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3.33 AVERAGE
3.33 AVERAGE
I have always been intrigued with the Black Plague. Imagine my excitement to read an historical fiction novel centered around a medieval English village where the pestilence was estimated to wipe out 40-60% of the population. I can see how some people might think this book would be boring. But I thought the author did a masterful job of placing me right in the center of the village to give me a sense of what life was like before, during, and after the plague.
This book was not nearly as good as I expected. I think the author was going for a book that was part history, part fiction, and part (imagined) first-person accounts. Although this approach may have looked good on the drawing board, it didn't quite work in real life.
This book was boring and I didn't even finish it.
This book was boring and I didn't even finish it.
dark
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
This is a difficult book to categorize neatly into genres, which I think may lend itself to being picked up by readers who are not the target audience and probably will not enjoy it, so keep that in mind while reading reviews.
This book is fiction in only the strictest sense that it is a fabricated story, but I believe it would satisfy the nonfiction reader far more than someone who primarily enjoys fiction. The author, John Hatcher, is a historian, and appropriately, this book seeks more to educate on history than it does to weave a compelling fictional narrative. Rather than a piece of historical fiction, I would describe this as a history book borrowing the tools of fiction to evoke empathy and to foster a more intimate understanding of the period in its readers. Hatcher himself describes it as a "docudrama", which I find to be accurate. Hatcher really sticks impressively close to the sources, taking as little creative license as possible.
In summary, the book follows a chronological path through one rural English village's experience leading up to, in the midst of, and following its brush with the Black Death, and provides fantastic insight into the day-to-day lives of medieval villagers during this bizarre and terrifying period. I found the exploration of the religious impact of this event compelling. However, what Hatcher has done best — and what many readers may find deeply boring, particularly towards the latter half of the book, so be warned — is capture the realities of the economic impact, which is as complex as you might imagine. Hatcher is a scholar of economic and social history, and it is quite clear that this is what he finds most worthy of emphasis in this book. Reading this in 2022, in the midst of the Great Resignation following the COVID-19 pandemic, this was particularly meaningful, and I did actually find it quite fascinating and gratifying. However, I do have to wonder if the extremely high emphasis on economics may have come at the expense of further exploring other cultural impacts of the plague.
Overall, this is a unique book, and an essential read if you are interested in the Black Death, or simply connecting more deeply to the lives of people from a distant past. Do not go into this expecting either a historical fiction novel or a straight academic history book — you will be disappointed. Embrace its genre-defying nature, and you will not be.
This book is fiction in only the strictest sense that it is a fabricated story, but I believe it would satisfy the nonfiction reader far more than someone who primarily enjoys fiction. The author, John Hatcher, is a historian, and appropriately, this book seeks more to educate on history than it does to weave a compelling fictional narrative. Rather than a piece of historical fiction, I would describe this as a history book borrowing the tools of fiction to evoke empathy and to foster a more intimate understanding of the period in its readers. Hatcher himself describes it as a "docudrama", which I find to be accurate. Hatcher really sticks impressively close to the sources, taking as little creative license as possible.
In summary, the book follows a chronological path through one rural English village's experience leading up to, in the midst of, and following its brush with the Black Death, and provides fantastic insight into the day-to-day lives of medieval villagers during this bizarre and terrifying period. I found the exploration of the religious impact of this event compelling. However, what Hatcher has done best — and what many readers may find deeply boring, particularly towards the latter half of the book, so be warned — is capture the realities of the economic impact, which is as complex as you might imagine. Hatcher is a scholar of economic and social history, and it is quite clear that this is what he finds most worthy of emphasis in this book. Reading this in 2022, in the midst of the Great Resignation following the COVID-19 pandemic, this was particularly meaningful, and I did actually find it quite fascinating and gratifying. However, I do have to wonder if the extremely high emphasis on economics may have come at the expense of further exploring other cultural impacts of the plague.
Overall, this is a unique book, and an essential read if you are interested in the Black Death, or simply connecting more deeply to the lives of people from a distant past. Do not go into this expecting either a historical fiction novel or a straight academic history book — you will be disappointed. Embrace its genre-defying nature, and you will not be.
I expected this book to be a grisly account of those suffering the disease - perhaps that appealed to me on some level. But that's not what it is at all (and perhaps that's why readers on this site haven't liked it more -- they wanted the macabre details).
The section of "The Black Death" dealing with the actual infection was brief. The majority of the book focused on the months leading up to the outbreak, as rumors of pestilence to the south reached Walsham (a small village in England) and the citizens were called to repentance, and the social turmoil that followed the decimation of the population. Hatcher sucked the very marrow out of Walsham's primary sources; though the fourteenth century overall is nearly undocumented, the local records for Walsham and its environs are strong.
The Black Death is a somewhat overworked topic, yet Thatcher adds something new to the scholarship. Not only is his "personal history" approach unique, but it also provides a clearer understanding than anything I've read before of how the black plague loosened the bonds of feudalism and undermined the authority of the Catholic clergy.
Overall, though the book was different from what I expected, I found it engaging, and a very worthwhile read for anyone interested in social history.
The section of "The Black Death" dealing with the actual infection was brief. The majority of the book focused on the months leading up to the outbreak, as rumors of pestilence to the south reached Walsham (a small village in England) and the citizens were called to repentance, and the social turmoil that followed the decimation of the population. Hatcher sucked the very marrow out of Walsham's primary sources; though the fourteenth century overall is nearly undocumented, the local records for Walsham and its environs are strong.
The Black Death is a somewhat overworked topic, yet Thatcher adds something new to the scholarship. Not only is his "personal history" approach unique, but it also provides a clearer understanding than anything I've read before of how the black plague loosened the bonds of feudalism and undermined the authority of the Catholic clergy.
Overall, though the book was different from what I expected, I found it engaging, and a very worthwhile read for anyone interested in social history.
I was interested in the pilgrimages and other activities people did to prevent or avoid the black death. The book read much faster after the 52% point, maybe because I found it more relatable.
The Black Death came at a time of climate change. Theirs was colder and wetter years than previously, while ours is hotter and stormier. So much mortality brought great social change as well. Peasants and other laborers demanded higher wages, while women became more prominent in the work force.
In this time of unchecked (in the U.S.) plague, will there also be economic upheaval? We have already seen social changes after the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and too many more this year.
It was fascinating to see parallels between society, culture, and economy today and those of the mid-fourteenth century.
The Black Death came at a time of climate change. Theirs was colder and wetter years than previously, while ours is hotter and stormier. So much mortality brought great social change as well. Peasants and other laborers demanded higher wages, while women became more prominent in the work force.
In this time of unchecked (in the U.S.) plague, will there also be economic upheaval? We have already seen social changes after the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and too many more this year.
It was fascinating to see parallels between society, culture, and economy today and those of the mid-fourteenth century.
The author took facts from historical records and tried to turn it into a fictional story so readers could better understand the life of those who lived through the Black Death. It didn't work. It never sounded like a story, it read like a text book. It was one long church sermon, since most records were kept by priests and monks and from their point of view, it was brought by sin and they thought they could pray it away.
informative
slow-paced
Interested idea for a book, a "docudrama" of a village awaiting, and then suffering, the bubonic plague... but the narrative is so weak as to render it unreadable. I rarely quit a book; I quit this one halfway through, when "exciting" things were happening in the storyline. In the hands of a more able fiction writer, this could have been a winner.
dark
informative
medium-paced
