the day or night!), and by the end of the story I realized that I cared about the characters. That says quite a bit. Read this book, enjoy this book, and think about it once you're finished. It will stay with you.