Friday
Dec302005
BOOKS: The Widow's War
Friday, December 30, 2005 at 10:40AM
Available February 1, 2006 - pre-order at Amazon.com
This review based on an advance copy from HarperCollins
The Widow's War: A Novel
The Widow's War is one of those rare and beautiful books that leave you unsettled -- haunted by a story and characters, a time and a place so far removed from present-day reality, and yet so compelling... You find yourself at the last page long before you are ready to return to the 21st century.
With the subtle skill and stark (almost Puritan) writing style of Anita Shreve (Fortune's Rocks) and Sena Jeter Naslund (Ahab's Wife), Sally Gunning, heretofore a mystery writer, could emerge as a masterful voice in historical fiction. It is a rare triumph to allow readers to so strongly identify with a character so far removed by time and circumstance.
The Widow's War is set in a New England whaling community in 1761, on the eve of revolution and the birth of the United States. The political issues and contention of the time were centered around self-government, property rights, and individual rights, provided the individual was male, anglo-saxon. The racial tensions and prejudices of the time were against native americans, so-called indians, "savages," on the bare fringes of the colonial community, if they survived at all.
There was barely a whisper of thought regarding women's rights. At that time and place, women were property, in a mutually beneficial relationship with father, husband, son. She worked from sunup to sundown to feed the family and keep house and garden, her closest male relative provided a home and protection, "keep and care." At her husband's death, she was passed on with the estate.
Main character Lyddie Berry found a measure of good fortune in her husband of almost 20 years, a whaling captain who allowed her freedom of thought and expression and valued her strength and individuality. When he was lost at sea, without the protection of a son, Lyddie found herself at the mercy of her son-in-law, a very different sort of man.
The Widow's War is the story of this 39-year-old widow, a woman at war with her own independent spirit, at complete odds with the confining social expectations and customs of her time. The result is a breathtaking story of love, relationships, community, and independence; most of all independence.
This review based on an advance copy from HarperCollins
The Widow's War: A Novel
by Sally Gunning
(William Morrow/HarperCollins, 2006)
"A rare treasure..."
The Widow's War is one of those rare and beautiful books that leave you unsettled -- haunted by a story and characters, a time and a place so far removed from present-day reality, and yet so compelling... You find yourself at the last page long before you are ready to return to the 21st century.
With the subtle skill and stark (almost Puritan) writing style of Anita Shreve (Fortune's Rocks) and Sena Jeter Naslund (Ahab's Wife), Sally Gunning, heretofore a mystery writer, could emerge as a masterful voice in historical fiction. It is a rare triumph to allow readers to so strongly identify with a character so far removed by time and circumstance.
The Widow's War is set in a New England whaling community in 1761, on the eve of revolution and the birth of the United States. The political issues and contention of the time were centered around self-government, property rights, and individual rights, provided the individual was male, anglo-saxon. The racial tensions and prejudices of the time were against native americans, so-called indians, "savages," on the bare fringes of the colonial community, if they survived at all.
There was barely a whisper of thought regarding women's rights. At that time and place, women were property, in a mutually beneficial relationship with father, husband, son. She worked from sunup to sundown to feed the family and keep house and garden, her closest male relative provided a home and protection, "keep and care." At her husband's death, she was passed on with the estate.
Main character Lyddie Berry found a measure of good fortune in her husband of almost 20 years, a whaling captain who allowed her freedom of thought and expression and valued her strength and individuality. When he was lost at sea, without the protection of a son, Lyddie found herself at the mercy of her son-in-law, a very different sort of man.
The Widow's War is the story of this 39-year-old widow, a woman at war with her own independent spirit, at complete odds with the confining social expectations and customs of her time. The result is a breathtaking story of love, relationships, community, and independence; most of all independence.