Letters From the Corrugated Castle: A Novel of Gold Rush California: 1850-1852. Joan W. Blos. 2007. 320 pages. [Source: Review copy]
First sentence: Dear Cousin Sallie, I begin with words I never thought to write: I am not an orphan!
Premise/plot:
Letters From the Corrugated Castle is told entirely through a series of
letters. The letters are primarily from Eldora, our heroine, to her
cousin Sallie. (Though sometimes she writes someone else.) But the
letters are not exclusively from Eldora. The book has sections devoted
to both main characters, Eldora, of course, but also a friend of the
family named Luke Hall. Luke Hall writes the other letters. If there are
additional letters written by different characters--they are few and
far between. These two are the main characters. Eldora and Luke live in
San Francisco. They start out as mere acquaintances at best--they don't
have much in common, or even many people in common, but by the end of
the story, their worlds are merging more and more. (Luke Hall even lives
with her aunt and uncle for a bit of time while his own father is
recovering.)
So the book is set in California during 1850-1852. During the course of the book, California becomes a state.
Eldora's
story is definitely more of a coming of age story. She has believed
herself to be an orphan all of her remembered life. But she learns that
her mother did not die of a fever as they believed. She survived. And
she's found her daughter again. Should Eldora leave the couple--her
"aunt" and "uncle" that have raised her since she was two or three???
Should she go with her mother to another California town and live at her
mother's inn???? Or is San Francisco where she belongs?
Luke's
story is also coming of age in many ways. At first, he is ONLY about
wanting to find gold and get rich. He wants to grow up really quickly.
He doesn't want to fool with going to school and following rules when
there's gold to be found. But slowly but surely he learns there is more
to life...and education is essential to having a rich life.
My
thoughts: I really enjoyed this one. I was surprised by the low ratings
this one has. The one stars that say I hate historical fiction I can
understand because there will always be haters hating. That would be
their "review" for any historical novel basically. The two and three
stars that find fault with the characterization and storytelling are
more confusing. Reading is subjective. I know this to be true.
I
did not find the book boring--far from it. I found it an engaging read.
Granted, I didn't read it in one day, I read it one section per day
perhaps. But I always put it down wanting to read more. And I always
picked it up excited to keep reading. I felt that other characters were
fleshed out because we got to know them through both Luke and Eldora's
writing.
Much has been said in other reviews that the book was
lacking because we don't have any responses to the letters; we never
once hear from Cousin Sallie, for example. I didn't find this
problematic. Not many epistolary novels do. I'm sure there is probably
at least one that does because there are almost always exceptions to the
rules--but for the most part, this is completely normal to only have
ONE side of the correspondence. It makes me wonder how many epistolary
novels the other reviewers have read in their lives to find this one
flawed because of this "one-sided-ness."
Now I will say that I
completely understand why some would find it jarring to switch back and
forth between Eldora's story and Luke's story. (Both, of course, told
through letters.) That I get. I mean I liked both narrators. I did. And I
personally did not have issues with this switching back and forth. But I
could see why that might be a legitimate reason for someone to say this
book isn't what I wanted.
The book is INTROSPECTIVE and
character-driven. I could see how some might think it was lacking
action. But again, some people might enjoy it because it is
introspective and character-driven.
© 2020 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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