..and came away wildly frustrated that nobody milked that poor fucking cow!
The medieval chapters were among the best historical fiction I’ve ever read. I found myself frustrated with the present day chapters because I was dying to get back to the 14th century.
I felt that there was a lot of repetition in the present day part, which probably contributed to the frustration. I stuck it out though since the other half was so rich.
Gonna ask my therapist why I was so much more upset about the cow than the people literally dying of the plague.
by katesbush_
4 Comments
when i would watch WWII movies as a kid i would often see cows wondering the fields in the background after the villages were burned and the residents were slaughtered. one movie had a scene of a nurse following the cows and milking them just to relieve them, the milk being virtually black. felt bad for the cows, as they were not a party to the conflict being non-human.
i enjoyed the Doomsday book time parallels as in both cases the protagonists are powerless to help. in the 14th century she can just watch everyone die, no matter what she does to try to help. in the ‘present’ the professor could only wait for the authorities to make the vaccine and the medical workers work on the sick, but there is nothing he personally could do to help. much like he could not get her rescued.
so i felt it was a good show of different types of helplessness one can find themselves in.
book 2 is much more cheery. 🙂
You are spot-on about the wonderful 14th century stuff, and about the repetition in the ‘current’ chapters. I love the book but all the telephoning just annoys me for some reason. It was written before cell phones were a thing, so it isn’t her fault, but it still distracts me from the plot.
I do like how everything ties together at the end, and I felt worse for Kivren and Anne than for the cow, TBH. Although I also worried about the cow!
I absolutely love that book. It’s one of my favorites!
She has some great short stories called Impossible Things and a sweet novella called Remake that you might like.
>Gonna ask my therapist why I was so much more upset about the cow than the people literally dying of the plague.
Because animals are innocent and so much easier to empathize with than humans.