February 21, 2008 at 3:26 am · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Historical Fiction
19. Trade Wind by M.M. Kaye (Historical Fiction) 551 p.
I think, if I had to choose the one word that would best describe this book, it would be “fraught”. Or “harrowing”, perhaps. Imagine a Gothic romance, set in mid-19th century Zanzibar, with an American heroine who happens to be a passionate do-gooder and a committed abolitionist. And a hero who is a smuggler and occasional slave-trader.
If you think you can see where this is going, you may have read too many historical romances. Although the book’s own blurb leaves no doubt that Hero Hollis and Emory Frost will end up together, how they get there is more than a little surprising. At least, it surprised me.
The best thing about M.M. Kaye’s writing is how genuine it is. Even when composing a novel that would have been trashy in most other authors’ hands, she keeps her characters both human and psychologically believable, and she is meticulous in her historical research. (She does take a few liberties with the history of the period, but the changes are scrupulously noted in a postscript.)
The only drawback about this book is its attitude toward rape, which I found a little disturbing, but not surprising, given the time and social milieu in which it’s set.
I always enjoy a book by M.M. Kaye, and Trade Wind is no exception. Raiders, slave traders, witch doctors, sultans, gold, jewels, shipwrecks, picnics, kidnapping, disease, gun running…seriously, this book has something for everyone!
Pages read: 5,944
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, Chunkster Challenge 2008, M.M. Kaye, What's in a Name?, World Lit Challenge II
May 7, 2007 at 5:29 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Historical Fiction, World Literature
40. The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye (Historical Fiction)
World Lit Challenge: India
Ashton Pelham-Martyn is an English boy whose parents are killed during the Mutiny, and who is consequently raised as an Indian by a Hindu woman. He becomes both insider and outsider to the worlds of native Indians and the British, allowing him to move easily between the two, but also to see the worst side of both. He becomes embroiled in a series of adventures that take him across India and even into Afghanistan.
M.M. Kaye works her usual magic while describing the setting and the people in it, and her protagonist is likable and sympathetic, though not without his faults. The bare outlines of Ash�s story, particularly his childhood, bear a striking (and presumably not-so-coincidental) resemblance to those of Kipling�s Kimball O�Hara, although M.M. Kaye, writing over a half-century later, has a far less objectionable attitude to �the natives�. Like Kipling, though, she was herself born and raised in India, and it shows, particularly in her descriptions of British society and army life in India.
The Far Pavilions is quite long (1,135 pages in my edition,) but I was never bored with it, and was actually a bit sad that it ended where it did. It’s a truly brilliant adventure story, and makes me want to get my hands on M.M. Kaye’s other novels.
Books read: 40/100 (40%)
Pages read: 11,462/25,000 (46%)
Days passed: 127/365 (35%)
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2007, M.M. Kaye, World Lit Challenge
January 23, 2007 at 10:04 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Mystery and Suspense
27. Death in the Andamans by M.M. Kaye
Death in the Andamans is one of six mystery/suspense novels written by M.M. Kaye, all of which are set in various Outposts of Empire, back in the days when there still was an Empire. She was a soldier’s wife, and she wrote what she knew, so the books are interesting from a historical perspective, as well as being very good mysteries.
M.M. Kaye is better known for her novel The Far Pavilions and a really great children’s book, The Ordinary Princess, but her mysteries are worth checking out. Death in the Andamans was the only one I hadn’t read, and it was quite good, although my favourite is still Death in Berlin.
Books read: 27/50
Pages read: 6,841/15,000
X-posted here.
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2007, M.M. Kaye
