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Reader's Paradise

year of wonders

18 years ago

A friend gave me Year of Wonders to read and I was apprehensive because I was disappointed in People of the Book. However, I liked Year of Wonders and think it is much more well written. I didn't have a problem with the ending as some others expressed in the People of the Book thread. From the very beginning Anna is presented as a woman who is more curious about life and desires to understand the world more than the average person of her era. I think sometimes that because women were so excluded from history we have a hard time believing that there were ever any extraordinary women in the past, that the history of women is that they lived boring, meaningless lives keeping a home and birthing babies. More and more documents are unearthed or discovered that show women did educated themselves , that many succeeded at fulfilling lives and were encouraged by husband's, brothers, communities, etc.

As I read about Anna's departure into her new life I could see how she would want to leave what little was left and start fresh somewhere completely different. There were sections in the book where she questioned what was going in the village and tried to consider what drove people to their actions.

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Comments (3)

thyrkas
18 years ago
deborah47 - I wish I could imagine Anna's new life as being a possibility, but I just can't. Count me among those disappointed in the ending of Year of Wonders. I think what made it even more unbelievable was that I have read Geraldine Brooks's non-fiction book about the lives of women in modern Arab countries. It clearly shows how severly limited women's lives are in those countries today, much less several hundred years ago. (The book is called "Nine Parts of Desire" and is a worthwhile read.) It is, of course, the author's right to construct any kind of ending to their book, but I thought Brooks's ending made Year of Wonders a weaker, not stronger, work of fiction.
christinmk z5b eastern WA
18 years ago
I read this book several years ago, but still remember it (and still have it I think). I liked the plot pretty well. I think it was interesting that it first started out in a village. Most books ive read involving the plauge usually start out in the cities (where the desease usually started). The people of that time then tried to move out into the country away from the pestelence.
There was one or two parts I found a little unfitting with the general theme. Like when Anna and the preachers wife help that Miners Child or whomever it was. I also found the part where the preacher (after he and Anna become lovers) berating his dead wife for her past sins weird, but could see it happening in real life.
I too thought that the ending was just bizare. It was almost as though the ending to a whole nother book had been put at the end for this one. But I liked the book, DISPITE the bad ending.
CMK
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kren250
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I'm another one who liked the book in general, but didn't care for the ending. It'd be unrealistic enough in this day and age of frequent travel....back then, it would be nearly impossible. I felt like the author couldn't come up with an ending, and thought, "I'll tack this one on since it's somewhat happy".

A realistic ending would've had Anna toiling away in England, working some dead end, low paying job and trying to support herself and the two girls. Not happy, but at least realistic.

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