From Amazon.com
This absorbing historical novel is less a mystery than a meditation on love between outcasts. In this instance the chief outcasts are John Frayne, recently returned from explorations in the western territories to reclaim the property in upstate New York stolen when his father was hanged as a Tory sympathizer, and Jennet, a young hearing-impaired wild woman offered for sale as an indentured servant after being captured while burying her mother (Hannah Trevor, familiar to readers of Margaret Lawrence's skillful post-Revolutionary War mystery series) in the frozen lake near the Frayne homestead in 1809. A crippled furniture maker who deserted the Napoleonic army at Austerlitz and an old master craftsman complete the roster of the exiled and damaged. Along with Jennet, they help Frayne rebuild his father's estate, which is strategically situated at the head of the bay near the Canadian border, from which all trade has been embargoed by President Thomas Jefferson. "An army is massing at the Canadian border, and apprentices are eager to volunteer, to march off and attack the British at the head of the lake. Teach the Redcoats a lesson, that is the cry now. Bonaparte is riding roughshod over Europe and Nelson's navy is bleeding; he stops neutral ships to kidnap Yankee seamen and press them into the service of England. The myth of American independence is one King George can no longer afford to indulge."
While the novel begins slowly with Frayne's return 10 years after abandoning his unfaithful wife and 2-year-old son, its power builds as the multiple dimensions of the main characters are explicated. Frayne's wife Hester has paid dearly for her infidelity, blackmailed into marriage to an ally of the scheming shopkeeper who holds the corrupt title to Frayne's land. And Tim, John's young son, is torn between his loyalty to his stepfather and his memories of the man who left so long ago. Uncertain how to approach his wife and son, Frayne attempts to build a new life with Jennet and in the process recapture Tim's affection. The harsh landscape is lovingly evoked, and although the climax smacks of the melodramatic, the sweep of history drives this artfully written book to a somewhat predestined conclusion. --Jane Adams
--Ce texte provient d'une édition qui n'est plus publiée ou qui est non diponible.
From Publishers Weekly
Set in post-Revolutionary War New Forge, N.Y., Lawrence's fourth historical drama (Hearts and Bones; Blood Red Roses; The Burning Bride) resumes the story of Jennet, deaf daughter of the author's previous heroine, Hannah Trevor, and adds the saga of John Frayne. The elegant and lyrical tale ingeniously knits together everything from mapmaking lore and American history to accounts of faithless wives and broken souls. In dreamy backstory sequences interspersed with present action, surveyor and mapmaker Frayne, sent away by a wife who desires another man, abandons his young son and heads west. Mistaken for a Hudson Bay Co. spy by traders on the Missouri River, Frayne is brutally tortured and left for dead in the wilderness. When he is rescued by Indians, he marries the beautiful Tacha and lives peacefully until tribal jealousies force him to barter for his life. Separated from Tacha, the heartsore Frayne returns to New Forge to find his ancestral home burned to the ground. Jennet, a victim of rape and about to be sold into slavery, is living in the burned-out house. The two wounded souls are drawn to each other, and are looked after by an expatriate Frenchman, Marius Leclerc. Frayne sets out to find his wife and their child, Tim. The boy is living happily with his mother and her new husband, Jacob Benet, but has been taught to detest the memory of his father. Though slander, treachery and petty jealousies whirl around them, Frayne's friends and relatives reach out to one another, learning the power of old stories and forgiveness. Lawrence's subtle lyricism is evident whether she is writing dialogue or narrative, and she skillfully weaves bits of the ancient tale of Odysseus's homecoming into her story. The novel may be the fourth in a saga, but it reads as a stand-alone piece, equipped with unforgettable characters and powerful poetic imagery. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--Ce texte provient d'une édition qui n'est plus publiée ou qui est non diponible.
