Skip to main content

Review: Heresy, by SJ Parris


Pages: 355
Original date of publication: 2010
My edition: 2010 (Doubleday)
Why I decided to read: interest in the time period
How I acquired my copy: ARC through the Vine, January 2010


Giordano di Bruno, an Italian exile who is wanted for heresy, goes to Oxford in search for a book he believes is there. In addition, he’s also been commissioned by Sir Francis Walsingham to help uncover a Catholic plot to overthrow the Queen (Elizabeth I; this book takes place in 1583). However, his search for the book is waylaid when a College Fellow is savaged to death by a dog. Bruno;s task becomes manifold as he also tries to discover who the murderer is.

OK, so the premise has been done to death. But I liked it nonetheless. The murder aspect is done in a way so that the reader is kept guessing the whole way through. The book is well-researched, too, and gives a lot of feel for the period without it being too overwhelming. However, there are some plot holes. I thought it was a weak moment when Bruno totally forgot about the book he’s looking for, at least for a good long while. I don’t mean to give away spoilers, but I think the author should have wrapped up that strand of the story a bit more. Also, the author falls into the trap of having Sophia Underhill be too feisty, independent, and intelligent. I liked this book for the most part, and I enjoyed the author’s writing style very much.

Giordano di Bruno is an outsider in more ways than one, which is what makes him an appealing character. However, there were a few inconsistencies. Bruno is a master of the art of memory, but he has a hard time remembering the student who drew Doctor Coverdale away from the debate—especially odd considering the student has red hair, and even I with my bad memory would remember someone of that description! For an Italian, his English is remarkably good, isn’t it? Also, his reasoning for why he thinks his mysterious book is at Oxford is a little vague; he’s only basing it on hearsay, and as Bruno says himself, the book could be either at Oxford OR Cambridge. Despite these discrepancies, however, Bruno is an engaging narrator. I expect that this will probably be the first in the series, as there’s a paragraph at the end which sets that up.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Another giveaway

This time, the publicist at WW Norton sent me two copies of The Glass of Time , by Michael Cox--so I'm giving away the second copy. Cox is the author of The Meaning of Night, and this book is the follow-up to that. Leave a comment here to enter to win it! The deadline is next Sunday, 10/5/08.

A giveaway winner, and another giveaway

The winner of the Girl in a Blue Dress contest is... Anna, of Diary of An Eccentric ! My new contest is for a copy of The Shape of Mercy , by Susan Meissner. According to Publisher's Weekly : Meissner's newest novel is potentially life-changing, the kind of inspirational fiction that prompts readers to call up old friends, lost loves or fallen-away family members to tell them that all is forgiven and that life is too short for holding grudges. Achingly romantic, the novel features the legacy of Mercy Hayworth—a young woman convicted during the Salem witch trials—whose words reach out from the past to forever transform the lives of two present-day women. These book lovers—Abigail Boyles, elderly, bitter and frail, and Lauren Lars Durough, wealthy, earnest and young—become unlikely friends, drawn together over the untimely death of Mercy, whose precious diary is all that remains of her too short life. And what a diary! Mercy's words not only beguile but help Abigail and Lars

Six Degrees of Barbara Pym's Novels

This year seems to be The Year of Barbara Pym; I know some of you out there are involved in some kind of a readalong in honor of the 100th year of her birth. I’ve read most of her canon, with only The Sweet Dove Died, Civil to Strangers, An Academic Question, and Crampton Hodnet left to go (sadly). Barbara Pym’s novels feature very similar casts of characters: spinsters, clergymen, retirees, clerks, and anthropologists, with which she had direct experience. So it stands to reason that there would be overlaps in characters between the novels. You can trace that though the publication history of her books and therefore see how Pym onionizes her stories and characters. She adds layers onto layers, adding more details as her books progress. Some Tame Gazelle (1950): Archdeacon Hoccleve makes his first appearance. Excellent Women (1952): Archdeacon Hoccleve gives a sermon that is almost incomprehensible to Mildred Lathbury; Everard Bone understands it, however, and laughs