GREAT READS FOR APRIL, 2015
The
Good Girl, by Mary Kubica
The blurb on the cover of
this book compares it glowingly to ‘Gone Girl’, and the format is similar, with
the main protagonists taking turns at narrating each chapter. There the similarity ends: Ms Kubica’s debut novel is not as polished or
well-plotted and some of the characters are overblown and unconvincing; having said that, Ms Kubica’s story still
packs a punch, especially at its conclusion.
Mia Dennett, the daughter of a prominent and powerful
Chicago judge is abducted by a petty criminal hired by Dalmar, a gangster who
intends to extort a ransom from her father.
Her abductor has stalked her for weeks, learning her daily schedule and
habits, and eventually paying her no-hoper boyfriend to purposely work late so
that he can make a move on her in the bar where she waits in vain for her date
to arrive. What her kidnapper doesn’t
bargain on is the unaccustomed fear he feels for her at the thought of surrendering
his struggling and horrified victim to Dalmar and his gang – he knows from
bitter personal experience that they are ruthless, cruel and will enjoy
themselves hugely with their prisoner.
Contrary to his instructions, he flees with Mia to a
remote cabin not far from the Canadian border.
He doesn’t have a plan; he has no
idea what will happen to either of them, but he cannot surrender the judge’s
daughter to almost certain death. Dalmar’s
kidnapping and ransom plans have gone pear-shaped and he is on the fugitives’
trail, not least because a minion has dared to defy him.
The situation is little better in Chicago: fissures have appeared in the façade that the
judge has carefully preserved around his family and personal life: no-one is as happy as they publicly seem, and
Mia’s kidnapping exacerbates all the old resentments, especially as the judge
seems coldly unaffected by her plight: to his wife’s horror, he seems reluctant
to consider paying any kind of ransom, despite his enormous wealth. Breaking point is not far off for everyone,
and the only certainty is that the situation will end in tears.
Ms Kubica manages her plot and characters well enough to
make the reader hope that that there will be an improbable happy ending; the growing attachment between Mia and her
kidnapper (commonly known as the Stockholm Syndrome) blossoms from dependence
to love: can they escape to freedom
across the Canadian border, or will the law – and those wanting to kill them –
catch up with them?
‘The Good Girl’ is no ‘Gone Girl’, but it is a good read
and a very competent first novel.
Recommended.
Flight
of the Sparrow, by Amy Belding Brown
Amy Belding Brown’s wonderful novel is based on the true
story of Mary Rowlandson, devout wife of a minister and loving mother of her
three children. They live in a frontier
village called Lancaster; husband Joseph
ministers to the needs of his flock and tills his fields, while Mary fulfils
her Christian duty to her neighbours and friends as a good Christian wife
should. She seldom questions her
husband’s decisions, for in Puritan society the man is head of the household
and women are but lowly handmaids, there to obey his every wish and bolster his
authority: he is the master of the
family, answering only to men of more authority – and to God.
Unfortunately for the outpost families, their Indian
neighbours are agitating for rebellion;
they rightly object to their hunting grounds being turned into farmland,
with access refused so that they cannot feed their families; they object to the grossly uneven terms of
trade, weighted heavily in Englishmen’s favour; and the zealous attempts at ‘conversion’ are
regarded as another form of subjugation by an alien people who are bent on
destroying their way of life forever.
The Indians are preparing for war.
Regardless of Mary’s fears and objections, Joseph leaves
Lancaster to journey to Boston to enlist the help of the British militia
stationed there; he is serenely
confident that God will protect his frightened family – after all, he is
leaving several men behind to guard their little garrison; they are all good shots even though one is
only a boy. No: his duty is clear. He will be back with soldiers in a very short
time. They will hold the fort until his return.
Four days later at dawn, the feared attack begins. The remaining men defend their families and
neighbours bravely, but after their house is set on fire Mary and her children
have no choice but to stagger outside, there to witness shocking brutality and
the slaughter of her beloved sister and her children. The God that Mary has worshipped so
faithfully all her life is not present on this day. Piety and goodness have not prevented her
capture and subsequent slavery with her children, nor has God seen fit to spare
her youngest child, six year old Sarah, who dies in her arms days later from a
musket wound.
The
first great jolt to the foundations of Mary’s Puritan beliefs is a heresy she
can hardly acknowledge to herself, but as the days of captivity turn into
weeks, she finds that her slave status notwithstanding, life among the Indians
has a freedom she has never before experienced.
People are kind – to each other, and to her – they share everything they
have, even though they eventually face starvation, and they are loving and kind
to their children.
By
the time Mary is ransomed back to the English three months later, she knows
that her experiences have changed her permanently: she will never again be the same goodwife,
content to live within the constraints of one man’s will.
Ms
Brown has written of Mary’s travails with grace and power; she is one of those rare novelists who has
the ability to capture the reader’s imagination so completely that they are by Mary’s
side throughout the book (even though Yours Wussy Truly tried to skate over the
massacre), sorrowing with her at the death of her loved ones, but cheering her
on when bravery and defiance come to the fore.
This is a gem of a book. Highly
recommended.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment