Frank Yerby (1916–1991)

Synopsis:

Kit, who recently became the captain of a pirate ship, wants to avenge the death of his mother at the hands of Don Louis Del Torro. While seeking this revenge Kit falls in love with a lady pirate named Rouge. Kit and Rouge share the same foe and desire for revenge. Unfortunately, Rouge has only vengeance in her heart. She has no time for love. While Kit is pining for the lady pirate, Del Torro's wife is falling for the handsome young pirate captain.

Rouge's sister was murdered and show more she was raped, ending her engagement and forcing her into a life of piracy from the man she believed was her rescuer. She knows she will never be able to reclaim her role as a lady until her sister is avenged.

My rating:
4/5

This was a book I first read in my late teens and I absolutely loved it. It was one of my favorite books. Now, reading it as an adult, I understood why I loved it but I also don't necessarily love it at the level I once did. I still think the writing is amazing. This book has some brilliant dialogue. It has some of the wittiest, most ironic, and tongue in cheek quotes I have ever found. There are quotable lines and memorable scenes throughout. Many of which I had remembered from previous reads but enjoyed even more this time around. The writing of this book is just amazing.

I am not usually a fan of adventure stories but even now I was enchanted by this book and the things that were going on.

I thought this book did an excellent job or portraying the time period in which it is set. The setting is rich and feels well researched.

This book was written in the 1940's and the story takes place in the 1600. This gives it some problematic elements such as issues with consent. Many times throughout the story Kit is pushing Rouge for kisses and more. There is a time she is, quite literally, beating him with a whip to get him to leave her alone and he still grabs her and kisses her. I believe in the context of the story it is meant to be romantic and, the 20 year old me who grew up before the me too movement, probably thought it was swoon worthy. He wanted to kiss her so bad he fought through lashings that were bloodying his chest. Oh how times and my ideas have changed.

Overall, the treatment and portrayal of women in this book is poor. Aside from the age of the story and the time period of the book this issue is likely due to it being written by a man. This is an adventure pirate story and I can only assume the author thought his audience was more likely to be young men than women readers (though I can only assume that as the covers I have for these look somewhat like romance covers with shirtless men and busty women). One example of the poor portrayal of women was in an instance where Bianca is noted by the narrator to be playing head games like all women do.

Another problematic element to this book is the treatment of servants and ideas about servants such as their enjoyment of eavesdropping etc. Again, this is something I have noticed in older books so I want to be careful about holding it against this particular work. I feel that classism was extremely prevalent during the time of this writing.

The last problematic element I feel like I must mention is places where there seems to be some racism. However, the author is a person of color, so I am not sure if I can accuse the book of racism on that front. Racism was a thing in the 1600's and it is possible the author was simply trying for an accurate portrayal of the times. One discussion involved the Caribbean slaves. There were discussions about certain slaves from certain areas being better at certain tasks. Some for protection. Some for planting. Etc.
There is a movie version of this story which is very different but also quite good though for different reasons.

I am hesitant to recommend the Golden Hawk because of the problematic elements of this book however if you can look past those and forgive the book because of the time it was written and the time it was set, this is a solid read. I found it engaging and the dialogue some of the best I have read still to this day. show less

Paris Griffin, the young handsome owner of a large Southern plantation, is mentally disturbed by his experiences in the Civil War. He is especially traumatized from leading other men to their deaths. When he returns home, he has lost his memory and will to live. His brother hires a nurse who has a record of helping men in Paris' condition recover. The nurse, Candice Tower, is herself married to a physically handicapped man who is angry at her and the rest of the world for the condition in show more which he finds himself.

Candice and Paris fall in love but since she is married, neither of them will step over the line. Paris marries Laurel who dose not have a rigid moral code. She is having a affair with Dion Cadwallader who is an ignorant white racist and eventually a founding member of the Ku Klux Klan in that area.

Meanwhile, Paris must recognize that the reasons he went to war no longer are correct or moral and he assists his brother and Candice who is from Vermont in building schools to teach the young and old former slaves to read and write so they can make a living and rise up from the poverty they live in now. However they face the rise of the Klan and the corruption of the Reconstruction Era which left a cynical population of blacks and whites behind.

When the northerners left because they could see they did not have a chance of changing the attitudes or culture of the South, the Klan and the whites took back all the gains won by blacks following the War. At one point in the narrative, a character acknowledges that the South lost the battle but by being patient, they won the war. Blacks were again living much like slaves of the past and in very great fear of annoying a white person and being killed in a very nasty way.

Most of the education gains that were made by blacks and whites following the War, were lost after the racist society took over after Reconstruction. Paris at one point is struggling with the value of educating the black children and says, "I uphold the dubious proposition that it is desirable or even possible to educate black children, against men who, throughout history have educated nobody's children, not even their own." What an indictment of the pre and post Civil War American South this statement is. Considering the way education is funded in some southern states today, the attitude continues.

There is sort of happy conclusion to the story, but with all the killing of innocent people including women and children through racial hatred and just dreadful ignorance, there is little satisfaction attained. show less

The Saracen Blade is the story of Pietro di Donati, son of a 13th-century Sicilian peasant. Born at almost the exact same moment as the Emperor Frederick, Pietro’s fate is loosely linked with his. The story is set against the backdrop of the crusades, and we even get to see some of the current events of the time, especially the Children’s Crusade and the Albigensian Crusade. Simon de Montfort even makes a cameo at one point, but be aware that he doesn't come across so well.

It’s a show more thick, dense novel, despite how short it is (there are even footnotes, which detracts from the flow of the story). It starts off very slowly, and it took me about fifty pages or so to get into the flow of the story. Pietro is a pretty dense, incomprehensible character, and he seems even callous at times (especially when he leaves his first wife, a wet noodle I just couldn't care for, either). I loved the historical backdrop, but I wasn’t quite as attached to Pietro as I wanted to be. He just didn’t leap off the page for me, and his friendship with the Emperor stretched credibility.

I loved the historical setting, since Frank Yerby describes everything so well; but his prose is, as I’ve said, dense and hard to follow at times; but at others, he tends to get a bit over-dramatic. I enjoyed the love story between Pietro and Iolanthe, but it mostly got lost in the amount of historical details that Yerby gives his reader. show less

A story set in New York in the 1870s, about a young, poor, white man from the South who decides he is going to be somebody no matter the cost. I quit reading this book after three chapters and some skimming. The author does a nice job of describing the time and place, but I don't have it in my to read romance right now and this is very much that. Sappy women who go all weak kneed when an aggressive but handsome man forces them to kiss him and the man in question is not very interesting. show more Anyway, this book might appeal to some, but not to me. show less