Susan Stinson

The characters in this book have almost no other language to describe their interior life than that of the fundamentalist religion of the community and all is seen in shades of sin and grace and openness to god. In a demanding northern landscape offering sparse entertainments religion is it. And it is presented quite organically and believably with out requiring belief or empathy from the reader. An excellent historical in that, for me, it presented a truly different mental landscape, though show more that might not be the case for a reader who came from a conservative Christian sect. The author does hit some false historical notes on costume, but that's my thing. show less

this grew on me as it went on but the early stages were hard for me. it's like the author didn't take time to do any of the setting up that i needed, so i didn't care about any of it or believe in what i was supposed to as i was reading. but by the end i was liking the point of this, the way that story and character can shape a life or a perception. it got a lot more interesting to me as it went along.

edited to add, 3/6/35: the more i think about this the more i find things that i like about show more it. the way the two main characters were fat and that wasn't an issue, the main character even got fatter as the book went on. the way miss alice, the cow, was a central character. the way the child, ruth, became so important. the way amanda's fantastical stories about martha were what somehow grounded them both and ended up shaping their reality, even as the stories were magical impossibilities. show less

In the interest of full disclosure, this is not the type of fiction I usually read; I generally prefer genre fiction, especially SFF.

Still- the past is a different world! and this novel definitely made that clear, and often in interesting ways.

However- to me it mapped as more "literary fiction" than a novel, since it didn't finish as much as just...stop. In media res. Nothing really got resolved, in any of the potential plot threads.

OK, this is true to life. Generally we do not have plot show more threads in our lives. Things happen, and then other things happen.

But- that is why fiction can be so satisfying! It DOES have a plot, and a plot arc, and an ending that ties up at least some loose threads- andf this book did not do that.

As a fan of historical fiction, this seemed very well-researched, although not in ways I was much interested in. I wish there had been more focus on the mores, the clothing, the housekeeping, etc. I believe this was well before stoves with ovens- HOW did they bake bread? No reference either to wood-fired ovens nor bake shops. Particularly since this was in many ways more an account of daily life then and there, the lack of data about the practical aspects was frustrating.

The bug motif seemed arbitrary, and only occasionally present.

I think the aspect that this book lacked the most, though, was immediacy. Tell rather than show? or maybe it was the sheer number of POVs. Leah was pretty sympathetic, and oddly Joseph- though I found the sympathetic depiction at odds with his fairly sleazy choices. Most of the rest were ciphers.

I do not remember why I bought this book; it was probably recommended somewhere. I did not find it a satisfying read. show less

An oddball little gem of a book about puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards in 18th-century Massachusetts, and his battles over orthodoxy in the church. I like books about faith, and people's struggles and glories with it, and this a great example of the genre. Stinson clearly drew a lot from Edwards's own writings and tight research, which sometimes makes itself obvious, but more often helps set the stage for a believable series of struggles on the part of her characters: Edwards and his large show more family, including his beloved and devout wife Sarah, their relatives and fellow Northampton townspeople, and a tight-knit circle of slaves.

I've heard of fire-and-brimstone preaching and the puritans, of course, but this brought the concept to life in a vivid and human way. Slow paced but lovely. Pair this one with a book I have sitting on my desk at work, The World Is Great, and I Am Small: A Bug's Prayer for Mindfulness.

Found via a Lithub feature, 26 Books From the Last Decade that More People Should Read, recommended by Elizabeth McCracken. show less