Oh, what a maddening book!
The premise sounded wonderful when I discovered it on the longlist for the Orange Prize.
In 1704 a few hundred men were struggling to maintain a colony in Louisiana. Young women were sent from France to join them. To support them as their wives, to raise children and build a community.
One of them was Elizabeth Savaret, an orphan who had been raised by an aunt and uncle. Because it was their duty. She had little chance of finding a husband at home, but the New World held alluring possibilities.
And so the stage was set. An endearing heroine – who thinned out the linen in her trunk to make room for books – and masses of story potential.
Sure enough Elizabeth was quickly married, and passionately in love with her husband. How did they meet, what drew them together, how did their relationship grow. I haven’t the slightest idea!
And that was my problem with this book.
So many crucial moments, in fact all of the major turning points of Elizabeth life were passed over. The story showed me Elizabeth’s life, but I couldn’t get to the heart of it.
I wanted to. She was an interesting character. She grew into a strong, independent woman, but a woman who was often blinded by her almost obsessive devotion to her husband.
He would let her down. Badly. And that would change the course of her life.
A ship’s boy who arrived in Louisiana at the same time as Elizabeth crossed paths with Elizabeth and her husband more than once. Their destinies were linked. And another young Frenchwoman, who travelled along the same path as Elizabeth some years after, would also play a pivotal role.
Yes, the story was well constructed and well written.
Louisiana and life in the colony was very well evoked, with lots of telling details.
If only Elizabeth’s heart and mind had been better illuminated, if only the people around her had been drawn with just a little more detail, this could have been an enthralling historical novel.
Instead though it was maddening!
Fleur in her World 
Oh, I know this feeling of reading a book- something just doesn’t click and then the whole story doesn’t work! I know that is really disappointing. Boo to that!
Boo indeed! Because it really could have been wonderful.
I’m losing track of the number of reviews of this book where people wanted to like it but only ended up frustrated! That said, I’ll probably still try it myself, just to join the ranks of the other frustrated readers, but it’s certainly been interesting to see so many people react the same way.
It is very readable Claire and there are a lot of interesting elements. Which made the weaknesses particularly infuriating.
That sounds frustrating indeed. If the author didn’t want you to connect with her then why bother creating her????
I think that maybe she tried to do two many things with the broad story and the personal story – and maybe fell between two stools.
I hadn’t heard of this before and it does indeed sound marvellously intriguing – what a shame that the characters aren’t fleshed out! One to miss!
The subject matter was fascinting Rachel, but it was difficult to get involved.
I think this is going to be one of the few Orange long listed books that I don’t get round to. Sorry to hear it didn’t quite work, but I’m actually quite pleased that you’re not tempting me to add another Orange to my TBR pile!
Glad to be of service!
That’s such a good response to the book Jane – I couldn’t put my finger on what didn’t make it for me, but I think you have – the fact that Elizabeth was an intriguing character but we just didn’t get to know her.
I do think the opening chapter set up false expectations. If we hadn’t seen Elizabeth putting those books into her trunk maybe the emotional distance might have felt more natural.
I haven’t read anything of hers yet but picked up an earlier one in the library that looked quite good. Doesn’t sound like your experience with this one would encourage you to pick up another though.
Actually I wouldn’t rule out trying another of Claire Clark’s books. This one had a good choice of subject matter, good plotting, and strong prose – maybe she just needs to work with a broader canvas to be great.
Hi, I’m the editor of this book and I’m so sorry you felt this way about the novel. I read it so differently! I loved the elusiveness of Elizabeth’s character – I felt it gave an amazing insight into what kind of internal life a woman living in that period might have, at a time when women of that class were more like chattels than individuals … I found her such a moving character, struggling to live an independent life when everything about her society and the circumstances around her mitigated against it.