Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague

A friend recommended Year of Wonders to me recently and so, particularly having read Geraldine Brooks's most recent novel, March, I thought I would give it a go. Year of Wonders has going for it the fact that it's historical fiction (which regular readers will know is my prefered fiction genre), as well as Brooks's wonderful prose and dialogue. These are the real strengths of the book. Brooks notes in the author's note the extent of research she did for this book, not only on the plague (more on that in a minute), but on the minutiae of rural, English, seventeenth century life.

Year of Wonders is the story of a small English village infected by the plague in 1666. The protagonist, Anna Frith, is an 18-year-old widow with two small boys and a position as a parlourmaid at the rectory. As the cases of black death mount, the town's citizens make the bold and unselfish decision to seal themselves off from the rest of world, lest the plague reach other villages. This part of the story is based on the true story of the English village of Eyam, as Brooks explains. The characters, however, from Anna to the Rector Michael Mompellion and his wife Elinor are fictional.

As I've said both the writing and the research are impeccable. My complaint, however, lies with the character of Anna Frith. A few years ago, I read Annette Vallon: A Novel of the French Revolution, which I enjoyed immensely, except for the way in which Annette consistently got herself into (and out of) situations that absolutely beggared believe and also made her seem a bit too self-righteous and/or martyresque for me to be deeply invested in her as a character. I have the same issue with Anna Frith. From taming wild horses to delivering premature, breech babies, Anna does it all, when if she'd done just a bit less, I might have liked her more. (The midwifery scenes brought to mind The Midwife of Venice, set slightly earlier than Year of Wonders, but with many similarities.) Also, although this may be splitting hairs, Anna's obsession with Elinor was definitely weird.

Finally, and I've heard this from the friend who recommended Year of Wonders to me as well, but the ending simply does not make sense. The last 10-15 pages seem to belong to another book, which is a shame because there are any number of more believable endings Brooks could have conjured and still kept with the overall story.