Book Review - Angel and Apostle by Deborah Noyes

Synopsis:  At the end of Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel, The Scarlet Letter, we know that Pearl, the elf-child daughter of Hester Prynne, is somewhere in Europe, comfortable, well set, a mother herself now. But it could not have been easy for her to arrive at such a place, when she begins life as the bastard child of a woman publicly humiliated, again and again, in an unrelentingly judgmental Puritan world.

With a brilliant and authentic sense of that time and place, Deborah Noyes envisions the path Pearl takes to make herself whole and to carve her place in the New World.

First Line:  "With Mother slumped in the stocks, he settles before her, circling his knees with long arms."

Random Quote:  "All was brisk and silent.  No one called me idle, and I stared at the gravelly cart road leading west toward the woods and imagined myself there, the back of me, receding.  Suspended between worlds, I dreamed of the deep, needled shape of a secret clearing in the forest, of my body shaped to earth like candle wax - and Simon beside me, sleeping sweetly."

Review:  First let me confess that I'm not a huge fan of The Scarlet Letter nor of Nathaniel Hawthorne.  I've read it multiple times for multiple classes and the novel has always left me cold.  I could never find anything to relate to with regard to Hester Prynne other than a vague admiration for her stubbornness.  Beyond that the whole thing always felt to me like An Important Book You Should Read and I just never really liked it.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's grave, Sleepy Hollow Cemetary, Concord, MA - Image via Wikipedia

Having said that, I enjoyed Angel and Apostle, Deborah Noyes' debut novel.  She manages to capture the flavor of Hawthorne's writing without being enslaved to it and it was fun to see how someone thought Pearl, the impish symbol of a child from the original, might turn out.

The character of Pearl is fleshed out here as we follow her through her friendship with Simon, a blind boy with whom she explores the world.  Less about the nature of sin and more about what constitutes a good life in a colonial setting this was a well-written, well-imagined book.

Thanks to Caitlin Hamilton Summie at Unbridled Books for sending me a copy of this wonderful book to review!

Reading Challenges:  ARC Reading Challenge 2010, Historical Reading Challenge 2010, Take Another Chance Reading Challenge, 2010 100+ Reading Challenge, 2010 A to Z Reading Challenge 2010