4 Stars
Pros: An effortless flow that lets the two timelines mesh/the character of Thatcher Greenwood is quiet, unassuming and intelligent, very easy to like.
Cons: Tig. Her constant bickering and arguing with her mother and everyone over EVERYTHING was a huge turn off/Thatcher and Mary's relationship in the end. It made sense and it wasn't overly saccharine but I just wonder if there's a novel out there where a man and woman can meet and have no romantic attachments, it was just a bit disappointing.
Full Review:
The setting is a ramshackle old house. The characters, Willa, the free lance journalist, her husband Iano, the College Professor, their young adult daughter Tig (Antigone) and their economist son, Zeke, who's moved back home after the tragic suicide of his wife. He brings with him a newborn son and also on the periphery is Nick, Ianos ill and aging Father.
The family always seems to be at odds with one another. Tig going off to Occupy Wall Street while her brother works for Wall Street and of course, Nick, the old fashioned Father in Law is free with his opinions on today's eccentricities, letting woman work in factories, and how all the decent jobs have gone to immigrants, only he says it in much crueler terms. And through all of these personalities, Willa is simply just trying to get by. Iano's job is not secure and the repairs to the house are going to be exorbitant but she just does what she can and takes it day by day.
And theirs are not the only lives that have been lived in that old ramshackle house. The point of view periodically switches to early America, at the height of Darwinism when all his radical ideas were sweeping the nation. Thatcher Greenwood, lives there with his wife Rose, her sister Polly, their Mother Aurelia and two large Dogs that were left them by the previous owner, who named them Scylla and Charybdis.
Thatcher is a kind, hardworking and intelligent man who has been hired to teach science at the local high school and apparently his acceptance of Darwin's "Origin of Species" is not particularly accepted in the curriculum. He finds a like minded friend in the form of his neighbor, Mrs. Mary Treat, who keeps a running correspondence with Charles Darwin himself and is a forward, radical thinker, especially being a woman in those days.
The book does well at switching back and forth between the time periods and letting the reader see how different and yet the same the times were. During Thatcher's life, the idea that man could have evolved from Primates was unspeakable heresy while in Willa's time, the fact that the Country is doomed to be run by a man who is not far removed from his prehistoric Primate Cousins is nauseating and dread inducing.
As Willa's life becomes more and more difficult with her ailing Father in Law and money for the repairs of the house growing, Thatcher meanwhile finds himself fascinated by the character of his neighbor Mary Treat. She was raised in society, educated etc but she has taught herself all she knows of Science and Thatcher is duly impressed by all of her accomplishments. She must fight to be taken seriously and seen as an equal in a world of man and she does so unflinchingly. While in his home life, Thatcher struggles to be a good husband and supply his wife with all that she requests. It's a slippery slope and the reader can't help but feel slightly bad for Thatcher who is always trying to do good but it just never seems to be good enough, another similarity shared between he and Willa's time.
As things in Willa's time take a turn for the worse, Nick's health seriously failing, Zeke spending all of his time in Boston and leaving Willa and Tig to raise his infant son, Dusty, and her relationship with her daughter always strained, we watch as Willa attempts to forge ahead. Tig opens up a bit even as Zeke becomes more and more distant, granting full custody of Aldus (Dusty) to his parents. And even as she finds out that Mary Treat was not an occupant of her house, she had hoped since that would have meant possible money for a grant to repair the house and add it to the list of "historical sites" Willa does learn something interesting and the two timelines really start to coincide.
She learns of the existence of Thatcher Greenwood and how he was apparently run out of town and possibly involved in a murder. In Thatcher's time he is humiliated in front of his pupils when forced to give a lecture on his field of expertise and the bible thumping principal, Cutler, cuts him down at every turn. Always reminding him and the impressionable students that God created everything regardless of what Science may show.
Thatcher is comforted by the presence and reasonable mind of Mary and also a new associate, the editor of a satirical newspaper called "The Independent." He is a man named Carruth and he believes that Thatcher is fighting for the right things and wants him to succeed. Everything seems to be going wrong in Thatcher's life, he can't give his wife a child, his career is being stifled and the house in which he lives is literally falling down around his ears. So when Carruth offers to take him up on the suggestion of a stiff drink, Thatcher agrees and they start a wary friendship. One that unfortunately, may lead him down the wrong path.
A friendship forms, but one that turns out will be Thatcher's undoing. The end of the novel brings about closure but not necessarily the good kind. Things end, as they do and life moves on, whether we're ready for it to do so or not. The ending, in its honesty, was acceptable but not perfet, as endings very rarely are.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of history, especially during the radical change, like when Charles Darwin introduced his Origin of Species, or when the idiot man child who is currently sitting in office was campaigning. This was a good read, one that made you think and and stop and try to see the world from everyone's point of view. We're all so wrapped up in our own lives, working, making money, trying to survive, that we don't stop enough to take stock of what really matters. Which is love, family and a place you can call home.
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