Review-Original Sins, by Peg Kingman

ORIGINAL SINS
A NOVEL OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM
Peg Kingman
W.W.Norton and Company
2010,HC, $25.95 416pp
978-0-393-06547-3.







Grace Pollacke is an artist, she paints portraits in miniature. Her husband arrives home to Philadelphia after being in China for several years. Traveling with Daniel is Anibaddh, The Rani of Nungklow. It is not the first time she has been in America for she is a runaway slave from Virginia. At great personal risk she has returned to establish a silk business, but this raises suspicion in Grace.

Grace, is a woman with a sharp intellect, well read in politics and literature, a rare find in 1840. Her current patron is Mrs. Ambler who is accompanied by her sister Mrs. MacFarlane. Engaged in a conversation about religion and slavery, Grace becomes disturbed with her subject, as her views are completely contrary. Anibaddh overhears the women and immediately recognizes their voices. They are the daughters of Judge Grant of Grantsboro Plantation and therefore Grace’s cousins.

When Grace steps in harms way to save her son, she realizes why Annibadh has returned. There could be only one reason she would risk her own life to sacrifice freedom: a child. Unaware of their common ancestral lineage, the woman invite Grace to visit Grantsboro to paint other family members. Realizing she can help Anibaddh with her maternal mission she accepts their request.

What follows is a complicated almost too coincidental yet thrilling story of Grace’s past and the discovery of her family’s slaveholding past and their unspeakable transgressions. Grace, is a character with vitality: bold, daring with unconventional thoughts and actions for the period she lives. As a painter, she is mesmerized by daguerreotype photography process and saddened by the newly installed gaslights in her city.
Original Sins, the author’s second novel is a deeply creative honest look at slavery and the ugly truths of human bondage that still emerge from America’s past. Highly recommended.

Disclosure: The copy of this book was provided at no charge by Historical Novels Review. This review was first published by HNR in August 2010.


© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2011].

Mark Twain's Other Woman, by Laura Trombley

MARK TWAIN’S OTHER WOMAN
The Hidden Story of His Final Years
Laura Trombley, Alfred A. Knopf,March 17 2010, $28.95,  352pp, 978-0-307-27344-4.

Mark Twain wanted his biography published without a doubt. He also wanted to have total control over the image of the man people would read about and therefore went to great lengths to protect his reputation.  So, how do we know the real Mark Twain? 

Mark Twain’s Other Woman, by Laura Trombley is about the writer’s later years between 1900 and 1910 and his personal relationship with his secretary, Isabel Van Kleek Lyon.    Trombley, a college professor,  has written two other books about Twain and has sifted through a vast array of primary documents that include personal letters, notes and diary entries.  Through interviews and reading the daily reminders written by Isabel Van Kleek Lyon the author has put together a chronology of Twain’s life, a portrait of the man he and his family hoped would never come to light.

This is an engaging at times shocking look at Mark Twain, his relationship with his secretary Van Kleek Lyon and his daughters.  It will be easy to overlook slow moving passages that are burdened by the author’s research findings.  Trombley’s evaluation and interpretation about this unconventional yet respected iconoclast in American literature will offer an irresistible and controversial read.

Disclosure: This book was provided to me to review by Historical Novels Review.
Regardless of how I obtain my books, all reviews are my honest opinion.
This review originally appeared in Historical Novels Review.

© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2011].

Review-Diamond Ruby by Joseph Wallace

DIAMOND RUBY
Joseph Wallace,Touchstone, 2010, $25.00,pb, 464pp, 978-1-4391-6005-3.


Ruby Thomas, a child of seven catches a fly ball hit by Casey Stengel on April 5, 1913. As she looks at the ball she imagines herself a pitcher. Whether her unusually long arms often a source of ridicule, contribute to her success one will never know. Catching baseball fever that day, Ruby is destined to make a mark on the world.

Later, using a tree in her backyard as a target, she discovers her athletic gift. A mighty fastball with pin point accuracy. Some years later, when her family dies during the Spanish influenza outbreak, she becomes the sole support for her two nieces. Driven by the need to care for them, she lands a job at a Coney Island sideshow throwing fastballs. The attraction, called the Birdcage, is a challenge to anyone to beat her speed. The abusive owner schedules her long arduous hours with little rest. The pay is low and the work takes a painful physical tole on her throwing arm. One day Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey, curious visitors, show up at the Birdcage to watch Ruby, and the resulting newspaper article rockets her fame. When given the opportunity to pitch for a minor league team, Ruby agrees.

As her adoring public craves more of Ruby, others of bad intent emerge. The Ku Klux Klan threatens her, the underworld wants to own her, and the baseball commissioner wants to ban her. All Ruby wants is to play ball and shelter her family.

Wallace has written a dramatically powerful story of determination. Ruby faces difficult choices, she is inspiringly special with an innate ability to endure immense hardships. The character genuine, not sainted, but human facing persistent challenges. Based on the life of Jackie Mitchell, Diamond Ruby is a historically uplifting unforgettable journey back to the excitement of the roaring twenties.

Disclosure: This book was given to me by HNR for review. This review originally was published in Historical Novels Review August 2010 issue.



© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2011].

Review- Smooth Stones, by Ann Fairbairn

I read this book several months ago, but had forgot to post the review. As I was gathering together all my year end book reads and getting together my recap, I realized I had not shared it with you.


FIVE SMOOTH STONES, Anne Fairbairn, ©1966, Chicago Review Press Edition 2009, $18.95US/$20.95CAN, pb, 756pp.










The story takes place in New Orleans in 1933 during the depression. Times are hard money is scarce and Jim Crow separates black from white with a natural tenuous acceptance. Li’l Joe Champlin and his wife Geneva have suffered hardship and have witnessed the plague of the negro men and women. The unwritten laws of white society are there to instill a sense of inferiority on one side and the pure supreme power of the social white elite on the other. Li’l Joe and Geneva know that justice is taken care of without trial and with discrimination and hatred. They suffered unbearable grief and pain when their son David was murdered by a white mob. Having left a son, they decide to raise him and vow to give him the best education possible. Li’l Joe is befriended by Bjarne Knudsen who becomes David’s mentor and surrogate father through high school, Harvard Law and then Oxford. David, a brilliant scholar falls in love with Sarah, a petite white artist he calls, “the smallest.” Although Sarah sees only love without a color barrier, David only sees the ugly future of racial hatred.
David is challenged again when he gives up a certain golden career in international law to help lead his people fight for civil rights and change.

Despite the overwhelming length of this historical fiction novel, you will be spellbound by every page read. David and his friends are characters to remember and reflect on for years. You will recognize them as friends by the author’s detailed shaping of their personalities. The picture of the life lived by an interracial couple is honestly portrayed and still has value and truth today. Five Smooth Stones has proven to be timeless, and a tremendous testament of the civil rights struggle.

Disclosure: Five Smooth Stones was an ARC received from Historical Novels Review.

The Widow's War-by Mary Mackey

THE WIDOW’S WAR, Mary Mackey, Berkley Trade Paperback,9/1/09,$15.00US/$18.50CAN, pb, 368pp.


Carolyn Vinton and Dr. William Saylor, both abolitionists were to get married, when he suddenly disappears. As the family assumes he is dead, Carrie is left grieving, pregnant and alone. When Deacon Presgrove, William’s stepbrother offers to give the baby a name, Carrie accepts his offer to wed.

It is 1853 in the years heating up to the Civil War. The Kansas Territory is a battle ground between pro-slavery and the abolitionist factions. Carrie soon learns that her father in law, the famous senator is pro slavery. Feeling betrayed by Deacon, then learning that William is not dead, but alive, Carrie decides to break free to find William.

This is a novel to read again and again. Mackey creates fairy tale magic when she brings together the star-crossed pair of Carolyn Vinton and Dr. William Saylor. This is one of those, “non-stop, can’t put down” books. Carrie’s character is dynamic and strong, a woman of presence and grace. The sparks fly between Carrie and William with a magnetic field of attraction surrounding them. There are few lovers in literature with this connectivity and Mackey’s pair are sensational.

The story is peppered with intricate deception and edgy climactic tension that builds with increasing curiosity till the conclusion. Mackey has created a well researched romantic historical fiction. John Brown, Kansas Nebraska Act, Bloody Kansas and other events are credible, real and memorable. This would be an excellent companion novel when studying the American Civil War in high school or beyond. No doubt The Widow’s War will be one of the “Best of 2009”.