Geraldine Brooks has written a masterpiece of a book called Year of Wonders. It's always been a favourite of mine. It tells the tale of Anna, a housemaid in 1666 in an English village. One day, a stranger brings in a bolt of cloth to the village, containing fleas which then go bite people and give them the plague. The village is closed off to the rest of the world for a year, incoming goods left at the milestone, the villagers left to manage death, pestilence, suspicion, mental illness and the gamut of other emotions and situations on their own terms.
It's a brilliant book.
There are many great things in this book. Geraldine Brooks is an incredible writer at the best of times, and this, her first novel., puts her brilliant research skills togethier with her her writing skills.
And the novel looks at a pandemic. And a lockdown. Anna's village, to save the rest of the country from the plague, shut themselves off for a full year.
Some people are good with it. Others not so much. Some thrive, some fail. Some go mad, as the plague makes its way through the town.
I think I need to delve into it again. It will be the third or fourth time I've read it, but under the cirucmstances, I think it needs another room. Along with Albert Camus' The Plague.
There's something comforting about the storming, forming and norming affect of pandemics.
It's books like this that remind us that this too, shall pass.
Today's song:
No comments:
Post a Comment