![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Reading Wednesday
Oof... there was some sort of enormous construction delay, and traffic was backed up, and the tl;dr of it is that I didn't get home until nearly 8PM. Geeze.
Upside: I was able to finish reading Patrick Gale's A Place Called Winter.
Quick take: This was a breezy read. I liked it. Would read it again, even. It'd make a good film, actually. Because of the premise, I was worried that it would have a tragic end, but that is not so; the ending is hopeful.
Now, a fairly realistic M/M novel set in Edwardian-era England and Saskatchewan is bound to have its parts that are painful to get through... and that can be said for this one. But there are also a lot of happy moments too. And, like I mentioned, the ending isn't a downer (or at least, not entirely).
Would I recommend it? Sure, especially if the time period/setting is appealing. While there is romance in it, it's as much historical fiction as it is a romance (if not more), and for me, the Saskatchewan bits were definitely part of the appeal.
The author isn't Canadian, but I think he must have travelled to Canada at some point, because the way he paints a portrait of it is just so very perfect.
"Once they had left the bustle and dirt of Halifax behind them, however, he began to be overwhelmed by the lack of variety in the outlook of forest, lake and yet more forest, and the sense it gave of just how enormous and underinhabited his new country was.
He was not lone in this response. People exclaimed in their various languages at the size of the trees, the depth of the forest, the beauty of the lakes, and shouted when they thought they saw a bear or a moose. But they grew quieter and quieter as it dawned on them, perhaps, how unlike this landscape was to the imagery of golden wheat fields that had been used to lure them there, and they began to fear that Canada was nothing but forest, forest, forest, lake, lake, lake. They passed a section of wood where sunlight seemed barely to reach through the trees, and the ticket inspector pointed out that the sound they took to be birdsong was the calling of frogs. As his words were relayed, translated into to Russian, Welsh, French, and German, the carriage fell briefly silent and something like dread seemed to steal among them until an oblivious card-player broke the tension by laughing in triumph."
---
And then there is this bit about winter that makes me think that sure the author must have been to Saskatchewan in January at some point, because that's just what it feels like:
"As for the cold, he had never experienced anything like it: a dry, iron clamp upon the land, like death itself, full of unexpected beauty, like the hard crystals that formed on the inside of the windows. The cold did something strange to the quality of sounds around the farm, deadening all background noise to that the smallest scratching or whisper was emphasized. It was easy to see how the unwary settler could die in such a scene, lulled into marvelling at its deadly beauty even as his blood began to freeze. Just once Harry lingered outside as a blizzard got under way, amazed at the scale and savagery of it, but was furiously dragged indoors by Jørgensen and given a lecture about losing fingers and toes to frostbite and the impossibility of getting a doctor out until spring."
...Yes. That's exactly, exactly it.
Anyway.
The character I fell in love with most was (as usual) not the central character, Harry Cane; rather it was Ursula, a two-spirit woman who shows up in certain parts and forms a friendship with Harry over time. We see just enough of her for me to latch on to, and man, I'm kind of tempted to write fic about her....
(This bit will be spoilery, at least for this character's story)
All right, I'll confess, part of the reason I want to write fic about Ursula is that the last bit we see of her was so unfortunate, and actually made me pretty mad (not at the author, but like, at the in-universe stuff that's going on). Like. Packed off to the asylum, which certainly will not do her any good, and treated in such an undignified way, with no hint of hope that things will get better for her - it's realistic, but argh, for this one thing, I don't want realism....
I appreciate that Harry suggested to the doctor that Ursula should be allowed to join him at his farm in Winter, and work there. That is the end for Ursula that I want. Not sure how one would work that - allowing it would be against Gideon's character, but maybe I could figure out a way. Or maybe Ursula could be released... eventually... somehow.
I really loved how the friendship between her and Harry developed, and I want to see more of that. And I liked her - a lot - even in the tiny bits that we get of her, she seems such a fascinating, insightful character. It would be nice to write something where she finds happiness, or at least some sort of peace.
...Chances of me actually writing this are, ffff, well, you know. But. It could happen.
Upside: I was able to finish reading Patrick Gale's A Place Called Winter.
Quick take: This was a breezy read. I liked it. Would read it again, even. It'd make a good film, actually. Because of the premise, I was worried that it would have a tragic end, but that is not so; the ending is hopeful.
Now, a fairly realistic M/M novel set in Edwardian-era England and Saskatchewan is bound to have its parts that are painful to get through... and that can be said for this one. But there are also a lot of happy moments too. And, like I mentioned, the ending isn't a downer (or at least, not entirely).
Would I recommend it? Sure, especially if the time period/setting is appealing. While there is romance in it, it's as much historical fiction as it is a romance (if not more), and for me, the Saskatchewan bits were definitely part of the appeal.
The author isn't Canadian, but I think he must have travelled to Canada at some point, because the way he paints a portrait of it is just so very perfect.
"Once they had left the bustle and dirt of Halifax behind them, however, he began to be overwhelmed by the lack of variety in the outlook of forest, lake and yet more forest, and the sense it gave of just how enormous and underinhabited his new country was.
He was not lone in this response. People exclaimed in their various languages at the size of the trees, the depth of the forest, the beauty of the lakes, and shouted when they thought they saw a bear or a moose. But they grew quieter and quieter as it dawned on them, perhaps, how unlike this landscape was to the imagery of golden wheat fields that had been used to lure them there, and they began to fear that Canada was nothing but forest, forest, forest, lake, lake, lake. They passed a section of wood where sunlight seemed barely to reach through the trees, and the ticket inspector pointed out that the sound they took to be birdsong was the calling of frogs. As his words were relayed, translated into to Russian, Welsh, French, and German, the carriage fell briefly silent and something like dread seemed to steal among them until an oblivious card-player broke the tension by laughing in triumph."
---
And then there is this bit about winter that makes me think that sure the author must have been to Saskatchewan in January at some point, because that's just what it feels like:
"As for the cold, he had never experienced anything like it: a dry, iron clamp upon the land, like death itself, full of unexpected beauty, like the hard crystals that formed on the inside of the windows. The cold did something strange to the quality of sounds around the farm, deadening all background noise to that the smallest scratching or whisper was emphasized. It was easy to see how the unwary settler could die in such a scene, lulled into marvelling at its deadly beauty even as his blood began to freeze. Just once Harry lingered outside as a blizzard got under way, amazed at the scale and savagery of it, but was furiously dragged indoors by Jørgensen and given a lecture about losing fingers and toes to frostbite and the impossibility of getting a doctor out until spring."
...Yes. That's exactly, exactly it.
Anyway.
The character I fell in love with most was (as usual) not the central character, Harry Cane; rather it was Ursula, a two-spirit woman who shows up in certain parts and forms a friendship with Harry over time. We see just enough of her for me to latch on to, and man, I'm kind of tempted to write fic about her....
(This bit will be spoilery, at least for this character's story)
All right, I'll confess, part of the reason I want to write fic about Ursula is that the last bit we see of her was so unfortunate, and actually made me pretty mad (not at the author, but like, at the in-universe stuff that's going on). Like. Packed off to the asylum, which certainly will not do her any good, and treated in such an undignified way, with no hint of hope that things will get better for her - it's realistic, but argh, for this one thing, I don't want realism....
I appreciate that Harry suggested to the doctor that Ursula should be allowed to join him at his farm in Winter, and work there. That is the end for Ursula that I want. Not sure how one would work that - allowing it would be against Gideon's character, but maybe I could figure out a way. Or maybe Ursula could be released... eventually... somehow.
I really loved how the friendship between her and Harry developed, and I want to see more of that. And I liked her - a lot - even in the tiny bits that we get of her, she seems such a fascinating, insightful character. It would be nice to write something where she finds happiness, or at least some sort of peace.
...Chances of me actually writing this are, ffff, well, you know. But. It could happen.
no subject
I believe in yuu!
no subject
Problem is it would require, like, effort. But one never knows. xD