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cmbhusker 's review for:
Mr. Rochester
by Sarah Shoemaker
4.5 stars
This book re-imagines the life of Edward Fairfax Rochester, the brooding love interest of Jane Eyre. I was interested to read this, because honestly, Rochester has never been my favorite male character. I could see why Jane loves him, but I find it a little hard to forgive some of the ways that he treats her. But you know, at least he's not St. John Rivers, who sucks, so I'm ok with it at the end of the day--he's humbled, and as you probably know, Reader, she marries him.
Jane Eyre is my favorite book ever. The plot is fascinating and complex, but what makes it truly brilliant is how well Bronte nails the psychological aspects of her characters. It's so great. So anyone attempting to wade into Eyre-adjacent territory has a tough task ahead of them.
I was happily surprised with how well the author handled this challenge. Because we don't meet Rochester in Jane Eyre until he is in his late 30s, Shoemaker had a lot of backstory to play with. To me, this was the most interesting part of the book--finding out what Rochester may have been up to for the first 37 years of his life, and how that made him into the oft-maddening, passionate person he became. Shoemaker gives him an interesting, believable backstory, and one that perfectly maps on to the events of Jane Eyre. She even manages to come up with an attic-related twist of her own that opens some interesting possibilities.
If you like Jane Eyre, I very much recommend this one (you need to have read Jane Eyre first though). Shoemaker doesn't have quite the chops to write psychology as Bronte (who does?), but this is still well-imagined, and well-executed. I feel like I need to read "Wide Sargasso Sea" so that I can have my "Year of Eyre" (I re-read JE in January) completed with two competing imaginings of the events of the book and beyond.
This book re-imagines the life of Edward Fairfax Rochester, the brooding love interest of Jane Eyre. I was interested to read this, because honestly, Rochester has never been my favorite male character. I could see why Jane loves him, but I find it a little hard to forgive some of the ways that he treats her. But you know, at least he's not St. John Rivers, who sucks, so I'm ok with it at the end of the day--he's humbled, and as you probably know, Reader, she marries him.
Jane Eyre is my favorite book ever. The plot is fascinating and complex, but what makes it truly brilliant is how well Bronte nails the psychological aspects of her characters. It's so great. So anyone attempting to wade into Eyre-adjacent territory has a tough task ahead of them.
I was happily surprised with how well the author handled this challenge. Because we don't meet Rochester in Jane Eyre until he is in his late 30s, Shoemaker had a lot of backstory to play with. To me, this was the most interesting part of the book--finding out what Rochester may have been up to for the first 37 years of his life, and how that made him into the oft-maddening, passionate person he became. Shoemaker gives him an interesting, believable backstory, and one that perfectly maps on to the events of Jane Eyre. She even manages to come up with an attic-related twist of her own that opens some interesting possibilities.
If you like Jane Eyre, I very much recommend this one (you need to have read Jane Eyre first though). Shoemaker doesn't have quite the chops to write psychology as Bronte (who does?), but this is still well-imagined, and well-executed. I feel like I need to read "Wide Sargasso Sea" so that I can have my "Year of Eyre" (I re-read JE in January) completed with two competing imaginings of the events of the book and beyond.