First sentence:"Both men were en voyage and sleeping in their berths."
Description:
"In the winter of 1836 the Belle of Wilmington is wrecked off Wherrytown. The Captain and his American sailors flirt, drink, brawl, repair the damage to their ship. . .and inflict fresh damage on the town. Another visitor marooned far from home is Aymer Smith, a man brimming with good intentions both for the Belle's black slave cook Otto and for himself, a virgin and a blunderer in search of a wife.
Amid the haunting, monumental landscape and a wealth of characters that rival Dickens's most enduring creations, the hopes and hazards of the Old World are pitched -- unforgetably -- against the New." -- from the back cover
My thoughts:
This was a poignant and thoughtful book. Aymer Smith reminded me a little of Eugene Henderson in Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King. Both characters try so hard to do the right thing, and often their efforts make things worse. I liked the interactions between Aymer Smith and the townspeople of Wherrytown and the American sailors.
Date read: 9/18/2008
Book #: 68
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Fiction
ISBN-10: 0140276106
ISBN-13: 9780140276107
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 1994
# of Pages: 276
Binding: Trade Paperback
LibraryThing Page
No comments:
Post a Comment