Quotes in Year of Wonders

I forgot to put some really great quotes from this book. Good stuff about God.

"Like the ore that must be melted all to liquid to find the pure metal, so must we be rendered in the fiery furnace of this disease. As as the smith tends his furnace, all through the night if need be, to secure the valuable ore within, so is God here, near to us, nearer, perhaps thean He has ever come, or ever will come, in all our lives."

"Good yield does not come without suffering, it does not come without struggle, and toil, and yes, loss."

"And so, as generally happens, those who have most give least, and those with less somehow make shrift to share."

"How do we tumble down a hill? A foot placed incautiously on an unsteady rock or loosened turf, an ankle twisted or a knee buckled, and of a sudden we are gone, our body lost to our own control until we find ourselves sprawled in indignity at the bottom. So it seems apt indeed to speak of the Fall. For sin, too, must always start with but a single misstep, and suddenly we are hurtling toward some uncertain stopping point. All that is sure in the descent is that we will arrie sullied and bruised and unable to regain our former place without hard effort."

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

Wow! Good job, mom for giving me this book. This book takes place during the seventeenth century when a The Plague hit a small village in England. The story is told through Anna, a single mother who has a small sheep farm and works as a maid. A man who is renting a room in her house suddenly dies of a sickness no one really understands. Proper measures are not taken and soon the infection spreads quickly throughout the village. The clergy man urges everyone to stay in the village so as not to spread the disease to other towns. They make an oath but keeping this oath proves tragic for most. Whole families die or might just leave one small orphan left. Anna, along with the Rector and his wife do what they can for the people of the village. Anna is forced to take on many roles that she never dreamed she could ever do such as midwifery, create medicines from herbs and even a little mining. She is very self-sacrificing in her actions as in most of her thoughts but like everyone she grows tired and looks to ease her own pain but is roused back to service by her great friend the rector's wife. Social statuses dissolve and as people die some wounds are healed and some are opened.

This book was very well told. The whole story was so enthralling. My only disappointment was throughout the whole story there is no detailed reference to sex. Don't get me wrong, I'm not easily put off by a sex scene but I was remember thinking half way through the book that this book could have so much sex in it if the author chose but it didn't. It didn't need it and I thought that marked a good book that didn't have to rely on sex. Well, then comes my disappointment when toward the end there it is. It was very tastefully done, I will say. I don't think anyone would blush too much. I just didn't quite believe it of the characters. But I guess they had just gone through the Plague so it could have changed them, well it did change them I guess. I just felt the sex scene was put in just to move along the story to a particular end and it bothered me somewhat.

Other than that though this book was fabulous. I think I'll see what else of Geraldine Brooks would be interesting to read.

Heart of Darkness & The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad

I never really expected to like this book. It's about sailing through the Congo and not a love story in sight, why would I bother? Well, it's on the AP list. But actually, I did like this book. The writing is fantastic. It's quite a dark book and it the writing really captures that. My only flaw was that the story didn't flow very well. There were moments that just jarred you out of the story, maybe that was in part to give you a break or something but it got a little annoying.

The book opens with Marlow telling a story to four comrades while they are sailing on a yaht on the River Thames. He tells them about a time when he took a job to captain a river boat down through the Congo to retrieve a man who is running one of the inner stations. Marlow describes the cruelty that he observes the whites inflict on the Africans. Also, there is immense corruption. Kurtz, the man Marlow is there to retrieve, is said to be the only humanitarian in the Congo. Even though Marlow has never met Kurtz, his anticipation to meet such man is evident. Through his journey he learns a lot about human nature and he has many surprises revealed to him.

Here is quote I really liked:

"No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze....It takes a man all his inborn strength to fight hunger properly. It's really easier to face bereavement, dishonor, and the perdition of one's soul--than this kind of prolonged hunger."

There were lots of great passages in this book that I wish I could tell you about, but you'll just have to read it. I think I will read it again someday because I didn't fully understand the impact of this novel. I read the introduction by A. Michael Matin where he says "The aspects of Marlow's storytelling method that impede our efforts to arrive at an unambiguous understanding of his tale's meaning also hinder us from gaining a clear apprehension of the events themselves, something attested to by many first-time readers of the text who have difficulties following the plot." Reading the introduction after reading the novel helped a lot.


The Secret Sharer

This is a short story about another Captain of a ship who hides a stowaway who has escaped from his own ship because he killed a man. The story constantly reminds the reader of the duality of these two characters. The Captain sees this man as his double and soon I began to wonder if this person was just something produced in the mind of the Captain, but it is never made obviously clear. It was an interesting story and again the writing was wonderful. The way Conrad can write suspense and anticipation is amazing.