"The Visionist" by Rachel Urquhart~Exotic Read

SUMMARY :


An enthralling first novel about a teenage girl who finds refuge--but perhaps not--in an 1840s Shaker community.

After 15-year-old Polly Kimball sets fire to the family farm, killing her abusive father, she and her young brother find shelter in a Massachusetts Shaker community called the City of Hope. It is the Era of Manifestations, when young girls in Shaker enclaves all across the Northeast are experiencing extraordinary mystical visions, earning them the honorific of "Visionist" and bringing renown to their settlements.

The City of Hope has not yet been blessed with a Visionist, but that changes when Polly arrives and is unexpectedly exalted. As she struggles to keep her dark secrets concealed in the face of increasing scrutiny, Polly finds herself in a life-changing friendship with a young Shaker sister named Charity, a girl who will stake everything--even her faith--on Polly's honesty and purity.

PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK :

Published by:  Little, Brown & Co.
Pages:  338
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Author:  Rachel Urquhart
Websites:  See  http://www.littlebrown.com  re this author
http://www.rachelurquhartwriter.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR :

Rachel Urquhart’s 

Career as a Magazine Journalist and the Debut Writer of The Visionist

Though she has split her life (and her personality) living on a farm in Massachusetts and in an apartment in New York City, Rachel Urquhart was born in Manhattan and, at the ripe old age of 40, moved to Brooklyn. Since everyone in her new neighborhood had children and dogs and held close the fantasy of someday publishing a novel, she fit right in. She was fortunate enough to begin her magazine career at Spy—a job so singular that it would prove to ruin her desire to ever want to work full-time anywhere else. Lucky for her, Vogue stepped in and saved her from herself. She has spent her entire adult life as a writer, contributing pieces and the occasional snippet of fiction to a variety of publications, including Spy, Vogue, Allure, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Tin House, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Food & Wine, Travel & Leisure, Vanity Fair, Women’s Times and The Reader. She has also written three “lifestyle” books for the ChicSimple series (Knopf), and worked as an editor, at Vogue and, more recently, in service of college-bound teenagers and people in need of a decent toast. It took an abnormally long time for her to begin—and then complete—The Visionist, her first novel, and her heart goes out to anyone who finds him or herself in a similar predicament. She received her M.F.A. in Fiction from Sarah Lawrence College, and lives with her husband, two sons, two dogs and two cats.
*Photo by Sarah Shatz


THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS :

In the 1990's my husband, a real estate broker,  took me to a location in rural Massachusetts that had been a Shaker community.  It was on a beautiful landscape of rolling hills and stream with a vast expanse of sky.  The property was on the market for such a reasonable price I was shocked.  The buildings left were stark and eerie in their vastness and simplicity. There was a barn and a main building.  A lone sheep made its way across a narrow stream.  We went into the "main" building made of weathered blue wood.  It was huge and had an echoing emptiness to it.  Small windows...swept, unpolished wooden floors and plain walls...a narrow staircase.  The place felt haunted.  It was about three stories tall, but it seemed to reach to the sky.  I had a strange feeling about the whole place, as if people were watching us.  Beautiful as the entire package seemed, it was ghostly.

Rachel Urquhart has written a book that has made the Shakers come alive.  I've always had a fascination with them and their seemingly ethereal religious lives. They have seemed ghostly, as well, in their unattainable ways.  In a lifestyle not quite Quaker and perhaps far from Amish, the Shakers seemed even more set apart to me than other splinter religions.  In this novel I've had a glimpse of what their lives might have been like and it is magical in Urquhart's hands.

The storyline is rich and interesting primarily featuring Polly, a girl who has escaped an abusive father by murdering him only to find shelter with the Shakers who believe she is a "visionist," one especially selected to have spiritual insights and messages. We also follow another character's crime procedural as he ferrets out Polly's secret.  And, finally, we are brought into the mind of the Shaker sister who takes Polly into her heart and takes us into the intimacy of the community.  The three narrations carry the novel adding depth to the story.

Ms Urquhart is an author with strong talents.  It's hard to believe this is a debut novel.  Her literary voice is mature, her vision exotic and her story will touch your heart.  The world of the Shakers is unveiled and the lives of her characters evolve like a well-spring.

This is one of those books you have to read this year.  I can't say enough about it!

5 stars                           Deborah/TheBookishDame

 

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"The House I Loved" by Tatiana de Rosnay~Romance of Paris 1800's

SUMMARY :

From the New York Times bestselling author of Sarah’s Key and A Secret Kept comes an absorbing new novel about one woman’s resistance during an époque that shook Paris to its very core.

Paris, France: 1860’s. Hundreds of houses are being razed, whole neighborhoods reduced to ashes. By order of Emperor Napoleon III, Baron Haussman has set into motion a series of large-scale renovations that will permanently alter the face of old Paris, moulding it into a “modern city.” The reforms will erase generations of history—but in the midst of the tumult, one woman will take a stand.

Rose Bazelet is determined to fight against the destruction of her family home until the very end; as others flee, she stakes her claim in the basement of the old house on rue Childebert, ignoring the sounds of change that come closer and closer each day. Attempting to overcome the loneliness of her daily life, she begins to write letters to Armand, her beloved late husband. And as she delves into the ritual of remembering, Rose is forced to come to terms with a secret that has been buried deep in her heart for thirty years. Tatiana de Rosnay's The House I Loved is both a poignant story of one woman’s indelible strength, and an ode to Paris, where houses harbor the joys and sorrows of their inhabitants, and secrets endure in the very walls...

PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK :

Published by:  St. Martin's Press
Pages:  256
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Author  Tatiana de Rosnay
Website:  http://www.tatianaderosnay.com
Purchase book here:  Amazon


ABOUT THE AUTHOR :

 

In French:

 

Tatiana de Rosnay est née le 28 septembre 1961, à Neuilly-sur-Seine. Balance ascendant Scorpion. Elle se décrit comme étant "franglaise". Elle a été élevée à Boston et à Paris. Son père est français d'origine russe, sa mère, anglaise. Tatiana a écrit son premier roman dans sa langue maternelle, l’anglais, à l'âge de 11 ans, sur un cahier Clairefontaine. Après des études littéraires en Angleterre, à l’université de East Anglia, Tatiana a travaillé à Paris comme journaliste, pour Vanity Fair, Psychologies, ELLE et le JDD. Elle a publié son premier roman, L'Appartement témoin, en 1992. Depuis, elle a publié onze romans en France, dont Elle s'appelait Sarah, vendu à neuf millions d'exemplaires dans le monde. Tatiana aime le bleu turquoise, les voyages, le rire, les figuiers, Mozart, Emile Zola, Virginia Woolf et la musique disco. Sa romancière préférée est Daphné du Maurier. Elle vit à Paris avec sa famille.

In translation I take most of this to mean~  She grew up in Boston and in Paris.  Her father is french, but orginally from Russia and her mother is English. After she studied literature at a university she was stationed in Paris where she became a journalist for Vanity Fair, Psychologies, Elle...  Tatiana loves turquoise blue, travel, Mozart, the authors Emile Zola and Virginia Woolf, and disco music.  For romance fiction she prefers Daphne du Maurier.  She currently lives in Paris with her family.   (This is as far as my very weak French takes us...)


BOOK TRAILER :

THE DAME'S REVIEW :

There's hardly anything more romantic than a story about an old house and the woman who clings to her past loves within it.  This book was written for the likes of me.  The setting of Paris is one that immediately puts me in a frame of mind to nestle down and read, and the time frame of the 1800's just seals the deal.  I'm not a hard sell when it comes to all these elements in a book.

Tatiana de Rosnay is an author who knows how to develop atmosphere and characters.  The house itself comes alive from the pages and envelops not only the main characters, but also the reader.  I could sense the walls breathing with memories just as I could hear the voice of Rose reliving them through her letters and notes to her dead husband. I wanted to walk the halls and hide in the basement with Rose.  Wanted to protect the old house along with her.  My heart ached to save its precious walls and parts that had encased the family over the many years.  It seemed like a bed that held a jewel.

Ms de Rosnay so developed the character of Rose that at times I felt she was real.  She is a very sympathetic character.  I fell in love with her gentleness as well as her determination despite all odds to save not only her house/home, but her way of life and her memories.  It was engrossing to walk her life story with her, and to meet the other people in her life who not only played major parts in supporting her, but who loved her in different ways...or resented her. 

This is a beautifully descriptive novel with a wonderful story to tell about family, friends and lost dreams.  I highly recommend it to those who love Paris and everything about it along with its history; but also to those who love a story about women of substance.  Rose is a woman of strength and committed love.  Hers is a beautiful story told by a generous and worthy author.

5 stars               Deborah/TheBookishDame



 

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"The Painted Girls" by Cathy Marie Buchanan

 

SUMMARY :

A heartrending, gripping novel about two sisters in Belle Époque Paris.

1878 Paris. Following their father’s sudden death, the van Goethem sisters find their lives upended. Without his wages, and with the small amount their laundress mother earns disappearing into the absinthe bottle, eviction from their lodgings seems imminent. With few options for work, Marie is dispatched to the Paris Opéra, where for a scant seventeen francs a week, she will be trained to enter the famous ballet. Her older sister, Antoinette, finds work as an extra in a stage adaptation of Émile Zola’s naturalist masterpiece L’Assommoir.

Marie throws herself into dance and is soon modeling in the studio of Edgar Degas, where her image will forever be immortalized as Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. There she meets a wealthy male patron of the ballet, but might the assistance he offers come with strings attached? Meanwhile Antoinette, derailed by her love for the dangerous Émile Abadie, must choose between honest labor and the more profitable avenues open to a young woman of the Parisian demimonde. 

Set at a moment of profound artistic, cultural, and societal change, The Painted Girls is a tale of two remarkable sisters rendered uniquely vulnerable to the darker impulses of “civilized society.” In the end, each will come to realize that her salvation, if not survival, lies with the other.

 

PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK :

Published by:  Riverhead Books

Pages:  349

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Read more:  Author's Website

Purchase this book:  Barnes & Noble

 

A BIT ABOUT THE AUTHOR : 

 

 

CATHY MARIE BUCHANAN is the author of The Painted Girls and The Day the Falls Stood Still. Published January 2013, The Painted Girls has received enthusiastic reviews (Kirkus, The Globe and Mail, the National Post, The Washington Post) and is a People Magazine Pick, a Good Housekeeping Book Pick, an Indie Next pick, a USA Today New and Notable selection, a Barnes & Noble Staff Pick, an Entertainment Weekly Must List pick, a Vogue Books People Are Talking About selection, a Chatelaine Book Club pick and a national bestseller in Canada. The Day the Falls Stood Still, her dedut novel, was a New York Times bestseller, a Barnes & Noble Recommends selection, and an IndieNext pick.

Her stories have appeared in many of Canada’s most respected literary journals, and she has received awards from both the Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council. She holds a BSc (Honours Biochemistry) and an MBA from Western University. Born and raised in Niagara Falls, Ontario, she now resides in Toronto.

Connect with Cathy Marie on Facebook or Twitter.


THE DAME'S REVIEW :

I have to admit that this is one of those books I fell in love with the cover first.  I'm an art history major, and I was drawn to the Degas ballet dancers on the cover.  Once I had it in my hands, it was hard to resist the feel of it, too. It has that soft, velvety skin to it that they're putting on books these days.  It's a vivid and gorgeous book.  Then, the back cover and the summary caught me.  You've no doubt read it above...I hope.  This is all together a delicious book.

Cathy Marie Buchanan became a favorite of mine when I read her debut novel, "The Day the Falls Stood Still."  I'm not sure I know how to tell you what's different about her writing.  It just is.  Her voice is matter of fact and easy.  It was that element in her first book that made it so poignant and powerful to me, and it felt the same in this book.  While she tells us a human story, it's as if she's sitting down across the living room from us and telling it with all seriousness.  It makes for a beautiful manner; although, it's not light-hearted.

Without apologies the focus of her book is her characters, and there's nothing more powerful than a truly character driven novel.  There are actually three sisters in the book, although two sisters alternate telling their viewpoints in the story.  Marie, the younger sister, is wise and worldly beyond her years and is the model and focus of Edgar Degas and his art work The Little Dancer.  She personifies the struggles of the poor in the late 1800's in Paris, along with her older sister, Antoinette, who is no longer wanted by the Ballet and reduced to a washerwoman and lover of a criminal. 

What's interesting is that Buchanan has used the actual people to carve her story.  These people actually existed and she's created a story to encompass their circumstances.  Here is the old-world, almost journalistic bent to her writing style.  I was caught up in the horrific life-style of the sisters and their mother...the starvation and deprivation, the struggles to get ahead, the temptations of the easy way out, and the hopefulness of love even though found in the wrong places. 

The novel is a set piece continuing the light shone by Emile Zola on the human experience in his novels and play; as well as famous criminology, and the part anatomical features played in recognizing murderers in that age.  It's just fascinating as Ms Buchanan puts the story together, although it sometimes weighed more on the history than the novel side.

So, I suppose in summary I need to say that one mustn't be fooled by this book's cover!  While it is beautiful and soft, depicting graceful and limber dancers...it is solid and strange within.  It's a strong and interesting book.  The story is all the better for having been based on truth.

This is the darker side of Paris in the 1800's.  It's a mysterious side.  A glimpse behind the Opera curtain, into the art studio of a master, inside a brothel, and within the walls of a prison....  Come see!

4 stars                 Deborah/TheBookishDame

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