Changeling by Philippa Gregory

Hello everyone,

It has been a while, I know. :( I didn't intend to keep off blogging for this long but stuff happens, I guess. But I'm back now with another book review. Surprise, surprise! I have to admit that recently I have ordered a lot of books online (around about 20), and a lot of them were by the same authors so I'm afraid my blog will start to look like a shrine. But that doesn't matter. Anyway ... on with the review.

So I read Changeling by Philippa Gregory. It is part of a trilogy called the Order of Darkness trilogy. I have to say that I was a little tentative about reading it, simply because I LOVE Philippa Gregory's books on the Tudor and Plantagenet periods and I was worried that it might not live up to my expectations. I was completely wrong about that. Changeling is set in the 1400s and tells the story about a boy called Luca Vero, who has to travel across the country, finding about what makes people scared. This is at a time when people are scared about the end of the world. There was a great fear of witchcraft and of the Devil possessing people and religion was used as a means of controlling the common people and getting them to do things. Luca travels to a convent where the nuns believe that they have been possessed and Luca has to find out what is going on.

Some themes in the book...

I think I have already done an overall theme about religion when talking about Purple Hibiscus  so I won't talk about that again. Instead, I am going to talk about fear and ignorance and the role that they play in society and control. It is a really important part of the book. The nuns in the convent are scared that the Devil has come among them and is possessing the sisters. The people in the village are scared of the werewolf. A generalisation is that people are scared about things that they don't understand or can't make sense of. One of the characters is a Muslim, in a time when Muslims were seen as heretics and pagans and Islam was very 'dangerous' because it threatened the spread of Christianity in Europe and into the Middle East. It is clear that because they don't understand her beliefs and who she is, they associate everything else that they fear with her. Not only that, but they are encouraged to do so by the bishops and the lords and those people in charge who are also scared about things that they don't understand. And now, in this day and age, although I would like to think that we don't fear so much Satan walking among us, we do have a tendency to avoid or be afraid of what we don't understand. Fear is a perfectly natural reaction to things but, as a race, we sometimes take it out of context and blow it out of proportion. Racism, particularly in the wake of terrorist attacks, can stem from ignorance which results in fear and aggression. We are scared by what we see , naturally, and we want to understand it, so we blame someone in order to personify our fear and make it seem less scary. We are scared of an apocalyptic cult that wants to destroy the world and so we blame someone innocent to reduce the anonymity of it. Obviously in the past, at the time when this book takes place, the higher, intelligent elite used religion to scare the people into submission. 'Do this or you are going to Hell.' 'Your king has been elected by God and therefore you have to follow him' 'His law is God's law'. But similarly, people didn't understand religion in the way that they perhaps understand it today because many of the religious books were in Latin and/or people couldn't read. So fear of Hell for them was real and therefore, they did as they were told.

Recommendations

The Virgin's Lover by Philippa Gregory
This is an amazing book by the same author about Elizabeth I, her assumed affair with Robert Dudley and the scandal that surrounded the death of his wife Amy Dudley.

Wonder by R.J. Palacio
On the theme of fear in a present day setting, this is a beautiful book about a boy who was born with a facial deformity and has to go to school  and face all of the stigmas that are associated with being different.

And that's the end of this post. :) I hope you enjoyed it.

Clare

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Hey Everyone...

The second book I read over my holiday was Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen. It is now also a film, starring Robert Pattinson, but I have never watched it. Water for Elephants is the story of a circus in America during the 1920s approximately. The protagonist, Jacob Jankowski loses his parents in a motorcycle accident and jumps onto a circus train travelling across the country, where he is recruited by the circus 'Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth' as a vet. During this time, the 1920s, America had Prohibition. The Prohibition Amendment and the Volstead Act of 1919 and 1920 meant that the consumption, production and selling of alcohol was illegal across America. Because people still wanted to drink alcohol, they produced their own alcohol (moonshine) or smuggled it in from Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean. Brewing your own alcohol was very dangerous, as I am sure you can imagine, and, although during the period of Prohibition, there was a decrease in the number of deaths on the road from drunk driving, doctors reported an increase in cases of blindness and poisoning due to the consumption of moonshine. 

What I liked about the book
This book is really easy to read and the plot is really easy to follow. It does not take a lot of effort to read. The book is also really accurate to the time and does not beat around the bush about the effects of Prohibition, of the illegal practices that started to become normal practice and the tragedy of the Jamaica ginger paralysis, which came from drinking poisoned alcohol. And I learnt a lot about the practices of circuses and the cruelty with which they treated their animals. It was really eye-opening. 

Issues discussed in the book 
Obviously, circus life plays a huge part in this book. Sara Gruen did extensive research into the life of the circus in America during the 1920s. I don't know whether you have seen or read the Elephant Man. A slightly different time period but the cruelty inflicted upon the 'Elephant Man' because he was what they called a 'freak' was horrendous. I don't know whether 'redlighting' was a common procedure in many circuses, but in the Benzini Brothers, if you weren't performing properly, or there was something wrong with you, they pushed you off the moving train. I think that it is incredible that people believe that they are justified in doing things to others. This for me applies to so many different areas in life, from the heinous deeds of terrorists, where they think that they are justified in killing thousands of innocent people to the smallest things, when the smallest person in the class is picked on, for example. I don't know whether this is my religious inclinations shining through (;/ Whoops) but it really is interesting. What is the thought process that allows you to do that? I don't understand it.
Similarly, in Water for Elephants, many of the animals are treated terribly. I don't know a lot about circuses now but, you know, during that time, they used every animal as a money-making machine and every person as well.  The elephant in the book is called Rosie and there is a 'problem' with her that, at the beginning, is not understood by most of the circus staff. Due to this problem, she would not perform well at the shows. And when that happened, they just beat her and beat her. At the back of the book, Sara Gruen spoke about two circus elephants, Old Mom and Topsy. If you want to know more about them, look them up. Their stories are heart-breaking. :(
Now, in a lot of these reviews, the issues discussed directly affect human life. This review is slightly different, in that it affects animal life. To me, using animals as entertainment is a cruel process. There are many ways that you can entertain yourself; animals don't need to be used. That is why I so strongly disagree with bullfighting and using animals in circuses. Unless an animal was made to do something, I disagree with making it do it.  

Recommendations 
The Dancing Bear by Michael Morpurgo - If you have read my review on Before I Die (here) and my holiday reading recommendations, then you will have seen this. If not, this is the story of a bear cub adopted by an orphan. They become very close until a film crew comes to the village and wants a dancing bear for the film that they are making. It is a very short book and very easy to read. (I know some of the books I recommend can be quite daunting) However, it completely discusses the issues that are brought up in Water for Elephants and I think that it is an amazing book. Michael Morpurgo is an author who has written some of my favourite books of all time. If I could have half the career in writing fiction that he has had, I would be extremely honoured.


Wonder by E.J. Palacio- This book is sort of a modern day version of the Elephant Man. It is the story of a boy who is severely physically disabled but lives the normal life of a teenager. It shows how cruel children can be towards one another and how unaccepting people are of each other, when others look a little different. You know that phrase, Don't judge a book by its cover. On the back of this book, it says, Don't judge a boy by his face.' And it shows that we all do, judge by physical appearance when it doesn't matter at all. I really recommend this book.

BUY WATER FOR ELEPHANTS ON AMAZON
BUY THE DANCING BEAR ON AMAZON 
BUY WONDER ON AMAZON

Well, that is it for this blog post. I hope that you enjoyed it.  

Clare