Paul Haston

This book was the group read selection for the month of a group that I belong to. I would like to thank the author who was kind enough to make it available as a free download to members.

What I liked/disliked: While I liked the crisp, sparse writing that moved the story on with a steady even momentum, I cannot help but feel that he was a little too clinical when talking about important events thus distancing the reader from them rather than bringing the reader into the story. For example, this is the excerpt about her wedding night.
"The cold reality of her arranged marriage made Nakti shudder. What could she possibly have in common with a man three times her age, a man to whom she had been promised, but had met only once?
Beckoned forward, she received from the Purohit the sacred mantras. Holding her head down to assuage the tears, she walked barefoot around the sacred fire and made her vows in the Saptapadi, the inevitability of her enslavement becoming apparent.
May the night be honey-sweet," her husband vowed.
Night it was for sure after that, but not honey-sweet. The lecher did not keep to his vows. He treated her like a slave. It was a miserable time. She hated her husband and she hated herself. Krishna eventually came to her rescue."
That excerpt covered her marriage and the death of her husband. The same treatment was given to all the momentous events throughout the book, from her flight from her husband's funeral pyre, the journey by ship to Africa to her eventual arrival at the sugar plantation where she was indentured. We were told what happened but not given enough information or description to see or feel empathy for the characters. While I liked the book it was not a book that I felt emotional attachment to. The book was well researched and it showed.

Would I recommend it: I would recommend it to those looking for a quick and easy historical fiction.

originally published on http://chapterofdreams.com/… (meer)