Recent reading

[luzula]

When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb (2022)
For book club. This was lovely! I am surely not the first one to say this, but it's kind of like a cross between Good Omens and The Golem and the Jinni. Which is perhaps not fair, because the book is its own thing too, and the relationship between the angel and the demon is complicated and satisfying. I enjoyed the writing style—there’s a touch of old-fashioned style with an omniscient POV, but there's also a simplicity to it. I did think the f/f love story was a bit rushed--I think either the kiss should have been skipped and left as potential for the future, or built up to more.

The New Road by Neil Munro (1924)
This is an adventure and mystery set during the building of the military roads in the Highlands in the 1720-30s. I was thrilled to see a cameo by Captain Edward Burt, whose Letters from the North of Scotland Munro had undoubtedly read as research. I found this book interesting and enjoyable, but I didn't love it. I thought it made it easy for itself by making Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, the center of all the Jacobite plotting and resistance against the encroachment of the road and all it entailed--of course he's a man easily painted as a villain. And then there's the main character’s merchant uncle, who basically goes ‘I'm going to crush Highland society with CAPITALISM’, which I cannot find sympathetic. But there's a lot to enjoy about the book, and I liked the interaction of the two main characters, though they don't hold a candle to Alan and Davie in Kidnapped (to which, as regshoe says, the plot bears some significant resemblance).

Comments

[regshoe]

That is a good point about The New Road, that focussing on Lovat makes it easy to portray the 'old Highlands' as all bad (there were all those historical characters, but no Lochiel—would he have made a worse example?). Agreed about the CAPITALISM too. And I also enjoyed the Burt cameo!

[luzula]

I suppose it's complicated--the 'old Highlands-advent of capitalism' divide doesn't necessarily align with the Whig-Jacobite divide. I remember that the book Clanship, Commerce, and the House of Stuart made the point that the Jacobite lairds and chiefs did not have fewer commercial ventures than the Whig ones. But it is true that weakening the tenant bonds (evicting existing tenants and letting to the highest bidder) is something that the Jacobites did not do as much, because it weakened their military capacity.

But yes, focussing on Lovat makes it easier to paint the Jacobites as villains. To be sure, there's Duncanson as a villain on the Campbell side, but he's more painted as one bad apple, and the Campbells themselves as good and just (perhaps natural since that's the side the protagonists belong to). Such as this line: And what have I seen?—the ruffian chiefs with their men for instruments, their cunning and their crimes; a land held under bondage to mere names! More poetry is in the life of the poorest fisher on Loch Fyne!

[chestnut_pod]

Ahh, I'm so glad you enjoyed Angels! Your remark about the slightly old-fashioned style combined with a kind of transparency is a good one; that was honestly my favorite part about the writing itself. It gave it such a nice flavor without becoming the point of the book.

[luzula]

I did enjoy it! I do wish more historical novels would use omniscient POV; I enjoy that a lot.

[hyarrowen]

The New Road looks so interesting, with a nice geographical topic, that I've ordered it (much cheaper while in the UK than paying for postage to Australia.) I will take heed of your warning about heavy-handed themes, though.

I wonder if the author walked some of the roads, and if so, whether they were much better preserved than they are today? They'd have been a century younger than they are now, after all.

[luzula]

It's also available free here, if you have an ereader! Sorry, I should have linked in the post. But of course it's more pleasant anyway to read on paper.

Given that both main characters are Campbell-associated Whigs, I suppose the perspective is fairly natural! But when Aeneas (the young character) discovers the various shady dealings among the Jacobites, he contrasts that with what it's like back home. To be sure, there is one Campbell-associated character who is corrupt, but he is painted more as one bad apple. While in fact, I am pretty sure that shady dealings went all the way to the top among the Campbells as well.

I wonder if the author walked some of the roads, and if so, whether they were much better preserved than they are today? They'd have been a century younger than they are now, after all.
Oh, that's a good point! The modern roads down along the Great Glen largely follow Wade’s road in many places, and presumably they were not built yet in their present shape. But I expect they were still the roads people were using, so that Wade’s road had been worn down and probably resurfaced in the meantime. Perhaps the one over the pass of Corryarrick had more of its original surface back then, though.