Phillipa Gregory's Fairmile Series

I recently finished book 3 in Phillipa Gregory's Fairmile series. Dawnlands, and it was a 5-star book until the very end when I almost threw the book against the wall and vowed to not read any more in the series. That said, I did grant it 4 stars on Goodreads because it was so good up until the end.

The 3 books in the series span the years 1648 to 1688 and chronicle the English Civil War that ended the reign of King Charles I and ushered in the rule of Oliver Cromwell, the Restoration of the monarchy with King Charles II, and the Glorious Revolution which ended the reign of King James II and brought William of Orange and Charles's daughter Mary to England and established Parliament as the ruling power. I loved the time frame because I haven't read much about the 17th century in quite awhile so it was great to brush up on the historical facts in a fictional world. The other thing I liked about the series is how it didn't take place in just England, but we got to visit 17th century New England as well as Barbados, Venice (always a treat), London, Yorkshire, as well as the south coast of England.

I think the books in the series painted a really compelling picture of the various strata of society in the 17th century, from the poorest of the poor, to the growing middle-class of merchants and traders, to the gentry, and finally the court. I liked reading about the soldiering, the economic realities and physical abomination of slavery, and the very real conflicts over religion and religious freedom. 

I also really liked the family that Gregory creates and grows, from the wise Alinor who is a midwife, herbalist, and healer who is blessed/cursed with foreknowledge that creates serious challenges for her, her brother Ned (ardent revolutionary soldier who fights for the rights of the common man), her two children (Alice - practical business woman, and Rob - lovable physician with a romantic strain), her various grandchildren and great-grand children (Sarah - an adventuror, Johnnie - a businessman who can justify any course of action, Mia and Gabriella - Venetian girls who come to England for an education). There is even a first-rate villainess, Olivia, who lies, cheats, steals and is a beauty to boot--definitely cut from the same cloth as both Becky Sharp and Scarlett O'Hara. And there are marvelous side characters (Rowan - the Native American girl in book 3), James Avery (the aristocrat who once was a priest), and Captain Shaw (a sea captain and all-around good guy).

*********SPOILERS************

So what did I hate about the ending of book 3, Dawnlands? At the very end of the book, after James II is deposed and fled to France, the scheming, conniving Olivia turns up on the family's doorstep, again! Ready to make everyone's life miserable, again! 

Now, I like a good villainess, but I like them to get their just deserts in the end. For the entire book 3, as we approach the end of James II's reign, I was really looking forward to Olivia going down (or up) in flames as her massive web of lies caught up with her. I was literally crushed to learn that Gregory was going to feature her in what is sure to be a book 4 in the series. I honestly don't feel like reading more of the same--the same beauty that beguiles everyone, the same protestations of eternal love followed by callous back-stabbing, the same manipulation of characters I have grown to love. Enough already! Throw some other challenges at this family, but I've had enough of Olivia.

I really truly think that this series is some of Gregory's best work, but she needs to know when to let a villainess go so that we can have a fresh story for the next generation of characters. That's my rant for the day!

Tidelands, Leonardo, and a Dud

May got off to a shaky start, reading-wise, but I feel back on track with several great books underway.

To recap my May so far:

When We Were Orphans, by Kazuo Ishiguro - my sister lent me this book with a "here, read this, it's fabulous," instruction, so I did. I read about 250 pages (i.e., more than 3/4 of the book) before finally conceding that I hated reading it and didn't want to waste another minute on this book. I loved the author's The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, but despite the rave reviews on Goodreads as well as the endorsement by my sister, this novel was tedious, implausible, and simply not interesting. I cared nothing about the first-person narrator, Christopher Banks, and felt like I was cheated out of a great story by the way in which Ishiguro chose to tell it. It is allegedly about how memory is unreliable, which is an interesting concept, but I felt like I was in a fog most of the time, had a hard time caring enough to follow the weak plot, and there was zero character development.

Tidelands, by Philippa Gregory - book #1 in the author's Fairmile series, this was a great historical fiction about a midwife/healer living in a tiny fishing village in the tidelands along the southern shore of England. Set in 1848 and 1849, the characters and country are caught up in the rise of Oliver Cromwell and the fall of Charles I. As I said in my Goodreads review,  I was anticipating the final major scene throughout most of the book but was pleased and surprised by the ultimate turn of events. While I have had many issues with Gregory's Tudor novels, I don't know the history of this time period well enough to spot and gnash my teeth over historical inconsistences, so I could simply sit back and revel in the story and setting. I loved the details Gregory provided about life in the 17th century for both rich and poor, urban and rural. I absolutely loved the main character Alinor and her children, Alice and Rob. It ticked the boxes on so many interests: herbs, folk medicine, witchcraft and the whole mania about rooting out alleged witches and the accompanying misogny, as well as English history and geography. I am planning on reading book 2 in the series, Dark Tides, later this summer.

Leonardo da Vinci, by Walter Isaacson - fabulous bio of one of the world's greatest artists, philosophers, and dreamers. I loved every minute of this book, from the details of Leonardo's life and travels, the discussion and back stories of his art and artistic legacy, the history of the time period (Renaissance Italy) and info about the principal political players (e.g., Ludovico Sforza, the Medicis, Niccolò Machiavelli, Cesare Borgia, Francis I of France). What I loved most of all was the enthusiasm with which Isaacson talked about the genius of Leonardo--how he saw the world, his keen, almost supernatural powers of observation, his relentless, unquenchable curiousity about literally everything. And, like most enthusiasms, it was infectious. 

The White Queen

I admit that I approached reading The White Queen with more than a little hesitation.  First, I put myself firmly in the RIII fan club, having first encountered the theory that Shakespeare might have been a propagandist for the Tudors back when I was in college.  Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time and Sharon Kay Penman's The Sunne in Splendour simply fueled my conviction that RIII has been slandered for the past 500+ years.

Then, there is the whole issue of Philippa Gregory playing fast and loose with historical facts to suit the story she wants to tell.  Much as I admire her storytelling skills, I do like historical fiction to be accurate.

I pushed all that aside when I discovered that there was a TV series based on the Cousins War series by Gregory and that it would be shown in the U.S. starting in August.  I knew I would have to watch it and so wanted to read The White Queen first.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I now have a much better appreciation for Elizabeth Woodville--who she might have been, and what motivated her--and her whole family.  I never lost sight of the fact that The White Queen is told from Elizabeth's POV, which enabled me to still hold fast to my image of  RIII as a much-maligned good guy (ala Penman's version).  When Elizabeth rants about Richard I can remind myself that she didn't like him, trust him, or know him.

In a way, that is one of the things that made The White Queen work for me.  Elizabeth, the protagonist, is an unreliable narrator.  Her past, her ambition, her fears, her prejudices, her loyalties all distort her perspective so that the reader gets her version of events, which may or may not be exactly the way they happened.  As a character, she is a witness to history, not a historian.  This is brilliant on the part of Gregory and is actually aligned with my own view of history and storytelling...everyone has their own side of the story to tell, and they're all valid.  Well, maybe George, Duke of Clarence, doesn't really have a valid reason to gripe, but that's George!

I also loved the magical elements that Gregory added.  Magic and witchcraft interspered with battles and politics made the whole experience more like The Mists of Avalon, especially when you realize that being descended from the river goddess Melusine is actually more important in the long run (e.g., inheriting the ability to see the future, make charms, and curse) than being descended from Edward III.  Taking that a step further, it is a matriarchal line that descends from Jacquetta to Elizabeth I and even to James I and the Stuart kings.  The men fight the battles but the women determine who sits on the throne. Pretty heady stuff when you think about it.

I just picked up a copy of The Red Queen from the library and am eager to see whether Gregory can work her magic again and make me sympathetic to Margaret Beaufort, my least favorite character in The White Queen and mother of nasty Henry Tudor.