I’ve been craving some good historical fiction lately but haven’t found any. I’ve found some bad/mediocre stuff–
David Ebershoff’s The Nineteenth Wife- just absolutely dreadful book about Brigham Young’s apostate wife and a modern day twink refugee from polygamy. Brigham Young is one of those characters that it’s damned near impossible to make dull but Ebershoff manages, and the modern day storyline is so underplayed it fails to grasp interest. (If interested you can read in great detail what I disliked about the novel on Amazon, review 57 [coincidentally the number of children BY sired]).
Something whose title eludes me by Johanna Lindsey- wasn’t familiar with her, she’s apparently just a romance novelist (this is why dust covers are good I suppose), but it was pure dreck. Made it only a few pages.
Autobiography of Henry VIII by Margaret George- I won’t say it was bad, I’ll say it didn’t hold my interest and I didn’t finish it. A large part may just be that Henry VIII is like A CHRISTMAS CAROL- it’s been so done to death in novels, history books, films, musicals, classrooms, TV shows and probably the occasional dog show that there’s no suspense whatever. Maybe if the Bullen does give birth to little Henry IX it will be worth reading, or if perhaps Henry appoints the up and coming courtier Edmund, Lord Blackadder as his chancellor with Baldrick as court composer it might work.
RISE TO REBELLION by Jeff Shaara- a novel about the Revolution by Jeff Shaara that just never once comes alive and often reads far more like a not particularly great history text than a novel. Of course (this may be sacrilege) I wasn’t a huge fan of KILLER ANGELS [by his father, though I think Jeff claims to have helped]- well written, but I thought the characterizations and some “feel” of the time place was off.
My all time favorites list of historical fiction novels would include:
LINCOLN and BURR by Gore Vidal (these I liked, though I have to admit that most of Vidal’s other historical fiction I haven’t)
I, CLAUDIUS/CLAUDIUS THE GOD- yeah, I know it’s pretty certain the real Claudius wasn’t like that, but great books nonetheless.
THE AWAKENING LAND TRILOGY by Conrad Richter- about the matriarch of a family on the Ohio frontier from 1790s to 1860s, and simply spectacular (I’ve gone into its merits before)
GONE WITH THE WIND- if you’ve seen the movie but haven’t read the book, the book is much better as historical fiction than the movie, which is deservedly beloved but more mythological.
FIRE FROM HEAVEN/THE PERSIAN BOY by Mary Renault (two of the novels in her Alexander the Great cycle. Has it’s “too girly” moments, but then the narrator of one is a eunuch and the main character of the other is a boy, so…
WINDS OF WAR/WAR AND REMEMBRANCE by Herman Wouk- 3,000 pages and not a sentence wasted (and amazingly the miniseries took the budget and the time to capture it).
What would be on your list of favorites/least favorites? (I’ll admit selfish reasons: I’m hoping to find something I hadn’t heard of and be able to say “wow!” after reading it.)