Review: Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin

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I had been reading so many good reviews of Alice I Have Been that when I won a copy from The Book Whisperer I couldn’t wait to read it and see if it deserved its reputation. I’m happy to say that it did.

Before I read this book, I knew Alice Liddell was the girl who inspired Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but that was all I knew about her. I also knew that Lewis Carroll’s real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and that he was an Oxford mathematics professor, but that was all I knew about him. Alice I Have Been is the story of how Alice’s relationship with Dodgson and the book he wrote changed her life forever.

The 19th century is one of my favourite historical periods and it was interesting to read about Alice’s life as the daughter of the Dean of Christ Church, mixing with the upper classes of Victorian society. Mr Dodgson was a friend of the Liddell family, who enjoyed visiting the three little girls – Ina, Alice and Edith – and taking photographs of them. The relationship between Alice and Dodgson was slightly disturbing, but the overall impression I got of him was of a shy, lonely man who felt more comfortable with children than with adults – and didn’t want those children to grow up. When Alice was eleven, an incident occurred that caused a rift between Dodgson and the Liddells – in real life, this is a mystery that has never been solved. Melanie Benjamin gives one possible explanation but states in her author’s note that this is her own interpretation and not necessarily the truth, leaving us to wonder exactly what really did happen.

I had no idea Alice Liddell had such an eventful adult life or that she was romantically involved (though maybe not to the extent the book suggests) with Queen Victoria’s youngest son, Prince Leopold – until hints of the scandal in her past came back to haunt her.

This book is a clever mixture of fact and fiction. I always think a sign of a good historical fiction novel is when it inspires you to find out more about the people you’ve been reading about. There’s a lot of information about Charles Dodgson available online, including some of his photographs (a few of which are reproduced in the book). It was interesting to read about seven year-old Alice posing for Dodgson as a gypsy girl, then being able to look at the actual picture itself. I also wanted to find out more about John Ruskin, who is portrayed quite negatively in the book.

Now I want to go and read Alice in Wonderland again to see if I feel differently about it now that I know the story behind it.

Recommended

Genre: Historical Fiction/Pages: 345/Publisher: Random House/Year: 2010/Source: Won in giveaway

Living in the Past (or, Why I Love Historical Fiction)

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Historical fiction has been my favourite genre since I read Gone With the Wind when I was fifteen. Of course, contemporary fiction can be equally exciting and compelling, but I just feel more comfortable when I’m ‘in the past’. Does anyone else feel that way? I enjoy reading about real historical figures and events, then being able to look them up on the internet or in another book and find more information about them. I’ve lost count of the number of interesting little facts that I’ve learned from reading historical fiction that I probably would never have heard about otherwise. Of course, it’s important to remember that these books are fiction and aren’t always 100% historically accurate, but in general they’re a fun and painless way to learn some history.

There are so many different ways an author can approach historical fiction, including time travel (Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series), to creating a fictional family that mirrors a historical one (Susan Howatch uses this technique in Penmarric, Cashelmara and Wheel of Fortune). There are historical romances, historical mysteries and historical adventure stories. There are novels set in almost any historical period you can think of from pre-history (Jean M Auel’s Earth’s Children series) to the Tudor court (Philippa Gregory) to as recent as World War II (Paullina Simon’s Bronze Horseman trilogy). Even if the book is about a historical period or topic that you’re not really interested in, a good historical fiction writer will bring the history to life for you.

Finally, historical fiction novels are often, though not always, long – and I love long books! I always find myself drawn to ‘epic sagas’, complete with maps and family trees.

Here are a few of my favourite historical fiction books:

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Katherine by Anya Seton
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye
Cross Stitch/Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
The Physician by Noah Gordon
Penmarric by Susan Howatch
Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd
North and South by John Jakes

Why do you enjoy reading historical fiction? Or if you don’t, why not?

This post was written for the 2010 Blog Improvement Project Week 2: Pumping Up Post Titles

Musing Mondays: Keeping Books

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Today’s Musing Mondays post from Just One More Page is about keeping books.
 
Do you keep all the books you ever buy? Just the ones you love? Just collectibles? What do you do with the ones you don’t want to keep?

I keep almost all of them. I usually only buy books that I’m fairly sure I’m going to enjoy (based on the synopsis, reviews, recommendations or because they’re written by an author whose work I’ve previously enjoyed) and I’m lucky in that I like – or even love – most of the books I buy. I know I’ll probably want to read them again one day, so I keep them on my bookshelves.

I don’t have any particular method for disposing of the books I don’t want to keep. A few examples: I used to have a beautiful 26-volume set of encyclopedias, but with Google and Wikipedia taking over everything, it had been years since I used them so I gave them all to charity. I also sold all my Sweet Valley High books on eBay, and gave away my Babysitter’s Club books to someone whose daughter wanted them, but there are a lot of other books from my childhood and teens that I can’t bear to part with even if I never open them again.

I really don’t like having to get rid of books just because I don’t have space for them – I know if I ever have a house with a spare room I’ll regret not keeping them all!

What about you?

Gothic Novel Challenge

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I love reading Gothic fiction, so I was excited to find this challenge being hosted by Monica of The Bibliophilic Book Blog.

To sign up, see the challenge post here.

The challenge runs from now until December 31 2010 and there are three different levels of participation:

Easy: Read 5 Gothic Novels
Intermediate: Read 10 Gothic Novels
Expert: Read 20 Gothic Novels

I will be signing up at the Easy level.

Some examples of Gothic novels from Wikipedia

Books read for this challenge (updated 22 March 2010):

1. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
2.
3.
4.
5.

Review: Whistling in the Dark by Tamara Allen

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Whistling in the Dark is a heartwarming and poignant historical romance set in New York in the aftermath of World War I. It’s the story of two men, both damaged by the war in different ways, who are drawn together first by fate, then by friendship and finally by love.

Sutton Albright, son of a rich Kansas businessman, has just been expelled from college and, too ashamed to face his parents, travels to New York to look for work. Here he meets Jack Bailey, who is desperately trying to keep his late parents’ struggling novelty shop afloat. Jack has come up with the idea of advertising on the radio (which is still a very new invention) and is looking for someone to provide the music for his broadcasts. Well, guess who just happens to be a talented classical pianist?

This is a very well written book and Tamara Allen does a fantastic job of portraying New York City in the early 20th century. I had no problem at all in forming a mental picture of Bailey’s Emporium, Ida’s restaurant, Jack’s apartment and the other locations we visit. It was interesting to read about the early days of radio broadcasting, the emerging jazz scene, prohibition and all the little period details that the story touches upon. In Jack and Sutton – very different people in terms of both background and personality – she has also created two characters that I really liked and cared about.

The book was just the right length to allow the author to take her time developing the characters and building up the different layers of the plot, without the story dragging at all. Recommended.

Genre: Gay Historical Romance/Pages: 340/Publisher: Lethe Press/Year: 2009/Source: Won from LibraryThing Member Giveaways

Fiendish Fridays #4: Waleran Bigod

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Fiendish Fridays is hosted here at She Reads Novels, profiling some of our favourite literary villains. You can see a complete list of previous Fiends and suggest one of your own here.

This week’s Fiend comes from one of my favourite historical fiction novels, The Pillars of the Earth!

#4 – Friday 19 February 2010: Waleran Bigod

Name: Waleran Bigod

Appears in: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.

Who is he? A 12th century English bishop.

What is he like? Tall and thin with long arms and legs, ‘lank jet-black hair and a pale face with a sharp nose’. He is compared to both a spider and a bird of prey.

What makes him a Friday Fiend? He is constantly scheming and thinking of ways to thwart Prior Philip and Tom Builder in their mission to build a cathedral in Kingsbridge. Unlike his violent accomplice, William Hamleigh (definitely a future Friday Fiend!), Waleran uses his brains and his influence in the church to get what he wants, which makes him a very dangerous enemy.

Redeeming features: As one of the Kingsbridge monks points out, Waleran seems genuinely devout, but is driven by ambition and a belief that the end justifies the means. This leads him to think it’s acceptable to do whatever he wants in the service of God.

Have you read The Pillars of the Earth? What are your opinions on today’s Friday Fiend?

Review: Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin

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I received a review copy of this book from LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Willy Vlautin is the lead singer and songwriter with the band Richmond Fontaine and Lean on Pete is his third novel. I’ve seen a lot of other reviewers comparing him to John Steinbeck, though I haven’t read enough of Steinbeck’s work to know whether that’s an accurate comparison.

Charley Thompson is a lonely fifteen year-old boy who lives with his irresponsible single father. The book begins with their arrival in Portland, Oregon, where Charley’s father has been offered a new job in a warehouse. Charley is desperate to get a job of his own so that he can earn enough money to put food on the table but the only work he can find is at the Portland Meadows race track with a disreputable horse trainer called Del. Portland Meadows has seen better days and is now home to hundreds of old, tired horses and second-rate jockeys who can’t get work anywhere else. It is here that Charley meets Lean On Pete, the racehorse who becomes his only friend and companion.

Willy Vlautin uses very simple prose with no flowery descriptions and no big words. As the story is told in the first person from the point of view of fifteen year-old Charley, this writing style is very effective – he uses the kind of language that Charley would realistically use. Despite his miserable home life, Charley comes across as quite a sensible, likeable person, and I really wanted to see him survive and be happy. I did get a bit bored with constantly being told exactly what he had to eat for every meal (usually cheeseburgers, if you’re interested), though I suppose for a teenage boy fending for himself with no money, it was probably quite important!

Almost all of the other characters we meet are drug addicts, alcoholics, or living in poverty, painting a portrait of a side of society we don’t often read about. Most of these people show Charley some kindness, but aren’t really in a position to be able to help him – Charley and Pete are completely alone in the world and there’s a constant atmosphere of sadness and loneliness that hangs over the entire book.

Lean on Pete was a big step away from the type of book I usually read, but I didn’t regret the couple of days it took me to read it.

Genre: General Fiction/Pages: 288/Publisher: Faber & Faber/Year: 2010/Source: Received from LibraryThing Early Reviewers