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cchipmunck's review against another edition
DNF’d - ran out of time last academic year
crayonroyalty's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Written in the “ghost” of Old English, this book was difficult to start but deeply rewarding. Buccmaster of Holland is a loveable, unreliable narrator and his tale at once a comedy and tragedy.
clamthegiant's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
lines__lines's review
This is difficult to read because of the sort-of-old-english dialect in which it is written. It makes the reading slow as I double-check myself with the index. I'm glad it was written this way, though, because it is immersive and alien at the same time. Pre-Norman England is so unimaginably far from our current world that the difficulty of reading mimics that vast distance of time and culture even as it allows the reader to make connections between the pieces that morphed into where we are now.
But it's so slow to read and every time I took a break because I didn't have the mental capacity or time to devote to close reading, I'd have to re-learn the "language" again when I picked it back up. I've just finished off the 1067 section so to leave off at decent stopping point and I was quicker to remember this time how to read, but I also just didn't bother to double-check myself as much.
The narrator is both a sympathetic figure and a frustrating one. His world is ending, the Normans brutalizing his people and land. His reaction is to believe his grandfather's sword is a sign of the old gods' favor the he should take up the sword against the French, defending England. He hears the voice of Weland the Smith, the god he believes forged the sword. His sons he sends to fight with Harald, and they fall with the King at the Battle of Hastings. His land and his wife are burned by the French while he is out in the fens. At each step of the way, Buccmaster believes himself to be strong and true to his English roots, recounting his grandfather's tales of the old gods and refusing to follow his father's conversion to Christianity; refusing to pay tax to the new French rulers; denigrating other English towns who do bow to the French & offer tribute in order to avoid destruction. His status as a freeman and landowner makes him feel always superior even when he is living in the woods with other survivors - at first just a cottar from his town (smart, but of a lower station, and often disapproving of killing) and a child they found early on (who looks up to him). He considers himself a leader of a war-band, and yet takes from his own people to sustain the little troupe, and they do little more than act as brigands, killing French travelers on the roads through their wood. Though he is told of a great man attempting to gather a rebel force, he rejects the idea, even as his subconscious via his conversations with Weland the Smith tell him he's weak, not doing enough, and Hereward will be the real champion. It takes his child ward goading him before he even took the first step towards being a leader - killing a French overlord from the child's town, which only serves to bring the French down on the town, while they flee. And again, the child must ask before they begin recruiting others to the cause. Where I left off, they had finally picked up two new members who had fought at Senlac with Harald, and they're surviving the winter with hunting and the child's thievery from the towns.
Buccmaster's cause is a hopeless one, and he knows it. He knows that children will be given French names and that many will find it easier to be "thralls" than bring down Norman wrath upon their towns. He knows that even as he builds his war band that they fight a losing battle, and yet the voice in his head that says "be true" is persistent. He would rather die free and see his people in graves rather than see them in thrall. "English folk who would be french what is they worth / naught" is how he justifies the death of a town leader by his own sword. He knows England will never be free, and yet he feels he must live true to his old ways somehow.
I'm glad to have read what I have read of this, and each time I pick it up, I find it a compelling read. But I don't think I need to keep going to see how Buccmaster must eventually unravel and his cause of rebellion be crushed. The course of the story feels inevitable and full of death, and the reading is laborious.
But it's so slow to read and every time I took a break because I didn't have the mental capacity or time to devote to close reading, I'd have to re-learn the "language" again when I picked it back up. I've just finished off the 1067 section so to leave off at decent stopping point and I was quicker to remember this time how to read, but I also just didn't bother to double-check myself as much.
The narrator is both a sympathetic figure and a frustrating one. His world is ending, the Normans brutalizing his people and land. His reaction is to believe his grandfather's sword is a sign of the old gods' favor the he should take up the sword against the French, defending England. He hears the voice of Weland the Smith, the god he believes forged the sword. His sons he sends to fight with Harald, and they fall with the King at the Battle of Hastings. His land and his wife are burned by the French while he is out in the fens. At each step of the way, Buccmaster believes himself to be strong and true to his English roots, recounting his grandfather's tales of the old gods and refusing to follow his father's conversion to Christianity; refusing to pay tax to the new French rulers; denigrating other English towns who do bow to the French & offer tribute in order to avoid destruction. His status as a freeman and landowner makes him feel always superior even when he is living in the woods with other survivors - at first just a cottar from his town (smart, but of a lower station, and often disapproving of killing) and a child they found early on (who looks up to him). He considers himself a leader of a war-band, and yet takes from his own people to sustain the little troupe, and they do little more than act as brigands, killing French travelers on the roads through their wood. Though he is told of a great man attempting to gather a rebel force, he rejects the idea, even as his subconscious via his conversations with Weland the Smith tell him he's weak, not doing enough, and Hereward will be the real champion. It takes his child ward goading him before he even took the first step towards being a leader - killing a French overlord from the child's town, which only serves to bring the French down on the town, while they flee. And again, the child must ask before they begin recruiting others to the cause. Where I left off, they had finally picked up two new members who had fought at Senlac with Harald, and they're surviving the winter with hunting and the child's thievery from the towns.
Buccmaster's cause is a hopeless one, and he knows it. He knows that children will be given French names and that many will find it easier to be "thralls" than bring down Norman wrath upon their towns. He knows that even as he builds his war band that they fight a losing battle, and yet the voice in his head that says "be true" is persistent. He would rather die free and see his people in graves rather than see them in thrall. "English folk who would be french what is they worth / naught" is how he justifies the death of a town leader by his own sword. He knows England will never be free, and yet he feels he must live true to his old ways somehow.
I'm glad to have read what I have read of this, and each time I pick it up, I find it a compelling read. But I don't think I need to keep going to see how Buccmaster must eventually unravel and his cause of rebellion be crushed. The course of the story feels inevitable and full of death, and the reading is laborious.
sunn_bleach's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This is a fascinating book that's a whole lot deeper than either the initial or secondary conceit (eald anglisc, post-apocalypse 1000 years ago). "The Wake" is one of those books with a high Thinkability Index; regardless of whether or not I enjoyed it, I keep *thinking* about it. By Kingsnorth's own words in foreword and afterword, it's tempting to think you're supposed to consider Buccmaster a hero of the story. It's not a spoiler to say that's... not the truth - but the sheer destruction and horror of William the Conqueror's arrival is nonetheless demonstrated everywhere in this novel. Buccmaster himself is a dirty fucking coward in every sense of the imagination, from his obsession with the eald gods (that don't even align with the reality of their worship, as other characters call him out for) to how jealous he is that other men fight for Angland despite him saying he's for the struggle, too. But *how* that cowardice is evoked and how it plays with the broader Wake and Buccmaster's green men is a fascinating psychological profile that emphasized the "history" part of the "historical novel".
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic friendship, Violence, and War
Moderate: Xenophobia and Misogyny
Minor: Rape, Sexual violence, and Domestic abuse
jnowal's review against another edition
3.0
Learning to read this was entertaining, but once I had a handle on the language, the plot was pretty thin.
krobart's review against another edition
5.0
See my review here:
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2015/06/30/day-728-the-wake/
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2015/06/30/day-728-the-wake/
ellerobot's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
0.25
don't.
thisisstephenbetts's review against another edition
2.0
Disappointing. Subject matter was interesting - England around the time of the Norman conquest. The much touted USP of the book is that it is written in an approximation of Olde English. That takes a bit of effort, but I actually enjoyed that aspect - unfortunately the plot really doesn't repay the reader. The protagonist is intensely dislikeable, and is taken with sitting around forests and fens - away from the remains of English civilization, and from the French that conquered them. It's a strange decision for a historical novel, to show as little as possible of the time in which it's set. The theme of the old pagan Gods being supplanted by Christianity was interesting, and the atmosphere was generally effective. But, overall, that was insufficient to counter the repetitive scenes, unengaging characters and aimless plot.
hoboken's review against another edition
1.0
Found buccmaster so unpleasant I stopped reading. I'm sure it was all very accurate, and life was absolutely horrible, esp the importance of material and social status, but since the author made up the language and said the protagonist's name wasn't realistic, I didn't really trust him not to be sensationalizing. The history of Saxon resistance to the Normans is a fascinating topic about which I know virtually nothing, but I think I'll try to learn it as history.