Year of Wonders discussion thread

[Caryl]

Here is our discussion thread for Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks.

You can share your thoughts about the book here on this thread at any time during your reading. It would be helpful if you could post in the subject line the chapter you are on in the book. That way, we can open this thread during our reading without being surprised by any spoilers.

Here are some questions to spark discussion, but feel free to ignore them and just post your thoughts on the book! (A big thank you to jennifershepard for helping to pick these questions. )

~ What were your first impressions of this book?

~ Talk about the characters in the novel. Which of them touched you the most? What did the characters learn about themselves, each other and life?

~ What did you think of the ending?

~ Tell about some of the themes of the novel that struck you.

~ Would you recommend this book to others? To a particular person?



Spoiler Alert: The following questions contain some spoilers for the novel. You may want to wait until after you finish the book before you read them! (These questions were chosen from the list on this page, which also includes an introduction to the book and a short interview with Geraldine Brooks.)





~ How would you explain Anna's mental and spiritual unraveling? What are the pivotal experiences leading up to her breakdown and her eventual rebirth?

~ The author creates an incredible sense of time and place with richly textured language and thoughtful details (everyday life in Eyam) and the extraordinary (the gruesome deaths of the villagers). Discuss some of the most vivid images and their importance to the story and to your own experience reading it.

~ Can we relate the story of this town's extraordinary sacrifice to our own time? Is it unrealistic to expect a village facing a similar threat to make the same decision nowadays? What lessons might we learn from the villagers of Eyam?

[LoveMyAlexa]

I just finished this book yesterday, I don't have time to answer all of the questions above right now. But I absolutly loved the book, it was really great and different from other books I've been reading lately. I would deffinalty recomend this!
I really loved Anna and her spirit to press on and how she sort of rose above her level in her society. I just loved the characters and suprised by their little secrets along the way. I also really really liked the ending, it was someting very unexpected to me.

Well just a tid bit of good praise for this book!! I hope you all get a chance to read it!

[Elayne]

I just got the book today - I will try to read fast so I can participate!

[SusanH]

~ What were your first impressions of this book?
I was drawn in immediately by both the plot and the characters. I just loved this book from the beginning and am so glad I read it!

~ Talk about the characters in the novel. Which of them touched you the most? What did the characters learn about themselves, each other and life?
I related to Anna as a mother, which made it all the harder to read of her losses. I was nursing ds while reading the death scenes and couldn't stop crying.
Anna learned so much - how strong she could be, her ability to heal and comfort those who could not be healed, and of course her discoveries about the rector and his wife.being so different than she had imagined.

~ What did you think of the ending?
I really liked the ending, but it did seem somewhat unrealistic to me that a simple country maid could end with such an exotic life.

~ Tell about some of the themes of the novel that struck you.
I think I was most struck by the sense of horror and loss. This village suffered so much. I wonder how any could survive the devestating losses. But I liked the basically positive belief that life will go on and joy and happiness can return.

~ Would you recommend this book to others? To a particular person?
Yes, to anyone who likes historical fiction.

~ How would you explain Anna's mental and spiritual unraveling? What are the pivotal experiences leading up to her breakdown and her eventual rebirth?
Obviously the loss of her children was devestating, but I think the loss of her image of the rector and his wife was almost as hard for her to bear. She had built them up in her mind to be the perfect couple, and discovering the truth about the rector clearly devestated her. Throughout, her midwifery seemed to provide her some measure of comfort and being given a child to raise gave her a reason to continue.

~ The author creates an incredible sense of time and place with richly textured language and thoughtful details (everyday life in Eyam) and the extraordinary (the gruesome deaths of the villagers). Discuss some of the most vivid images and their importance to the story and to your own experience reading it.
I think nothing could be more vivid than Anna's stepmother refusing to give up the body of her daughter. The horror of the child's decaying body and the woman's decaying mind will stay with me for a long time.

~ Can we relate the story of this town's extraordinary sacrifice to our own time? Is it unrealistic to expect a village facing a similar threat to make the same decision nowadays? What lessons might we learn from the villagers of Eyam?
I doubt many towns would do something similar, although I could imagine a bio-terrorist attack leaving some in the position of having to choose. However, with modern travel being so simple, I imagine it would be too late by the time we thought of quarantine.

[Maribeth]

Well, I'm obviously a little late here but I just finished the book so want to address it now.

~ What were your first impressions of this book?
I was hooked immediately which has been unusual with my recent reads. I was worried I'd be depressed by the book given my recent illness but I wasn't. I found a lot of hope in it and enjoyed the book very much. I'm glad I read it, and it'll make my list of favorite reads for 2004.

~ Talk about the characters in the novel. Which of them touched you the most? What did the characters learn about themselves, each other and life?
I was impressed with how human Brooks made the characters. I really liked Elinor and her death was a big mystery for me. I knew she died but I assumed it was from the plague. I was afraid with every chapter that it would be the one where we'd lose her. Then she becomes ill and survives . . . I HAD to know from that point on just what happened to her! Of course, Anna was my favorite character. I love how she learned, grew and changed, thought for herself, and opened her eyes when she had to. She was not perfect but perfectly human. Her memories of her little boys are some of the bright spots in the book.

~ What did you think of the ending?
I was surprised. I felt the flow of the book had its own rhythm and the ending felt rushed and out of sync. I wasn't surprised that Anna decided not to go to Elinor's childhood home. She would have been accessible to Mompellion, and I don't think that would have fit to have the two reunited or even the possibility of being reunited. I'm glad she got the baby, got away, and went to a place where she could learn more about healing and midwifery. That made perfect sense, especially that the Bradfords would want her and the baby dead. I just don't know about her being a part of a harem. That whole part seemed unrealistic. Perhaps I wanted her to fall in love with a man who would treat her the way she deserved to be treated and respected her. Her whole concept of family life, husband/wife relationships, etc was so altered by the plague that perhaps the idea of being part of a harem wasn't so drastic afterall. She didn't have to devote her entire life to one man 24/7 and could continue with her learning and helping others. I did think she'd be able to take on the roles of the Gowdies within her village and she did do that in her new situation so the ending may be the best possible one . . . Hmmmm . . . .
I do think I would have been disappointed if the ending had simply been Anna and Mompellion getting together with Anna's love pulling him out of his depression, they married, had kids and lived happily ever after (even without Anna ever knowing the true Mompellion) - even if the book had simply ended with their first coupling and we never knew the true Mompellion. The book deserved a bigger ending than that.

~ Tell about some of the themes of the novel that struck you.
The obvious themes of loss, horror, and fear were very real. I was also struck by Anna's struggles with God vs. Nature. I'm often struggling with that issue so it made me identify even more with Anna. I was so disgusted with Anna's father. I wanted to SCREAM. Also, Anna discusses walking down the street and looking at her neighbors wondering if they'd be alive next week. The author was very good at bringing up such details which made these themes all the more real. She captured those horrid emotions quite well. There was also a lot of love expressed in the book. I was particularly moved when Anna would mention memories of her boys, particularly the day she was nursing Tom by the stream and Jamie was playing in the water; it was beautiful.

~ Would you recommend this book to others? To a particular person?
Definitely.

~ How would you explain Anna's mental and spiritual unraveling? What are the pivotal experiences leading up to her breakdown and her eventual rebirth?
Can I say I don't like this question? I'm not so sure Anna "unraveled" or had a "breakdown." Yes, she had ups and downs and did some deep thinking on some very difficult subjects. I think she was running on autopilot much of the time because she had to - there was something that had to be done every day. She was needed and that kept her going. She experienced incredible loss and witnessed horrendous things. It's normal though to question life and God and Nature, etc in such circumstances. I don't consider that unraveling but grieving and coping. And I don't think she had a breakdown really - certainly not in the sense that Mompellion did by becoming a recluse for months. Crying over a gravestone and those things Anna did are rather normal behavior given what happened for the previous 15 months. I agree with Susan that discovering the truth about the Mr. Mompellion and his relationship with Elinor had to be devastating. She knew the truth about Elinor's past and loved her anyway. She assumed the rector would feel the same way and it had to be horrible to learn he was punishing Elinor for past deeds. I'm SOOOOOOO glad Anna didn't toss aside her feelings and stay with the rector! I don't think she was reborn as much as evolved.

~ The author creates an incredible sense of time and place with richly textured language and thoughtful details (everyday life in Eyam) and the extraordinary (the gruesome deaths of the villagers). Discuss some of the most vivid images and their importance to the story and to your own experience reading it.
I already mentioned the scene at the stream which I found so beautiful. One of the most horrifying scenes for me was Aphra with the snake dancing in front of the fire while her dead child is hanging from the rafters. Those would be my 2 extremes! I found the whole book to be very vivid despite the darkness.

~ Can we relate the story of this town's extraordinary sacrifice to our own time? Is it unrealistic to expect a village facing a similar threat to make the same decision nowadays? What lessons might we learn from the villagers of Eyam?
It's hard to imagine living in a village the size Eyam in today's world. Perhaps one that size could do the same thing. And they wouldn't be quite so isolated because we have phones and the internet. Intriguing question.
In the back of the book, the author compares Eyam's sacrifice to September 11 and how it "revealed heroism in ordinary people who might have gone through their lives never called upon to demonstrate the extent of their courage . . . Love, hate, fear. The desire to live and to see your children live. Are these things different on a beautiful autumn morning in a 21st century city than they were in an isolated 17th century village? I don't think so. One thing I believe completely is that the human heart remains the human heart, no matter how our material circumstances change as we move together through time."

Definitely something to contemplate . . .

Great read - thanks for selecting it!
Mari

[Kathleen]

I have finally gotten around to reading this book and am tearing through it right now. I am a notoriously slow reader and I suspect I will be done within the next few days. I won't answer any of the questions yet, but can I just say that I adore this book? Thank you for suggesting it!

[carissanboys]

I just finished this book and I also loved it. I don't have time to respond to the questions, but wanted to say how much I enjoyed it.

[Lisa Jo]

This was a wonderful book! It was fascinating historically and the author did a beautiful job of bringing the story alive. Anna was an amazing and brave heroine considering all that she lost that year - her husband, her prospective lover, her children, her friends, really her whole life.

The sacrifice the town made in order to keep the disease from spreading was extraordinary. It's hard to imagine asking people for that kind of sacrifice today. So many people are out for their interests and don't see the bigger picture (not making a judgement here - I'm looking out for my interests too!). I kept coming back to that sacrifice though, and how amazing it was, that people knew they would lose loved ones but still stayed. I thought it was heartbreaking when Anna figured out toward the end that burning that first infected bolt of cloth might have saved most of the village, but by then it was too late.

I was disappointed by the ending. The author constructed the story so carefully and beautifully, then seemed to cram in a string of improbable events at the end. In the last little bit of the book we had: Anna and Mompellion becoming lovers, his confession about his marriage (which changed everything we knew about Elinor and Michael), Anna's rescue of the baby, and her journey to an Islamic harem to become a midwife. It all wrapped up too neatly and just didn't fit the rest of the book. Brookes was a Middle Eastern correspondent and has written several books about women and Islam, which makes me think she was trying to find a way to work it in to her story.

Regardless, this was a really terrific book and I have already enthusiastically recommended it to several people.

[Spanky2]

I also LOVED this book, but did anyone else find it totally depressing? I was just weeping when she described the death of her children, and found it so hard to read about the orphans. However, the subject matter and timeline were so interesting - I couldn't put it down. It also made me want to find out more about the plague, so I reasearched it online.

I agree with Lisa about the ending. She was just trying to fit in an Islamic setting into the novel, and it totally failed. Not a believable ending in any sense.

[Maribeth]

Since it seems we all had similar feelings about the ending, let's write our own. Who wants to start?



Mari