I trust that you enjoyed my last review.
The next one is a complete change of pace and of genre as I am often wont to do when I borrow my books from the library. Not only are they in my care, but I always try to pick ones from across the scale and spectrum of fiction.
Slowly, over time, it will begin to paint a picture of the sort of stories that I like to read as I seek to getaway, mentally, from daily life for a while.
Today, I'm going to look at a book I borrowed on the proviso of having totally judged the book by its cover...
The Forgotten Daughter
The Good
What I liked about this book, after investing well over a fortnight into a 1200+ page novel, was the total change of pacing for this one. I do not feel that the fiction suffered in any way, shape or form (though it is grossly unfair to try and compare pacing of two books of vastly different lengths) as this one told a story that had twists and turns of its own.
Set during the outbreak and subsequent conclusion of World War One, looking at the turmoil the nurses of the first world War (or any war for that matter) must have struggled to do their duties amidst such horrific and harrowing scenes. It tells a story of a child, Flora, who is treated in a disgraceful way by her parents who each behaved the way they did through their own imperfect ways, and the solace she finds in her exiled nanny's house.
Who would have thought that such an excellently crafted story could make you actually feel poor Flora's suffering, simply from choice words and phrasing that the author uses. Yet Wood's prose is simply outstanding as it seeks to draw you into Flora's world and helps you to see how she is processing everything that is going on around her in her own little way, which quickly becomes endearing.
The reasons for her nanny's exile quickly become clear and start to put a new shape on things as we begin to see that Flora's parents are not the idyllic parents that we can often think when we are on the outside looking into another family.
These scenes are depicted in such a way as to be quite graphic in nature, but at no stage does it become a case of glamorising the horrors of war. Instead, we are left to see the impact each scenario has upon the main character, Flora, and her fellow nurses she meets on several occasions in different places. Proving that, sometimes, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
The Not-So-Good
I could sit here all day and praise this book for its well-crafted fiction and it still wouldn't do justice to Mary's talent in crafting a story where you can actually start to care about the characters. So, again, like the last time, I didn't really find any flaws with this one, as the story flowed weaving the horrors of war with a story of destined love that transcends the boundaries of what people might view as normal. Whether then, or now.
In conclusion
In closing, then, I suggest you pick this book up if you like war fiction that is more interested in telling the human side of things than blatantly graphic scenes of war that might appear to be for shock value rather than the senseless nature of all the sacrifice that these poor people have done over the years.
I could talk about my stance on war, but that's neither here nor there, instead I want to encourage you to get this book at your earliest convenience, if only for the twist at the end. It makes you question your own values on love and society and how viewpoints can often be blocked by prejudices and discriminatory values that have no place in modern society.
You can pick this book up at Amazon today, and I highly recommend it!
===TLP===
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