The narrative might have been more interesting had the author focused on the relationship between the title character and...
Edgar Allan Poe, master of the gothic tale, becomes shrouded in even more gloom in Cullen’s (Reign of Madness, 2011, etc.) insipid historical novel about his relationship with fellow author Frances Sargent Locke Osgood.
In the winter of 1845, Osgood finds herself relying on friends Russell and Eliza Bartlett for food and lodging while her philandering husband, portrait artist Samuel, is off with his latest romantic conquest. Although she’s had some success with her writing—Puss in Boots and her poetry—Osgood worries about supporting her two young daughters. At a gathering of New York elite, she meets Poe, who admires her talent. Following widespread publication of "The Raven," Poe has become the most famous and feted writer in America. He’s also despised by many for his scathing reviews of their literary efforts and his air of superiority. The fact that he married his first cousin, Virginia, when she was only 13 supplies fodder for the gossip mills and, eventually, so does the relationship that develops between Osgood and Poe. Although they try to mask their attraction, they spend time together with his mother-in-law/aunt and Mrs. Poe, who is desperately ill and annoyingly childish. Osgood is commissioned to write a piece about the Poes’ lives, but the plans fall through; however, it doesn’t end her relationship with the Poe family. Even though she’s uncomfortable with her situation, and suspects that Mrs. Poe’s need to compete with her for Poe’s attention is more ominous than mere jealousy suggests, Osgood is unable to break away. The pair continues to communicate in the form of published poems, during arranged outings and at social events, but their love is further complicated by public disapproval, Mrs. Poe’s decline, Samuel’s brief reappearance, a life-altering decision and harrowing near-death experiences. Although Cullen attempts to portray Osgood and Poe as sympathetic characters, it’s difficult to identify with either as they teeter back and forth between feelings of guilt, anguish, fear and defiance.
The narrative might have been more interesting had the author focused on the relationship between the title character and her husband.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4767-0291-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Doerr captures the sights and sounds of wartime and focuses, refreshingly, on the innate goodness of his major characters.
Doerr presents us with two intricate stories, both of which take place during World War II; late in the novel, inevitably, they intersect.
In August 1944, Marie-Laure LeBlanc is a blind 16-year-old living in the walled port city of Saint-Malo in Brittany and hoping to escape the effects of Allied bombing. D-Day took place two months earlier, and Cherbourg, Caen and Rennes have already been liberated. She’s taken refuge in this city with her great-uncle Etienne, at first a fairly frightening figure to her. Marie-Laure’s father was a locksmith and craftsman who made scale models of cities that Marie-Laure studied so she could travel around on her own. He also crafted clever and intricate boxes, within which treasures could be hidden. Parallel to the story of Marie-Laure we meet Werner and Jutta Pfennig, a brother and sister, both orphans who have been raised in the Children’s House outside Essen, in Germany. Through flashbacks we learn that Werner had been a curious and bright child who developed an obsession with radio transmitters and receivers, both in their infancies during this period. Eventually, Werner goes to a select technical school and then, at 18, into the Wehrmacht, where his technical aptitudes are recognized and he’s put on a team trying to track down illegal radio transmissions. Etienne and Marie-Laure are responsible for some of these transmissions, but Werner is intrigued since what she’s broadcasting is innocent—she shares her passion for Jules Verne by reading aloud 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. A further subplot involves Marie-Laure’s father’s having hidden a valuable diamond, one being tracked down by Reinhold von Rumpel, a relentless German sergeant-major.
Doerr captures the sights and sounds of wartime and focuses, refreshingly, on the innate goodness of his major characters.Pub Date: May 6, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4767-4658-6
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
