Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks (2001)

Historical novels tend to be long, sometimes too long. In contrast, Year of Wonders is relatively short, too short, as it turns out.

This is the story of one small village in 1665-66, when the black plague spread across England. It is the first-person account of a young woman who is a servant for the most prominent family and for the vicar and his wife. Through her eyes we witness the coming of the plague, the subsequent decision of the village to quarantine itself to prevent the spread, the deaths of two-thirds of the population, and several incidents of attendant violence and mayhem as residents seek to avert danger and place blame. The many dramatic events which occur hold reader interest, yet they come with little back-story of the characters involved to indicate why they respond as they do. Many writers have used the plot device of a group of people cut off from the rest of civilization, and the best of these authors have developed their cast of characters to the extent that their actions seem logical, at times inevitable. If Brooks had given her story more room to develop, it could have been much more rewarding. Instead, she tends just to introduce one dramatic event after another. In fact, many of the character actions and reactions don't seem believable, even given the extraordinary circumstances.

Brooks' inspiration for the book was a village in England which did quarantine itself in 1666 during the last great surge of the plague. This foundation, the continuation of superstitious belief in some and religious belief in an angry God in others, and the random inclusion of a few period terms are the only obviously historical contributions. Even her heroine seems remarkably to think and act like a much more modern woman. I hesitate to class this as a historical novel, because the history if largely absent.

This novel has an eventful plot and an assured style, and is thus fast and entertaining reading. After I finished, though, I realized how much more it could have been, if more had been included.



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FYI....Geraldine Brooks' 2005 novel March, a historical novel with a Civil War setting, won the Pulitzer Prize.