I just finished Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. It is the story of a village in England where the plague hit and which voluntarily isolated itself to prevent the disease from spreading to other locations. The narrator is a young woman who loses her two children and witnesses the demise of 2/3 of the village's residents.
It was a pretty good read, but I don't have too much to say about it. Her descriptions of the plague's toll and the number of villagers that it touched are horrific. She explores whether people can retain humanity in the middle of such terrible circumstances. And she describes how Anna's life is altered through the experience. It does seem like Anna is a bit ananchronistic, with modern sensibilities--it does make her more likable to me.
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Year of Wonders
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Wow, Geraldine Brooks also wrote _Nine Parts of Desire_ about her time as a journalist among Muslim women. Is it the same Geraldine Brooks? How can she write about such vastly different subjects? (I feel like I know nothing.) Have you read it? Good but disturbing.
Yeah, it is the same author. I haven't read the other, but have heard of it. I think I remember reading about all the research that she did before she wrote Year of Wonders.
Post a Comment