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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
Damn Denniston
Damn the track
Damn the way both there and back
Damn the wind and damn the weather
God damn Denniston altogether
J.T. Ward 1884
Last time I was on the West Coast, we went for a drive and my sister pointed out the site of Denniston perched high in the hills. As beautiful as the West Coast is, it is also a challenging, wet environment.
To this most inhospitable place came the fictional characters of the fierce Evangeline and her daughter, five year old Rose. Why did they come? Certainly no one would travel up the Incline in a storm and travel up a wagon on the tracks by choice!
The opening scenes of their arrival up The Incline is one of the best I have ever read and had me hungry to read more. I was totally enthralled by Rose (nicknamed Rose of Tralee by her new Denniston friends) and her strong will to survive and triumph. Rose's flaws (among other things Rose is stop her becoming a Mary Sue character, her story is by turn inspiring and harrowing - I kept praying what was foreshadowed wouldn't happen to this little girl.
Loved the ending and I now want to read the sequel [b:Heart of Coal|5060363|Heart of Coal|Jenny Pattrick|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1299636970l/5060363._SY75_.jpg|5127006]
I am already certain this will be one of my favourite reads in 2020.
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshessonovel.wordpress.com
Damn the track
Damn the way both there and back
Damn the wind and damn the weather
God damn Denniston altogether
J.T. Ward 1884
Last time I was on the West Coast, we went for a drive and my sister pointed out the site of Denniston perched high in the hills. As beautiful as the West Coast is, it is also a challenging, wet environment.
To this most inhospitable place came the fictional characters of the fierce Evangeline and her daughter, five year old Rose. Why did they come? Certainly no one would travel up the Incline in a storm and travel up a wagon on the tracks by choice!
The opening scenes of their arrival up The Incline is one of the best I have ever read and had me hungry to read more. I was totally enthralled by Rose (nicknamed Rose of Tralee by her new Denniston friends) and her strong will to survive and triumph. Rose's flaws (among other things Rose is
Spoiler
light fingeredLoved the ending and I now want to read the sequel [b:Heart of Coal|5060363|Heart of Coal|Jenny Pattrick|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1299636970l/5060363._SY75_.jpg|5127006]
I am already certain this will be one of my favourite reads in 2020.
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshessonovel.wordpress.com
A splendid novel set in Denniston, a small mining community of NZ in the 1880s. It is a great story and the characters so three-dimensional that pop out of the pages. I loved this book and highly recommend it. 4.5 stars
Edited to add some pictures
The incline
The settlement and the people
More pictures available at West Coast NZ History website
Edited to add some pictures
The incline
The settlement and the people
More pictures available at West Coast NZ History website
A beautiful and precocious child, Rose, arrived in Dennistone one stormy night. Her mother, Evangeline Strauss, is a woman of questionable character. They arrived to seek Rose's father, or so the mother said but as a matter of fact, they were running away from something more sinister.
Life in Dennistone was not easy but Rose was welcome in nearly every households as no one, in their right mind, could refuse her. Unfortunately, once again luck struck out and her 'father' died. How exactly he died no one knew however this incident placed Rose in the hands of a drunkard and child molester. All Dennistone knew what went on but not one dared to go against him. Poor Rose will have to fend for herself...
This is the second New Zealand literature I've read but somehow both contained child abuse (sexual) though this one is less confronting due to the nature of the book. I think I must search for more NZ lit which deals more with the culture and not so much with this painful issue.
I've only given it 3 stars because I really didn't quite enjoy it due to the issues it was tackling and I just don't like the characters. I do, however, liked the way it described the setting and the time period. I might just give the author another go.
Life in Dennistone was not easy but Rose was welcome in nearly every households as no one, in their right mind, could refuse her. Unfortunately, once again luck struck out and her 'father' died. How exactly he died no one knew however this incident placed Rose in the hands of a drunkard and child molester. All Dennistone knew what went on but not one dared to go against him. Poor Rose will have to fend for herself...
This is the second New Zealand literature I've read but somehow both contained child abuse (sexual) though this one is less confronting due to the nature of the book. I think I must search for more NZ lit which deals more with the culture and not so much with this painful issue.
I've only given it 3 stars because I really didn't quite enjoy it due to the issues it was tackling and I just don't like the characters. I do, however, liked the way it described the setting and the time period. I might just give the author another go.
Wonderful to see our histories immortalized in writing. I read this after going to Denniston and it allowed me so much more understanding of what I’d seen. Patrick seems to have done her research spectacularly.
This historical novel gives a vivid account of a very hardscrabble way of life. Set in a remote (almost inaccessible) town on New Zealand's South Island in the 1880s, it's full of fascinating detail about coal mining and the appalling living and working conditions these early immigrants endured.
Unfortunately, the main characters weren't as interesting to me as the setting and background were. The two main characters are 5-year-old Rose, who never quite charmed me as much as she was obviously meant to, and her repellent mother. By halfway through I was skimming over any scene she appeared in because she was just too infuriating.
There were other secondary characters (particularly the women) who were more appealing. I might have enjoyed a story centred around either the rebellious society girl who married beneath her or the wife of the miner/preacher who turns atheist after tragedy strikes.
I would also have appreciated a trigger warning about what happens to Roseshe's the victim of a child molester . I did see it coming, but the story was bleak enough as it was, without that, too.
Unfortunately, the main characters weren't as interesting to me as the setting and background were. The two main characters are 5-year-old Rose, who never quite charmed me as much as she was obviously meant to, and her repellent mother. By halfway through I was skimming over any scene she appeared in because she was just too infuriating.
There were other secondary characters (particularly the women) who were more appealing. I might have enjoyed a story centred around either the rebellious society girl who married beneath her or the wife of the miner/preacher who turns atheist after tragedy strikes.
I would also have appreciated a trigger warning about what happens to Rose