Recent reading
Sep. 15th, 2021 06:27 pmAlmond, Wild Almond by D K Broster (1931)
I had mixed feelings about this one! On the one hand, I enjoyed seeing Broster return to the setting of Flight of the Heron but with different characters. I imagine her being "well, I already did all this historical research, why not put it to use and play some more in this sandbox?" Which was fun for me, too, because I knew a lot of her references--hi, Lady Lude, I recognize your line of dialogue there! Ewen's cameo was also a lot of fun. Aww, Ewen. ♥
So, this is a het love story between the characters Ranald MacLean and Bride Stewart (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
regshoe has a lot more plot synopsis, if you want). As usual for Broster, she foreshadows death (this time in two ways: the jealous MacGregor who wants to kill Ranald, and the classical reference to the woman who kills herself when her lover doesn't come back). But also as usual, one doesn't know until the end whether it will be fulfilled, whether there will be a bait and switch and some other character will die instead, or whether they will all live happily ever after.
The thing is, the conflicts that are set up between the characters rely a lot on the expectation of female sexual purity and innocence. /o\ This hasn't been the case in Broster's other het romances. The conflict between Ewen and Alison (such as it is) is that she wants to delay getting married because her father is ill and needs her. The conflict between de Vireville and Raymonde in Sir Isumbras at the Ford could just as well have been set up between two men, in that Raymonde wants to take revenge on de Vireville for family reasons, and also they both take active roles in wartime. Ian and Olivia in The Dark Mile have a Romeo-and-Julia setup. Gaston and Valentine in The Yellow Poppy have a second-chance romance--they didn't connect during their first years of arranged marriage, but are then separated by war and earn each others' respect and love later on. Juliana and Raoul in Mr Rowl has her unintentionally landing him into prison and then spending the whole book trying in various legal and illegal ways to save him, and succeeding in the end.
But in this book, ( I guess I should cut for spoilers )
I had mixed feelings about this one! On the one hand, I enjoyed seeing Broster return to the setting of Flight of the Heron but with different characters. I imagine her being "well, I already did all this historical research, why not put it to use and play some more in this sandbox?" Which was fun for me, too, because I knew a lot of her references--hi, Lady Lude, I recognize your line of dialogue there! Ewen's cameo was also a lot of fun. Aww, Ewen. ♥
So, this is a het love story between the characters Ranald MacLean and Bride Stewart (
regshoe has a lot more plot synopsis, if you want). As usual for Broster, she foreshadows death (this time in two ways: the jealous MacGregor who wants to kill Ranald, and the classical reference to the woman who kills herself when her lover doesn't come back). But also as usual, one doesn't know until the end whether it will be fulfilled, whether there will be a bait and switch and some other character will die instead, or whether they will all live happily ever after. The thing is, the conflicts that are set up between the characters rely a lot on the expectation of female sexual purity and innocence. /o\ This hasn't been the case in Broster's other het romances. The conflict between Ewen and Alison (such as it is) is that she wants to delay getting married because her father is ill and needs her. The conflict between de Vireville and Raymonde in Sir Isumbras at the Ford could just as well have been set up between two men, in that Raymonde wants to take revenge on de Vireville for family reasons, and also they both take active roles in wartime. Ian and Olivia in The Dark Mile have a Romeo-and-Julia setup. Gaston and Valentine in The Yellow Poppy have a second-chance romance--they didn't connect during their first years of arranged marriage, but are then separated by war and earn each others' respect and love later on. Juliana and Raoul in Mr Rowl has her unintentionally landing him into prison and then spending the whole book trying in various legal and illegal ways to save him, and succeeding in the end.
But in this book, ( I guess I should cut for spoilers )
