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old-fashioned
Sep. 4th, 2007 09:18 amOver the weekend, I read The River Wife by Jonis Agee and finished Water Babies by Charles Kingsley.
The River Wife was recommended to me by booksense.com. To those who are new to this journal, I love to read the booksense monthly recommendations by small bookstore owners. The River Wife appealed to me because of the way it seemed it would follow generations of women - I enjoy books like that. It also promised elements of sensuality, magic, and mystery. However, the book did not entirely live up to its reputation. It was fairly bleak, and all of the women seemed to be grasping towards their respective men, who never lived up to their initial promise. There also wasn't much that tied them together except for the landscape of Ducharmes Landing. It was old-fashioned because the most modern story was set in the 30s. Three stars - it was good, but I won't read it again, and I probably won't look up other books by the same author.
Water Babies by Charles Kingsley was another recommendation from the "life after potter" lists - genre pre-modern fantasy. Tom is an abused little chimney sweep, who is taken away by water-babies, which are a kind of fairy, after an especially passionate plea to be clean. I liked the book well enough, but it got overly moralizing in some places, as Victorian children's literature is wont to do. It's a little violent and harsh for children of today, and contains dire predictions about children who don't get enough excercise, people who only do as they like (apparently it's only hard work at things we hate that keeps us from reverting to monkeys), and those who tease animals. I would recommend it mostly for people who like fairy tales, since it's somewhat original in that regard. At first I was sad that I was reading the abridged version, but by the end, I'll admit I wished it were abridged even more. Two and a half stars. The illustrations are quite nice, though.
The River Wife was recommended to me by booksense.com. To those who are new to this journal, I love to read the booksense monthly recommendations by small bookstore owners. The River Wife appealed to me because of the way it seemed it would follow generations of women - I enjoy books like that. It also promised elements of sensuality, magic, and mystery. However, the book did not entirely live up to its reputation. It was fairly bleak, and all of the women seemed to be grasping towards their respective men, who never lived up to their initial promise. There also wasn't much that tied them together except for the landscape of Ducharmes Landing. It was old-fashioned because the most modern story was set in the 30s. Three stars - it was good, but I won't read it again, and I probably won't look up other books by the same author.
Water Babies by Charles Kingsley was another recommendation from the "life after potter" lists - genre pre-modern fantasy. Tom is an abused little chimney sweep, who is taken away by water-babies, which are a kind of fairy, after an especially passionate plea to be clean. I liked the book well enough, but it got overly moralizing in some places, as Victorian children's literature is wont to do. It's a little violent and harsh for children of today, and contains dire predictions about children who don't get enough excercise, people who only do as they like (apparently it's only hard work at things we hate that keeps us from reverting to monkeys), and those who tease animals. I would recommend it mostly for people who like fairy tales, since it's somewhat original in that regard. At first I was sad that I was reading the abridged version, but by the end, I'll admit I wished it were abridged even more. Two and a half stars. The illustrations are quite nice, though.