Wednesday, March 5, 2014

UNDER THE WIDE AND STARRY SKY by Nancy Horan

I have an emerging benchmark for author-centered novels: if it doesn’t make me want to read the protagonist’s books, it isn’t that good. I knew The Paris Wife was a fantastic read when I found myself putting A Moveable Feast on my Classics Club list, despite the fact that I HATE Hemingway. Nancy Horan’s Under the Wide and Starry Sky had the same effect on me. Despite the fact that I am not a fan of “boy” fiction, I have decided to read Treasure Island, because her story of the relationship between Robert Louis Stevenson and his feisty American wife, Fanny, was so compelling that I have to see for myself what that romance gave to English literature.

I am not sure that most people know that Scotsman R.L. Stevenson owes so much of his legacy to his indomitable, much older, American wife, Fanny van de Grift Osbourne. I certainly didn’t know it. They met when she escaped her philandering Californian husband to forge her own existence as an artist in Europe. When she left Europe to give her marriage a second chance and the behest of her family, Stevenson was devastated. But when she sent a telegram saying she was sick and needed him, he forsook his family and his own health and traveled in steerage to the US, and then across North America, just to rescue her. (Frankly, it makes Darcy spending a few hundred unearned pounds to buy off Wickham seem pretty shoddy, indeed.)

Horan writes directly but sensitively, so that you feel the characters’ turmoil, without ever hating them for their bad behavior. Fanny is quick-tempered but always sorry for erupting; Louis is a brooder, and sometimes seems ungrateful for all Fanny has sacrificed for him and his career. Their love story is jagged and gripping. But I actually think for me thesome of the best parts of the book were Fanny and Louis’ insights into their travels together, as in this reflection in the Pacific:

He was too much of a realist to romanticize the South Sea islanders or demonize the whites who traded with them and lived among them. But as far as he could see, not much good had come of Europeans bringing their notions of civilization. Of the islands they’d visited, it seemed that the ones with the least contact with the outside world had fared best. And in many places the kanakas, as the natives were called, had been hideously misused by the colonizers. p. 364-365

I recommend this book to lovers of historical fiction and literary fiction. But also to anyone who loved Treasure Island or Kidnapped or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Understanding Stevenson’s own problems with health and medicine, as well as his quest for the “perfect” climate to accommodate his frail lungs, will surely add complexity to those classics. I am looking forward to reading them myself, “boy” books be damned!

I read this as part of a TLC Book Tour. Thanks to Lisa for including me on the tour! Click here for links to other opinions about Nancy Horan’s Under the Wide and Starry Sky.

10 comments:

  1. I know exactly what you mean about one book (a biography) being the impetus to read another. The same thing happened to me with A Moveable a Feast, after having no affection for Hemingway at all, I suddenly felt I understood him. I enjoyed Nancy Horan's book Loving Frank, after which I toured Frank Lloyd Wright's houses in Illinois. My son adores Treasure Island, so I should read this. (I tried reading Treasure Island to my class once, and there was great joy in going down the hall chanting, "fifteen men on a dead man's chest...ho, ho, oh and a bottle of rum."

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  2. I'm glad to see this is so good. I loved Loving Frank so I have been looking forward to this book.

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  3. The Paris Wife had the same effect on me... think your idea is a very wise benchmark for all the author centered novels out there now. So glad to know this is a good one!

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  4. I LOVE Stevenson's stories, and your comment about him putting Mr. Darcy to shame has completely convinced me to read this book!

    Thanks for being a part of the tour. I'm featuring your review on TLC's Facebook page today.

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  5. I so agree, if the novel doesn't make me want to read the protagonist's books it isn't successful. Great review here, Col!

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  6. I really want to read this book now. What a nice review. I love the look of your blog.

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  7. I loved this book. Now to write about it ... Or I could just point people here.

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  8. Such a great review! Also, YES on "...if it doesn’t make me want to read the protagonist’s books, it isn’t that good." So true.

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  9. GREAT review! I have heard so much about this book but it is this review that has compelled me to put it on the TBR!

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  10. I suggested this book for my book club as I am currently writing a fictional account of the life of William West Durant (son of Dr. Thomas Durant who constructed the Transcontinental Railroad) and wanted to read in the genre. What I liked about the book is what I learned about Stevenson and the prose was magnificent. What I disliked about the book is that it read like a running history of day to day events. I liked Horan's other historical fiction book better - Loving Frank - about Frank Lloyd Wright.

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I absolutely love comments. Thanks for taking the time to share! Col