Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices From A Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz

"I wrote these plays for a group of students at the Park School where I work as a librarian.  They were studying the Middle Ages and they were going at it hammer and tongs ... The only difficulty was that there were seventeen children in every class and no one wanted a small part ...  So I decided to write seventeen short plays - monologues - instead of one long one, so that for three minutes at least, every child could be a star" -  Laura Amy Schlitz

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices From A Medieval Village was the winner of the Newbery Medal in 2008 for children's literature.  It's the second book I have read for this year's historical fiction challenge hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader and Baker. Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! is a novel consisting of 22 short chapters each profiling a different young person living in a 13th century English village:  Hugo, the lord's nephew, Taggot, the blacksmith's daughter, Constance, the pilgrim, Otho, the miller's son, Piers, the glassblower's apprentice etc. Here for example is Nelly, the sniggler talking about her life:

"I was born lucky. Nay, not born lucky, as you shall hear - but lucky soon after and ever after. My father and mother were starving poor, and dreaded another mouth to feed. When my father saw I was a girl-child, he took me up to drown in a bucket of water.  

But here's the lucky part - and 'tis pure sooth. I didn't drown, babe though I was. I took hold with my wee fingers and held to the side of the bucket.  And my mother wept, and my father's heart went soft, and he could no more drown me than himself-and they named me Nelly, for Queen Eleanor". And their luck changed. First my uncle died of the scurvy and we got his pigs. Then the nuns at the abbey hired us to catch eels - and we've been sniggling ever since "

After Nelly the sniggler finishes her story the author let's us know a few facts.  We learn that a sniggler is a person who catches eels and that Nelly was named after Queen Eleanor of Aquitane (1122-1204).  And Nelly as a baby holding on to the edge of the bucket of water her father was trying to drown her in is a true story: "The original plucky newborn was a woman named Liafburga, who lived around 700 a.d."

Laura Amy Schlitz does not sugarcoat life in the 13th century and some may feel that the book is too realistic for children.  But if you are teaching kids about the Middle Ages isn't it better to explain how it really was?  I found Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! a very well written, interesting and educational novel which people should check out.

Emma by Jane Austen

In describing Emma (1815) Jane Austen famously wrote: "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like”.  And over the years I have wondered about that quote.  What would I discover about Emma Woodhouse when I finally got around to reading the novel that would cause me to dislike her?  But now that I have read Emma is it possible that Jane Austen was teasing us?  I ask because despite her imperfections I liked Emma Woodhouse and I am sure many readers over the years have liked her as well.

All of this is not to say that Emma is without flaws.  She is a very wealthy 21 year old woman living with her father in their Hartfield Estate in Surrey England at the beginning of the 19th century.  Emma's mother died when she was very young and since then she has been raised by her father and her governess Miss Taylor and Emna is used to getting her own way. 

But when the novel opens Miss Taylor has just gotten married to Mr Weston.  Miss Taylor and Emma are sad to be parting but Emma is happy for Miss Taylor and she soon makes a new friend, Harriet Smith. Harriet is a sweet, pretty young woman.  Her parentage is unknown and the highborn Emma wants to do something nice for Harriet. Why not set up a great match for her new friend?

And so Emma convinces Harriet to reject a proposal of marriage from Robert Martin, a successful farmer who Harriet loves.  Emma feels that Harriet can do better.  She convinces Harriet to set her sites on the new vicar Mr. Elton and it doesn't go well.  Mr Elton is a scoundrel only interested in Emma and her wealth and social standing.  Emma discovers this when she and Mr. Elton are riding in a carriage together: 

Am I to believe that you have never sought to recommend yourself particularly to Miss Smith?—that you have never thought seriously of her?” 

“Never, madam,” cried he, affronted in his turn: “never, I assure you. I think seriously of Miss Smith!—Miss Smith is a very good sort of girl; and I should be happy to see her respectably settled. I wish her extremely well: and, no doubt, there are men who might not object to—Every body has their level: but as for myself, I am not, I think, quite so much at a loss. I need not so totally despair of an equal alliance, as to be addressing myself to Miss Smith!—No, madam, my visits to Hartfield have been for yourself only; and the encouragement I received—”

Emma rejects Mr. Elton's advances and feels terrible about having gotten Harriet's hopes up and this is an example of why I like Emma.  She can be vain, a bit of a snob and too sure of herself but Emma is also capable of impressive self-reflection and regret when she has done wrong.  She deeply regrets the harm she has caused Harriet and later in the book feels terrible about her cruel comment at the picnic to Miss Bates.  Emma is unaware at first of how badly she has hurt Miss Bates until Mr. George Knightley brings it to her attention.  Emma is mortified and tries to make amends.

Of course in every Jane Austen novel there is the romantic hero as well as the heroine and in Emma the hero is George Knightley.  Like Emma he is very wealthy with a great estate of his own.  Mr. Knightley has known Emma since she was a child and is not afraid to criticize her when he feels she is making a wrong decision.  And he is often right.  But I did wonder about Mr. Knightley.  He confesses at one point that he has loved Emma since she was thirteen and since Mr. Knightley is sixteen years her senior do the math on that one.  But if Jane Austen is okay with it so am I.

After I finished reading Emma I rated it five stars on goodreads.  For me nothing will compare with Pride and Prejudice and Mr. Darcy but Emma is a brilliant novel.  It's a rather long book so you do have to pace yourself but it is worth the effort.

Beartown by Fredrik Backman (translated by Neil Smith)

"She’s lived here all her life, she knows how quickly information spreads. Someone will know someone who has a brother who’s a cop or has a friend who works at the local paper or a mom who’s a nurse at the hospital. Someone will say something to someone. And all hell will break loose" - Fredrik Backman, Beartown

Beartown (2016) by the bestselling Swedish writer Fredrik Backman is the first novel in his trilogy focusing on life in Beartown, a fictional rural community set in northern Sweden.  It's a town surrounded by a forest that has seen better days. The jobs have pretty much disappeared and the people are moving away.  But the residents who remain in Beartown are loyal and nowhere is that more true than when it comes to the hopes they have pinned on their high school hockey team, the Bears.

And their hopes are not unrealistic because for the first time in many years the Bears have a chance of making it all the way to the top thanks to three great players on the team: seventeen year old Kevin Erdahl who is their star player, seventeen year old Benji Ovich who is Kevin's best friend and almost as good as Kevin on the ice and fifteen year old Amat who has so much speed that the coach is letting him play with the juniors. 

Kevin is wealthy and lives in the Heights, an exclusive part of Beartown.  Benji and Amat come from the Hollow, a poor part of town where families have to struggle.  Hockey is seen as a way to a great future for all three boys.  They have the talent.

SPOILER ALERT  

And then on the night the Bears win a big game Kevin's teammates and classmates attend a party at his house.  His parents are away, the alcohol is flowing, and Kevin is drunk.  Fifteen year old Maya Andersson, the daughter of Peter Andersson who is the General Manager of the Bears, is at the party.  She has a crush on Kevin, most girls in Beartown do.  Maya and Kevin end up kissing but he wants to go further.  Maya says no and Kevin doesn't take no for an answer.  The rest of the novel is the fallout from what happened at the party and how it affects the town and how the different characters we have been introduced to react.  Some rise to the occasion but most do not.

I found Beartown to be a really fine novel.  It can be dark at times but it is wonderfully written and moving as well.  If I have a criticism it might be that Fredrik Backman spends the first 170 pages describing the town, what hockey means to the town and who the various characters are both major and minor. I felt at the beginning that the book was going slow.  But then I switched from kindle to audible and Marin Ireland's first rate narration picked up the pace considerably.  And when I got to the night of the party I was engrossed all the way through to the end of the book.

Later this year I plan to read book two in this series: Us Against You (2018).  I want to find out more about Beartown and how the residents are getting on.  And hopefully learn more about Benji, Amat and my favorite character Ramona the elderly widow who runs the local pub and serves as a kind of therapist for the town locals who stop by for a drink.  

And so it turns out Fredrik Backman who is an excellent writer knew what he was doing in taking his time introducing us to Beartown and its residents because I am on to book two.

Salutation To The Dawn - A Poem by Kalidasa

I am a worrier and so while I was reading Dale Carnegie's How To Stop Worrying And Start Living, a very good book, I came upon this poem by Kalidasa (4th - 5th century CE) and wanted to share:

Salutation To The Dawn ~ by Kalidasa

Look to this Day,

for it is Life – the very Life of Life.

In its brief course lie all the verities

and realities of your existence:

the Bliss of Growth,

the Glory of Action,

the Splendor of Beauty.

For yesterday is already a dream

and tomorrow is only a vision;

but today, well-lived,

makes every yesterday a dream of happiness

and every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore, to this Day.

Such is the salutation of the Dawn.

~ by Kalidasa, Indian Sanskrit Playwright and Poet,

Two Children's Classics: The Door In The Wall by Marguerite de Angeli and Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

This year I have signed up for the 2024 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader and Baker.  My goal is to read 15 Medieval historical novels this year and the Door In The Wall (1949) by Marguerite de Angeli is the first book I have completed.  It's a children's classic, winner of the 1950 Newbery Medal and the novel is set in 14th century England around the time of the black plague although the plague doesn't factor into the book that much.  

Instead The Door In The Wall tells the story of ten year old Robin who is the son of Sir John de Bureford.  Robin comes from a family of noblemen.  His father is a knight and is away fighting in a war that is going on between England and Wales.  His mother is leaving to take a position as one of the Queen's Ladies in Waiting.  Robin has good parents who love him and he will miss them but he is excited to begin his apprenticeship towards becoming a knight and making his father proud.

But then a few days before Robin is set to leave for his apprenticeship he is taken ill.  It's not the plague but whatever the illness is it leaves Robin unable to walk and his plans for being a knight are over.  Robin is depressed at this sudden change in his life and he is sent to a monastery where the monks will take care of him and it turns out to be the best thing that could have happened.  The monks are good men and they teach Robin to read, write, carpentry.  He learns about science and the stars and mostly Robin learns that despite his disability there is so much he can do.  As Brother Luke tells him: “Thou hast only to follow the wall far enough and there will be a door in it.”

 

It's a book with an important message and A Door In The Wall is well written and you also learn some of the customs, foods, clothing etc from the Middle Ages.  But there are children's books that can be enjoyed at all ages and then there are children's books that are specifically geared to children and for me The Door In The Wall fits into the latter  category.  

And while I was reading The Door In The Wall I started thinking of another children's classic, Johnny Tremain (1943) by Esther Forbes, winner of the 1944 Newbery Medal that I read a few years ago

Johnny Tremain is set in Boston during the American Revolutionary era and centers around a 14 year old orphan boy named Johnny Tremain.  Johnny works for and lives with a silversmith and his family.  Johnny is training to be a silversmith and even at 14 his ability to craft beautiful objects from silver is admired and requested by everyone.  Like Robin, Johnny sees his future all mapped out until an injury to his hand ends his career as a silversmith.

Johnny is a fully developed well drawn character in a way that Robin in my opinion was not.  Robin is a good kid all the way through The Door In The Wall whereas Johnny Tremain is more three-dimensional, good qualities but also flawed.  Johnny before the accident was arrogant, too sure of himself and he makes enemies.  But after the hand injury he loses everything including a place to live.  We see Johnny go from age 14 to 17 in the novel and watch him slowly build his way back and he learns that there are people out there willing to help if you let them.  I found Johnny Tremain to be a powerful novel for adults as well as kids and it has stayed with me.

The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

‘Where does a story begin, Willie?’ I asked. For a while he did not say anything. Then he shifted in his chair. ‘Where does a wave on the ocean begin?’ he said. ‘Where does it form a welt on the skin of the sea, to swell and expand and rush towards shore?’  ... Yes, I thought to myself. Tell him your story. Let him write it. Let the whole world know" - Tan Twan Eng, House of Doors

If you are looking for your next great read I highly recommend The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng, longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2023.  And thanks to Sam at Book Chase (link under blogs I follow) for recommending this novel.  Sam chose The House of Doors as one of his best books of 2023 and a book recommended by Sam is worth your time.

The House of Doors is a historical novel set primarily in Penpang, Malaysia in 1921.  One of the two main characters in this novel is Somerset Maugham.  In real life Maugham (WIllie to his friends) was a great writer, a world traveler and a complex man.  And in 1921 he spent several months living in Penpang, Malaysia.  He would later write The Casuarina Tree, a collection of short stories about his time in Penpang.  The most famous of these is The Letter, based on the infamous Ethel Proudlock murder trial which took place in Kuala Lumpur in 1911.  Maugham first heard about the case from an attorney while staying in Penpang in 1921.

But in The House of Doors, Tan Twan Eng imagines a different scenario regarding how Maugham learned about the case and how he came to write The Letter.  He creates a fictional couple Robert and Lesley Hamlyn who invite Maugham and his secretary Gerald Haxton (who is also Maugham's lover) to stay with them at Cassowary House.  Robert is a friend of Maugham from when the two men served in World War I.   

Somerset Maugham is not in the best of health at this point in his life.  His marriage to his wife Syrie who lives in England is not happy.  They live separate lives and due to a bad investment Maugham has lost a great deal of money and needs to think up ideas for new stories fast.  If he remains broke his wife Syrie and his young lover Gerald will not be pleased having grown accustomed to the finer things. Maugham has alot to deal with.

And that brings us to the other major character in The House of Doors, Lesley Hamlyn, Robert's wife.   Lesley is cool to Maugham at first.  Her sympathies are with Syrie back in England partly because her own marriage to Robert is also not going well.  But Somerset Maugham is fascinated by Lesley.  He knows that she grew up in Malaysia and that as a young woman she met and became associated with the Chinese Revolutionary Sun Yat Sen.  Might there be a story there? And as the two begin to talk and share confidences they become close.  Lesley confides to Somerset that yes she does have quite a few stories to share which will also include the Proudlock case.

The House of Doors is a kadilescope of a novel touching on many themes: the expat community during the early twentieth century, the revolutionary history of China, marriage, affairs, secrets and the life of Somerset Maugham and how living at that time he could not be open about who he loved.  And House of Doors is also about the creative process and how a writer becomes inspired to write a story like The Letter.

So thanks again to Sam and this year I am going to pay more attention to the novels that get short and longlisted for the major book awards.  There are gems among the nominees and The House of Doors is one of them.

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Ethan Frome (1911) by Edith Wharton is a reread.  I first read it in high school and hated it and I think that was the concensus of pretty much everyone in my class at the time.  But then years later I read Wharton's Tne House of Mirth which I loved.  And so I have had it in my mind all these years to reread Ethan Frome.  Maybe I missed something.  Maybe this is a novel that needs to be read later in life.  And so I have now read Ethan Frome for the second time and this review will contain spoilers. 

Ethan Frome is set in a small New England town, Starkfield, MA, during the late 19th and early 20th century.  The winters are fierce and when the novel begins we meet a young man visiting Starkfield on business.  While in town the young man, who serves as the narrator, spots an elderly disabled gentleman heading into the local store.  Something about this man intrigues the narrator.  He seems depressed, solemn and very much alone. 

The narrator learns that the man is Ethan Frome, he is 52 and a poor farmer who rarely comes into town anymore.  The narrator asks more questions and the rest of the novel takes us back twenty five years to when Ethan was young and living in Starkfield with his whole life before him.

Ethan had wanted to go to college but his father died and then Ethan's mother got sick and he had to run the farm and take care of her.  When Ethan's mother passed on he married Zeena, the nurse who helped care for his mother.  It seemed like a good match.  Zeena was a take-charge, talkative young woman with an energy that Ethan lacked.  But not too long after they married Zeena began to change: 

"She chose to look down on Starkfield, but she could not have lived in a place which looked down on her. Even Bettsbridge or Shadd’s Falls would not have been sufficiently aware of her, and in the greater cities which attracted Ethan she would have suffered a complete loss of identity. And within a year of their marriage she developed the “sickliness” which had since made her notable even in a community rich in pathological instances ... he soon saw that her skill as a nurse had been acquired by the absorbed observation of her own symptoms"

To help with her various illnesses Zeena hires her cousin Mattie Silver to cook and clean .  Mattie is young, pretty, cheerful and to Ethan a breath of fresh air.  Ethan falls hard for Mattie and she falls for him as well.  But Mattie is vulnerable.  Her parents are dead and her relatives have had no desire to help her out, only her cousin Zeena who is looking for a live-in caretaker was willing to take Mattie in.  

And then Zeena begins to suspect something is going on between Ethan and Mattie and Zeena decides to hire a new girl and Mattie is asked to leave.  Ethan is devastated.  He contemplates running away with Mattie but what would the neighbors say and how could Zeena run the farm all by herself? 

Ethan decides he has to stay but he offers to take Mattie to the train station.  They travel by sled, it is snowing, and in a reckless act Mattie and Ethan decide not to part but to ride their sled fast down a hill right into an elm tree.  It is Mattie and Ethan's desparate attempt at a way out, suicide.  But it doesn't work and the end of the book twenty five years later has left Ethan, Zeena and Mattie in a much worse place than before the "accident".

And so it's not surprising our high school class had problems with this novel and I can't say now upon a second reading that I have warmed up all that much to Ethan Frome either but there are many who love this book.  The writing is excellent which is not surprising since Edith Wharton is brilliant.  And in trying to analyze the meaning of Ethan Frome I checked Cliff Notes and came upon the following: 

"The message that Wharton conveys through Ethan is that when people fear they are violating the rules of society, they risk becoming enslaved by those rules"

That rings true.  Ethan Frome is a man who wants to leave Zeena, a bitter angry woman who spends her time nursing her imaginary ailments.  He wants to leave with Mattie and have a new start but back in the late 1800's what would society say?  And one of the takeaways from this novel, according to critics, is that sometimes you have to change things regardless of what society will say because if you don't you can end up taking desparate risks that can end in tragedy.

And so my rereading of Ethan Frome has made me realize that its an important classic but maybe it's better as a college read.  I'm not sure kids are ready for it's powerful message in high school.