An 832-page reconstruction of the life-and-times of the historical Macbeth, not Shakespeare's—and, though Dunnett's scholarly epic is rich in detail, irony, and elegant prose, most readers will find themselves yearning for the dramatic shaping and darkly vibrant characterization (not to mention the awesome concision!) of the Bard. As in other 11th-century historical novels, we quickly learn here that the authentic Macbeth tale has virtually nothing in common with the familiar one. "Macbeth" is actually the rarely used baptismal name of pagan-ish Thorfinn, a gawky teenage Earl of Orkney who is a grandson of King Malcolm of Alba (most of Scotland) and half-brother to Malcolm's heir Duncan. Tutored by foster-father Thorkel (the nomenclature throughout is dense and daunting), the lad grows up in the thick of Orkney/ Norway/Alba politics; he defects from the Norway camp, allying with Danish/English King Canute, thus gaining control of all the Orkneys; he expands his domain when Thorkel dispatches assorted enemies for him. (Thorfinn himself is a basically decent, mild-tempered chap, often speaking in the cadences of Ronald Colman.) And these early battles also bring a bride: Groa, gorgeous young widow of the slain Gillcomghain—who comments somewhat acerbically on Thorfinn's for-breeding-only conjugal visitations: "Four minutes. That was four minutes this time." Eventually, however, ugly but beautiful-voiced Thorfinn will come to love Groa (utterly unlike Shakespeare's Lady M. except for her verbal sharpness) deeply. Eventually, too, he'll become King of Alba—reluctantly: it's new King Duncan who's the invading aggressor; and, after losing in battle, Duncan is fatally wounded in a fair duel with Thorfinn (who tries not to kill his half-brother). The last two-thirds of the novel, then, deals with Thorfinn's career as a basically good king: a long, violent, sexually tinged feud with Norway-connected nephew Rognvald (duels, chases, burnings, sea battles); the building-up of Scotia's alliances and naval power; an extended diplomatic trip through Europe; and then the increasing troubles as 1066 approaches—from fleet-wrecking storms, from Siward of Northumbria in the south, from nephew Malcolm (whom Thorfinn always treated so nicely). There are battles, betrayals (by Denmark and Normandy), retreats, semi-retirement—and, finally, a dignified surrender via suicidal duel. Dunnett, author of several mysteries and the Francis of Lymond series, studs this knotty political pageant with tart dialogue, aphorisms, and tender husband/wife moments. Her scene-by-scene craftsmanship cannot be faulted. Yet neither Thorfinn/Macbeth nor Groa is a fully developed (or especially interesting) character here; the true-to-history plotting lacks momentum; and while pre-1066 buffs will certainly enjoy Dunnett's stylishly fictionalized scholarship, more of the historical-novel audience will prefer less authentic entertainments—like Farrington's The Breath of Kings (below), which covers precisely the same period, Lady Godiva and all.
Pub Date: May 18, 1982
ISBN: 0375704035
Page Count: 1173
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1982
Inspired by disclosures of a real-life Florida reform school’s long-standing corruption and abusive practices, Whitehead’s...
The acclaimed author of The Underground Railroad (2016) follows up with a leaner, meaner saga of Deep South captivity set in the mid-20th century and fraught with horrors more chilling for being based on true-life atrocities.
Elwood Curtis is a law-abiding, teenage paragon of rectitude, an avid reader of encyclopedias and after-school worker diligently overcoming hardships that come from being abandoned by his parents and growing up black and poor in segregated Tallahassee, Florida. It’s the early 1960s, and Elwood can feel changes coming every time he listens to an LP of his hero Martin Luther King Jr. sermonizing about breaking down racial barriers. But while hitchhiking to his first day of classes at a nearby black college, Elwood accepts a ride in what turns out to be a stolen car and is sentenced to the Nickel Academy, a juvenile reformatory that looks somewhat like the campus he’d almost attended but turns out to be a monstrously racist institution whose students, white and black alike, are brutally beaten, sexually abused, and used by the school’s two-faced officials to steal food and supplies. At first, Elwood thinks he can work his way past the arbitrary punishments and sadistic treatment (“I am stuck here, but I’ll make the best of it…and I’ll make it brief”). He befriends another black inmate, a street-wise kid he knows only as Turner, who has a different take on withstanding Nickel: “The key to in here is the same as surviving out there—you got to see how people act, and then you got to figure out how to get around them like an obstacle course.” And if you defy them, Turner warns, you’ll get taken “out back” and are never seen or heard from again. Both Elwood’s idealism and Turner’s cynicism entwine into an alliance that compels drastic action—and a shared destiny. There's something a tad more melodramatic in this book's conception (and resolution) than one expects from Whitehead, giving it a drugstore-paperback glossiness that enhances its blunt-edged impact.
Inspired by disclosures of a real-life Florida reform school’s long-standing corruption and abusive practices, Whitehead’s novel displays its author’s facility with violent imagery and his skill at weaving narrative strands into an ingenious if disquieting whole.Pub Date: July 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-53707-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A deeply satisfying novel, both sensuously vivid and remarkably poignant.
Norwegian novelist Jacobsen folds a quietly powerful coming-of-age story into a rendition of daily life on one of Norway’s rural islands a hundred years ago in a novel that was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize.
Ingrid Barrøy, her father, Hans, mother, Maria, grandfather Martin, and slightly addled aunt Barbro are the owners and sole inhabitants of Barrøy Island, one of numerous small family-owned islands in an area of Norway barely touched by the outside world. The novel follows Ingrid from age 3 through a carefree early childhood of endless small chores, simple pleasures, and unquestioned familial love into her more ambivalent adolescence attending school off the island and becoming aware of the outside world, then finally into young womanhood when she must make difficult choices. Readers will share Ingrid’s adoration of her father, whose sense of responsibility conflicts with his romantic nature. He adores Maria, despite what he calls her “la-di-da” ways, and is devoted to Ingrid. Twice he finds work on the mainland for his sister, Barbro, but, afraid she’ll be unhappy, he brings her home both times. Rooted to the land where he farms and tied to the sea where he fishes, Hans struggles to maintain his family’s hardscrabble existence on an island where every repair is a struggle against the elements. But his efforts are Sisyphean. Life as a Barrøy on Barrøy remains precarious. Changes do occur in men’s and women’s roles, reflected in part by who gets a literal chair to sit on at meals, while world crises—a war, Sweden’s financial troubles—have unexpected impact. Yet the drama here occurs in small increments, season by season, following nature’s rhythm through deaths and births, moments of joy and deep sorrow. The translator’s decision to use roughly translated phrases in conversation—i.e., “Tha’s goen’ nohvar” for "You’re going nowhere")—slows the reading down at first but ends up drawing readers more deeply into the world of Barrøy and its prickly, intensely alive inhabitants.
A deeply satisfying novel, both sensuously vivid and remarkably poignant.Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77196-319-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Biblioasis
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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