A great way to imagine history!!
Rating:
5 / 5
Rita Gerlach's novels envelop readers in the history of Maryland and Virginia, and enable readers to imagine what life might have been like during times very different from our own. They make a great companion to historical accounts, and are just plain great reads!!
War in Eden!
Rating:
5 / 5
Writing fiction about history requires factual accuracy, perceptive understanding of the typical and unique individuals living in a specific time, and the ability to create that world's particular conflicts in creative, fluid language. Rita Gerlach has deftly achieved all of the above in Thorns in Eden, an account of pre-Revolutionary colonial life in what was much later to be called the United States of America.Meet John (Jack) Nash, an immigrant from England, who has forsworn an upper class status to forge a free, dignified world in Maryland. Working diligently, he builds a home that he knows might be threatened by a looming war with his former countrymen. On what he knows will be his last visit to see his parents in England, his life is transformed when he meets Rebecah Cathlene Brent. She however is highly conflicted because she is both deeply in love with him but has more than adequate reason to reject his proposal. Tragically wounded, he returns to America only to immediately find that the Indians surrounding his hometown have suffered a grievous massacre at the hands of a rabble. The previously warring Indian tribes have united and vowed to destroy every white man, woman and child. Who is right or wrong? The answers are tensely depicted as borderline for both sides. Rebecah Brent has much to ponder as she initially hesitates, then passionately responds, and finally goes against her better understanding of this man from America who has altered her world with almost unbearable depth. What circumstance turns such consuming love to staunch refusal? What is it like to be an independent woman who must obey society's dictates about marriage, education, and finances? Meticulously researching this period, Rita Gerlach has depicted several actual events, such as the Indian wars, the burning of the Peggy Stewart ship (Annapolis Tea Party), and the story of the massacre of Chief Logan's people. Actual characters in this and a subsequent novel include Chief Logan, Michael Cresap, Thomas Johnson, Archibald Boyd, William Paca, John Wesley, and John Hanson. Drunks, preying males, freedom-loving colonialists, a former slave who dares not to dream of freedom for his people, an Indian brother torn between his love for his people and his friendship with some white men, rigid and liberal relatives and friends, the growing influence of John Wesley's preaching, hardness and compassion for the poor and imprisoned... this and more fill these densely packed pages to create a wonderfully-written historical novel that reflects the peace, tension, and in-between atmosphere of America and England and the people therein. This author writes with lyrical prose that will transport you to the point where you can see and hear America's Eden-like, natural beauty. You will love, despise, and be suspended in ambivalence about the characters and situations depicted herein. Indeed, you will hate for this story to end. What a delightful read this was and what impressionable memories remain from what should be heralded and enjoyed by a large reading audience! Reviewed by Viviane Crystal on June 29, 2004
Gelach is a true storyteller
Rating:
5 / 5
Behold the work of a true storyteller - and I don't say that lightly. I come from a long line of storytellers, a near dying craft. I don't mean writers, but ones who draw on the living history around them to weave tales. Seanchaidh - in Gaelic means recorder of tales. They were more that just an entertainer around fireside, they were the keepers of history. Rita Gerlach is the cousin of Nora Roberts - without doubt one of the most successful writers around these days. But Gerlach is a true storyteller who writes from the heart, the soul, from her heritage - she is a Seanchaidh. As a person who spent my life wrapped up in history, I have repeatedly bemoaned the shabby treatment true historical fiction is getting from mainstream publishers these days. They swear no one is buying it so they don't publish it. Well, how can you buy it if it's not there? Thank goodness for some people not listening to this nonsense. Publish America is giving good writers, true storytellers the chance to write and do it there way. Gerlach is likely a prime example of NYC missing the boat where historical fiction, storytelling is concerned. This is her second book (The Rebel's Pledge and Everlasting Mountains are her other titles) and it's so thrilling to read quality work such as this. Gerlach has taken true factual history and woven it into a fictional tale in the best tradition of the Seanchaidh. Colonial-born, first generation Englishman, John Nash sought to create a life in the frontiers of Maryland. But as he sees his dream taking shape, the threat of war with England is heavy in the air, propelling him to return to England and his family. There, he meets Rebecah - the daughter of an Englishman he had encountered in the wilds of Maryland one night - and learns the man since has died. Rebecah has dreams of her own, dreams of adventure, freedom, of love. She's known little outside the isolated English manor where she was raised. After her father's death, she was forced to go live with her Uncle. He is a mean spirited man, who wants Rebecah gone, though she little understands why her presence angers him so. She's been promised in marriage to Sir Cecil Lanley, even so she's drawn to Nash. Emotions are complicated when she learns her father died in a pre-war conflict in the Colonies. Soon she is a pawn in her uncle schemes to slander Nash, hinting he was involved, if not responsible, in her father's death. As the tensions between Nash and Rebecah's uncle rise, so do the tensions between the two countries, sending Nash back to the Colonies and pending war. Rebecah must chose between the patriot she loves and the man she is promised to marry. Heads up on this...buy Everlasting Mountains at the same time you buy this. You will thank me for this, because the story continues in Gerlach's third book and you won't want to miss it. She has a gentle soothing voice that pulls the reader into "seeing" her vivid imagery in the tradition of the ancient storytellers. It so good to read true historical fiction written by someone who loves the craft.
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