Reviews with content warning for Abortion - Drums of Autumn

Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon

16 reviews

valleylily's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense

At several points throughout, The Drums of Autumn, by Diana Gabaldon, the novel struck me as Gabaldon's most descriptively-written and most frustrating novel so far in the Outlander series. There is so much complexity in Gabaldon's novels that I will not be able to address all concepts thoroughly.

As I mentioned previously, Drums of Autumn, seemed thus far to be the most vividly-written novel in the series and the descriptions of the characters' surroundings were very compelling at many times. I could often envision the scenes taking place and I was moved to tears on several occasions.

One of the frustrating aspects of the the novel I will address is Gabaldon's descriptions of Indigenous peoples and societies. I think there is a misrepresentation of Indigenous peoples and this was one of the major struggles I faced when trying to get through the novel. I struggled with the characters saying "Indian" but most strongly with the consistent use of the word "savage" to describe Indigenous people, even by Claire. I do understand these were words commonly used during the time period and afterward, but I found myself surprised by Claire's use of the word "savage." Because these words were commonly used, I understand the importance of including them in the novel by characters who do not know differently, though it was still difficult to read them. To a certain extent, I understand Jamie's apprehension of Indigenous peoples because heinous propaganda was printed against Native people during the time to stir colonists to violence against them, like in the pamphlets Jamie printed in his Edinburgh printshop in Voyager. I hoped the characters would interact with Native people and there would be a realization that they were not so different from one another, which happened so some degree. Another aspect that bothered me was Jamie's descriptions of Indigenous land as a "wilderness," while Scotland had seen thousands of years of "civilization." This was very irritating to me because Indigenous people have extensively cultivated these lands for thousands of years and the land was in no way a virgin wilderness as it is often depicted. However, as mentioned in the novel, war and disease ravaged Indigenous communities so many Nations were forced to leave their homelands and many areas became overgrown, leaving colonists to think these abandoned places were untouched before European arrival.

I think historical accuracy was lacking in regard to Indigenous communities and society. Though this is not a novel about Indigenous people, I think accurate representation is important. There is also very little the colonists themselves could know in some respects. There is so much history to think about and study in this novel and exploring different areas of the past in the series can be fascinating.

Content Warnings