This is the last book review of the holidays. I read The Flight of the Falcon by Daphne Du Maurier. I have heard that Daphne Du Maurier's style of writing is quite an 'acquired taste' and people I know who like all the same genres that I do, really dislike Du Maurier's way of writing. For my part, I like it. Her books are classified as classics, but they don't feel like you are reading a classic. For instance, when reading Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre, there is a particular feel to the book, in my opinion, and you know that it is a 'hard' read. However, I don't find that with Du Maurier's books. I think her most famous book is Rebecca and I have read that, but I preferred her less well known ones, The King's General, for example and My Cousin Rachel.
The Flight of the Falcon takes place in Italy, about thirty years or so after the end of WWII, in a town called Ruffano. A lot of Daphne Du Maurier's books are part of a mystery genre. Although not drastically so, the characters are always discovering things or finding out things, as well as having a different overall storyline. This particular protagonist, a man called Armino Fabbio, is a tour guide across Italy, when he hears of the murder of his childhood nurse. This murder is a reoccuring theme throughout the book however, at the same time, there is another storyline about a annual Festival held in Ruffano and incidents surrounding that. Maybe I should include the blurb here, because I am not very good at summarising stories. :/
BLURB Armino Fabbio leads a pleasant, if humdrum life - until he becomes circumstantially involved in the murder of an old peasant woman in Rome. The woman, he gradually learns, was his family's beloved servant many years ago, in his native town of Ruffano.
Over five hundred years before, the sinister Duke Claudio, known as The Falcon, lived his twisted, brutal life preying on the people of Ruffano. Now, in the twentieth century, the town seems to have forgotten its violent history. But have things really changed?
What I liked about the book
As I said, Du Maurier's style of writing is one that I enjoy. Her description is not present in vast quantities but is detailed and very effective. The story nevers 'sits still', and there are loads of details that you think are insignificant but all come together at the end in a really cool way and I didn't expect the ending at all. Du Maurier is very good at making you believe something and then completely changing your mind. If you have read Rebecca, you will know what I mean. I loved the way that she developed her characters and the relationships between them, particularly the two brothers that feature heavily. I also liked the way that when thinking about the book, the storyline seems really complicated because there are so many different things happening but, when you are reading it, it is really easy to understand.
Issues discussed in the book
In this book, there is a clear theme of history repeating itself. Dictators and heroes appear throughout history, repeated whenever the time so dictates. This theme, of history repeating itself, is used often in books because it can be interpreted and written in many different ways and I, for one, like this type of theme. In this book, Duke Claudio 'reappears' in another form and there are parallels between events in the past and events in the present.
I love history, because I think that humans, in our arrogance and ignorance, don't learn from our mistakes and will continue to repeat them until the end of time. In a way, we think that because we are at the top of the food chain, we are somehow incapable of making mistakes and so refuse to see them when they happen.
People say that history is a dying subject, one that is studied simply because of interest in the past and plays no role in the future. I disagree. Look at the period of history a few years before this book, from the years 1914-1991. Three big wars during that time. WWI, WWII and the Cold War. Well, I could say from that that there will be another war some time because we obviously have not learnt our lesson. WWI was supposed to be the war to end all wars and then came WWII and the Holocaust. Although there was no actual fighting in the Cold War, directly between the Soviets and the Americans, during that period of time there was the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the greatest threat of nuclear war this world has ever seen, and the Afghanistan War, which lasted for ten years and cost something like 1.5 million lives. I think only time will tell when another war comes but I feel sure that it will come, because we never learn.
Wow, that was a happy ramble. Quick, onto the recommendations.
Recommendations
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke - This is the first book in a trilogy. I have read all of them. They were originally written in German but have been translated into English. It is about a girl called Meggie who loves books and her dad is a bookbinder. But then, a stranger comes to their house and Meggie is taken on a journey of discovery about powers that she has only read about. Although, history does not repeat itself exactly, the past does return to haunt Meggie and her dad, Mortimer.
The King's General by Daphne Du Maurier- If you read The Flight of the Falcon and enjoy it, I recommend that you check out Daphne Du Maurier's other books. My favourite is The King's General. It is about the Civil War in England between the King and Parliament. But it is also a love story between Honor Harris and Richard Grenville, the general of the King's army. It is inspired by a horrible discovery in a house in the nineteenth century and the discovery is featured in the book. So read it and find out! :)
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Well, that is it for this blog post. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you check out the books I recommended.:)
Clare
