Year Of Wonders (Hardcover)

Elinor is an enthusiastic gardener and has a growing interest in the herbs being cultivated by an ostracized family of women who are suspected of being witches, despite the fact that many of their herbal preparations have proven beneficial to the local villagers. From the beginning of this engaging novel the reader experiences a growing tension and increasing realization that something will happen to this tiny village and its mostly poor inhabitants. And that "something" is the Bubonic plague that in reality struck an actual English village upon which this story is based.

Anna is so key a character that it is within her household that the person carrying the plague, a vagabond-type tailor, actually sets in motion the larger plot. How will persons of varying socioeconomic levels and belief systems deal with a plague? Will it force some to rely on their destructive superstitions? Will it be a catapult to positive change? What will its devastating force do to the small minded, the idealistic, the religious minded?

These questions are all dealt with in this beautifully written novel. Reverend Mompellion is a good, idealistic man. Because he's educated, he and his wife are invited to the homes of some of the area wealthy. It is at these gatherings that he first learns that those "who have" will flee the area for London, expecting to escape suffering and death. Because the plague struck during 1655 and 1666, there was no understanding that the Bubonic Plague was carried by fleas from infected rats. Undoubtedly, escaping the poor, dirty peasants would bring a higher social strata some insurance from being affiliated with and, therefore, infected by the underclass!

Death escapes no family. Some are decimated within days. Yet various neighbors assist one another, nurse one another, one another's children...and ultimately bury them. Others are convinced the witches are the cause of the plague; a murder takes place. All the while Reverend Mompellion keeps his head and is a strong, persistent leader who convinces his parishoners of two things: God is testing them; and they should voluntarily quarantine themselves so as not to spread the plague any further.

Reverend Mompellion strikes a deal with a leader of a neighboring community to bring food and supplies to a certain point beyond which none of the villagers will stray. The community continually shrinks as its inhabitants die in increasing numbers. Church services are eventually stopped indoors, hoping lack of close proximity will quell the plague. Services are held for decimated numbers outside. Yet, Reverend Mompellion prevails in his unflagging belief in God....until tragedy strikes his own household and his own faith is crushed.

The novel's ending is very much a surprise. As I earlier indicated, some grow in knowledge, spirit, understanding and generosity. Others do not! Belief systems are shaken but the results are not necessarily negative! Well written; well told; engrossing!

This book is set in 1665; its heroine is Anna Frith, an 18 year old widow with two young sons. It is soon revealed that her husband was a miner killed in a mining accident. Anna is a servant in the household of the local Anglican priest and his wife, Elinor.

As the book opens, it is clear that a) the "year of wonders" is almost over and b) Elinor is dead. Careful readers will learn in this chapter that Anna and Elinor were the bestest of friends and that Anna, despite the fact that she's a peasant in a remote English village, not only reads, but understands Latin. At this point, alarm bells started going off in my head. I'm always deeply suspicious of books that try too hard to make their historical heroines, well, heroic. Make the heroine smart, sure. Even let her have learned how to read on her own, fine - though it's unlikely that a young 17th century mother would have the time to learn and the ready access to books. But please don't make her an overevolved Rhodes scholar with modern sensibilities. Please. My pleas were not answered.

Anyway, as the book progresses, it's clear that Brooks is imposing 21st century values on her characters. In addition, some very unwelcome Oprah-ization slinks in, mainly in the discussion of Anna's family, where it is revealed that Anna has an abusive father (with zero redeeming qualities) who is married to a woman, Aphra, who turns out to be bitchy, unloving, and also into witchcraft (?).

On the other hand, Elinor is just as perfect as can be. She doesn't believe in social divisions. She literally looks like an angel, all wispy and with silvery hair and whatnot. She teaches Anna how to read and write and read great scholarly volumes. Apparently, Anna has plenty of time to indulge in all these scholarly pursuits. Anna, as I'll discuss later, also turns out to be pretty perfect herself. I actually laughed during Elinor's faux deathbed scene when Elinor basically congratulates both herself and Anna on becoming ever so wonderful.

(The priest, Mompellion, is your average tortured artiste type. He is supposed to have chemistry with Anna. Scandalous!)

Anyway, even though this is a novel of the plague, there isn't really THAT much about how horrible the plague is. Mompellion visits plague families. There's an interlude in which Anna and Elinor pluckily mine a vein so that a little Quaker orphan girl can keep the claim to the vein (Elinor and Anna are easily able to get beyond those silly 17th century prejudices about Quakers.) Anna's half-sister, Faith, is mentioned in passing about 300 pages into the book. Then she dies. Anys, a saucy herbalist chick, is hanged by panicked villagers. Boy, is Mompellion mad about that! (By the way, Anna is totally cool with Anys sleeping around, because she's moderne like that.) There are other random mentions of the village being deserted and various coping mechanism employed by the distraught villagers, but Brooks never really sells the reader on how horrible the Year of Wonders is. Rather, the Year of Wonders is more like a prep course to make Anna even more exceptional.

Anna not only becomes an ace scholar, but she also becomes a terrific midwife in less than a year. After a very brief indulgence, she has the moral rectitude to primly burn Anys' poppy stash when she finds it, becuase opium is BAD. Her horrible father and horrible stepmother die horribly. Oh, she also learns to tame Mompellion's stallion, because she is just that good.

Mompellion is written as an amalgamation of nobility and unexpected nuttiness. His abstinence from Elinor really doesn't make much sense, but it does mean that Anna can sleep with him without much guilt after Elinor dies.

Anyway, Anna takes off at the end of the book. At this point, it seemed to me like the author sat around and thought "Hmm. I want my main character to continue her scholarly pursuits in medicine. Where can she do that? I know! Morocco!" Yes, Anna abruptly ends up as the wife to a well-regarded Arab doctor at the end of the book, where she studies in Arabic and raises her children (her new kids - her sons having died in the plague.) Wow, did that come out of nowhere.

Brooks has clearly done a lot of research and the book is quite readable. But I found Anna and her friends to be too modern and too perfect, much like the protagonist of Pope Joan (another disappointing historical novel) or, dare I say it? Jean Auel's Ayla, the most perfect woman ever to exist in all prehistory.) If you want to read some decent fiction set in this period, I can recommend Slammerkin. The only diseases in that novel are venereal, though.

Now, for the bad...the ending did not disappoint me to the degree it did some of the other reviewers. I think maybe because someone gave it away in their review and so I was anticipating it all along (shame on you!!!!). However, it was a disjointed ending that didn't fit with the flow of the rest of the story.

No matter. I enjoyed the read and have left it feeling satisfied. Isn't that what we readers desire most?