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Easter Island
Vanderbes, Jennifer.
Adult Fiction VANDERBES
From Publishers' Weekly:
Restrained passion and conflicted loyalties drive this sweeping debut novel, in which two women of different eras experience the mysteries of Easter Island. In 1912, Elsa Pendleton's father dies and leaves her to care for her 19-year-old sister, Alice, who is beautiful but not quite right in the head. To secure their position, 22-year-old Elsa marries Edward Beazley, a contemporary of her father's who is an anthropologist with the Royal Geographical Society in England. They travel to Easter Island, where Edward plans to study the giant moai sculptures, and Elsa finds herself immersed in a new and harsh culture. As she contends with revelations concerning her husband and her sister, she befriends the native islanders and becomes engrossed in unlocking the meaning of the symbols she finds on wooden tablets. In a parallel narrative, Greer Farraday, a young American botanist recovering from a disastrous marriage to an older professor, arrives on the island in 1973 to uncover the mystery of the island's lack of native trees. One of Greer's fellow island researchers is Vicente Portales, a cryptographer attempting to interpret the rongorongo tablets and breech Greer's defenses. As Elsa and Greer's stories play out in alternating sections, a third element is intertwined: the tale of Graf Von Spee, the German admiral who led his ill-fated fleet across the South Pacific at the outbreak of World War I. Vanderbes knows how to craft suspense, and the narratives-while packed with vivid historical and scientific detail-move forward on the strength of her fully realized characters. When the connection between Elsa and Greer is revealed, it illuminates the novel. Like the overcast skies of Easter Island, this impressive debut is rich in shades of gray: meteorological, scientific, intellectual and emotional. Agent, Maxine Groffsky. (June 3) Forecast: Like Andrea Barrett's Voyage of the Narwhal and Sena Jeter Naslund's Ahab's Wife, Easter Island combines the best elements of adventure and romance with a literary sensibility, and should appeal to a wide audience. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
From Library Journal:
In this sprightly debut, Vanderbes successfully parallels two stories: that of Elsa Pendleton, who travels to Easter Island in 1913 with her much older husband and her mentally impaired sister to study the toppled moai statues, and of Dr. Greer Farraday, who in the 1970s escapes grief after the death of her famed scientist husband, accused of fraud, by studying ancient pollen on the island. Both women have been suppressed by circumstance-Elsa, always her sister's caretaker, has made a bid for security by marrying a colleague of her father after his death, and Greer battles prejudice against women scientists but is slow to admit how her husband has taken advantage of her. Both women find themselves coming into their own in the island's isolation. The tight weaving of the two stories can feel a bit suffocating. But it is to Vanderbes's credit that it never seems formulaic-in fact, she could have dug deeper into the implications of their struggles-and, thankfully, she doesn't wrap things up nicely. At book's end, both Elsa and Greer settle into quiet uncertainty. This is a readable, entertaining work; strongly recommended for popular fiction collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/03.]-Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal" (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Vanderbes, Jennifer.
Adult Fiction VANDERBES
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From Publishers' Weekly:
Restrained passion and conflicted loyalties drive this sweeping debut novel, in which two women of different eras experience the mysteries of Easter Island. In 1912, Elsa Pendleton's father dies and leaves her to care for her 19-year-old sister, Alice, who is beautiful but not quite right in the head. To secure their position, 22-year-old Elsa marries Edward Beazley, a contemporary of her father's who is an anthropologist with the Royal Geographical Society in England. They travel to Easter Island, where Edward plans to study the giant moai sculptures, and Elsa finds herself immersed in a new and harsh culture. As she contends with revelations concerning her husband and her sister, she befriends the native islanders and becomes engrossed in unlocking the meaning of the symbols she finds on wooden tablets. In a parallel narrative, Greer Farraday, a young American botanist recovering from a disastrous marriage to an older professor, arrives on the island in 1973 to uncover the mystery of the island's lack of native trees. One of Greer's fellow island researchers is Vicente Portales, a cryptographer attempting to interpret the rongorongo tablets and breech Greer's defenses. As Elsa and Greer's stories play out in alternating sections, a third element is intertwined: the tale of Graf Von Spee, the German admiral who led his ill-fated fleet across the South Pacific at the outbreak of World War I. Vanderbes knows how to craft suspense, and the narratives-while packed with vivid historical and scientific detail-move forward on the strength of her fully realized characters. When the connection between Elsa and Greer is revealed, it illuminates the novel. Like the overcast skies of Easter Island, this impressive debut is rich in shades of gray: meteorological, scientific, intellectual and emotional. Agent, Maxine Groffsky. (June 3) Forecast: Like Andrea Barrett's Voyage of the Narwhal and Sena Jeter Naslund's Ahab's Wife, Easter Island combines the best elements of adventure and romance with a literary sensibility, and should appeal to a wide audience. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
From Library Journal:
In this sprightly debut, Vanderbes successfully parallels two stories: that of Elsa Pendleton, who travels to Easter Island in 1913 with her much older husband and her mentally impaired sister to study the toppled moai statues, and of Dr. Greer Farraday, who in the 1970s escapes grief after the death of her famed scientist husband, accused of fraud, by studying ancient pollen on the island. Both women have been suppressed by circumstance-Elsa, always her sister's caretaker, has made a bid for security by marrying a colleague of her father after his death, and Greer battles prejudice against women scientists but is slow to admit how her husband has taken advantage of her. Both women find themselves coming into their own in the island's isolation. The tight weaving of the two stories can feel a bit suffocating. But it is to Vanderbes's credit that it never seems formulaic-in fact, she could have dug deeper into the implications of their struggles-and, thankfully, she doesn't wrap things up nicely. At book's end, both Elsa and Greer settle into quiet uncertainty. This is a readable, entertaining work; strongly recommended for popular fiction collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/03.]-Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal" (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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