Karen L. Mead

This is probably the most random thing I have ever reviewed here. I went to the library looking for some books by some urban fantasy authors that I haven’t tried yet, only to find nothing by them on the shelves; this is unusual for my library, which is usually pretty well-stocked. I still wasn’t going to leave without some new books to read though, so I grabbed a couple of random volumes that seemed promising, hence this book.

The book is about a female scribe in 17th-century London, interspersed with the exploits of the modern day (well, it’s 2001, but modern day-ish) historians who are trying to interpret a newly discovered cache of her writings. The characters aren’t immediately likable: Helen, the seasoned history professor, is ice cold and arrogant, while her grad student Aaron is a selfish womanizer. Ester, the scribe in the 1660s, is more immediately sympathetic, but she’s so single-minded in pursuing her need for intellectual stimulation that it can be annoying. From what I’ve read elsewhere, some readers think that Ester is a completely unrealistic fabrication of modern feminism, and that no woman like her actually could have existed within that timeframe. I wouldn’t go that far, but her continued inner complaining about the limitations of her gender gets old, as do a lot of things in this book.

It took me about 100-200 pages to really get into the book. It is dense, but thanks to reading Proust, I have been trained to see no detail as too small to mention, so the wordy writing didn’t really bother me. It does bog down the pace though, and there’s a fair amount of repetition. When the book gets to 1665 in Ester’s storyline, the outbreak of the plague in London, the slow pace makes it feel like people are dying horrifically from the plague for years on end instead of weeks. Needless to say, the book gets rather dark at this point.

I could talk more about my impressions of the book, but the more I think about it, the more this book can be boiled down to ruminations on the following two questions:

1. What is the value of the life of the mind?
2. Is there beauty in martyrdom, or is prioritizing your beliefs over life itself just self-destructive foolishness?

One of these questions is answered pretty thoroughly, the other not so much.

Lastly, I felt like the ending to Ester’s story seemed artificially grafted on, like it was from another book entirely. The story of Helen and Aaron and their quest to publish their findings on Ester’s writing comes to a more predictable ending, but I still was left with a feeling of “that’s it?” Aaron in particular was starting to become a more compelling character, but we are cheated out of the end of his story. I think we are supposed to realize that he’s changed for the better, so we should be satisfied with his character arc, but it’s odd when a writer that’s so scrupulously detailed about everything else leaves us hanging about major events in a main character’s life.

Despite all my criticisms, I am glad that I took the plunge and read this. I love light novels and manga, but I think I need to read a big, solid book of 500 pages or so every once in a while to keep my brain functioning. After reading this, I want to read more about England in the 17th century, and I’m interested in trying other works of historical fiction that take place in this era. I also kind of want to read more about the plague and I’m disturbed by the implications of that; I think it’s a bit like rubber-necking at a car accident, only a lot worse.

Now I just have to find some copies of the books I was looking for in the first place, so to the Kindle store it is! I’m sure I won’t get distracted and everything will go exactly to plan.