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sydneyannb 's review for:
Wieland and Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist
by Charles Brockden Brown
“Such is man. Time will obliterate the deepest impressions.” (pg. 214)
I honestly enjoyed this book mainly because it interested me and kept me engaged throughout the novel, especially in the second half with all of the sudden developments. I was worried when we started it because whenever books begin with lots of backstories and familial history, they bore me out of my mind and I tend to give up, a bad habit I know. Generally, with books from this time period, the language can be difficult to comprehend, but I feel that it was easier to understand the tone and what was going on because of the genre.
I really like the dilemma of trying to identify who the antagonist is. Is it Wieland or Carwin? Or both? How do they work together and what is the importance of having Clara as the narrator, these are the questions that I asked myself as the novel came to a close. Clara as a narrator was pretty unreliable and suspicious, how could we as readers believe any of her accounts, how do we know that mental illness did not ail her as well and skew her storyline?
Overall I liked the book, while it wasn't the great American novel it was definitely a good way to start out with the literary beginnings of madness and murder in American literature.
I honestly enjoyed this book mainly because it interested me and kept me engaged throughout the novel, especially in the second half with all of the sudden developments. I was worried when we started it because whenever books begin with lots of backstories and familial history, they bore me out of my mind and I tend to give up, a bad habit I know. Generally, with books from this time period, the language can be difficult to comprehend, but I feel that it was easier to understand the tone and what was going on because of the genre.
I really like the dilemma of trying to identify who the antagonist is. Is it Wieland or Carwin? Or both? How do they work together and what is the importance of having Clara as the narrator, these are the questions that I asked myself as the novel came to a close. Clara as a narrator was pretty unreliable and suspicious, how could we as readers believe any of her accounts, how do we know that mental illness did not ail her as well and skew her storyline?
Overall I liked the book, while it wasn't the great American novel it was definitely a good way to start out with the literary beginnings of madness and murder in American literature.