About book Shadowbrook: A Novel Of Love, War, And The Birth Of America (2005)
I don’t review every novel I read, and I especially don’t review novels just to be negative. There’s nothing to be gained in setting out to bash somebody else’s work, not for me, or you, or them. If I do decide to post about a novel that doesn’t work for me, the reason is usually that I see a bigger issue I’d like to address. This time, in talking about Swerling’s Shadowbrook, the issue has to do with historical fiction more generally.The thing about historical fiction that makes it so challening is quite simple. You’ve got to do a lot of extra work, in terms of research, and then there’s the challenge of shifting your mindset. It’s not easy to write from the POV of a character whose life and times are so very different from your own. So first, that acknowledgement. This novel, which encompasses most of the French and Indian War as its backdrop, was an ambitious undertaking.I went and read other reviews of Shadowbrook after I had finished it, which were all pretty positive and very complimentary about the quality of the research that went into the work. Which brings me to the other, primary challenge that goes along with historical fiction. Here it is: you can’t lose track of the fact that this is a story you’re telling. First a story, then a history. Repeat after me: First a story, then a history. A historical novelist who lets him or herself forget this is bound for trouble, and I think Shadowbrook is an example of such a novel.Swerling tries to cover pretty much all of the French and Indian war, fit in every major character and institution and battle. In order to do that she has to spread her two main characters really thin. She’s got them jumping from Louisiana to Manhattan to Quebec to the Adirondacks with little apparent effort.The two major characters (Quentin Hale and Cormac Shea) are young men connected to white slave holding society (in one direction) and various Indian tribes (in the other), which positions them to cover many aspects of the war, but not all of them. The third main character, the young woman called Nicole, feels as though she was constructed completely to fill a void in this net Swerling casts over the entire continent. Nicole, half French, half English, is on her way to join a convent in Quebec when she finds herself traveling with Quentin and Cormac. Without Nicole Swerling wouldn’t have a way to bring in French Catholic sensibilities. At the same time Nicole provides a vague, underdone love interest for Quent. He loves her; she loves him but mon Dieu, she’s made a promise to God.Nicole’s role is to bring various priests, mostly Jesuits, into the picture. Which is important if you’re determined to tell the whole story of the this particular war, because the Catholic church played a major role.Once Nicole is in Quebec she ends up playing a role in the communication between Montcalm and other major historical characters — something that requires some plot finagling, because she’s cloistered among the very strict Saint Clares. At any rate, that setup keeps her busy while Quent is running from battle to battle, and trying to save his father’s patent, a huge tract of land called Shadowbrook, populated by Quent’s evil elder brother and a lot of slaves, all the better to examine that aspect of the war, of course.And then there’s the second-string love story, which also feels manufactured primarily so the author could fit in the story of the Acadians being expelled from Canada by the English. Cormac Shea falls in love with a young woman in that community and then, determined to find her when she’s expelled, goes to Louisiana. Let me point out one of the linguistic… infelicities… which bugged me the most: why would Native Americans in Canada be dreaming about alligators? And if they did, how would they know that such creatures were even called alligators? Beyond that observation, I’m not going to address the matter of historical research directly, because some of what I would have to say comes down to a matter of difference in interpretation.Thus you’ve got characters who are being moved around like puppets to fulfil the author’s need to get the historical facts, as she interprets them, onto the page. The result is a story without a lot of dramatic tension, and certainly without character development. The characters change as historical circumstance dictates. Which is unfortunate, because I think there was a great deal of potential in quite a few of them.All in all, this novel felt too broad and unfocused to me, diluted to the point where it was hard to maintain interest in the characters at all. And of course, as always: this is my take, alone.
I love novels set in early America. The birth of America is my favorite period in history and I read and research as much as I can about it. I think it's a time that gets overlooked a lot, especially in fiction, where everybody seems to be more interested in medieval times, the Tudors, Regency, etc. I immediately purchased this book after it was recommended in the American Historical Fiction Group. I was thrown at first by the opening scene. The story begins with the five nuns of St. Clare flagellating themselves in their little chapel in Quebec, which I thought was an odd opening for a story about imperial war. But it turns out their order will play an important role in the story.Adopted brothers Quentin Hale and Cormac Shea divide their time between the white and Indian worlds, occasionally hiring themselves out as wilderness scouts. While thus employed they meet unexpectedly on opposite sides of a skirmish between French and British troops, the latter lead by George Washington. Turns out Cormac was actually looking for Quent, bearing a message from his mother: his father is dying and he is needed back at the family plantation, Shadowbrook. Their long journey from the Ohio Country to New York is made complicated by the young, beautiful and mysterious French woman Nicole Crane, whom Cormac has agreed to escort to Quebec.More complications await them at Shadowbrook, where they arrive to find they are not welcome by Quent's older brother John, who has been squandering the family fortune. Quent begins to think he could be happy again at Shadowbrook and confesses his love to Nicole who tells him she has chosen to give her life to God. Add to Quent's problems a land-obsessed Scotsman who covets Shadowbrook and will stop at nothing to get it, a lawless Indian renegade who has it out for Quent, and the fact that Shadowbrook lies between the two opposing forces as war appears imminent. The French are forming dangerous alliances with the Indian nations, and that's where the order of nuns comes back into play, as Nicole arrives to join them and two powerful French clergymen vie to use their influence with Indians and inhabitants to aid the French cause in the war for Canada and the Ohio territory.I really wanted to love this book...but I didn't. The historical content gets 5 Stars from me. Lots of information on French Canada, its leaders and its inhabitants, on the northern Indian nations; their customs and hardships, and good insights as to why and how each nation chose where to stand in the conflict. The writing itself is very good; great descriptive passages and settings that come to life. However, the story and characterization only get 3 Stars from me. The first half of the book starts off very promising, but then the main characters become separated for long lengths of time and a few subplots come and go and when they finally get back together it's very anti-climactic and doesn't feel truly satisfying. The point of view switches around so much, (there are about 20 different POVs), it's hard to really get to the meat of any one character, so they all come off being rather superficial. And at times I really just wanted to smack Nicole.My final reaction to this book was really more like 3 Stars, but it is too well-researched and crafted to rate it that low, so I'm giving more weight to the historical content. I do think this author is worthy of another chance and so I plan to read the first book in her series about New York City, City of Dreams: A Novel of Nieuw Amsterdam and Early Manhattan.
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I love historical novels, but this one was a chore to read. Subject matter was the French and Indian War. Too many characters, too many details, and not enough story. There were the French Jesuits (black robes) and the Franciscans (brown robes), both sort of bad guys. Then doxens of Indian tribes and their particulars - then all the officials on the French side and the English side. The story of Shadowbrook and the three main characters was good, but it was just all this other stuff that took about 75% of the book. I was glad when I finally finished this one.
—Sue
Beverly Swerling’s novels introduced me to early American history, and Shadowbrook is my favourite of them all. It takes place before the American Revolution during the French and Indian wars. There is plenty of history about a conflict that doesn’t get much attention, a war that was not as glamorous or definitively triumphant as 1776, but still essential to understanding the dynamics of the alliances that formed before the colonies finally went to war with Britain. There’s lots of the competent story-telling I’ve come to expect from Swerling. Other reviewers have summarized the plot, so I’ll just focus on why I liked it. This book is more intimate than Swerling’s other novels; she lets us spend time with the people. The two main characters, Quentin Hale and Cormac Shea, arrive at Shadowbrook, their family plantation and immediately the intrigue begins, complications fed by family dynamics, and deepened by war, love, and avarice. There’s lots to keep the pages turning, but it’s the scenes set in Shadowbrook that stand out for me. I loved the small details of everyday life on the farm, the self-sufficient toughness of its workers and tenants. Shadowbrook, a precarious oasis of safety in a perilous time, brought this era of history alive for me.
—Janie
I don't normally write reviews. After seeing the multiple 4 and 5 star reviews for this book, however, I felt compelled. I struggled mightily to finish this book. I love historical fiction but there is very little story in this book. It reads like a text book. The facts of the French and Indian War take over the story and strip any interest from plot. I read the e-book version of this book and there are many, many typos, Many. A ridiculous number. So many in fact that I wonder if the version published as the e-book was really a draft and not the final edited version.
—Jsmith568
