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A review by juliechristinejohnson
Eliza Waite by Ashley E. Sweeney
5.0
After a smallpox epidemic decimates her tiny community, Eliza chooses to remain alone on remote Cypress Island, a dot of land amidst the San Juan archipelago in Puget Sound. She could have fled to the mainland like the few left of her village, but grief over the loss of her young son roots her in place. It is the late 1890s, and a woman homesteading alone is an uncommon sight, but Eliza Waite is a rare gem of a woman, indeed.
The first half of the novel is a beautiful, peaceful meditation on life alone in a lovely, bountiful, wet, lonely place. Eliza's life is hard, dictated by a daily rhythm of work to survive. She makes infrequent trips by boat to a larger community on a neighboring island to replenish her stores. Her few survival pennies come from sewing and baking goods that she sells at the general store.
After a fall, she is nursed back to health by the general store owner's son, whose questionable past remains hidden from Eliza even as he pursues her. But her shyness and inexperience with romance - her son was the result of a rape, her marriage was arranged in haste and conducted without love - make her hesitate and she loses her chance at companionship. The heartbreak forces her to face her loneliness and she sets off, with a throng of fortune-hunters, for the wilds of Alaska.
The novel's second half shows Eliza coming into her own, with a rich cast of characters that surround her in this colorful, crazy quilt of a new life. Eliza invests her meagre savings in a bakery and within months she is successful, working tirelessly seven days a week on Skagway's rough and tumble Main Street. Eliza discovers the pleasures of her own body while the town discovers the deliciousness that emanates from her kitchen.
Recounted with a deep passion for history and landscape, Eliza Waite is a wonderful work of historical fiction. Ashley Sweeney has such a gift for detail and such compassion and respect for her characters. I devoured Eliza; it was a joy to read, to be swept away in time and place. Highly recommended!
The first half of the novel is a beautiful, peaceful meditation on life alone in a lovely, bountiful, wet, lonely place. Eliza's life is hard, dictated by a daily rhythm of work to survive. She makes infrequent trips by boat to a larger community on a neighboring island to replenish her stores. Her few survival pennies come from sewing and baking goods that she sells at the general store.
After a fall, she is nursed back to health by the general store owner's son, whose questionable past remains hidden from Eliza even as he pursues her. But her shyness and inexperience with romance - her son was the result of a rape, her marriage was arranged in haste and conducted without love - make her hesitate and she loses her chance at companionship. The heartbreak forces her to face her loneliness and she sets off, with a throng of fortune-hunters, for the wilds of Alaska.
The novel's second half shows Eliza coming into her own, with a rich cast of characters that surround her in this colorful, crazy quilt of a new life. Eliza invests her meagre savings in a bakery and within months she is successful, working tirelessly seven days a week on Skagway's rough and tumble Main Street. Eliza discovers the pleasures of her own body while the town discovers the deliciousness that emanates from her kitchen.
Recounted with a deep passion for history and landscape, Eliza Waite is a wonderful work of historical fiction. Ashley Sweeney has such a gift for detail and such compassion and respect for her characters. I devoured Eliza; it was a joy to read, to be swept away in time and place. Highly recommended!