Belle Cora Phillip Margulies

Belle Cora by Phillip Margulies

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Bella Cora is an epic historical saga which captivated me early on but sadly loosed its grip as it drug to an end.  Arabella Godwin, born to a middle class New York family in the early 19th century had a wonderful childhood until her mothers death from consumption, quickly followed by her fathers sudden death. With her rebellious brother Lewis, Arabella is sent to live on a farm with relatives in upstate New York, to prevent them from becoming consumptive. It is with this move that Arabella's life takes a dramatic turn away from her puritanical up bringing and begins her journey to becoming one of San Francisco's most famous madams.
Spanning from 1828-1919, Bella Cora gives readers an intimate look at a rapidly growing and changing United States. From New York City, early farm life, the Gold Rush and westward expansion, Civil War and finally the great San Francisco earth quake.
Arabella, in an unlikeable, unsympathetic character right from the beginning. As a young child her drive to be good and to always do the right thing is sickeningly sweet. Once she is sent to relatives her story becomes focused on the injustices heap upon her by her aunt and her cousin Agnes, however, Arabella is almost never completely innocent, often finding herself in sticky situations.  Despite her character faults, she weaves a compelling story and you can't wait to find out what her next sticky situation will be.
The first half of this book is fast paced and full of dramatic situations and I quickly devoured it, not wanting to put the novel down.  The second half, beginning with her arrival in San Francisco slowed, became wordy and full of confusing characters and political situations as San Francisco and Belle Cora's house of ill-fame grew together.  I struggled through this section and had a difficult time understanding Belle's motivations, finding much of it unbelievable and to coincidental. 
Despite the books weak ending I still found it to be a great romp, full of murder, love, scandal and sex.  I recommend this for anyone looking for a light historical novel.




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Historical Fiction at its Best, Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Burial Rites is historical fiction at its best. The way the author intermingled historical documents, real people and places with the fictional story was masterful and spellbinding. The characters Kent imagined were perfectly imperfect people, multidimensional people who struggled with their situations, trying to do what was best for them and others. As Margret stated, “no one is all bad.”
Kent’s knowledge of Iceland and its history was evident throughout the book, her painstaking research into Iceland during the early 1800s was very much appreciated and I enjoyed the bits of everyday life, lamb slaughter, meat preservation, haymaking etc. This gave the novel a depth and realism it would have lacked without such detail.
Agnes is the most fully realized and central character of the novel, she was the last person executed in Iceland during the early 1800s, despite her conviction of murder, she is a sympathetic character. I often found myself hoping she would get an appeal, or that her story would end differently. You can’t help but root for her! Agnes grew up as a pauper, shuffling from foster family to foster family, enduing great hardship, loss, cruelty and loneliness. When she meets Natan, she thinks she has finally found someone who sees her and loves her. I wanted Agnes to see Natan for who he was before it was too late, but her infatuation blinds her to the truth.
This book is close to flawless. A few characters are stereotypical, such as Bjorn Blondal and to some degree Reverend Toti, but the character of Agnes was so well done I was able to overlook these characters. And, I really liked Reverend Toti and his approach to Agnes, sure it helped drive the story but he care and compassion for her was so real and so necessary.
I did struggle with the start of the novel, learning the Icelandic names and placing characters, but once I overcame those initial struggles I could not put the book down. The ending was very poignant; I finished it with tears streaming down my face.




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