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Book Review – The Fortunate Brother by Donna Morrissey

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About the Book

fortunate

After being uprooted from their fishing outport, the Now family is further devastated by the tragic loss of their eldest son, Chris, who died working on an Alberta oil rig. Kyle Now is still mourning his older brother when the murder of a local bully changes everything. The victim’s blood is found on the family’s pier, and suspicion falls first on an alienated wife, and then finally on the troubled Now family.

But behind this new turmoil, Chris’s death continues to plague the family. Father Sylvanus Now drowns his sorrow in a bottle, while mother Addie is facing breast cancer. And the children fight their own battles as the tension persists between Kyle and his sister, Sylvie, over her role in their brother’s death.

Format: Hardcover (272 pages) Publisher: Canongate
Publication date: 20th April 2017 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

I only realised this is the third in a three-volume series of books after I started to read it but I felt it worked well as a standalone read.  However, it made me curious to know more about the events that have brought the family to this point so I may well look out the previous two books. 

Initially, I thought this was going to be a depressing read because of the troubled nature of all the characters and it took me a while to get used to Morrissey’s writing style.  Not being familiar with Newfoundland culture, I can’t testify to the authenticity of the vocabulary and dialogue but it seemed right for the characters and pretty soon I adjusted to the rhythm.  

The story is a combination of family drama and murder mystery but the mystery element doesn’t feel tacked on because the way the various characters react to events (in particular the main protagonist, Kyle) seems believable given their state of mind. 

The unseen but ever present emotional heart of the book is Chris, Kyle’s brother, who has died in an oil rig accident before the book opens. In various ways, all the family are struggling to cope with their grief and/or guilt at his death.  In particular, Kyle, seen as the “fortunate brother” because he’s still alive. 

Morrissey adeptly plays out how the surviving family members are driving themselves apart when they are at greatest need of coming together: “Too isolated in their loneliness to feel the good still left to them.”  Although bleak at times, this was an engrossing read.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of Canongate Books via NetGalley.

In three words: Atmospheric, emotional, gritty

About the Author

Donna Morrissey is the award-winning author of Kit’s Law, Downhill Chance, What They Wanted, and Sylvanus Now, which was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. She grew up in The Beaches, a small fishing outport in Newfoundland & Labrador and now lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. 

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Review – Nelly Dean: A Return to Wuthering Heights by Alison Case

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nelly-dean

Authentically voiced retelling of Wuthering Heights

About the Book

(Courtesy of Goodreads):  Nelly Dean is a wonderment of storytelling and an inspired accompaniment to Emily Bronte’s adored work. It is the story of a woman who is fated to bear the pain of a family she is unable to leave, and unable to save.

My Review

I started reading this book back in November and the fact that I’ve only just finished it but have read over a dozen other books in the meantime, tells you I didn’t find it as compelling as I hoped or the author deserves given the obvious craft put into it. The book expands on the narration by Nelly Dean, the housekeeper at Wuthering Heights, in Emily Bronte’s original book and introduces imagined back stories for some of the characters, notably Hindley, Hareton and Nelly herself .

However, although it magnifies some aspects of Wuthering Heights (in some instances, quite exhaustively) it glosses over large parts of others, in particular the core relationship between Heathcliff and Cathy and the tragic events that surround them. For this reason, I don’t really see it as a standalone novel for a reader who is unfamiliar with Wuthering Heights.   For example, Alison Case devotes a substantial section to Nelly’s attempts to care for the infant Hareton that are encapsulated in a few sentences in the original book. But on the other hand, leaps forward at points so that key events from Wuthering Heights are merely alluded to.

So I found myself on the one hand thinking, “I know all this from Wuthering Heights” and on the other, “Wait a minute, we’ve skipped several years here – what happened to so-and-so”.  Plus, occasionally thinking, “Whoa, I bet Emily Bronte never had that in mind!”. Having said all this, the author has created a really authentic period voice for all her characters and if it wasn’t that Emily Bronte’s masterpiece is a persistent and relentless echo, this would be a really successful piece of historical fiction.

But…it has made me determined to go back and re-read Wuthering Heights!

Book facts: 456 pages, published February 2016

My rating: 3.5 (out of 5)

In three words: Authentic, descriptive, inventive

Try something similar…Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, tour-de-force reimagining of Jane Eyre

About the Author

Alison Case is a Professor at Williams College in Massachusetts and her academic background has focused on Victorian Studies, Narrative Theory, and Gender Studies. Her first book, Plotting Women: Gender and Narration in the 18th and 19th-Century British Novel, is well-known and well respected. With these interests, it’s not a surprise that Case’s first novel focuses on a well-known literary character from Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.