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The Gifts and Allegiance
Mar. 26th, 2023 11:23 amI picked up The Gifts by Liz Hyder in a job-lot of reading material from Bookswap and I'm very glad I did - even though I have a lot of gripes about it!
The story is about a handful of instances of women spontaneously sprouting wings in 1840s England. There's an up-and-coming surgeon who wants to use them to further his career, a young female aspiring journalist who wants to find the truth, and the surgeon's wife who wants a life different to the one she finds herself in.
The plot and characters grabbed me immediately, I found all five-plus viewpoint narratives compelling, the short chapters kept up the pace really well, the setting was very well-drawn, and it all came together in a mostly satisfying way in the end.
However - the editing was terrible! The books is largely written in the present tense, which means flashbacks or references to events from earlier should be written in the past tense, but they were rendered in the pluperfect, which jarred every time. There were multiple typos, grammatical errors, very clunky or repetitive turns of phrase that should have been tidied up. And the headhopping between characters within scenes (or references to other characters by name when the viewpoint character wouldn't know it) was, frankly, egregious.
The only issues I had with it that weren't technical, surface problems (easily corrected by a good editor/proofreader) were: in one chapter, a distracted character crossed the road and was nearly run down by a hansom cab and, in the following chapter, a distracted character crossed the road and was actually run down by a hansom cab. Also, while the coincidences that brought the surgeon into contact with all the winged women were fine, because getting characters into situations through coincidence is valid, the massive coincidence that allowed the journalists to succeed in bringing about the climax was not, because getting characters out of situations through coincidence is poor storytelling.
That said, overall, I really enjoyed this book! There was so much that was good about it, I found it really frustrating that the editing issues marred my reading experience. There was a truly excellent book here, fighting to get out from under its (mostly) surface issues.
I hope the author has found a better editor for her next one!
Last night, we ventured to the rather small Charing Cross Theatre to see Allegiance, George Takei's musical about Japanese internment in the US during World War Two. Not perhaps the sort of subject matter you would expect to create a rousing, uplifting but also very poignant musical - but it was all of those things. The staging was excellent - the audience sit on either side of the relatively small stage but the actors deliver their performances in the round very effectively and the dance numbers are well choreographed to make best use of the space.
A lot of the lyrics are pretty hokey - but then simple rhymes and cliched sentiments can often be very emotive when paired with stirring music and passionate performances. And it was clear the cast were all very dedicated to telling their story in a heartfelt and enthusiastic way. They were all excellent - and Takei himself has clearly inspired them with his obviously very personal connection to the material. He played the older version of the central character in the framing narrative, and also the grandfather in the main part of the story - two very different parts that both stood out as powerful and affecting.
So, not exactly high literary art - but then, it's not meant to me. And it delivers its message very effectively and received a well-deserved standing ovation. Highly recommended.
The story is about a handful of instances of women spontaneously sprouting wings in 1840s England. There's an up-and-coming surgeon who wants to use them to further his career, a young female aspiring journalist who wants to find the truth, and the surgeon's wife who wants a life different to the one she finds herself in.
The plot and characters grabbed me immediately, I found all five-plus viewpoint narratives compelling, the short chapters kept up the pace really well, the setting was very well-drawn, and it all came together in a mostly satisfying way in the end.
However - the editing was terrible! The books is largely written in the present tense, which means flashbacks or references to events from earlier should be written in the past tense, but they were rendered in the pluperfect, which jarred every time. There were multiple typos, grammatical errors, very clunky or repetitive turns of phrase that should have been tidied up. And the headhopping between characters within scenes (or references to other characters by name when the viewpoint character wouldn't know it) was, frankly, egregious.
The only issues I had with it that weren't technical, surface problems (easily corrected by a good editor/proofreader) were: in one chapter, a distracted character crossed the road and was nearly run down by a hansom cab and, in the following chapter, a distracted character crossed the road and was actually run down by a hansom cab. Also, while the coincidences that brought the surgeon into contact with all the winged women were fine, because getting characters into situations through coincidence is valid, the massive coincidence that allowed the journalists to succeed in bringing about the climax was not, because getting characters out of situations through coincidence is poor storytelling.
That said, overall, I really enjoyed this book! There was so much that was good about it, I found it really frustrating that the editing issues marred my reading experience. There was a truly excellent book here, fighting to get out from under its (mostly) surface issues.
I hope the author has found a better editor for her next one!
Last night, we ventured to the rather small Charing Cross Theatre to see Allegiance, George Takei's musical about Japanese internment in the US during World War Two. Not perhaps the sort of subject matter you would expect to create a rousing, uplifting but also very poignant musical - but it was all of those things. The staging was excellent - the audience sit on either side of the relatively small stage but the actors deliver their performances in the round very effectively and the dance numbers are well choreographed to make best use of the space.
A lot of the lyrics are pretty hokey - but then simple rhymes and cliched sentiments can often be very emotive when paired with stirring music and passionate performances. And it was clear the cast were all very dedicated to telling their story in a heartfelt and enthusiastic way. They were all excellent - and Takei himself has clearly inspired them with his obviously very personal connection to the material. He played the older version of the central character in the framing narrative, and also the grandfather in the main part of the story - two very different parts that both stood out as powerful and affecting.
So, not exactly high literary art - but then, it's not meant to me. And it delivers its message very effectively and received a well-deserved standing ovation. Highly recommended.
