Customer Reviews

A True and Faithful Narrative

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

 

 

The sequel that can stand entirely on its own is a rare and beautiful beast. Recently I've read several sequels to children's books that demanded an in-depth knowledge of all the previous titles that came before. And to be frank, I feared the case would be no different with Ms. Katherine Sturtevant's title, "A True and Faithful Narrative". One glance at the setting (Restoration England) and I was ready to high-tail it to the hills. And in truth I was disadvantaged by not reading "At the Sign of the Star" (Ms. Sturtevant's earlier work) but not in the way I expected. Had I read her first book I would have known right from the start that "A True and Faithful Narrative" was bound to be a smart and intricate little work that could compete for attention entirely on its own. This is one of the slicker bits of historical fiction to come out this year, and may be more enticing to adults than children. Then again, Ms. Sturtevant has such an engaging narrative voice, it may prove difficult for older child readers to resist her.

Daughter of a bookstore owner in 1681 London, Meg Moore has a problem. Everyone knows that she loves to read and she's in the unique position to see new plays, books, and essays the minute they come out. What Meg really wants to do, though, is write. Unfortunately, that's too much for her father and Meg has been forbidden to set pen to paper if that paper is to fall into anyone's hands but her own. And even that might have been all right if her best friend Anne's brother Edmund hadn't been captured by pirates. When Edmund tentatively displayed his affection for Meg before he left on a dangerous shipping voyage, she jokingly asked him to bring back a good story if he should become enslaved on his journey. You can imagine her guilt when that is exactly what happens to her unwanted beau. Out of guilt Meg helps raise the money to ransom Edmund, but when he returns he wants the world to know of the places he has been and the people he has seen. Furthermore, he wants Meg to write the narrative. Simultaneously finding herself attracted to her father's apprentice Will and this newly determined Edmund, Meg must determine whether writing the book is worth the risk and which man she would prefer to love.

This is a bit embarrassing so I'll just come out and say it. If I was an adolescent again, I am certain that I would enjoy "A True and Faithful Narrative" just as much as I used to enjoy Sunfire romances back in the day. I will explain why this is a compliment. Do you even remember Sunfire romances? These were basically historical G-rated romance novels written for teens, each one sporting a title that was the heroine's name and each one taking place during a significant moment in the past. And in each book the heroine had to choose between two boys. Now I am NOT saying that "A True and Faithful Narrative" is equivalent to those books in any way shape or form. But the having to choose between two boys? Oh that is one of this title's finer selling points. Walking a delicate line, Ms. Sturtevant straddles the tween/teen readership with this sophisticated but kid-friendly tale. I do suspect that more fifteen-year-olds will read this book than their ten-year-old counterparts. That is not to say, however, that there isn't something for everyone in Strutevant's gripping (and woah-man-tic) tale.

Oh, and you know what was just so freakin' amazing about this book? Zippo anachronisms. Couching her authentic terms within their easily understood context, Ms. Sturtevant can get away with referring to stuff like, "nightsoil" without sounding affected. More impressive, however is the fact that her heroine, Meg, has prejudices. She has prejudices fully in keeping with the time period in which she exists. How rare is that? I can't tell you how many books I've read recently where a girl living in a historical moment in time is twenty to 1,000 years ahead of her time in terms of feminism, racism, etc. Yes, in this book Meg fights against the restraints that held women in place in Restoration England, but her situation is obviously unique. Few women would have been able to read as Meg does and fewer still be able to write. Admittedly there were times in the book, such as when Meg was threatening her very existence with her rebellious nature, that made me want to urge her to throw in the towel. Yet at no time does she feel like a twenty-first century dame stuffed awkwardly into seventeenth century clothes.

And come to think of it, few authors could write as intelligently and methodically as Ms. Sturtevant and not sound dull. The sentence, "But what does it mean to say that something is owed to chance, when we do not know what governs chance itself?" is both thoughtful and though provoking. And yet I daresay it won't cause a kid to scratch his or her head and put it down, never to return. Needless to say, children and YA librarians are going gaga over this title. It's not just the fine writing that's doing it either. I suspect that some of it has to do with the fact that Ms. Sturtevant spends a moderate amount of time concentrating on what it means to be a writer. When Meg begins to write Edward's account she keeps imposing her own prejudices and assumptions on his true tale. She doesn't want to hear the truth. She wants to hear her own version of the truth where Edmund embodied the brave and courageous Englishman. To hear that violence is not a romantic notion but a harsh and cruel reality changes her and, by extension, her writing. In this way Sturtevant is able to teach her heroine some of the basics of writing itself. When Edmund argues that his story diverges from the strict and literal truth at times (and here we're getting into that James Frey debate, are we not?) Meg says of her words, "It does not matter, does it, who has written them, as long as they have been true? I do not mean true in every detail - how can that matter? But true in their essence, in their root, if you like. If our narrative is true, it will shine a light upon the place you were, and the people you met there." When a person writes a memoir, what do you leave in and what do you take out? How do you justify each change? What change is more true than the facts themselves? And how many children's books can you name that discuss this kind of topic in an intelligent and eminently readable fashion?

Is it reading too much into a book of this sort to say that "A True and Faithful Narrative" may be an especially timely book to write? At one point Edmund attempts to persuade Meg's father that his story must be heard by the English public. Says he, "Would it not be well for those in London to learn something of these people, with whom we have more and more to do? There was a treaty signed in April, you know, between our kingdom and Algiers. Who knows what sort of future will follow?" Hmmm. Increased dealings with a Muslim culture and the desire that Westerners know more about people of other faiths and religions? Now why does that sound so familiar? You'll forgive me, but it seems to me that "A True and Faithful Narrative" would make fabulous bookgroup conversation for kids and adults alike. One of the finer pieces of fiction I've had the pleasure of reading this year. Heady, romantic, and satisfying.

I liked this book right away. And for over half the book I thought it would remain that way. I enjoyed the writing very much, and I thought the characters were really well-developed, and I found the setting (17th century London) interesting. On the other hand, sometimes Meg, the main character, frustrated me a bit, and though historical fiction like this is interesting, sometimes it's hard to put up with the prejudices of the people living during those times. Still, I had a hard time putting it down, and really wanted to know how things would turn out, so I had it down for a good, solid four stars. Until the second half of the book comes along, with the descriptions of Algiers, and then...absolute magic. It's just so beautifully written. And then the interactions between Meg and her father? I totally cried. I think this book just hit several of my weak points--the blurring of truth and fiction, the romance of far-away places and peoples, the love of words on a page and shelves full of books... All mixed in with the complexities and confusions and contradictions of life. You got me, Katherine Sturtevant, you totally got me!

On a side note, I didn't realize A True and Faithful Narrative was a sequel until I'd already finished it. It didn't feel like one at all to me, and I'm not entirely sure I want to go back and read the first book because it just seems completely unnecessary somehow. Then again, I loved this one so much in the end, how could I not?

As the year winds down, award season is gearing up in the children's literature world. There are several books that are as well-researched and well-written as this one, about a 16-year-old bookseller, who works in her father's 17th Century bookshop but longs to be an author herself. Few, however, are as accessible and appealing as this one. This is a coming-of-age story `tween and teen girls, and their mothers, will love, with a rich plot, an unforgettable heroine, pirates, romance, even a timely thread about wrong assumptions made about the Muslim world. If I had a vote, I would pick this for the Newbery Medal.

What I loved best about this splendid book is the way it wrestles with writing: how it feels to write something and then write it again and again; the need to make the words sing; the joy when it comes out right. I love how it wrestles with narrative, too, how to make a story well-formed.

It's also a crackling good historical read, and romantic besides.

"C'mon people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now."
-- Dino Valenti (1963)

"The world listens carefully to the words of any pope. And it is tragic and dangerous when one sows pain, either deliberately or carelessly." --New York Times editorial

"He has a dark mentality that comes from the darkness of the Middle Ages...It looks like an effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades." --Turkish Parliamentary leader Salih Kapusuz

C'mon. Let's be honest. If the Pope's priorities centered around tolerance and world peace, would he be quoting some 14th century Byzantine emperor or would he be quoting and singing some Sixties peace and brotherhood songs?

As evidenced by the endless stream of propaganda -- from that which led to the Crusades up through that which causes worldwide tension this weekend -- there has always been a wealth of misinformation and fear being spread about Islam. And it was similarly the case in the 1680s London world in which Meg Moore lives.

Meg Moore was twelve when I first met her in Katherine Sturtevant's AT THE SIGN OF THE STAR, which was published back in 2000. Now, in A TRUE AND FAITHFUL NARRATIVE, Meg is sixteen. In the first book we come to know Meg as the only surviving child of a mother who repeatedly bred (as it was referred to at the time) before dying in childbirth.

Meg is an unusual young woman for her time. Her father is a London bookseller and Meg, who regularly works with her father and who reads everything she can get her hands on, has high hopes of always having the bookstore. Unfortunately, her father takes another wife who begins successfully producing offspring -- including male heirs -- causing Meg's childhood dream to go flying out the window. AT THE SIGN OF THE STAR concludes with Meg's deciding that she wants to be the rarest of seventeenth century London creatures -- a female author.

Four years later in 1681, in A TRUE AND FAITHFUL NARRATIVE, headstrong Meg is at the age where those of her gender are typically being bartered away by their fathers. might there be a way for Meg to end up both married and in a bookstore? Or might it be possible to become published despite the fact that any notion of his daughter being a female author is well beyond what Meg's relatively tolerant father is willing to abide?

Shortly before Meg's best friend Anne Gosse (daughter of a wine merchant) is to be married, Anne's big brother Edward stops by to purchase some reading materials. It turns out he is leaving on an extended business trip to the Mediterranean.

" 'You must bring Anne a splendid wedding present when you return,' I said as I opened the ledger. 'Only think of the treasures you can buy for her in the Mediterranean!'
He pulled off his lace-trimmed gloves and laid them on the counter. 'It will likely be a year, perhaps two, before I come again to England,' he said as he brought out his purse.
" 'To be sure. I had not thought. Well, you must send her something, then. Venetian lace, perhaps. Anne would love that.'
"He fished out his shillings, and put them into my open palm. His fingers were warm and soft. Before I could curl my hands around the coins he laid his own palm over mine, trapping the money between our two hands. 'And what shall I bring you, Meg?' "It was then that I remembered Anne's words, be kind to him, and understood them for the first time. My mouth fell open and I was flooded with horror, for it was clear that he offered me a courtship gift. I knew not what to say, and it is a fault of mine that I cannot be still at such moments. Instead, the wrong words fly from my tongue. " 'Why, nothing, unless -- yes, I so wish we had a narrative to rival Okeley's that we might sell at the sign of the Star. Can you manage to be captured by pirates, and enslaved in North Africa?' "

Sure enough, when Anne and Edward's father dies unexpectedly and Edward hastily arranges a return to London, he is captured by pirates and enslaved in North Africa. And it is there that Edward learns that so much of the common knowledge that he knew of Islamic culture was actually misconception. When after his extended enslavement Edward finally returns home it is Meg who is given the opportunity by Edward to write the narrative. It is Meg who will be faced with those misconceptions, and Meg who must balance what she knows will sell with being a writer worthy of the primary source material to which she is so fortunate to have access.

A TRUE AND FAITHFUL NARRATIVE is fascinating and enlightening. Through the eyes of Meg Moore and Edward Gosse, Katherine Sturtevant offers us the sights, smells, and culture of Reconstruction London, as well as the exotic splendor of Algiers. And after getting to observe Meg's thought processes as a writer, readers might well wonder the next time they read an article or watch a television report as to what parts of the real story have been included or excluded for the sake of entertainment or propoganda value.