Arundel

Wow! This book was absolutely amazing! It was so good, that I had to put it down for a while, go and do something else while I let it digest. Wonderful stuff. After a bumpy start -with a rather mushy love scene between the 10 year old Mary Mallinson and Steven Nason- the book really gets into gear - with a real bang. Literally. A rude Frenchman and his Indian cronies shoots Mary's dad, takes the daughter, and carries her away to Canada. Steven Nason and his father follow them, hoping to reclaim the young girl, but are turned back when the boy gets a tomahawk through his head. Fortunately - for both him and the plot - he survives... but vows not to give up on his search for Mary Mallinson - even when his father gets pushed into frigid water by a maniacal priest, dies of pneumonia, and his son is obliged to take over his responsibilities. The characterization is amazing! There's Cap Huff, Benedict Arnold, Phoebe, John the Wishy-Washy, Marie du Sabrevois - even Steven Nason himself is a complex character. If there was one fault in the book, it was Roberts' obsession with explaining over and over the day-to-day going-ons of the Maine Native Americans. After a while, I found I didn't care too much how bear meat was cooked, how loud a medicine man could howl, and the various Indian geneologies. Besides that minor flaw - I must admit, I *do* have a short attention span - the book was excellent! Read it, I promise you'll enjoy!

In one's praise of Arundel, which indeed deserves the highest praise for a superbly written, well crafted story, it may be easy to overlook subtlties in the characterization, the chief of which is that of the narrator, Steven Nason, and may be mined from his own expression. His pursuit of Mary Mallinson, his struggles to come to terms with the independent and mocking Phoebe, say a great deal about a boy coming into manhood, befuddled and confused by two very different women, one carried in his memory, the other more real than at times he would like. He persists in trying to box Phoebe, a brave and resourceful sailor, into his ideas of what a woman "should" be, with rather amusing results. A brave and resourceful character himself, he is also never so silly as in Phoebe's mocking eyes, or when he huffs and splutters, from the height of his 18 or 20 years, of how he'd like to turn her over his knee. Steven's desire to reach Mary, a large part of his motivation for the march on Quebec (with his very real patriotism straggling up a rather distant second), is a sad journey, for again in Roberts' hands, one wonders if he is chasing no more than a chimera. The character of Phoebe grows and develops astonishingly, and is counterpointed by Stevie's difficulty with her personality and views, and her essential mystery. Phoebe is as real as Mary is an idea. Cap Huff is indeed hilarious, but it is easy, in his humorous depiction, to lose sight of the fact that as his stay in the novel lengthens, a peculiar complexity emerges; it would be tempting to consider the depiction of Cap to be rather uneven, were he not so tightly drawn. He may act foolishly, but he is no fool. Steven Nason's patriotism, as well, is realistic in that it grows rather haphazardly, a product of both necessity and idealism. And as mentioned by my fellow reviewers here, Benedict Arnold is a fine portrait. Roberts' writing style is worth mentioning. I am an historical essayist myself and have read a fair amount of both historical fact and fiction. There are few writers who have Roberts' supple facility of language -- he is economical in his description, and his narration reads both vigorously and smoothly; he doesn't struggle to ape the speech of the times, yet it, along with its rigorously accurate depictions, seems a very aperture into an earlier world. You will never read a bad book by Kenneth Roberts, and you'll probably be up to 2:00 every morning until you finish it.

Kenneth Roberts is without doubt the finest historical novelist this country has ever produced. His work is the history of America in fictional settings, but it is authentic history, more accurate and reflective of the reality of this nation than most non-fiction works on the subject. Most of the people he writes about in Arundel really existed; and some were portraits of his Maine ancestors, whose stories he tells as exemplars of the people who founded this nation. In addition to being historically accurate to the most minute detail, his writing is poetic and moving. No one who has not read Roberts' work, most especially the "Chronicles of Arundel" (of which this book is one piece) can fully comprehend the American experience and how we came to be the nation we are. "Arundel" was his first novel, and after 65 years it still shines like a beacon to those who want the truth about the American Revolution, what it meant, and why it was fought. This is a book that changes lives. It will waken the dormant patriotism in the hearts of even the most cynical modernist. If you want to know why we are here and what America really stands for, read "Arundel," and then move on to his other work.

I first read Arundel over 30 years ago and it helped make me into a history teacher. Seemingly unimportant incidents in the narrative have proven, upon further research into non-fictional sources, to have actually happened. Kenneth Roberts was THE greatest historical novelist in American History. He proved that a wholesome romance can keep the reader's interest. The main characters do not have to perform in bed for us in order to keep our interest. And yet, he does not wince from the reality of treachery, betrayal and sexual immorality. It is simply done with style and good taste. Why this book was never been made into a movie is incomprehensible, except that Roberts' NORTHWEST PASSAGE was hopelessly butchered by Hollywood in 1939 and he vowed never to release the rights to his works again (I think). Does anyone out there know the reason?