Comments on: REVIEW: Marike’s World by Catherine Rae

By: heather (errantdreams)

heather (errantdreams) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:09:56 +0000

Sounds rather like someone wanted to write a historical without necessarily doing the truly in-depth research that can make historicals so fascinating.

By: vanessa jaye

vanessa jaye — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:21:09 +0000

I see Charlene’s point, but I also understand Jane’s beef. Fiction is not real life. Perhaps if the story had been more of a character study or coming of age thing through hardships, etc, Jane might have been a bit less dissatisfied with the book. A series of mundane happenings against a bigger, but blurred & muted, backdrop of major events would be frustrating.

But what I really meant to comment on was the beautiful artwork. It’s quite lovely.

By: jmc

jmc — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:14:17 +0000

Thanks for checking!

By: Jayne

Jayne — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:00:02 +0000

No, sorry. Nothing is listed for the cover artist.

By: jmc

jmc — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:50:43 +0000

I love the cover art — was there any information about the designer on the copyright page?

By: Jayne

Jayne — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 11:45:56 +0000

‘but a plurality of people living in the colonies didn’t really care one way or the other as long as they weren’t too personally inconvenienced.’

Oh absolutely Charlene. No question about that. In Marike’s little world, her husband had fought though and (I didn’t mention this in the review) her two brothers had been killed at the Battle of Saratoga. So she had a little stake in how this war turned out.

My beef is why set a story in this period of history and this particular place and make so little use of what was going on? If all we’re really going to get is household drama, why not choose 1763 or 1807. I don’t have to have each and every one of these characters interacting with the famous/great people of the time, being secret spies or somehow influencing the outcome of these events but I would like a little more than what I got.

Perhaps my complaints should be directed towards whoever wrote the blurb I read at Fictionwise which lead me to believe I’d be getting something different from what I did.

‘Just as Marike takes her first adult steps toward love and independence, her lover is called away to take up arms against the British. Soon she finds the blissful life she had envisioned for herself dashed. Circumstance demands not only that she be separated from the man she loves, but from her family as well. Yet in spite of the adversity she faces, Marike succeeds in using her wits and inner strength to find her way. Set against the backdrop of revolution era New York, Rae’s ninth novel is filled with the suspense, romance, and historical detail that bring Marike’s story and her world to vivid and thrilling life.’

By: Charlene

Charlene — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:41:31 +0000

I hate to say it…but for the average person at the time, Marike’s reactions to the war would be not just plausible but perhaps even the norm. John Sutherland called it “bicycle pumps and mattresses” history: the history of the common man who doesn’t know or care about what’s going on around him. (The name comes from the books Nineteen Eighty-Four and Moll Flanders, where common people don’t remember wars and great disasters but remember when their own mattress caught fire or when they broke a bicycle pump.)

This is especially true with respect to the Revolutionary War. Americans have been spoon-fed the idea that every single solitary Colonial American was a 100% patriot except for a tiny minority of evil Tories standing in the way of freedom. In reality, each side had about the same number of supporters, but a plurality of people living in the colonies didn’t really care one way or the other as long as they weren’t too personally inconvenienced.

It sounds as if the writer didn’t succeed in her attempt to convey this, though.