Book Description:
At the end of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel, The Scarlet Letter, we know that Pearl, the elf-child daughter of Hester Prynne, is somewhere in Europe, comfortable, well set, a mother herself now. But it could not have been easy for her to arrive at such a place, when she begins life as the bastard child of a woman publicly humiliated, again and again, in an unrelentingly judgmental Puritan world.
With a brilliant and authentic sense of that time and place, Deborah Noyes envisions the path Pearl takes to make herself whole and to carve her place in the New World. Beautifully written with boundless compassion, Angel and Apostle is a heart-rending and imaginative debut in which Noyes masterfully makes Hawthorne’s character her own.
About Author:
Angel and Apostle is Deborah Noyes’ first novel. Her short fiction and reviews have appeared in The Threepenny Review, The Boston Sunday Globe, Seventeen, The Washington Post Book World, The Chicago Sun-Times, Stories, The Miami Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, The Bloomsbury Review, Boston Review, and other publications. She has also written and edited numerous books for children and young adults, including the award-winning teen anthology Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales.
©2005
My Take on the Book:
Though I liked the book, at times I was lost as well. I think there are faeries and witches, but still at the end am not sure.
The tale of Pearl is a great one, and I did love reading about the things she would do. It seems she was a good girl, but naturally curious, which in those days, made her a bit of a problem. I, at times, loved her Mother. Then she in turn could also be very cruel. It was a relationship I was not happy to read of, though it did make the story more interesting. How the child seems to suffer at the result of the parent, has been a question I have pondered many times. This book asks the same, without actually posing it. For me, it was mildly sensitive in nature.
Overall I liked the book. I don't think it's a bestseller, but interesting, yes!
~I received a copy from Unbridled Books for review. I was not compensated for my post.~
Sounds interesting, but I've never read The Scarlet letter. I wonder if I'd be lost.
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