Author: Celia Rees
Publisher: Random House Audio
Rating: WORTHY!
I picked this audio novel for two reason, first because it sounded interesting, of course, but what really won me over was that it's narrated by Jennifer Ehle. She does a fine job, too, of relating the tale of a fourteen year old girl, Mary Newberry who supposedly wrote this in her journal, which is how the story came to us - via its cozy little hiding place.
It would seem, from her website, that Rees has made a career out of telling similar stories (Sovay, Sorceress, Pirate!), and while I personally don't feel any irresistible urge to pursue them all, if they're as good as this one - as involved, as well written, as educational, and as surprising, I don't doubt that they are as worthy as this one is turning out to be. I don't do covers, because the author has no control over that whatsoever unless they self-publish, and this blog is about the novel, written by the author, not about publishers, editors or cover artists, but I have to ask, does the woman on this cover have the most amazing face or what?!
I have to say, the more I listen to Jennifer Ehle, the more she is giving Emily Gray a run for her money as my most adored narrator. Ehle has an advantage because I fell in love with her in Pride and Prejudice, so it's a compliment to Gray that she's still in the lead! Anyway, the young girl, Mary, is living in central England in 1659, and she sees her grandmother "tried" (and summarily, but not so merrily, hanged) for witchcraft, but she's spirited away right then by a mysterious woman who has the same color eyes and who Mary eventually realizes is her own mother. She's been rescued so she can be sent away to "the colonies" unfortunately, because it's not considered safe for her in England if Charles comes to the throne replacing the brief Cromwell lineage.
That seems a bit of an insult as well as Ironic, that May is sent from England to the new world almost like it's declaring England to be backward and primitive in its hanging of witches, and the USA is of course the most fabulous place ever. The irony lies in the fact that the ship Mary travels on docks in Salem, Massachusetts! However, it's some forty or fifty years before the witch trials, so she's safe for now, although her children may not be! The odd thing about this is that, after telling the story in a way that makes it look like Mary and her grandmother were perfectly normal people being very badly done to, we learn on the cross-Atlantic voyage that Mary does indeed have some power: the gift of foresight.
The voyage is a laugh as well as an interesting exposition of ship-board life and social interaction. I don't know what religion Rees follows if any, but it seems to me she is subtly slamming religious hysteria, as well as its blinkered intolerance and bigotry here when she describes the Reverend Johnson's insane blathering. Indeed, given that Johnson is a euphemism for penis, he's really the reverend Dick, and he's a decidedly nasty piece of work: a study in the worst aspects of blinkered religious intolerance. Eventually, they arrive safely in Salem (ahem!) and start life in the New World, but it's to be a short stay, because hardly have they "settled" there than they're heading west, inexplicably following the footsteps of Johnson and crew.
Mary's life seems to be one of endless journeying: from her home to a ship, on the ship to North America, from Salem to Beulah, from childhood to adulthood. She is under the charge of one of her fellow travelers (arranged by her mother) and makes a couple friends with other young people on the voyage. She also saves the life of a newborn baby, but not through any witchery, merely through smarts and experience, from helping her grandmother. We learn a lot, in a painless way, of how life treated people back then, and it's a little bit preachy, a little bit info-dump, but in general the story is very easy on the ears, especially with Jennifer Ehle reading it.
In Beulah, she finally starts making a life as an assistant to an apothecary, gathering plants, seeds, bulbs and herbs for him in the extensive forest, befriending a young native boy, and relaxing into her life, but even that's to be screwed up by Johnson and his narrow-minded dogmatism. The ending was a little sad, but I'm not going to tell you more than that! It was a bit like I expected, but not in the way I expected. I did enjoy this novel immensely.
