In the Company of the Courtesan, by Sarah Dunant
As you can tell from the title, this book is about a successful courtesan, Fiammetta, and her loyal dwarf Bucino. The story begins in 1527 with the sack of Rome by Charles III, the Duke of Bourbon, in the name of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Fiammetta and Bucino lived in Rome at the time, and the first several pages depict their efforts to survive the war zone and escape. The events described, although from Bucino's point of view instead of third person, are roughly exactly as described in Wikipedia, with the names of actual historical figures appearing alongside the fictional characters created for the purpose of the book.
Bucino and Fiammetta escape to Venice, where they attempt to begin their lives again. While there, they meet or are influenced by more historical figures, such as the artist Titian, the writer Pietro Aretino, the architect Jacopo Sansovino, Niccolo Machiavelli, and the healer/witch Elena "La Draga" Crusichi. With the exception of the architect and Machiavelli, these characters play large parts in the plot of the story, and in the end, we discover Fiammetta to be the unknown courtesan who posed for Titian's "Venus of Urbino" which depicts nothing from Urbino at all, but the painting eventually was owned by the Duke of Urbino and received its title from him.
Because the story is written from the point of view of Bucino, this book is unique in that a "deformed" character is the hero. In many books and movies, the hero must be perfect in appearance and morals, unless of course he is an anti-hero, in which case he must be perfect in appearance but a complete jerk. Bucino is neither a jerk, nor perfect in appearance. He is business-like, and can be gruff when business demands it, and occasionally makes mistakes like any human, but on the whole I think that he is a great character, loyal to Fiammetta, and kind to everyone he meets until they give him a reason not to be kind.
I would be extremely interested in seeing this book turned into a movie, if only because there are so many great actors out there who are passed up for the main roles because their growth was stunted or they don't look like Hollywood expects people to look. The exception would be Martin Klebba, who became fairly well-known after Pirates of the Caribbean, but who has since starred in a few projects. But lets face it, there are too few movies out there with abnormal-appearing actors in the main character roles.
For a book about a courtesan, this book is surprising in that there are no sex scenes. Sure, there are some pretty specific descriptions of body parts, but after the first few times, the reader begins to realize that these parts are tools of the trade for the characters and to omit those references would be like a book about a construction worker that omitted any reference to a hammer and nails. In fact, one of the things I particularly like was that the author was often able to use crude descriptions and beautiful poetry within the same sentence. Bucino mentions that this is something Fiammetta is able to do, and says that it is in a way a reflection of herself, however I would venture to argue that it is more a description of the cities of Rome and Venice- beautiful sculpture and architecture, holy and pious cities, that are also known for their corruption and prostitution.
The plot of the book was somewhat rambling, but still entertaining, especially in the last half of the book. It is also interesting to note that all the little adventures or episodes that occur become more intertwined in the last third or quarter of the book, and as the plot progresses, you begin to see how everything actually was connected. I enjoy books like that, although I'm sure it never happens in real life (which is probably why I enjoy books like that).
All in all, I would recommend this book to adults who are interested in non-conventional characters, the history of Italy (specifically Venice), or who have an interest in art with a preference for Titian over, say the artists with Ninja Turtle namesakes.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
The Illuminator
The Illuminator, by Brenda Rickman Vantrease
This book takes place in the late fourteenth century. I found it to be a transparent description of life in that era. In no way does it romanticize or idealize the exploitation of the people by those in power. The power that the church held over the people is maddening, as is the general treatment of the serfs. Many books avoid the gritty details; this is not one of them. I have to say though, that when I read a book I intend to escape for a little while. This book was no vacation, and at times it irritated me that the fourteenth century couldn't have been nicer.
The plot of the book intertwines the lives of actual historical characters with fictional characters. The author writes from several characters' points-of-view, so it is sometimes difficult to figure out just who the main character is. In the end, one can deduce that those still living must have been the main characters. Here is the gist of it: Lady Kathryn is a widow trying to hold onto her lands long enough for her oldest son to come of age and inherit them. Finn is an illuminator of holy manuscripts with a daughter roughly the same age as Kathryn's twin sons. Because of his daughter, he can't stay at the monastery while doing his work, which is just as well because he has had dealings with John Wycliff (the guy who translated the Bible into the common language). Side plots include the stories of Half-Tom the Dwarf and Julian the Anchoress of Norwich (Julian is an actual historical figure). About midway through the book all hell breaks loose for the characters involved, and it appears as if the evils of church and crown are going to triumph. It was at this point that I realized this book was intended to bring to light the events leading up to the Peasant's Revolt of 1381. When I stopped reading it as an historical romance and started reading it as historical fiction, the book began to make more sense.
Because I am mildly familiar with the historical events of the time period, there were some parts of the plot that did not surprise me. Also, because I have spent a lot of time analyzing the plots of fictional TV shows, movies, and books, there were a few created (non-historical) plot twists that did not surprise me. One in particular was Half-Tom's choice of a wife at the end. It was clear for a portion of the book which girl captured his eye however, even before they met, I had thought to myself, "I bet she and Half-Tom will find each other by the end of the book." And they did. Other parts of the plot seemed a little cliched as well: the identity of the priest's murderer, the way in which the blame was laid on the innocent non-murderer, the greedy, conniving and evil Sheriff of Notting- I mean... Norwich, who steals loyalties and tries to marry into more wealth.
A note about the language of the book: the author writes in a very descriptive language, however, it did not strike me as unique. The plot was entertaining enough to keep me reading, but I did not find myself thoroughly invested in the settings or the characters. In other words, the picture painted by the language of the book did not draw me into the story, but allowed me to stand outside and observe with interest.
All in all, I would recommend this book to adults with an interest in life in the fourteenth century and historical events involving the church and politics, as well as someone seeking a thought provoking discussion on what it means to have a meaningful religious life.
This book takes place in the late fourteenth century. I found it to be a transparent description of life in that era. In no way does it romanticize or idealize the exploitation of the people by those in power. The power that the church held over the people is maddening, as is the general treatment of the serfs. Many books avoid the gritty details; this is not one of them. I have to say though, that when I read a book I intend to escape for a little while. This book was no vacation, and at times it irritated me that the fourteenth century couldn't have been nicer.
The plot of the book intertwines the lives of actual historical characters with fictional characters. The author writes from several characters' points-of-view, so it is sometimes difficult to figure out just who the main character is. In the end, one can deduce that those still living must have been the main characters. Here is the gist of it: Lady Kathryn is a widow trying to hold onto her lands long enough for her oldest son to come of age and inherit them. Finn is an illuminator of holy manuscripts with a daughter roughly the same age as Kathryn's twin sons. Because of his daughter, he can't stay at the monastery while doing his work, which is just as well because he has had dealings with John Wycliff (the guy who translated the Bible into the common language). Side plots include the stories of Half-Tom the Dwarf and Julian the Anchoress of Norwich (Julian is an actual historical figure). About midway through the book all hell breaks loose for the characters involved, and it appears as if the evils of church and crown are going to triumph. It was at this point that I realized this book was intended to bring to light the events leading up to the Peasant's Revolt of 1381. When I stopped reading it as an historical romance and started reading it as historical fiction, the book began to make more sense.
Because I am mildly familiar with the historical events of the time period, there were some parts of the plot that did not surprise me. Also, because I have spent a lot of time analyzing the plots of fictional TV shows, movies, and books, there were a few created (non-historical) plot twists that did not surprise me. One in particular was Half-Tom's choice of a wife at the end. It was clear for a portion of the book which girl captured his eye however, even before they met, I had thought to myself, "I bet she and Half-Tom will find each other by the end of the book." And they did. Other parts of the plot seemed a little cliched as well: the identity of the priest's murderer, the way in which the blame was laid on the innocent non-murderer, the greedy, conniving and evil Sheriff of Notting- I mean... Norwich, who steals loyalties and tries to marry into more wealth.
A note about the language of the book: the author writes in a very descriptive language, however, it did not strike me as unique. The plot was entertaining enough to keep me reading, but I did not find myself thoroughly invested in the settings or the characters. In other words, the picture painted by the language of the book did not draw me into the story, but allowed me to stand outside and observe with interest.
All in all, I would recommend this book to adults with an interest in life in the fourteenth century and historical events involving the church and politics, as well as someone seeking a thought provoking discussion on what it means to have a meaningful religious life.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Outlander
Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon
My aunt loaned me this book, informing me that it was a must-read. Upon discovering that it is nearly 900 pages long, I put it on my shelf and avoided it for a long time. However, out of curiosity and some small measure of guilt, I finally worked up the courage to open the book, which turned out to be gripping and ended up taking me probably 60 hours to read (over the weekend).
The plot is gripping, if a little confusing. It is post-war 1945 and Claire, a war nurse, has reunited with her husband Frank, a genealogist, for a second honeymoon in Scotland, while he researches his ancestors, and she studies the local wildlife and herb-lore. While there, Claire hears some Scottish folk stories about fairies kidnapping people through invisible portals, the origins of Scotland, and of course, the Loch Ness monster.
While visiting a henge (a circle of upright stones whose purpose is still unknown to anthropologists today), she places her hand on a rock and is transported to the Scotland of 1743. While there, she becomes known for her healing powers (she knows what germs are), discovers the true identity of the Loch Ness "monster," meets a girl who also fell through the crack in time (from the year 1967), and learns what actually causes the "witch marks" on those who've been burned at the stake (I'd tell you, but I don't want to ruin the surprise).
Oh yeah, and she meets her husband's ancestor, gets forced into a marriage to the archenemy of said ancestor, falls in love with him by accident, kills some people with no idea of what kind of effect it might have on 1945, and in general messes with my head. Time travel drives me nuts. However, this book is not really science fiction, it falls more under the realm of fantasy and therefore requires less explanation on the details of the effects of time travel. Its not as hard to understand as, say, the plot of the Terminator movies. Any flaws in the logic can simply be explained away by the magic of the Wee Folk (fairies, pixies, elves, what-have-you).
Plot-wise, the book was incredibly entertaining, and having Scottish blood myself, I do have some loyalty to the culture and history of Scotland. I made an interesting discovery with this book. I dislike movies because I feel the plots are too short, and prefer TV shows because their plots are more drawn out. However, in books, I find I get irritated with long plots. So while it was incredibly entertaining, and would make an awesome TV show, I found myself wishing the book would end sooner. Some people may not be afflicted with this preference as I am, probably most people in fact, so this should not affect your decision to read the book.
One thing I noticed is that some of the scenes seem a bit disjointed and episodic. An explanation for this seems to be that the author (according to Wikipedia) writes them that way, and then arranges them into a coherent plot, rather than writing from beginning to end. Although this seems like a more economical way to use your time and imagination (working on parts you want to work on at the moment), I think that it is important to use some good transition work as well. An example would be something that happened frequently. Claire and her 1743 husband, Jaime, often have some quiet, intimate moments at night, in which they are standing together staring off into the sunset. In one moment, they are standing or sitting together and then suddenly Claire is sitting on a fence, without a mention of how she got there. It is a minor thing- the reader could take it as a compliment that the author assumes you have logical intelligence and do not have to be informed of every petty thing in order to follow a plot.
However, under these same lines, there were a few parts in which the author left things unclear which were not explained until a page later. Reading that, I would say, "Ohhhh!" and then go back a page to read it again and then suddenly that previous page made sense. In some cases, it was a conclusion one of the characters may have jumped to in which I did not follow that leap, and in other cases it might have been a statement I simply "didn't get." For the most part however, I generally didn't care if I "got it" or not, because the plot was good and I wanted to know what happened next, so I kept reading. Because of this, I'd imagine this book might be rated at a higher reading level than most books.
My last point (or possibly a warning) is that this book as a movie would be "PG-13" for most scenes, and then swing to "X" in others. The relatively benign excitement of some of the battle scenes and language are interspersed with scenes that are dramatically more mature. There are two attempted rape scenes, descriptions of an attempted rape that occurred to a character in the past, and a character's heartbreaking description of a homo-erotic torture scene in a dungeon. All other sexually-oriented scenes do occur in the marriage bed, so its not something entirely unGodly that a Christian would need to be warned about. However, the scenes do feel somewhat like voyeurism, so that is why I have decided on the warning anyway.
I would recommend this book to adults, including those who enjoy fantasy or time travel, who enjoy a good love story or historical fiction, who likes long books or has a whole weekend to kill, and who enjoys reading books in which the author presents explanations to common, unexplained phenomena using ancient folklore or vice versa. I didn't touch too much on that for spoiler reasons, but the author is quite clever at making everything connect in the end.
My aunt loaned me this book, informing me that it was a must-read. Upon discovering that it is nearly 900 pages long, I put it on my shelf and avoided it for a long time. However, out of curiosity and some small measure of guilt, I finally worked up the courage to open the book, which turned out to be gripping and ended up taking me probably 60 hours to read (over the weekend).
The plot is gripping, if a little confusing. It is post-war 1945 and Claire, a war nurse, has reunited with her husband Frank, a genealogist, for a second honeymoon in Scotland, while he researches his ancestors, and she studies the local wildlife and herb-lore. While there, Claire hears some Scottish folk stories about fairies kidnapping people through invisible portals, the origins of Scotland, and of course, the Loch Ness monster.
While visiting a henge (a circle of upright stones whose purpose is still unknown to anthropologists today), she places her hand on a rock and is transported to the Scotland of 1743. While there, she becomes known for her healing powers (she knows what germs are), discovers the true identity of the Loch Ness "monster," meets a girl who also fell through the crack in time (from the year 1967), and learns what actually causes the "witch marks" on those who've been burned at the stake (I'd tell you, but I don't want to ruin the surprise).
Oh yeah, and she meets her husband's ancestor, gets forced into a marriage to the archenemy of said ancestor, falls in love with him by accident, kills some people with no idea of what kind of effect it might have on 1945, and in general messes with my head. Time travel drives me nuts. However, this book is not really science fiction, it falls more under the realm of fantasy and therefore requires less explanation on the details of the effects of time travel. Its not as hard to understand as, say, the plot of the Terminator movies. Any flaws in the logic can simply be explained away by the magic of the Wee Folk (fairies, pixies, elves, what-have-you).
Plot-wise, the book was incredibly entertaining, and having Scottish blood myself, I do have some loyalty to the culture and history of Scotland. I made an interesting discovery with this book. I dislike movies because I feel the plots are too short, and prefer TV shows because their plots are more drawn out. However, in books, I find I get irritated with long plots. So while it was incredibly entertaining, and would make an awesome TV show, I found myself wishing the book would end sooner. Some people may not be afflicted with this preference as I am, probably most people in fact, so this should not affect your decision to read the book.
One thing I noticed is that some of the scenes seem a bit disjointed and episodic. An explanation for this seems to be that the author (according to Wikipedia) writes them that way, and then arranges them into a coherent plot, rather than writing from beginning to end. Although this seems like a more economical way to use your time and imagination (working on parts you want to work on at the moment), I think that it is important to use some good transition work as well. An example would be something that happened frequently. Claire and her 1743 husband, Jaime, often have some quiet, intimate moments at night, in which they are standing together staring off into the sunset. In one moment, they are standing or sitting together and then suddenly Claire is sitting on a fence, without a mention of how she got there. It is a minor thing- the reader could take it as a compliment that the author assumes you have logical intelligence and do not have to be informed of every petty thing in order to follow a plot.
However, under these same lines, there were a few parts in which the author left things unclear which were not explained until a page later. Reading that, I would say, "Ohhhh!" and then go back a page to read it again and then suddenly that previous page made sense. In some cases, it was a conclusion one of the characters may have jumped to in which I did not follow that leap, and in other cases it might have been a statement I simply "didn't get." For the most part however, I generally didn't care if I "got it" or not, because the plot was good and I wanted to know what happened next, so I kept reading. Because of this, I'd imagine this book might be rated at a higher reading level than most books.
My last point (or possibly a warning) is that this book as a movie would be "PG-13" for most scenes, and then swing to "X" in others. The relatively benign excitement of some of the battle scenes and language are interspersed with scenes that are dramatically more mature. There are two attempted rape scenes, descriptions of an attempted rape that occurred to a character in the past, and a character's heartbreaking description of a homo-erotic torture scene in a dungeon. All other sexually-oriented scenes do occur in the marriage bed, so its not something entirely unGodly that a Christian would need to be warned about. However, the scenes do feel somewhat like voyeurism, so that is why I have decided on the warning anyway.
I would recommend this book to adults, including those who enjoy fantasy or time travel, who enjoy a good love story or historical fiction, who likes long books or has a whole weekend to kill, and who enjoys reading books in which the author presents explanations to common, unexplained phenomena using ancient folklore or vice versa. I didn't touch too much on that for spoiler reasons, but the author is quite clever at making everything connect in the end.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
The Darwin Awards: Evolution in Action
The Darwin Awards: Evolution in Action, by Wendy Northcutt
Most people by now know about the Darwin Awards. Darwin's theories state that those organisms with superior physical or mental capabilities will survive to pass on their superior genes to the next generation. The Darwin Awards celebrate those individuals who support Darwin's theories by removing their dumb genes from the gene pool. Only those people who have successfully killed or castrated themselves through their stupidity are eligible for the award.
This book is a collection of the stories of yearly Darwin Award winners, as well as honorable mentions (those who have stupid accidents but are still capable of passing their genes along), personal accounts (stories from followers of the Darwin Awards who have to add their own two cents), and urban legends (stories of stupidity that have not been proven as truth).
It is an entertaining and somewhat morbid read, not a daunting length, and not challenging as far as the writing or reading level is concerned. I would recommend this book to anyone who revels in the justice of stupidity being rewarded by death, and anyone who is not turned off by gruesome or bloody tales.
Most people by now know about the Darwin Awards. Darwin's theories state that those organisms with superior physical or mental capabilities will survive to pass on their superior genes to the next generation. The Darwin Awards celebrate those individuals who support Darwin's theories by removing their dumb genes from the gene pool. Only those people who have successfully killed or castrated themselves through their stupidity are eligible for the award.
This book is a collection of the stories of yearly Darwin Award winners, as well as honorable mentions (those who have stupid accidents but are still capable of passing their genes along), personal accounts (stories from followers of the Darwin Awards who have to add their own two cents), and urban legends (stories of stupidity that have not been proven as truth).
It is an entertaining and somewhat morbid read, not a daunting length, and not challenging as far as the writing or reading level is concerned. I would recommend this book to anyone who revels in the justice of stupidity being rewarded by death, and anyone who is not turned off by gruesome or bloody tales.
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