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A review by khornstein1
A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline
4.0
4.5 Quite good on a number of levels. I have wrestled with my liking for both Andrew and Jamie Wyeth's paintings when critics have often hate them: https://observer.com/2016/08/why-do-critics-still-hate-andrew-wyeth/ Even looking at "Christina's World" now brings up memories of (my parents? art teachers?) saying "exploitative" and "not very good" but the painting has long fascinated me.
I thought Baker Kline created a very real portrait of a woman with disabilities, something that is hard to do without being "exploitative" or romantic. But perhaps even better was her description of life on a Maine farm in the early 20th Century, which she described in some detail, again not romantically, or harshly, or with the laundry lists of details that historical writers sometimes resort to.
The only thing I wrestled with was the back-and-forth of time periods so that I had to keep asking myself the age of the characters. There's a real warmth in Baker Kline's writing often missing from historical novels and for that, I was grateful.
I thought Baker Kline created a very real portrait of a woman with disabilities, something that is hard to do without being "exploitative" or romantic. But perhaps even better was her description of life on a Maine farm in the early 20th Century, which she described in some detail, again not romantically, or harshly, or with the laundry lists of details that historical writers sometimes resort to.
The only thing I wrestled with was the back-and-forth of time periods so that I had to keep asking myself the age of the characters. There's a real warmth in Baker Kline's writing often missing from historical novels and for that, I was grateful.