I do love Deeping. It's not that he writes earthshaking stories, he doesn't. But he writes about real people with real feelings and you go away feeling at peace and contented.
In Blind Man's Year, we have a wealthy but reclusive authoress living in a remote Suffolk gardener's dream. Due to an unsightly birth mark on one side of her face, she endeavors to soothe her pride by keeping herself to herself and her identity as a famous writer private.But one day when the fog is particularly dense, a small plain crashes near her property. The young pilot battles for his life and survives but is permanently blinded. His condition being so fragile, the doctor advises against moving him and Rosamund nurses him at her home. Romance ensues.What I admire about Deeping is how he doesn't take you to the wedding day and then abandon the reader. Marriage is simply part of the story and we get to experience their lives together after the big day, which is far more interesting. In this case we see Clive's daily struggles and progress as he climbs his way back to independence, how he masters braille, typing, fruit picking etc and overcomes his fear of the unknown. We also watch Rosalind become the confindent woman she never was, with Clive as her friend and support.Seeing how Clive and Rosamund interact, sharing the understanding and succor that each needs, is a guaranteed heart warmer. True companionship at its best.Oh and totally off the point but an interesting tidbit is that in this story we have another Margaret Hayle (like in Gaskill's North and South). CONTENT:SEX: NoneVIOLENCE: NonePROFANITY: MildMY RATING: G- Mild PG
2.5 Stars
Not Deeping's best by any stretch. It starts off pretty interesting, a WW1 vet of 40 (and up and coming engineer/ inventor) sets up home in a quiet village where he sets eyes on a rather Ophelia-type young woman living under the tyrannical shadow of her alcoholic mother. Her life is so miserable she loses the will to live and even contemplates suicide. The man decides to make it his mission to bring happiness to this somewhat limpid creature and that's "The White Gate" in a nutshell.The first half is a solid 3 stars but it dissolved in plot after their marriage and during their honeymoon in France. YAWN.Happily, this is available on public domain and I did not buy it.
Its extremely unusual to read a book about a medical doctor's experiences during WW1, written by a medical doctor who actually served in WW1. It becomes more than just a story, its semi-autobiographical and you can feel the authenticity. Written in the present tense, it reads almost like a diary.
Brent was quite happy doctoring at home. He had no fighting urge to "blast the Hun". As a matter of fact, it was a quarrel he's wasn't sure he even believed in. But as the menfolk started leaving town in khakis, (some never to return) and the remaining villagers began looking askance at him, his medical partner pointed out that if he wanted a practice after the war was over.....Brent signed up; "coerced by a cowardly conscience", as he put it.What follows are the adventures of three years living/ doctoring in the trenches. There were no such things as clinic "bunkers" in some safe spot away from the lines; you went into the trenches and shell holes, dragged the wounded off and tended them as best you could in whatever shelter/ dugout you could find and hope the shells wouldn't blow you all up in the process. (And sometimes they did). It was an eye opener for me as I didn't realize just what kind of dangers the medical officers faced and how differently the war affected people. Some became devil-may-care promiscuous, others went home with severe shell shock, other men (from both sides) lost hope, rebelled against the whole butchery and deserted their posts. And more often than not, you couldn't tell those who were capable by looking at their appearance. The most strapping, confident-looking soldier could become a quivering mass of jelly when the shots started firing. Written in 1936, before WW2 erupted, I couldn't help but wonder what the author felt as he saw the world changing and gearing up yet again...A must read and one of Deeping's best.CONTENT: PGSEX: None shown, but mentioned matter of factlyVIOLENCE: Some war imagery but not too graphicPROFANITY: Frequent sprinkling of "D's" and "H's"
I read Signa and Bebee and enjoyed them immensely. This story just didn't work for me. The overall tone is so depressing it makes Les Miserables or Tess of the D'Urbervilles feel like Pollyanna.
I don't mind some darkness if there's a glimmer of hope, but this isn't that kind of story. I counted one sympathetic character, a cripple and outcast who dies soon after his introduction. Other than him, they are to the last man, woman and child either downright evil or soul-destroyingly indifferent.I'm the first to admit that understanding allegory is not my strong suite. And this book is rich with them. To a more intellectual mind, I can imagine its worth. But unfortunately, I was blinded by the misery. If there was a moral to this, the only two I took home were that "evil always conquers good" and "there is no God but gold". Not very cheerful.In a nutshell: a fatherless child (read: spawn of the devil) is brought up as a slave to her evil grandfather and abused by him and every other person she meets. She eventually comes upon a painter starving to death in a tower and comes to his aid. She falls in love with him but he is only in love with his art...I have a GR friend who adores this book (Its his favorite Ouida) and I'm so reluctant to say anything against it. But my fragile emotions couldn't handle this. Thankfully, there are plenty of other Ouidas for me to choose from.CONTENT: PG
3.5 Stars
Andrew Lackaday was born under circus tents. As he grew up (to a 6'4" skinny redhead) he perfected his trade in mimicry, sleight of hand, gymnastics and mountbankery (is that a word? :)Then the war came. And the world changed. What people thought funny before the war was no longer amusing. How can it be? And besides, how can Lackaday go back to playing the fool in second rate music halls when weeks before he wore the stripes of a Brigadier General? The whole situation is ludicrous.Then there's love. Lackaday holds the heart of a divine lady in the palm of his hand but unbeknownst to her, there's another woman, a coarse but kind circus performer who has stuck by him from the very beginning...This was good. Quite a character study and not as improbable as it might look at first glance. The situations felt true and realistic. But Beloved Vagabond was better. This story needed a bit more humor in it. It was fairly dark. I wanted more lightheartedness. And if not lightheartedness I wanted more grit. Lackaday never talked about the war and I wanted to hear/ see a bit more how he was affected by it. But aside from the war putting the dampers on his livelihood he seems to have escaped unscathed. Was that even possible?Still, a good read. I have a hardcopy (with nice d/j) but I tended to pick up my ereader for most of this reading because of the many French phrases I wanted to translate.CONTENT:PROFANITY: Mild, some D's. MY RATING: G
3.5 Stars
Francis Brett Young deviates from his usual English stomping ground and takes us on a sea adventure to Panda on the African coast.
In a nutshell, a sea captain is finishing a job in Naples and is expecting to be home in a matter of weeks when he receives a new command. He must take the ship to Panda, on the African coast to collect goods...and... he must take a passenger, a woman, who is attempting to track down her runaway husband who abandoned her seven years prior, and her young daughter.
For the first half of the book, FBY had me by the ears. I enjoyed seeing relationships develop on board with the various sailors, seeing how a young child changed these gruff men into more human creatures, also the jealousy and animosity between them, having a woman about.
Where FBY lost me was when we stepped ashore in Africa. The descriptions were...how can I put it? I couldn't SEE what he was describing. For example, there is a storm, a tornado, an escape through estuaries or swamps (I'm still not quite sure) and at these times I couldn't really picture what was happening.
There's also some loose ends which were never fully explained
*SPOILER*
There is a rather mysterious man of business who resides in his mosquito netted four posted bed. He looks like a marble statue and we're given to understand that he is partially paralyzed. Our hero has a few conversations with him. Later it is said that this mysterious man has died. And that he died a week prior. But our hero was in communication with him during this time. How? Was someone using him like a dummy? It's never explained. And why did everyone hate him so much? What did he do? Also, what happens to the woman's husband? There is a fight at the end and we don't know if he is alive or dead. Is our heroine free to marry again? We don't know. *END OF SPOILER*
I would be interested in hearing someone else's thoughts on this one but being that it is somewhat rare I may need to wait a while...
CONTENT: PG
SEX: One offscreen attack/ rape
VIOLENCE: Some violence but not very descriptive.
PROFANITY: D's mostly. One B, and some racial slurs scattered about.
PARANORMAL ELEMENTS: there's talk of a house having a "feeling " about it because of past lives, also there's a question of whether one character died before or after a series of conversations.
So tell me about myself, that's always fun :) As long as its praiseworthy, complimentary, gushworthy, flattering and otherwise ego boosting, right? No one wants to find out they're a closeted psychopath, egocentric cleptomaniac or some other blight on society. That just wouldn't be cool.
So it was with tingling anticipation I picked up this book. See, I used to have exemplary writing. I did. It was a practiced ART. Perfect. I was proud of it. Then, over time....I don't know. I guess it just wasn't that important to me anymore and I let it go the way of the wind and let my writing just happen. So now...what can I say? I DARE you to steal my recipe book!This was fun and instructive- very good for highschoolers or others looking for their niche in the career world. Its not all encompassing, (there are other books that go deeper into criminal/business analysis etc.) but is a basic guide with graphs,examples and plenty of simple explanations to help you unlock your potentials and give you a springboard for job ideas. The rest is up to you.Highly recommended.*This book was author provided for review purposes. I was not required to give a positive review.
