Tracy Chevalier's
novel 'At the Edge of the Orchard' is the last of the three books I
have purchased from the second hand bookshop (reviews for the other
two are already on the website) I am a huge fan of Tracy Chevalier
and usually really enjoy reading her books as an interesting
fictionalized look into the historical circumstances of the setting
she chose to write about. However, as much as it pains me to write
this, I did not enjoy this one as much as I hoped I would. While some
of the pillars of her writing are present in the novel and there was
clearly a great deal of research done, I could not get into this
novel at all.
I have heard about
this novel a couple of years ago when my mom (another huge fan of
Chevalier) has read it. From her description, I only remember that it
was American pioneers and it was about people obsessed with apples.
After reading the novel, I can tell you that this description is
fairly accurate. The
story follows the Goodenough
family as they try to settle into muddy, grim and unhospitable swams
of Ohio. The parents of the family, Sadie and James do not like each
other anymore and are frequently cruel and hateful to each other.
James is obssesed with the idea of growing fifty apples, while Sadie
is almost always drunk and doesn't do much to help. They are often
struck with the worst pain of parents, losing their children and at
the time we are introduced to them, most of them have already passed.
The two important characters are Robert and Martha, two of their
children. In fact, the first part of the novel is told from the
perspective of James and Sadie, while the second half follows Robert
and his life.
Speaking of structure, the difference between
the two parts of the novel is so stark it felt almost disjointed. The
atmosphere in the first half is so dark and hopeless I almost gave up
reading the book. While I can understand that the time and setting of
the novel (1830s-1850s in the USA) did not allow for a lot of joy and
was brutal on the pioneers, the majority of the characters,
especially adults were just so unlikable and horrible I struggled to
make myself care about them. I am glad I continued, however, as the
part focusing on Robert and people in his life was far more positive,
full of life and overall lighter.
Speaking of structure, the difference between
the two parts of the novel is so stark it felt almost disjointed. The
atmosphere in the first half is so dark and hopeless I almost gave up
reading the book. While I can understand that the time and setting of
the novel (1830s-1850s in the USA) did not allow for a lot of joy and
was brutal on the pioneers, the majority of the characters,
especially adults were just so unlikable and horrible I struggled to
make myself care about them. I am glad I continued, however, as the
part focusing on Robert and people in his life was far more positive,
full of life and overall lighter.
There
are some events in the story that keep it going, but it seems that
the novel focused more on the internal introspection of the main
characters and their progress as people. James' story is focused on
his apples and his overall work to be better at growing apples while
keeping the family together somewhat. On the other hand, Sadie did
not have much of a character and I found myself honestly hating her.
Without spoiling too much of the actual plot, I will say that Sadie
was mostly there when it was needed to break or ruin things for other
people. Additionally except Robert, Goodenough children did not have
much of a character development and were painted over with a very
large brush and thrown into the backside, briefly mentioned here and
there. In addition to Goodenoughs, other notable characters were
Johhny Appleseed who was somewhat interesting, but not really
significant to the story at large, and William Lobb, an ecentric
plant collector who I really enjoyed reading about and who had a
wonderful relationship with Robert. I was quite dissapointed that
there was almost no mention of indigenous people that the characters
would surely come into contact with. They are mentioned only in
passing a few times and without any real influence. As the indigenous
population of the USA definitely played their part in the experience
of pioneers, I felt this was quite an oversight.
My
favorite character in the whole novel though was Molly. Although it
was obvious from the moment she was introduced as a sex worker and
cook that Robert sometimes had relations with that she would have a
more significant role, I really enjoyed her cheerfullness and the
impact she had on Robert and his way of thinking. She was presented
as very open and eager person, but also just as a good person,
without a bad bone in her body. In the sea of cheaters, liers,
drinkers and just bad people throughout the book, she was indeed a
breath of fresh air. I was not too obssessed with the presentation of
female characters in the novel as they felt like they fell into a lot
of tropes, and Molly somewhat jumped out of them.
I
did have a big issue with the pacing of this novel. This is not a
very long novel (my edition has 324 pages with a few pages of
author's notes at the end) but it took me forever to read it. At
first, the story dragged on and it was a bit like I was stuck in
Groundhog Day reading about the same day over and over again. This
may as well been purposeful as a way to illustrate the pacing of the
life in the given historical circumstances, but it simply did not
work for me here. Robert's part felt a bit better as there were more
interesting and significant events in his adult life. I am not too
interested in plants and flowers the way some of the characters from
the novel are, but I did not enjoy the passages of explanations and
descriptions of regions that Robert had to go through. I am not sure
if Chevalier is also obssesed with trees and plants, but she has
convinced me that her characters are.
At
the end, I am glad I read this novel as I feel like I have learned a
lot about the life of pioneers and their life and thinking. However,
I found the novel a bit dull and without any real stakes as the main
character, Robert was just floating about and it was only really
close to the end that his actions starting having some consequences
as he started settling a bit more. The ending, while positive and
overall happy for the most of the 'positive' characters, felt quite
anticlimactic. I kept reading the novel hoping that something
extraordinary or interesting will happen, but that moment never
happened.
I
scored this novel 3/5. If you are intersested in Chevalier's writing,
do not start with this novel as I am not sure you will want to read
her other work. Instead, I would suggest 'The Girl with the Pearl
Earring' or 'Virgin Blue' as they are far more successful.
Did
you read this book? Did you read something else by Chevalier? What
were your thoughts?
source: wikipedia.com
source: wikipedia.com
Comments
Post a Comment