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A review by bibliothecarivs
The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth
5.0
2019, audiobook read by Simon Vance, ★★★★★
Wow! Vance's masterful narration revealed new layers of detail, enabled a deeper immersion into the plot and setting, and even more disturbingly exposed Buccmaster's mental disintegration.
Since first reading this in 2015-2016, I have stood on the battlefield of Hastings and now feel, if possible, even more of an attachment to the period of the conquest and the regular folk caught up in it.
The Wake has become one of my favourite books.
2016, paperback, ★★★★☆
Imagine the world described above as seen through the eyes of an angry, prideful, domineering, foul-mouthed, violent, desperate, delusional, and (though he would never admit it) conquered Anglisc man. Then imagine him telling you the story of his world falling apart in a language you only half recognize but which seems eerily familiar. Innovative, earthy, and shocking, The Wake will surely challenge you like it did me.
Wow! Vance's masterful narration revealed new layers of detail, enabled a deeper immersion into the plot and setting, and even more disturbingly exposed Buccmaster's mental disintegration.
Since first reading this in 2015-2016, I have stood on the battlefield of Hastings and now feel, if possible, even more of an attachment to the period of the conquest and the regular folk caught up in it.
The Wake has become one of my favourite books.
2016, paperback, ★★★★☆
'English history... seems the work of a temperate community, seldom shaken by convulsions. But there are moments when history is unsubtle; when change arrives in a violent rush, decisive, bloody, traumatic; as a truck-load of trouble, wiping out everything that gives a culture its bearings - custom, language, law, loyalty. 1066 was one of those moments.'
― Simon Schama, A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? 3500 BC-AD 1603 (2000)
Imagine the world described above as seen through the eyes of an angry, prideful, domineering, foul-mouthed, violent, desperate, delusional, and (though he would never admit it) conquered Anglisc man. Then imagine him telling you the story of his world falling apart in a language you only half recognize but which seems eerily familiar. Innovative, earthy, and shocking, The Wake will surely challenge you like it did me.