Customer Reviews

YEAR OF WONDERS: A NOVEL OF THE PLAGUE.

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2 star:		(25)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

When I was first given this book, I thought, "Oh great, a book about The Plague. How depressing." To be honest, if it had not been lent to me, i probably would not have even picked it up. But by the third page, I was hooked. Not only is the story, about a small English village that tries to control the spread of The Plague, brought in by a bolt of fabric, by quarantining themselves, it is the story of a remarkable woman, Anna Frith. Anna is a widow (her husband being killed before the Plague) who loses nearly everything-her children, her friends, her sanity-to this terrible disease. While The Plague ravages her friends and neighbors, Anna does everything she can to save them, and completes feats (midwifery, iron mining) that she never thought hersef capable of. The book is incredibly well written; Brooks uses the vernacular of the time to great effect, but in such a way that it seems completely normal. It sounds cliched, but I truly could not put this book down. A truly surprising delight; I recommend it for any fans of Anita Shreve (who gives an endorsement for the book.)

Based on an actual event and real persons, author Geraldine Brooks tells a fascinating tale of a village in rural 17th century England that experiences a sudden outbreak of plague. The citizens seal themselves off from the outside world to avoid spreading the disease to neighboring villages and to give themselves up to God's mercy. The "year of wonders" experienced by the residents of this stricken community is told through the eyes of an intelligent and couragous young widow, Anna Frith. Brooks' imagery is bright and alive - the reader experiences the sights and smells of this world, the hope and despair of the characters and the gradual disintegration of their faith. The plague brings out the noblest and the basest of human behavior and Anna herself achieves things she never would have attempted in any other circumstances.

Because the majority of this book was so well written, I was quite disappointed in the ending which seemed rushed and contrived, almost as if the publisher had grown impatient and directed Brooks to wrap it up by the end of the day. I won't spoil the ending, but readers of Albert Camus' novel on the same subject will groan inwardly at Brooks' little joke in her placement of the final scene.

Despite the ending, I recommend this book highly for its clear, concise style, vivid imagery, and realistic portrayal of human beings immersed in a long and tragic fight for survival and search for meaning.

There's a lot to like about Geraldine Brooks' _Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague_. At its best, this novel is an evocative, well-written historical fiction that skillfully conjures up the day-to-day hardships of living in a small village overrun by plague and watching two-thirds of your friends, family, and acquaintances die horrible deaths. I really liked the focus on the diurnal struggles of a village increasingly depleted of its human resources. What do you do when the women who always prepared herbal remedies are dead? When young children are left parentless? The main character, Anna Frith, is a strong woman and something of a feminist role model; the plague brings out resources in her that she didn't know she had.

Unfortunately, this novel is itself infected in places by melodrama and purple prose. There are a couple of minor eruptions early in the novel, but the big problem for this book resides in the last 30-40 pages. If the novel had ended on page 272, it would have been a much stronger novel. Regrettably, it continues until page 308. About five HUGE plot developments happen in this short space, which is startling enough in a novel that has been so well-paced up until this point, and several of them seem stretch credulity thin. There is also a surprisingly misogynistic passage from a previously likeable character in these final pages which really turned me off and seemed entirely inconsistent with everything we've learned about this character up until this point.

I would still recommend this novel, as it does so much so well, but with the caveat that its quality rather falls off in the end.

Geraldine Brooks' Year of Wonders is a terrific novel. I encourage all to overcome the intimidating fact that the novel is about the plague and diver right in to the work. Year of Wonders is an intelligent, engaging, emotional read--very well done indeed. Anna Firth is a survivor, in many ways. She survives the plague which utterly decimates her village. When the plague arrives, she has already lived through much. Her father abused her and her husband has died in a mining accident, left her a widow with two young children, at the ripe age of 18. As disease rips through her village, Anna works with the minister's wife, trying to provide some solace, some comfort to the rest of the village. The plague is not the only killer in these times for several townspeople are killed by hatred, jealousy and prejudice. The plague ultimately leaves the village and Anna is a changed person, which sounds trite, I know, but in the novel, it's not. This novel is so fabulous, Anna's emotions so real. There were parts of this novel that literally had me in tears. I highly, highly recommend this novel. It is a wonderful and most enjoyable read.

What a great book! Year of Wonders is excellent in every way. It is beautifully written. Every page has some delicate description that made me stop to think of the simple grace words can have when they are in the hands of a talented writer. The story is powerful from beginning to end as we watch what happens when plague ravages a small, isolated village northwest of London in 1666. It is based on a true story and told through the fictional character, Anna Frith. She was a woman on an ordinary path in life who finds herself surrounded by death and discovers her own extraordinary strength. The story is well developed and builds with every page. There are unexpected and exciting twists in the end that lead to a very satisfying conclusion which holds up until the very last sentence. I was only sad the story ended and can only dream of what happened next to my beloved heroine. I say encore! What will Geraldine Brooks write next? I will definitely read it.

Year of Wonders begins with a bang, letting the reader know that a catastrophe has befallen the inhabitants of a small mountain village in England. Seen through the eyes of Anna Frith, a young widow who serves the village's minister's house, we witness the horror and death sweeping through the area during the year of the plague, 1666.

Brooks writes this story with an elegant, yet powerful touch. The details of village life and the real effects of the plague are tangible and stunning. This is literally a film played out on the page, with scene after scene so richly written that the line between fact and fiction becomes blurred. As the seasons pass, Brooks expresses the fear, anger and eventually, numbed grief turning to hope (some of it warped) of the village and Anna. The plague itself is written almost as a character; it lives and breathes and there are many times when I found myself holding my breath, wondering what it was going to do next.

Anna is splendidly written, a mix of feminism and the Puritan values of the time. From the beginning, you know she's destined for more than working the fields or washing dishes. While it would have been easy to turn Anna into some kind of saint, Brooks does a wonderful job of showing Anna's flaws without making them larger than the story itself. In addition to Anna, the character of Michael Mompellion is compelling and strongly written. At the end of the story, I was shocked by some of the revelations about him but found them to be completely believable and relevant to the story.

The one area (and it's a small one) where I felt this story veered off track was the final chapter. Maybe I was missing something, but given the year and the role women played in society, I found where Anna ended up to be implausible and a little bit too pat. Maybe it could and did happen, but compared to the tone of the book before it, it was odd. I did think that she ended up with the life she deserved, but the way it was written seemed hurried and needed a little more suspension of belief than I expected.

This was an amazing book, one I will definitely read again and recommend to my family and friends. When I finished it, the one thing that surprised me the most was that the book was only just over 300 pages - this reads like a huge, epic story.

I looked forward to reading this book, as I enjoy (good) historical fiction and had previously read Geraldine Brooks' Nine Parts of Desire (which I do recommend.) I was disappointed in Year of Wonders, and I'd like to discuss why. This review contains important plot points, so if you haven't read the book, don't continue reading.

This book is set in 1665; its heroine is Anna Frith, an 18 year old widow with two young sons. It is soon revealed that her husband was a miner killed in a mining accident. Anna is a servant in the household of the local Anglican priest and his wife, Elinor.

As the book opens, it is clear that a) the "year of wonders" is almost over and b) Elinor is dead. Careful readers will learn in this chapter that Anna and Elinor were the bestest of friends and that Anna, despite the fact that she's a peasant in a remote English village, not only reads, but understands Latin. At this point, alarm bells started going off in my head. I'm always deeply suspicious of books that try too hard to make their historical heroines, well, heroic. Make the heroine smart, sure. Even let her have learned how to read on her own, fine - though it's unlikely that a young 17th century mother would have the time to learn and the ready access to books. But please don't make her an overevolved Rhodes scholar with modern sensibilities. Please. My pleas were not answered.

Anyway, as the book progresses, it's clear that Brooks is imposing 21st century values on her characters. In addition, some very unwelcome Oprah-ization slinks in, mainly in the discussion of Anna's family, where it is revealed that Anna has an abusive father (with zero redeeming qualities) who is married to a woman, Aphra, who turns out to be bitchy, unloving, and also into witchcraft (?).

On the other hand, Elinor is just as perfect as can be. She doesn't believe in social divisions. She literally looks like an angel, all wispy and with silvery hair and whatnot. She teaches Anna how to read and write and read great scholarly volumes. Apparently, Anna has plenty of time to indulge in all these scholarly pursuits. Anna, as I'll discuss later, also turns out to be pretty perfect herself. I actually laughed during Elinor's faux deathbed scene when Elinor basically congratulates both herself and Anna on becoming ever so wonderful.

(The priest, Mompellion, is your average tortured artiste type. He is supposed to have chemistry with Anna. Scandalous!)

Anyway, even though this is a novel of the plague, there isn't really THAT much about how horrible the plague is. Mompellion visits plague families. There's an interlude in which Anna and Elinor pluckily mine a vein so that a little Quaker orphan girl can keep the claim to the vein (Elinor and Anna are easily able to get beyond those silly 17th century prejudices about Quakers.) Anna's half-sister, Faith, is mentioned in passing about 300 pages into the book. Then she dies. Anys, a saucy herbalist chick, is hanged by panicked villagers. Boy, is Mompellion mad about that! (By the way, Anna is totally cool with Anys sleeping around, because she's moderne like that.) There are other random mentions of the village being deserted and various coping mechanism employed by the distraught villagers, but Brooks never really sells the reader on how horrible the Year of Wonders is. Rather, the Year of Wonders is more like a prep course to make Anna even more exceptional.

Anna not only becomes an ace scholar, but she also becomes a terrific midwife in less than a year. After a very brief indulgence, she has the moral rectitude to primly burn Anys' poppy stash when she finds it, becuase opium is BAD. Her horrible father and horrible stepmother die horribly. Oh, she also learns to tame Mompellion's stallion, because she is just that good.

Mompellion is written as an amalgamation of nobility and unexpected nuttiness. His abstinence from Elinor really doesn't make much sense, but it does mean that Anna can sleep with him without much guilt after Elinor dies.

Anyway, Anna takes off at the end of the book. At this point, it seemed to me like the author sat around and thought "Hmm. I want my main character to continue her scholarly pursuits in medicine. Where can she do that? I know! Morocco!" Yes, Anna abruptly ends up as the wife to a well-regarded Arab doctor at the end of the book, where she studies in Arabic and raises her children (her new kids - her sons having died in the plague.) Wow, did that come out of nowhere.

Brooks has clearly done a lot of research and the book is quite readable. But I found Anna and her friends to be too modern and too perfect, much like the protagonist of Pope Joan (another disappointing historical novel) or, dare I say it? Jean Auel's Ayla, the most perfect woman ever to exist in all prehistory.) If you want to read some decent fiction set in this period, I can recommend Slammerkin. The only diseases in that novel are venereal, though.

I work at a bookstore while going to college. My manager was kind enough to place the advanced reader at my feet. From the moment I opened the cover...I was hooked. How can you not be? I fell in love the simple yet elegant writing style of Miss Brooks. I grieved along side Anna when she lost her family, her children, a potential love interest ( that we all secretly wanted to work out ), friends. I don't know how or where to begin describing how much I loved this book. But I do know this IF YOU HAVE TO PURCHASE ONE BOOK THIS YEAR PLEASE LET IT BE THIS ONE. You will not be disappointed with the writing style, character development, or the emotional commitment you can't help but have with the characters. Geraldine Brooks weaves an intricate web of humanity at it's worst and at it's best with Anna.

One more thing. I hate to compare any author but if you love YEAR OF WONDERS then I suggest you pick up a copy of GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING by Tracy Chevalier or THE BONE HOUSE by Betsy Tobin. I definitely not would pass up the chance to read YEAR OF WONDERS. Hopefully you won't either.

This was a very difficult book to read. It wasn't the use of some archaic language that made it so hard, but the heartbreaking storyline. This book is based on the true story of the villagers of Eyam, who chose to quarantine themselves from the surrounding villages in order to stop the plague that had invaded their lives from spreading. We see the entire story through the eyes of Anna Firth. We meet Anna after her husband has died in a mining accident, and she is raising two young children alone. Anna takes in a boarder to help with her expenses, laying the groundwork for tragedy, because her boarder is a tailor. One day a bolt of cloth comes from London, bearing the seeds of plague.

The year is 1666, and Anna will begin the most extraordinary year of her life, as she becomes a healer and a heroine. She will face the loss of almost everything she loves, and almost loses her own sanity during the year of the plague.

Despite the many horrors of the plague depicted in the book, there are also tiny moments of joy buried beneath the pain, and this is a book you will not soon forget.

As with most of the other reviews, my main complaint is the last chapter of the book, the Epilogue. It seemed a very jarring and rather disappointing ending to a wonderful book. However don't let that stop you from reading this book, because if you do, you will miss a beautifully written story, with a truly inspirational heroine.

I picked up Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks for two reasons: our school librarian highly recommended it, and I discovered that Brooks is the wife of one of my favorite non-fiction authors, Tony Horwitz (Confederates in the Attic and Blue Latitudes). Although a book about the plague in 17th century England, this is not just a story about disease and death, but also a moving tale about survival, passion, compassion and unlikely heroes.

Based on a true story, this historical novel weaves a fabulous and heartwarming tale about how one small town in Derbyshire dealt with the plague. Year of Wonders is told through the eyes of a lowly and uneducated peasant girl named Anna Frith. Anna is a young widow with two young sons. She goes to work for the Anglican rector and his wife, Michael and Elinor Mompellion. Elinor takes Anna under her wing, and becomes not just a teacher and mentor, but also a friend. The town is thrown into chaos when it is discovered that the plague has struck. Rector Mompellion convinces the town that they must close their borders and that all residents must stay (to prevent it spreading to other villages). He also offers a promise that no one will suffer alone, and he convinces the earl from a neighboring town to provide food and other necessities. What follows is a tale of tragedy and triumph. The plague lasted over a year, and two thirds of the townspeople perished. Mompellion, Elinor and Anna take on the task of ministering to the town in ways that are heroic. They find themselves battling not only this dreaded disease, but also superstition, greed, and even murder. And despite their own tragedies, they discover that their efforts make them stronger and that they have more courage than they thought possible.

Brooks' writing is truly elegant, and Anna's thoughts and words are written in the lyrical but simple cadence of the 1660's. Anna describes her husband; "his hands were big, cracked things with broken, blackened nails, and his idea of lovemaking was a swift and sweaty tumble, a spasm and then sleep." I just couldn't turn the pages fast enough. There is also much historical research including not only the plague itself, but also of the living conditions in a small English village during the 17th Century.

While this is Geraldine Brooks' first novel, she has two nonfiction books to her credit including Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women. I will definitely be reading more of this talented author.