The Biblio Blogazine

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Edited with an Introduction by Pauline Nestor
Preface by Lucasta Miller
Fiction, 337 pages
Penguin Classics, Penguin Books

 FTC Disclaimer: Mine, all mine. Pfffft.

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This isn’t going to be in the usual format as I basically have been reviewing this book in weekly increments.

I liked the book. But I’m happy to move on.

Gothic romances of this time period can be a challenge to read, and this one is no exception to the rule.

However, I remain impressed by Brontë’s skill with characterization, even if the characters she created I never grew to like. I have to give her credit for creating such strong negative feelings, that I actually tried to delve into the characters psyche and motivations to try and understand why they were the way they were, and if any could be redeemed.

If they weren’t developed so well, I just wouldn’t have given a crap and quite likely quit the book. Only a powerful plot would keep me going, and as good as this one is, it just isn’t good enough. So it was her characters and all their foibles that kept me reading.

The main gripe I have is the ending. Not so much what it is, but how it is reached and handled. Unsure if this is because of the genre, how novels worked at the time, just me, but it seemed hurried and incongruous with the rest of the novel.

Recommending this book is difficult. I would definitely do so to those looking to read a gothic romance or who like a character driven novel. Bear in mind also, this book was published in 1847, and its language clearly reflects this.

The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
ISBN: 9780446194228
Fiction, 341 pages

Grand Central Publishing, Hachette Book Group

Review copy courtesy of Newman Communications

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Instead of a summary or blurb, I offer the author’s own words regarding Truly, the little giant of Aberdeen county:

Imagine being so large that no one could possibly overlook you, and yet everyone does. Imagine being the biggest person in the smallest town, but still snubbed every day. Imagine only being able to see broken pieces of yourself in the frame of a hallway mirror or a shop window. Picture trying to buy clothes, or take a seat on a bus, or fit behind a desk at a school that’s clearly not designed for the kind of soul you are.

Reasons for ostracizing others takes many forms, and not the obvious ones, such as gigantism. There are subtle ones, such as being perceived as too small, too weak, too effeminate, too masculine – you name it, society will come up with an excuse to use it against you.

So people try to keep secret those things that could cause them to become an outcast; such is our need to feel included and wanted.

But secrets have a habit of refusing to stay hidden. Eventually, they scream out to see the light of day, taking back control of their destiny. And in retaliation, change the course of destiny in a way that irrevocably affects those who tried to suppress them. Sometimes this retaliation is deadly.

And I don’t necessarily mean this literally. As The Little Giant of Aberdeen County shows, secrets eat away at people. Literally. Digesting one’s very soul until there is nothing left then but to eat away at one’s body.

It is a hunger that is insatiable. Some people feed it with denial. Others with alcohol or food. But it never satisfies. The truth will win out. And until it does, it sickens the keeper. I wonder sometimes if many of our illnesses are created by stress and the supression of emotions and feelings that cannot be contained well, or for long.

These are the thoughts I am left with after reading this book. One I could not put down. Baker’s writing is realistic yet elegant. I am always enamored with author’s who provide intriguing characterizations. And Baker entranced me with hers:

“Robert Morgan never liked a thing in his life unless he got to take the first bite out of it, and he never let a thing go either, until it was chewed all the way down to skin and bone.”

“I recognized an expression of concern colonizing his face now, as if he were contemplating the idea of all the adults in his life shriveling up and blowing away like corn husks. He’d just turned eight, but he was already hovering on the dark threshold of adult cynicism, I saw. One more push from the world, I suspected, and he’d shoot all the way through to the other side of mean, just like his father.”

I can’t say that there are any detractions to be found in this novel. At first I thought I’d found one in the shifting points of view in the narration. There are two really: Truly’s and the third person. However it’s necessary as it is Truly telling the story of what has already happened, the third person point of view is relating information unknown to Truly at the time, but that the reader needs to know for the story to move along as well as it does and in a linear fashion.

It works. Trust me. I didn’t even realize this was happening until three-quarters of the way into the book. The transitions were that smooth. The storytelling that good.

This is a definite recommendation to anyone who hasn’t gotten their hands on a copy yet and is looking for an excellent summer read, the kind you can take anywhere and get yourself lost within, enjoying every minute and every page.