Historical fiction reviews by Sarah L. Nesbeitt - originally published in the Historical Novels Review (Issue 18).  
All reviews on this page ©2001 Sarah L. Nesbeitt.  All rights reserved.

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THE SALT LETTERS
Christine Balint, Norton, 2001, $12 (£7.48), 187pp, tpb, ISBN 0-393-32160-6
This short novel reveals, from the point of view of a young woman, the hardships of the sea voyage from England to Australia in 1854. The unmarried female immigrants share close quarters in the belly of the ship, far from daylight, with the unnamed Matron as their guardian. Their living conditions are uncomfortable at best, with disease running rampant and water seeping in and coating their belongings with salt. To pass the time, the girls reminisce about the lives they left behind.
            Sarah, the narrator, gradually reveals more of her previous life in Shropshire, with an unwanted suitor, a possible romantic interest, and a mother who oddly abhors all moisture (no doubt meant to contrast with the current waterlogged atmosphere). The story wanders along with the narrator’s thoughts, from the ship to home and back again, relating events as she recalls them. It’s not hard to believe that this is how it must have been, cooped up for months on end, with little but ocean in sight. Such is the realism of this unpleasant journey, though, that readers will likely close this novel with a deep sigh of relief.

THE BIOGRAPH GIRL
William J. Mann, Kensington, 2001, $16 (£8.79), 457pp, tpb, ISBN 1-57566-666-9
The best biographical novels compel us to delve more deeply into the true history behind the characters, and this is no exception.  In 1910, Florence Lawrence was the world’s first movie star, attracting larger crowds than even the President.  In 1938, depressed over her faltering career, she committed suicide. Mann imagines that the real-life Florence faked her death, disappeared, and lived out her old age in a Buffalo, New York rest home.  It is there where, in 1997, the rival Sheehan brothers find a feisty 106-year-old woman with sharp memories of the early film industry and convince her to tell her story.
            Florence, an entertaining narrator, recalls the details of her long life, from her childhood in vaudeville to her years as the celebrated Biograph Girl, the leading lady of numerous silent films.  Never comfortable with fame, Florence was all too soon replaced in audiences’ hearts. Her story is told in pieces, interspersed with that of the Sheehans and their investigations into her past. The novel not only illustrates how much Hollywood has changed in a hundred years, but also, ironically, how very similar it is.

CHILD OF THE PROPHECY
Juliet Marillier, Pan Macmillan Australia, 2001, AU$28, 577pb, tpb, ISBN 0-7329-1093-5
This final volume of the Sevenwaters trilogy set in Dark Ages Ireland is the coming-of-age story of Fainne, a young girl who must overcome the shame of her birth and train carefully in the arts of magic, all the while deciding whether to follow Good or Evil.  On one side are the druids of Sevenwaters, her mother’s people, who provide her with the family environment she’s never known.  On the other is her grandmother, the sorceress Oonagh, who uses Fainne as a tool in her attempt to banish the Fair Folk from the Islands forever.  The history is mostly incidental to the plot, apart from a few mentions of Viking raids and Briton invaders, and this mostly toward the end.  Some names don’t seem appropriate to the period (Peg, Danny) and occasionally drew me out of the otherworldly, romantic Celtic atmosphere.  But on the whole, I found this to be an utterly absorbing, satisfying end to the trilogy, and perhaps the best novel of the three.

MY NAME IS RED
Orhan Pamuk, trans. Erdağ Göknar, Knopf, 2001, $25.95/C$35, 421 pp, hb, ISBN 0-375-40695-6
A man called Black, returning to Istanbul to resume work as a miniaturist in his uncle's studio, soon discovers that all is not well. Another miniaturist has recently been murdered, possibly by a fellow artist who had discovered the true scope of their current project: to illuminate an entire book for the Sultan in the Venetian style.  In the 16th century Ottoman Empire, works of art that depict reality are considered heretical.  Clues to the murderer’s identity are revealed bit by bit, through revelations and tales alternately spun by characters both living and deceased, as well as by the inanimate subjects of the book’s paintings.
            As with miniatures themselves, the charm of this novel resides in its painstaking details and its brilliantly realized, colorful atmosphere. Nothing is ever quite as it seems, however, as seen in the description of a letter written to Black from his beautiful, widowed cousin, Shekure. While its bare words spell rejection, hidden clues reveal its meaning to be otherwise. Although readers who prefer their novels told in a straightforward fashion may find the story drags in places, this novel is a feast for those whose tastes run to the literary.  Kudos also to the translator, whose marvelous rendition keeps the tone appropriate throughout.

SACRED GROUND
Barbara Wood, St. Martin’s, 2001, $24.95 (£8.79), 340pp, hb, ISBN 0-312-27537-4
Dr. Erica Tyler, an anthropologist in modern-day Los Angeles, comes across an intriguing situation. An earthquake has revealed a hidden cave containing the ancient bones of a young woman - one whose tribal affiliation strangely cannot be identified. In pursuit of the woman’s identity, she clashes with Jared Black, an attractive lawyer assigned to protect Native American interests.  In a parallel tale set 2,000 years earlier, the young healer Marimi, happily married and expecting a child, is cast out of her tribe for breaking a taboo.  Determined to survive, she and two other children, also outcasts, walk a great distance to form their own tribe.  Marimi and her female descendants have the gift of foresight, and we see examples of how their lives intertwine with major events in California’s history.
           I found myself having to suspend disbelief a little too often during my reading of this tale.  For example, we’re expected to believe that a young woman, barefoot and heavily pregnant, physically carried a young child hundreds of miles to a new land: a rather superhuman feat!  Also, the way all of the loose ends are tied together in the end, though satisfying, may cause some raised eyebrows. Despite these flaws, Wood is a wonderful, accomplished storyteller. Her prose flows smoothly and easily, making this a pleasant afternoon’s read.

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Questions or comments?  E-mail me at cfsln@eiu.edu.

Last updated: March 17, 2002