Donald R. Rawe

There is no way this would have been published by anything but a local press. Which, hey, I love small presses, the capitalist model does not map onto art well, and local-interest novels are awesome! But in this case, this is a qualitative critique. This is not well written, on the sentence level. The structure -- the frame -- drains all possible tension from the most dramatic points, since we *know* that James gets out of the smuggling business to become a parson from very early on.

That show more said, the local detail is delightful, if a trifle obvious (my research, let me show you it!).

The most serious criticism I have is -- surprise! -- gender-related. The "three women I have loved" structure made me *furious*, especially since James is so incredibly cavalier about having a woman in every port. The way he treated Iseut was just vile, and I nearly threw the book across the room when he and Lucretia had premarital sex and there was absolutely no concern about pregnancy (I am pretty sure it was after they agree they were going to have to wait a few years to get married, too, which makes it even weirder). You can tell a man wrote this.

It's a good thing I left this in the church at St. Endellion, because if it were in my possession, I would not be able to restrain myself from marking it up with red pen. show less