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Dreamers of the Day
""I suppose I ought to warn you at the outset that my present circumstances are puzzling, even to me. Nevertheless, I am sure of this much: My little story has become your history. You won't really understand your times until you understand mine."" So begins the account of Agnes Shanklin, the charmingly diffident narrator of Dreamers of the Day. And what is Miss Shanklin's "little story"? Nothing less than the creation of the modern Middle East at the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference, where Winston Churchill, T. E. Lawrence, and Lady Gertrude Bell met to decide the fate of the Arab world-and of our own.
A forty-year-old schoolteacher from Ohio, Agnes has come into a modest inheritance that allows her to take the trip of a lifetime to Egypt. Arriving at the Semiramis Hotel just as the Peace Conference convenes, Agnes enters into the company of the historic luminaries who will, in the space of a few days at a hotel in Cairo, invent the nations of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan. As Agnes observes the tumultuous inner workings of nation-building, she is drawn more and more deeply into geopolitical intrigue and toward a personal awakening.
With graceful and effortless prose, Mary Doria Russell illuminates the long, rich history of the Middle East through a story that brilliantly elucidates today's headlines. Dreamers of the Day is a memorable and passionate novel.
A forty-year-old schoolteacher from Ohio, Agnes has come into a modest inheritance that allows her to take the trip of a lifetime to Egypt. Arriving at the Semiramis Hotel just as the Peace Conference convenes, Agnes enters into the company of the historic luminaries who will, in the space of a few days at a hotel in Cairo, invent the nations of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan. As Agnes observes the tumultuous inner workings of nation-building, she is drawn more and more deeply into geopolitical intrigue and toward a personal awakening.
With graceful and effortless prose, Mary Doria Russell illuminates the long, rich history of the Middle East through a story that brilliantly elucidates today's headlines. Dreamers of the Day is a memorable and passionate novel.
253 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
About the author
Mary Doria Russell
11 books3,322 followersMary Doria Russell is an American author. She was born in 1950 in the suburbs of Chicago. Her parents were both in the military; her father was a Marine Corps drill sergeant, and her mother was a Navy nurse.
She holds a Ph.D. in Paleoanthropology from the University of Michigan, and has also studied cultural anthropology at the University of Illinois, and social anthropology at Northeastern University in Boston. Russell lives in Cleveland, Ohio with her husband Don and their two dogs.
Mary is shy about online stuff like Goodreads, but she responds to all email, and would prefer to do that through her website.
Photo by Jeff Rooks
She holds a Ph.D. in Paleoanthropology from the University of Michigan, and has also studied cultural anthropology at the University of Illinois, and social anthropology at Northeastern University in Boston. Russell lives in Cleveland, Ohio with her husband Don and their two dogs.
Mary is shy about online stuff like Goodreads, but she responds to all email, and would prefer to do that through her website.
Photo by Jeff Rooks
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,243 reviews
January 24, 2018
Dreamers of the Day is a historical novel set mostly in Egypt during the Cairo Peace Conference of 1921. Agnes Shanklin is a forty-year-old, unmarried, Ohio schoolteacher who has lived through the Great War (WWI) and the Great Influenza of 1919. Having lost her family and inherited a great fortune, Agnes determines to take a trip to Egypt and the Holy Land. She arrives in Cairo with only her long haired dachshund as company. Very soon after arriving, Agnes meets and falls into the company of T.E. Lawrence, Winston Churchill, and Lady Gertrude Bell. We know these luminaries of history for their roles inventing the modern Middle East.
Ms. Russell sets her novel during this momentous time in history, but the story does not so much focus on the historical facts as they do on the characters themselves. We meet Lawrence, Churchill, and Lady Gertrude Bell in a way that gives insight into the personalities that drove the redrawing of Middle Eastern borders; decisions that continue to affect relationships between people groups and world events to this day.
The character of Agnes is fictional and tells the story of a middle-aged woman coming of age in a very romantic setting. Imagine lush hotels with marble floors and columns, potted palms, and blue tiled pools of water. Further imagine a trip by camel to visit the Great Pyramid and the mysterious Sphinx ... a journey into the desert that includes a full British tea under tents hastily erected by servants who serve the meal on fine bone china and silver. It is in this bigger-than-life setting that Agnes interacts with the aforementioned historical characters. It is also in this setting that she experiences her first love affair and comes to know her own mind and heart as a woman. Agnes' discovery that Karl, her lover, is a German spy adds an element of intrigue to the already full plate of historical, coming of age, and romantic aspects of the novel.
Ms. Russell shows great insight into human nature within the context of her characters and their relationships. One such insight occurs during a painful yet illuminating conversation between Agnes and Karl -- a conversation about her mother and the nature and effects of tyranny. Ms. Russell does not neglect cultural and political commentary in her novel, but I found these a bit jarring as they come from the mouth of a character enmeshed in a "history" still in the making. It seemed a bit of 21st century hindsight was leaking into early 20th century cultural and political insight, but this small "bump" in presentation did not affect my overall enjoyment of the book.
Dreamers of the Day will take you on a leisurely journey through an intriguing place and time in world events using both historical and fictional characters. It is a well written and atmospheric book that I did not want to end.
"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible."
-- from ui>Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence
Advance Reader's Copy of Dreamers of the Day graciously provided by Random House through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.
Ms. Russell sets her novel during this momentous time in history, but the story does not so much focus on the historical facts as they do on the characters themselves. We meet Lawrence, Churchill, and Lady Gertrude Bell in a way that gives insight into the personalities that drove the redrawing of Middle Eastern borders; decisions that continue to affect relationships between people groups and world events to this day.
The character of Agnes is fictional and tells the story of a middle-aged woman coming of age in a very romantic setting. Imagine lush hotels with marble floors and columns, potted palms, and blue tiled pools of water. Further imagine a trip by camel to visit the Great Pyramid and the mysterious Sphinx ... a journey into the desert that includes a full British tea under tents hastily erected by servants who serve the meal on fine bone china and silver. It is in this bigger-than-life setting that Agnes interacts with the aforementioned historical characters. It is also in this setting that she experiences her first love affair and comes to know her own mind and heart as a woman. Agnes' discovery that Karl, her lover, is a German spy adds an element of intrigue to the already full plate of historical, coming of age, and romantic aspects of the novel.
Ms. Russell shows great insight into human nature within the context of her characters and their relationships. One such insight occurs during a painful yet illuminating conversation between Agnes and Karl -- a conversation about her mother and the nature and effects of tyranny. Ms. Russell does not neglect cultural and political commentary in her novel, but I found these a bit jarring as they come from the mouth of a character enmeshed in a "history" still in the making. It seemed a bit of 21st century hindsight was leaking into early 20th century cultural and political insight, but this small "bump" in presentation did not affect my overall enjoyment of the book.
Dreamers of the Day will take you on a leisurely journey through an intriguing place and time in world events using both historical and fictional characters. It is a well written and atmospheric book that I did not want to end.
"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible."
-- from ui>Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence
Advance Reader's Copy of Dreamers of the Day graciously provided by Random House through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.
April 9, 2021
3.5 stars, rounded down.
How did I get to this ripe old age of mine and never hear of Gertrude Bell? I knew about Lawrence, of course, and had a vague idea that the middle east was parceled out by a small group of Englishmen that included Winston Churchill, but never any inkling of what really happened in an Egyptian hotel that changed the shape of the world and created the fractional and dysfunctional Middle East we see today.
Agnes Shanklin is an American schoolteacher, whose entire family has died in the influenza epidemic of 1918. (Russell's descriptions of the epidemic and the feelings it engendered were somewhat eerie in light of our own recent history). Agnes' sister, Lily, had known T. E. Lawrence before he achieved his fame, and when Agnes meets with him in Egypt, Lawrence invites her to share time with him and subsequently with the diplomats who are carving out the Middle East after WW1.
Agnes, as a friend of Lawrence, is intimate enough with the group to be included in some sensitive conversations, but remote enough not to be personally involved and have an outsider's view. Enter a German by the name of Karl Weilbacher, and you have someone to provide a romantic interest, a reason for Agnes to discuss the progress of the conference, and a person to provide another point of view from which to evaluate the proceedings.
There is a good smattering of descriptions of the holy land and Egypt, both the physical terrain and the social environment, and this is excellently done. I felt at times that I was taking a personal guided tour, and could hear the bustle of the marketplace and feel the crowding at the holy shrines. I experienced the discomfort of riding a camel across the desert to see the pyramids, and in fact, my rear end still aches from the bouncing.
I am a huge fan of Ms. Russell, and her inimitable style is certainly present in this novel, but there were also things that kept me at an arm’s length from our main character and at least one device that really bothered me. A short way into the narrative, Agnes drops that she is telling this story from beyond the grave, and I really did not care for that approach. The story would feel immediate and then Russell would remind us that Agnes was not alive, and somehow that would take something away from the reading for me. I could not see how this added anything to the novel other than providing Russell an avenue for her last chapter, and I felt that such an accomplished writer could have found another way to include this information or might have done just as well to save the “beyond the grave” surprise for the end. The story is well-told and the historical background very interesting, but I never cared enough for Agnes, so there was no sense of urgency on her behalf at any stage of reading.
What this book did inspire me to want to do is to rewatch Lawrence of Arabia. I saw it moons ago, and realized while reading that there is actually very little of it I remember beyond the sweeping cinematography for which it is famous. I will take advantage the next time it airs to revisit a film which is a known masterpiece and see how much of this “unknown” history I might have already been aware of if I had been paying attention.
How did I get to this ripe old age of mine and never hear of Gertrude Bell? I knew about Lawrence, of course, and had a vague idea that the middle east was parceled out by a small group of Englishmen that included Winston Churchill, but never any inkling of what really happened in an Egyptian hotel that changed the shape of the world and created the fractional and dysfunctional Middle East we see today.
Agnes Shanklin is an American schoolteacher, whose entire family has died in the influenza epidemic of 1918. (Russell's descriptions of the epidemic and the feelings it engendered were somewhat eerie in light of our own recent history). Agnes' sister, Lily, had known T. E. Lawrence before he achieved his fame, and when Agnes meets with him in Egypt, Lawrence invites her to share time with him and subsequently with the diplomats who are carving out the Middle East after WW1.
Agnes, as a friend of Lawrence, is intimate enough with the group to be included in some sensitive conversations, but remote enough not to be personally involved and have an outsider's view. Enter a German by the name of Karl Weilbacher, and you have someone to provide a romantic interest, a reason for Agnes to discuss the progress of the conference, and a person to provide another point of view from which to evaluate the proceedings.
There is a good smattering of descriptions of the holy land and Egypt, both the physical terrain and the social environment, and this is excellently done. I felt at times that I was taking a personal guided tour, and could hear the bustle of the marketplace and feel the crowding at the holy shrines. I experienced the discomfort of riding a camel across the desert to see the pyramids, and in fact, my rear end still aches from the bouncing.
I am a huge fan of Ms. Russell, and her inimitable style is certainly present in this novel, but there were also things that kept me at an arm’s length from our main character and at least one device that really bothered me. A short way into the narrative, Agnes drops that she is telling this story from beyond the grave, and I really did not care for that approach. The story would feel immediate and then Russell would remind us that Agnes was not alive, and somehow that would take something away from the reading for me. I could not see how this added anything to the novel other than providing Russell an avenue for her last chapter, and I felt that such an accomplished writer could have found another way to include this information or might have done just as well to save the “beyond the grave” surprise for the end. The story is well-told and the historical background very interesting, but I never cared enough for Agnes, so there was no sense of urgency on her behalf at any stage of reading.
What this book did inspire me to want to do is to rewatch Lawrence of Arabia. I saw it moons ago, and realized while reading that there is actually very little of it I remember beyond the sweeping cinematography for which it is famous. I will take advantage the next time it airs to revisit a film which is a known masterpiece and see how much of this “unknown” history I might have already been aware of if I had been paying attention.
May 23, 2023
Dreamers of the Day was an enchanting historical fiction book by Mary Doria Russell that is narrated by 40 year-old schoolteacher, Agnes Shanklin, from Ohio and as told posthumously from the afterlife. The book begins with her admonition:
In 1913, America had a professor-president in the White House elected to clean up the corruption that had flourished in the muck of politics. But then, almost without warning, the Great War and the Great Influenza pandemic fell on their placid world. Losing her entire family to the Spanish flu outbreak, Agnes had been left with a sizable estate allowing her to take a trip of a lifetime to Egypt at the time that the Cairo Peace Conference was about to convene. And her story is the creation of the modern Middle East at the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference, where Winston Churchill, T.E. Lawrence, and Lady Gertrude Bell met to decide the fate of the Arab world and of our own.
With beautiful prose, Mary Doria Russell illuminates the long rich history of the Middle East through this delightful narrative often seeming to have been taken from today's headlines. This book has given me the impetus to do further reading about Winston Churchill and Sir Lawrence of Arabia. Once more, Ms. Russell you have given us a powerful and thoughtful book, thank you.
"I suppose I ought to warn you at the outset that my present circumstances are puzzling, even to me. Nevertheless, I am sure of this much: my little story has become your history. You won't really understand your times until you understand mine."
In 1913, America had a professor-president in the White House elected to clean up the corruption that had flourished in the muck of politics. But then, almost without warning, the Great War and the Great Influenza pandemic fell on their placid world. Losing her entire family to the Spanish flu outbreak, Agnes had been left with a sizable estate allowing her to take a trip of a lifetime to Egypt at the time that the Cairo Peace Conference was about to convene. And her story is the creation of the modern Middle East at the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference, where Winston Churchill, T.E. Lawrence, and Lady Gertrude Bell met to decide the fate of the Arab world and of our own.
"Despite it all, there was still a chance for peace, even then, in some few places. If no single person could make things right after the Great War, young Neddy Lawrence still hoped to make them less wrong in one corner of the world. The rest of my story is a small part of his, and a large part of yours, I'm afraid."
"All men dream," Colonel Lawrence wrote, "but not equally. Those who dream by night wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible."
"A dreamer of the day is dangerous when he believes that others are less: less than their own best selves and certainly less than he is. They exist to follow and flatter him, and to serve his purposes.
A true prophet, I suppose, it like a good parent. A true prophet sees others, not himself. He helps them define their own half-formed dreams, and puts himself at their service. He is not diminished as they become more. He offers courage in one hand and generosity in the other."
With beautiful prose, Mary Doria Russell illuminates the long rich history of the Middle East through this delightful narrative often seeming to have been taken from today's headlines. This book has given me the impetus to do further reading about Winston Churchill and Sir Lawrence of Arabia. Once more, Ms. Russell you have given us a powerful and thoughtful book, thank you.
March 27, 2008
I'm in the middle of this novel about a young woman who has lost her entire family to WWI and the Great Influenza. She travels to Eygpt, where she meets Lawrence (of Arabia) and the gentleman German spy who follows him. So far, it's been a little quote heavy, but I like Agnes, and her struggle to become an independent woman, free from the binds that still tie her to the tyranny of her late mother, is interesting.
I have to say that this book, by one of my favorite authors (see review of The Sparrow), was a bit of a disappointment. Great historical setting, interesting characters, but something was missing. I don't think the narrative setup was effective; it led to an ending that was downright silly. The book should have ended with her departure from Egypt, with perhaps a short epilogue. And the parallels with modern day issues in the Middle East were a little heavy handed. Still, she writes with poetry and faith in her heart, and if the novel's structural flaws were disappointing, the core story was not.
I have to say that this book, by one of my favorite authors (see review of The Sparrow), was a bit of a disappointment. Great historical setting, interesting characters, but something was missing. I don't think the narrative setup was effective; it led to an ending that was downright silly. The book should have ended with her departure from Egypt, with perhaps a short epilogue. And the parallels with modern day issues in the Middle East were a little heavy handed. Still, she writes with poetry and faith in her heart, and if the novel's structural flaws were disappointing, the core story was not.
July 22, 2014
A fun historical fiction excursion into the life of a Cleveland spinster, Agnes Shanklin, who gets to hobnob with T.E. Lawrence and Churchill at a post World War 1 summit in Cairo. The premise is that the 40-year old schoolteacher, after loss of much of her family to the influenza epidemic, chooses to use her inheritance to visit the Mideast, where her beloved sister had gone for missionary work. Her entre into the circle of negotiators carving up the region into precarious protectorates is due to her sister having been a teacher of Lawrence in his youth. Russell does a marvelous job bringing the two historical figures and other members of their retinue alive and in letting Agnes play out a belated coming of age scenario symbolic of the loss of innocence of America itself. A large role for her dachshund Rosie in the narrative ranks well among fictional accounts of dogs in literature.
May 3, 2015
I was actually surprised that I enjoyed this one as much as I did. It was a cheap impulse buy I picked up while browsing in a used bookstore, and when I did finally look it up on Goodreads nothing wowed me. I'm also a little wary about historical fiction books which boast characters based on "real" people, so if not for the setting (post World War I Egypt) I would probably have never picked it up.
But it was actually really engaging and a lot of fun to read, and even when it got weird (the whole Nile legend/odd narration angle...those who read it will know what I mean) it still kind of worked for me. I'm also quite curious to do some research on Lawrence of Arabia now...he was a pretty fascinating aspect of the novel.
But it was actually really engaging and a lot of fun to read, and even when it got weird (the whole Nile legend/odd narration angle...those who read it will know what I mean) it still kind of worked for me. I'm also quite curious to do some research on Lawrence of Arabia now...he was a pretty fascinating aspect of the novel.
April 3, 2008
What a disappointment. Both The Sparrow and A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell are wonderful, heartrending books that have fully developed, believable characters. Both deal with serious issues of belief and faith. Both left me thinking.
This book, however, was sorely disappointing. The narrator wasn't terribly interesting and I felt at times like I was reading a history book (which is not a good sign since I do NOT enjoy non-fiction). I did learn a lot about how the events following WWI have shaped the current situation in the Middle East. The problem was that I ended up feeling like the entire book was a treatise on the author's beliefs about the current situation in the Middle East. She could have saved a lot of time, effort and ink by just writing an op-ed piece.
Will I read Russell's next book? Yes - I've decided that maybe she's hit-miss-hit-miss because The Sparrow and A Thread of Grace were her 1st and 3rd books. The 2nd (Children of God) left something to be desired. The 4th book... well, you've just read what I think about it.
If you haven't read a book by Mary Doria Russell, don't bother with this one, but don't miss out on the good ones.
This book, however, was sorely disappointing. The narrator wasn't terribly interesting and I felt at times like I was reading a history book (which is not a good sign since I do NOT enjoy non-fiction). I did learn a lot about how the events following WWI have shaped the current situation in the Middle East. The problem was that I ended up feeling like the entire book was a treatise on the author's beliefs about the current situation in the Middle East. She could have saved a lot of time, effort and ink by just writing an op-ed piece.
Will I read Russell's next book? Yes - I've decided that maybe she's hit-miss-hit-miss because The Sparrow and A Thread of Grace were her 1st and 3rd books. The 2nd (Children of God) left something to be desired. The 4th book... well, you've just read what I think about it.
If you haven't read a book by Mary Doria Russell, don't bother with this one, but don't miss out on the good ones.
December 4, 2013
Mary Doria Russell began her writing career with two well-received science fiction novels, The Sparrow and Children of God, both about people making contact with extraterrestrials. Lately, though, she's turned to 20th-century history for examples of first encounters fraught with unintended consequences -- an acknowledgment, perhaps, that plenty of otherworldly events take place right here on earth. The Thread of Grace was an enthralling novel about Jewish refugees fighting to survive in Northern Italy during World War II. And now she's published Dreamersof the Day, a deceptively quiet novel about an old maid schoolteacher in Ohio in the early 20th century.
Even before we realize that this endearing narrator is speaking to us from beyond the grave, the tale she tells is oddly haunting -- and disturbingly relevant. "My little story has become your history," Agnes begins. "You won't really understand your times until you understand mine." Convincing evidence of that connection accumulates with every page.
Agnes is the only member of her family to survive the Great Influenza of 1919 -- portrayed here with intimate, sobering detail. She had always imagined she "would become the sort of maiden aunt who lived in a spare bedroom and helped in the raising of nieces and nephews," but after the loss of her family, she boldly decides to cast off her mousey personality, buy a set of expensive clothes and book passage to Egypt with her ugly dachshund in tow. "I wanted to . . . walk away from my own dull mediocrity," she explains. "I wanted to escape anyone and everything that had ever told me No." What follows is a stirring story of personal awakening set against the background of a crucial moment of modern history.
Agnes turns out to be a surprisingly charming tour guide; aware of her naivet¿ and inexperience in the world, she's full of gentle humor and colorful observations. Initially, she feels utterly lost in Cairo -- "a perfectly nauseating blend of sewage and citrus, burning tobacco and roasting meat, unwashed bodies and jasmine."
Because of her late sister's connections, though, she quickly falls in with the region's power brokers: Young Winston Churchill is the blustering colonial minister representing a depleted British government eager to cement its access to Middle East oil. Gertrude Bell, one of the most formidable women of the 20th century, is a scholar negotiating the borders of a new Iraq. And T.E. Lawrence is the dashing archaeologist and soldier who, having participated in the Arab rebellion against the Turks, is already passing into legend as Lawrence of Arabia. They're all vividly, sometimes comically brought to life here. Bell is severe with Agnes, but Lawrence, with his ambiguous sexuality and his boyish giggle, is gracious and kind. Churchill, always desperate for an audience, welcomes the American into their social circle and gives her a front-row seat to watch them "finish some business left undone at Versailles" -- creating the modern Middle East.
The challenge of a cast like this is balancing these real but larger-than-life characters with a fictional and decidedly modest narrator. Humble little Agnes could easily fall into the position of merely witnessing these important people shaping the lives of millions. But Russell rather daringly decides against that and, in fact, keeps the novel focused on Agnes, even when more historical exposition would have helped. (Quick: What tribes made up Trans-Jordan? Come to think of it, where was Trans-Jordan anyhow?)
Still, Dreamers of the Day is packed with illuminating glimpses of the origins of the current troubles in the Middle East. Russell draws cringe-inducing parallels between England's geopolitical meddling and our own. In a moment of exasperation with "Winston and his Forty Thieves," Lawrence tells Agnes, "The British public were tricked into this adventure in Mesopotamia by a steady withholding of information. . . . They have no idea how bloody and inefficient the occupation has been, or how many have been killed. The whole business is a disgrace." The novel's title comes from Lawrence's dark warning, in The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926), about "dangerous men" who insist on forcing their private daydreams on other people. Gertrude Bell, however, offers a more optimistic prediction: "When we have made Mesopotamia a model state," she claims, "there won't be an Arab in Syria or Palestine who won't want to be a part of it." Mission accomplished!
Russell packs this section of the novel with marvelous scenes: riding by camel with Churchill; watching Lawrence quell a riot in Gaza; listening to Bell's bitter laughter as she explains, "Happy and contented people don't make history." Agnes, of course, is not a maker of history, but the story of her transformation into a happy and contented person remains as engaging as anything going on around her during this calamitous period. She falls in love with a German spy, and their courtship becomes a test of her determination to cast off her mother's withering influence, to move beyond "decades of defining myself by what I would not do, what I did not want, what I could not be."
In this rewarding blend of personal and historical events, Russell has produced a novel bound to please a broad range of readers. From her vantage point in the afterlife, Agnes claims that "observing human history has turned out to be a terrible exercise in monotony," but for those of us still on this side, such tales as this make it fascinating.
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/20...
Even before we realize that this endearing narrator is speaking to us from beyond the grave, the tale she tells is oddly haunting -- and disturbingly relevant. "My little story has become your history," Agnes begins. "You won't really understand your times until you understand mine." Convincing evidence of that connection accumulates with every page.
Agnes is the only member of her family to survive the Great Influenza of 1919 -- portrayed here with intimate, sobering detail. She had always imagined she "would become the sort of maiden aunt who lived in a spare bedroom and helped in the raising of nieces and nephews," but after the loss of her family, she boldly decides to cast off her mousey personality, buy a set of expensive clothes and book passage to Egypt with her ugly dachshund in tow. "I wanted to . . . walk away from my own dull mediocrity," she explains. "I wanted to escape anyone and everything that had ever told me No." What follows is a stirring story of personal awakening set against the background of a crucial moment of modern history.
Agnes turns out to be a surprisingly charming tour guide; aware of her naivet¿ and inexperience in the world, she's full of gentle humor and colorful observations. Initially, she feels utterly lost in Cairo -- "a perfectly nauseating blend of sewage and citrus, burning tobacco and roasting meat, unwashed bodies and jasmine."
Because of her late sister's connections, though, she quickly falls in with the region's power brokers: Young Winston Churchill is the blustering colonial minister representing a depleted British government eager to cement its access to Middle East oil. Gertrude Bell, one of the most formidable women of the 20th century, is a scholar negotiating the borders of a new Iraq. And T.E. Lawrence is the dashing archaeologist and soldier who, having participated in the Arab rebellion against the Turks, is already passing into legend as Lawrence of Arabia. They're all vividly, sometimes comically brought to life here. Bell is severe with Agnes, but Lawrence, with his ambiguous sexuality and his boyish giggle, is gracious and kind. Churchill, always desperate for an audience, welcomes the American into their social circle and gives her a front-row seat to watch them "finish some business left undone at Versailles" -- creating the modern Middle East.
The challenge of a cast like this is balancing these real but larger-than-life characters with a fictional and decidedly modest narrator. Humble little Agnes could easily fall into the position of merely witnessing these important people shaping the lives of millions. But Russell rather daringly decides against that and, in fact, keeps the novel focused on Agnes, even when more historical exposition would have helped. (Quick: What tribes made up Trans-Jordan? Come to think of it, where was Trans-Jordan anyhow?)
Still, Dreamers of the Day is packed with illuminating glimpses of the origins of the current troubles in the Middle East. Russell draws cringe-inducing parallels between England's geopolitical meddling and our own. In a moment of exasperation with "Winston and his Forty Thieves," Lawrence tells Agnes, "The British public were tricked into this adventure in Mesopotamia by a steady withholding of information. . . . They have no idea how bloody and inefficient the occupation has been, or how many have been killed. The whole business is a disgrace." The novel's title comes from Lawrence's dark warning, in The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926), about "dangerous men" who insist on forcing their private daydreams on other people. Gertrude Bell, however, offers a more optimistic prediction: "When we have made Mesopotamia a model state," she claims, "there won't be an Arab in Syria or Palestine who won't want to be a part of it." Mission accomplished!
Russell packs this section of the novel with marvelous scenes: riding by camel with Churchill; watching Lawrence quell a riot in Gaza; listening to Bell's bitter laughter as she explains, "Happy and contented people don't make history." Agnes, of course, is not a maker of history, but the story of her transformation into a happy and contented person remains as engaging as anything going on around her during this calamitous period. She falls in love with a German spy, and their courtship becomes a test of her determination to cast off her mother's withering influence, to move beyond "decades of defining myself by what I would not do, what I did not want, what I could not be."
In this rewarding blend of personal and historical events, Russell has produced a novel bound to please a broad range of readers. From her vantage point in the afterlife, Agnes claims that "observing human history has turned out to be a terrible exercise in monotony," but for those of us still on this side, such tales as this make it fascinating.
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/20...
November 21, 2008
Set in the 1920s at the end of the first World War, this book follows the surprising adventures of its heroine on her trip to visit Egypt.
There she encounters various movers and shakers, such as Winston Churchill and Lawrence of Arabia, in the midst of forming the history and geography of the modern middle east.
While dealing with those times, this book has great relevance to our own times, as we face today's issues and the legacy of those decisions that were made so many decades ago.
What makes this book especially interesting is the author's point that those in power have some sort of eschatological vision(a picture of how the world really should be) from which they operate. She poses the question, without offering a definite answer, about how we can know which visions are good and which are bad.
There she encounters various movers and shakers, such as Winston Churchill and Lawrence of Arabia, in the midst of forming the history and geography of the modern middle east.
While dealing with those times, this book has great relevance to our own times, as we face today's issues and the legacy of those decisions that were made so many decades ago.
What makes this book especially interesting is the author's point that those in power have some sort of eschatological vision(a picture of how the world really should be) from which they operate. She poses the question, without offering a definite answer, about how we can know which visions are good and which are bad.
October 14, 2020
So different from her two books about Jesuits in space, it almost feels like it must've been written by a completely different author. And yet, despite that, it shines nearly as bright.
The novel is very simple. The plot can essentially be summed up as: A single woman survives the 1918 pandemic but loses her entire family and so she goes to Egypt where she meets some of the most important men of the era before returning home. Yet within that simple narrative is a novel bursting with life.
Winston Churchill, TH Lawrence, Gertrude Bell, and a few other famous British politicals enter the story but never really reach its heart. The backdrop of the novel is the colonial powers carving up the Middle East after WW1. Our narrator, Agnes, even rubs shoulders with these people. Even so, she's never influential. Never even remotely involved in any of the decisions being made. She's a tourist who just happens to stumble into a worldshaping event, but she does no shaping herself. Instead, the novel is primarily about friendship and love and stepping out from beneath a domineering mother who's been dead for a long time.
It's a consistent refrain in the novel. Agnes hears her mother belittling her almost constantly, second guessing every decision she makes. It illustrates the stranglehold an oppressive and tyrannical parent can have on a child. Agnes is even controlled by her mother beyond the grave, after everyone in her family is already years dead.
So while this novel runs in parallel to one of the most important events of the 20th century, it's really about a forty year old woman finally growing up and becoming herself. Finding love and passion, discovering her own voice, and stepping away from the veil she believed she lived behind for her entire life.
What's maybe strangest about everything I've said is that the novel is weirdly hypnotic and propulsive. There are no big scenes that push you to the edge of your seat, but the novel is consistently enjoyable to read and just interesting. Even when she spends page after page watching Winston Churchill skilllessly paint a picture of the pyramids.
I think I've become convinced that I'll read everyone Russell's written. I mean, I was already convinced of this, but seeing her handle a new genre demonstrates, to me, that she's one of the greats.
An understated and quiet novel. Worth reading.
The novel is very simple. The plot can essentially be summed up as: A single woman survives the 1918 pandemic but loses her entire family and so she goes to Egypt where she meets some of the most important men of the era before returning home. Yet within that simple narrative is a novel bursting with life.
Winston Churchill, TH Lawrence, Gertrude Bell, and a few other famous British politicals enter the story but never really reach its heart. The backdrop of the novel is the colonial powers carving up the Middle East after WW1. Our narrator, Agnes, even rubs shoulders with these people. Even so, she's never influential. Never even remotely involved in any of the decisions being made. She's a tourist who just happens to stumble into a worldshaping event, but she does no shaping herself. Instead, the novel is primarily about friendship and love and stepping out from beneath a domineering mother who's been dead for a long time.
It's a consistent refrain in the novel. Agnes hears her mother belittling her almost constantly, second guessing every decision she makes. It illustrates the stranglehold an oppressive and tyrannical parent can have on a child. Agnes is even controlled by her mother beyond the grave, after everyone in her family is already years dead.
So while this novel runs in parallel to one of the most important events of the 20th century, it's really about a forty year old woman finally growing up and becoming herself. Finding love and passion, discovering her own voice, and stepping away from the veil she believed she lived behind for her entire life.
What's maybe strangest about everything I've said is that the novel is weirdly hypnotic and propulsive. There are no big scenes that push you to the edge of your seat, but the novel is consistently enjoyable to read and just interesting. Even when she spends page after page watching Winston Churchill skilllessly paint a picture of the pyramids.
I think I've become convinced that I'll read everyone Russell's written. I mean, I was already convinced of this, but seeing her handle a new genre demonstrates, to me, that she's one of the greats.
An understated and quiet novel. Worth reading.
August 23, 2011
Russell has the makings of a bestseller: exotic location, a nosey spinster, glamorous historical figures, a dog, and a spy. I like the fresh way she depicts well-known personages through her schoolteacher’s eyes. But she blows it by turning the spy-thriller into a romance, and then blows the romance by making it a disappointing affair with a married German Jew who uses her to learn state secrets about how the great world powers of the day will divvy up the Middle East.
The story bleeds lost opportunity until it reaches an anemic end: Miss Shanklin decides to have a child with the spy and become a single parent. It’s written as an ending, but the book is too short to end there. I could practically hear Russell’s editor ordering her to make it longer. The book would have had substance if Russell had allowed her character to have the child. Instead, she miscarries before she reaches home and writes about how much fun Miss Shanklin has as a middle-aged heiress in the roaring twenties. Then she goes broke. And then she dies. For the second time, the story fritters away to an end. And for the second time, the imaginary editor orders Russell to make it longer.
Here’s where Russell loses all sense of what readers want. Throughout the book Miss Shanklin drops hints about where she is now. Did she move to Germany? Did she become a politician? Did she move to Palestine? No. After dying, Miss Shanklin languishes in a watered-down version of Egypt populated by historical figures from all eras.
Russell fails to make one fictional world real. Instead, she creates many fictional worlds that don’t fit together and the chronology is all over the place.Great concept, lost opportunity.
The story bleeds lost opportunity until it reaches an anemic end: Miss Shanklin decides to have a child with the spy and become a single parent. It’s written as an ending, but the book is too short to end there. I could practically hear Russell’s editor ordering her to make it longer. The book would have had substance if Russell had allowed her character to have the child. Instead, she miscarries before she reaches home and writes about how much fun Miss Shanklin has as a middle-aged heiress in the roaring twenties. Then she goes broke. And then she dies. For the second time, the story fritters away to an end. And for the second time, the imaginary editor orders Russell to make it longer.
Here’s where Russell loses all sense of what readers want. Throughout the book Miss Shanklin drops hints about where she is now. Did she move to Germany? Did she become a politician? Did she move to Palestine? No. After dying, Miss Shanklin languishes in a watered-down version of Egypt populated by historical figures from all eras.
Russell fails to make one fictional world real. Instead, she creates many fictional worlds that don’t fit together and the chronology is all over the place.Great concept, lost opportunity.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 21, 2008
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I loved "The Sparrow" and "Children of God" but could not get even halfway through "Thread of Grace." I read this book on a single long, snowy evening and enjoyed it throughout.
The narrator is an engaging character, and I liked the way that Russell wove her story with that of the conference. Her decision to make the narrator aware that she is speaking with people in the current time makes it possible for her to highlight differences between her time and ours, as well as to draw the connections.
The narrator is an engaging character, and I liked the way that Russell wove her story with that of the conference. Her decision to make the narrator aware that she is speaking with people in the current time makes it possible for her to highlight differences between her time and ours, as well as to draw the connections.
December 7, 2017
So good. Makes me want to watch David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia", which I was forced to watch en masse in a huge auditorium with my whole grade, back in junior high, and I thought was a total bore, and remember almost nothing of, save a dramatic desert scene, and the much more recent "Queen of the Desert", with Nicole Kidman, which got not-so-great reviews, but I'd like to see the story of Gertrude Bell, now.
Except, David Lean was kind of a jerk, wasn't he.
hmph
But I bet I'd appreciate Col Lawrence's story better now.
Except, David Lean was kind of a jerk, wasn't he.
hmph
But I bet I'd appreciate Col Lawrence's story better now.
November 12, 2008
In Dreamers of the Day Mary Doria Russell gives us the story of Agnes Shanklin, observer and unlikely participant in the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference which saw the modern Middle East take shape. If it is possible to pinpoint a moment in time from which to explain the conflicts now raging in the Middle East, it is this one. And if ever you need evidence that Russell is a master story teller, consider this: the narrative traces the threads of conflict in the region today to decisions made at the 1921 Conference, decisions by the Super Powers of the day (Britain and France) that reveal a startlingly familiar motivation, namely the desire to control the supply of oil. All of which is wrapped up in a compelling narrative about a woman’s mid life crisis!
So why is SFFMedia reviewing what appears to be historical fiction? One answer might be that Agnes is in fact a fictional character situated in a historical setting and for that reason the novel could very loosely be described as a historical fantasy. More relevantly however, Russell does employ the fantastic, although for a purely practical purpose: through a sleight of hand that I won’t give away, she allows her fictional narrator (born circa 1880) to recount her life and through observation compare her times to ours:
I suppose I ought to warn you at the outset that my present circumstances are puzzling, even to me. Nevertheless, I am sure of this much: my little story has become your history. You won’t really understand your times until you understand mine.
By age 40 Agnes is the very archetype of the spinster school teacher, an unremarkable moth to her beloved younger sister’s butterfly. Unhappy with her life but unable to break free from its constraints, liberation finally arrives in the guise of tragedy. Between them, the Great War and the Influenza Epidemic wipe out her family. Left with an inheritance and a new found will to live, she sets off on the trip of a life-time to Egypt.
If the novel makes an undue demand on our willing suspension of disbelief it is the ease with which Agnes on arrival in Egypt is drawn into the sphere of Winston Churchill, T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), Lady Gertrude Bell and other luminaries of the times. Russell does plant the seeds early - Lawrence knew Agnes’s sister - but this is not entirely convincing. Ironically this is a consequence of Russell’s very real skills as a novelist: she breathes such life into the historical figures of Churchill, Bell and especially Lawrence, with their complex political, economic and other motivations that it is frankly difficult to believe they would have any time for the relatively inconsequential Agnes!
At the same time, it is Agnes’ lack of consequence that enables her to join in the debates and conversations of these European Masters of the World. She is harmless, an American novelty. Through her we are exposed to the thinking that led to the map of the Middle East being redrawn along lines doomed to fail. Hindsight is of course a wonderful thing, but the formation of Iraq from three fundamentally antagonistic ethnic groups is a forcibly made case in point.
But there is irony here too. Agnes adds value to the various debates precisely because she is an American, a former colonial with a brash perspective and fresh ethic that contrasts favourably with the old European Colonial way of thinking. A way of thinking that has very much come to dominate the current US Administration’s agenda in the Middle East.
There is of course far more to the novel than this historical focus. As mentioned, this is Agnes’ story and it's her miraculous evolution from moth to butterfly that drives this compelling story. But I’ll leave that for you to discover. In short, a highly recommended read.
Review previously published on sffmedia.com
July 13, 2010
That was terrible. Heavy-handed, unsubtle, poorly-characterized, with one of those creepy submissive relationships ubiquitous throughout Historical Fiction With Female Protagonist. The ending was insufferably schmaltzy -- she's writing this from the afterlife -- and the last chapter's moral was just a little bit too pat - and also had very little to do with the actual events and themes in the rest of the book.
There was even a make-over scene in this novel. Jesus Christ. A makeover scene.
What was the point of this novel? I can't tell -- be beautiful in your own skin, but only when you're secretly hot? War is bad? Don't let beautiful German spies take advantage of you, except when you're okay with it? Colonialism is bad?
I am disappointed in Mary Doria Russell. The Sparrow was so good -- I can't believe that she wrote both. This is shitty romance novel for women who like a little bit of international politics but don't like sex scenes. Lame! I'd rather read the trash.
There was even a make-over scene in this novel. Jesus Christ. A makeover scene.
What was the point of this novel? I can't tell -- be beautiful in your own skin, but only when you're secretly hot? War is bad? Don't let beautiful German spies take advantage of you, except when you're okay with it? Colonialism is bad?
I am disappointed in Mary Doria Russell. The Sparrow was so good -- I can't believe that she wrote both. This is shitty romance novel for women who like a little bit of international politics but don't like sex scenes. Lame! I'd rather read the trash.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 30, 2013
Great read! Especially since I had just finished reading "Lawrence in Arabia", a current well-researched documentary of that period in the Middle East. This book read like a comfortable entertaining tale of a young English woman in the early 1900's - her (sometimes implausible) adventures led her to Egypt and personal interactions with T.E. Lawrence, Winston Churchill, and Gertrude Bell. Brought my historical facts to real life and fleshed out missing pieces of the real-life characters listed above.
The story-line has a young English woman heading to Egypt as a tourist during a most interesting era. Enjoyed very much, and felt I was educated as well. Admire Mary Doria Russell as an author, and will read her other books. Recommend.
The story-line has a young English woman heading to Egypt as a tourist during a most interesting era. Enjoyed very much, and felt I was educated as well. Admire Mary Doria Russell as an author, and will read her other books. Recommend.
February 19, 2009
A dazzling book about a 40 yr old "spinster" from Ohio, who loses her entire family to the influenza epidemic of 1918. After her tragic loss she travels to Egypt and beyond and rubs shoulders with the world leaders of the day (T. E. Lawerence, Gertrude Bell, Wintson Churchill). A mini-history course on how those decision makers affected the future of the middle east and our current predicament. I loved it.
February 12, 2008
The title is taken from a quotation by T.E. Lawrence (remembered today as Lawrence of Arabia), which states:
"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night wake in the day to find that it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible."
One reason I really enjoy Mary Doria Russell's writing is that it tends to sneak up on you -- meaning that the more you think about it, the more you realize exactly what she's trying to tell you. This one is no exception. Dreamers of the Day is not really a story within a story but an awesome piece of writing in which two stories tend to mirror each other to a degree. Agnes' life story may be viewed as a representative prelude to a bigger story -- that of post WWI events in the Middle East that not only helped to shape the world of the time, but which, of course, have led to the political situation currently facing each and every one of us. Perhaps what I'm saying may sound a bit confusing, but once you read the entire story, you'll understand what I'm trying to say here.
An inheritance allows schoolteacher Agnes Shanklin to take time to do some things she's always wanted to do -- namely, visit the Holy Land where her sister and brother-in-law once served at an American Missionary school in Jerusalem. She begins her journey in Egypt, and runs into some very famous people at the outset: TE Lawrence (fondly known to Agnes' sister as Neddy); Gertrude Bell (see Wikipedia if you don't know who this is) and Winston Churchill among others. She also meets up with one Karl Weilbacher, who is quite interested in the activities of the British contingent & what's coming out of the 1921 Cairo Conference. As events that redefine the world progress, Agnes comes to some realizations about herself & the world she lives in.
That's putting it in a nutshell; to say more would be to spoil it. The book is divided into three sections and to be really honest, at first I considered that the story would have been better ended at the end of section two. However, I came to realize that part three was absolutely necessary, although imho, it could have been toned down a bit ...it seemed a bit silly overall. And although I'm a doggie lover, with 2 lovable puppies at home, I really got tired of hearing about Rosie the dog after a while.
Overall, a fantastic read, one not to be missed.
Who would like it? People with an interest in geopolitics as a force shaping history, Lawrence of Arabia, or historical fiction in general would most definitely enjoy Dreamers of the Day. Don't worry if you don't know anything about the Cairo Conference, the Treaty of Versailles, Woodrow Wilson or other immediate post WWI history; that's what Wikipedia is for! A very easy read, but watch out....you don't want to buzz through it. Take your time and let the story grow on you. You'll find yourself thinking about it long after you've read the last word.
April 3, 2011
It saddens me beyond measure to give a Russell book two stars.
It saddens me, because normally, Russell is an author of superb ability and almost sublime quality, whose books I can read, reread, reread again, and then randomly reread till they're quite worn out. She is that author which I shove copies of into the hands of friends, acquaintances, random classmates, teachers, people in line in the store... What have you. Display the remotest shred of interest in borrowing a book from me and, chances are, you will walk away with a Russell.
I am singing her praises only because, in this case, she disappointed me, and badly.
What was it that changed a flowing narrative into dry recitation? Was it the voice of the narrator? I suppose it must have been, because when Russell is writing outside of her characters' head, she is extremely eloquent and meticulous in capturing people's emotions and the mood of the scene. But Agnes Shankin was so dry a narrator that, despite her appealing personal qualities, I found myself wanting to escape her mode of presentation.
Perhaps that was just the matter; the personal uprightness of a narrator which presented little to grab onto as a reader and attach yourself to. She didn't have Emilio Sandoz's passion, Sofia Mendes' traumatized detachment, Renzo Leoni's elaborate, precise cynicism... She didn't have any of these things that allow Russell to shine as an author by showing us, the readers, A person's character, an atmosphere, in just a few sentences.
Perhaps it was the linear nature of the narrative, which sometimes felt like a shopping list. This happened, this happened, this happened... The main events of the book barely touched upon, described third- and fourth-hand, laundered between scenes of indulgence in hotels and makeovers.
I don't know, but I hope that Russell's next book won't be anything like this last one - and indications are good it isn't - because I can't wait for May to come around fast enough and to engross myself into a narrative truly worthy of the writer's skill. I suppose every great author must have an occasional failure. I hope that, on Russell's end, this is it.
It saddens me, because normally, Russell is an author of superb ability and almost sublime quality, whose books I can read, reread, reread again, and then randomly reread till they're quite worn out. She is that author which I shove copies of into the hands of friends, acquaintances, random classmates, teachers, people in line in the store... What have you. Display the remotest shred of interest in borrowing a book from me and, chances are, you will walk away with a Russell.
I am singing her praises only because, in this case, she disappointed me, and badly.
What was it that changed a flowing narrative into dry recitation? Was it the voice of the narrator? I suppose it must have been, because when Russell is writing outside of her characters' head, she is extremely eloquent and meticulous in capturing people's emotions and the mood of the scene. But Agnes Shankin was so dry a narrator that, despite her appealing personal qualities, I found myself wanting to escape her mode of presentation.
Perhaps that was just the matter; the personal uprightness of a narrator which presented little to grab onto as a reader and attach yourself to. She didn't have Emilio Sandoz's passion, Sofia Mendes' traumatized detachment, Renzo Leoni's elaborate, precise cynicism... She didn't have any of these things that allow Russell to shine as an author by showing us, the readers, A person's character, an atmosphere, in just a few sentences.
Perhaps it was the linear nature of the narrative, which sometimes felt like a shopping list. This happened, this happened, this happened... The main events of the book barely touched upon, described third- and fourth-hand, laundered between scenes of indulgence in hotels and makeovers.
I don't know, but I hope that Russell's next book won't be anything like this last one - and indications are good it isn't - because I can't wait for May to come around fast enough and to engross myself into a narrative truly worthy of the writer's skill. I suppose every great author must have an occasional failure. I hope that, on Russell's end, this is it.
May 17, 2016
One of the things I like most about Russell is that her books are not all cookie cutters of each other as is the case with many authors. Each of her books has a unique feel and perspective, often unsettling at first when you go in expecting something resembling a previous work of hers.
Dreamers of the Day is a novel primarily set in the Middle East in the years just after World War I. The Cairo peace conference is underway as Europeans decide how the Middle East is to be carved up. 'Better to not let the natives do the job themselves.'
Present are such leaders of the day as Winston Churchill (though this is before he became larger than life itself), T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and others. Losing her family to the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918, Agnes (with her little dachshund “Rosie”) decides to tour Egypt and the holy land and arrives just in time to witness and become part of history.
Russell explains how the twentieth century evolved from decisions made at the various conferences held after World War I. In the Middle East, for example, the importance of oil brought great political pressures to bear on the region, pressures which Russell delineates for us through the conversations of Agnes with British luminaries and the fictitious German Jewish spy, Karl Weilbacher, with whom Agnes falls in love. At times this novel read like non-fiction.
Dreamers of the Day blends historical fiction with travelogue with the love of dachshunds. No common author could do this. Some reviewers did not like the historical aspects of this book, but these aspects are what I loved. Other reviewers have commented that the metaphysical ending was not to their taste. I felt the ending was what it needed to be.
As an aside, Rosie, gets the best supporting dog award of the year!!
My husband also read this book (before me) and we are still discussing our love of it.
July 11, 2023
"Dreamers of the Day," is not the literary gems that "Doc, The Sparrow, A Thread of Grace," were but, My God, it is so good.
The lead character and narrator, Agnes, is a forty year old school teacher in Ohio. She has been told that, unlike her sister Lillian, she is not the pretty one in her family. When the influenza virus kills everyone in her family, she is left with a huge inheritance.
She decides she needs a change. After all, at forty she has not been anywhere and she dresses like an old maid. She goes to an upscale clothing store in Cleveland and a young saleswoman Mildred literally does a complete make-over of Agnes. Out with the old and in with the new and suddenly the not so pretty Agnes turns out to be quite pretty.
She books a trip to Egypt. The year is 1921. Staying at upscale hotel she is drawn into the company of Winston Churchill, T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia, not Peter O'Toole) and Lady Gertrude Bell, to name just a few. In just a span of a couple of weeks she becomes witness to the haphazard redrawing of the Middle East and the foundation of a treaty that has been labelled: The Peace to End all Peace. One hundred years later, one could still point to that map as almost every reason for all the wars and insanity that have taken place in the Middle East.
Little consideration for all the different sects of Islam, for the Jewish, Christian, and Hindu religions clashing with the Muslims and each other...and a total disregard for human life.
What a wonderful book. Highly recommend.
The lead character and narrator, Agnes, is a forty year old school teacher in Ohio. She has been told that, unlike her sister Lillian, she is not the pretty one in her family. When the influenza virus kills everyone in her family, she is left with a huge inheritance.
She decides she needs a change. After all, at forty she has not been anywhere and she dresses like an old maid. She goes to an upscale clothing store in Cleveland and a young saleswoman Mildred literally does a complete make-over of Agnes. Out with the old and in with the new and suddenly the not so pretty Agnes turns out to be quite pretty.
She books a trip to Egypt. The year is 1921. Staying at upscale hotel she is drawn into the company of Winston Churchill, T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia, not Peter O'Toole) and Lady Gertrude Bell, to name just a few. In just a span of a couple of weeks she becomes witness to the haphazard redrawing of the Middle East and the foundation of a treaty that has been labelled: The Peace to End all Peace. One hundred years later, one could still point to that map as almost every reason for all the wars and insanity that have taken place in the Middle East.
Little consideration for all the different sects of Islam, for the Jewish, Christian, and Hindu religions clashing with the Muslims and each other...and a total disregard for human life.
What a wonderful book. Highly recommend.
May 14, 2011
This is a wonderful novel, though I'm going to have a hard time evaluating it rationally, which I will explain in a moment.
It is the story of a 40-year-old schoolteacher who never married and has just lost all of her family to the great influenza. The novel follows her as she travels to Egypt during the Cairo Peace Conferences and meets some of the most famous people of her day, including Winston Churchill, T.E. Lawrence ("of Arabia"), and Lady Bell Gertrude. She blossoms and finds her own independence and personality in this glittering setting, begins her first love affair, and for the first time begins to live life on its own terms.
It's really a pretty good book. But what made it leap from "good" to "amazing" for me was Rosie. Rosie is the main character's long-haired dachshund, a dog she rescued at birth with a blue dapple and a crooked tail. Russell's insights into what it is like to live with a dachshund, and her obvious affection for the breed. Her treatment--and her characters' treatment--of Rosie is what really made the book for me.
The locations, personalities, history, and adventure we are very rewarding. The ending was a bit strange. But I was willing to forgive a lot of that excellent dachshund.
It is the story of a 40-year-old schoolteacher who never married and has just lost all of her family to the great influenza. The novel follows her as she travels to Egypt during the Cairo Peace Conferences and meets some of the most famous people of her day, including Winston Churchill, T.E. Lawrence ("of Arabia"), and Lady Bell Gertrude. She blossoms and finds her own independence and personality in this glittering setting, begins her first love affair, and for the first time begins to live life on its own terms.
It's really a pretty good book. But what made it leap from "good" to "amazing" for me was Rosie. Rosie is the main character's long-haired dachshund, a dog she rescued at birth with a blue dapple and a crooked tail. Russell's insights into what it is like to live with a dachshund, and her obvious affection for the breed. Her treatment--and her characters' treatment--of Rosie is what really made the book for me.
The locations, personalities, history, and adventure we are very rewarding. The ending was a bit strange. But I was willing to forgive a lot of that excellent dachshund.
April 16, 2015
A warm and charming travelogue of a close-to-40 woman from Ohio who books a trip to Egypt. The timing of this solo adventure undertaken by Agnes Shanklin and her dachshund Rosie is the volatile ground the novel sets its stage. After WWI, and Wilson's failed attempt to make a lasting peace, and the 1918 influenza pandemic, and the Cairo conference of 1921 where the European powers divided the Middle East into the most convenient mishmash for their agenda; a shuffling of the board that resonates to this day. Agnes is an ideal foil for the machinations of the mighty. She's just trying to live a life, darn it. Rose's mission is to get naps and more sausage bits. The others in company are Winston and Clementine Churchill, their newly appointed bodyguard, Walter Thompson, Colonel T. E. Lawrence, Lady Gertrude Bell, and a charming German who may or may not be a spy; all of whom have plans for the Kurds, Shi'a, Sunnis, Jews, Turks, et al of the stony region. An excellent history lesson brought to us by a smart and congenial school teacher from the Midwest and her dog.
January 30, 2009
mary doria russell is probably one of the best novelist now of the 21st century, i can't get over how much i love her books and stories. from her mind blowing sf "chidren of god" sending jesuits interstellar to nazis pushing humans to the sea then over the mountains in italy to now fucking lawrence of our beauttful creation called arabia syria, lebanon, israel, and our proudest pet, palastine.
i think its safe to say you must read mary doria russell, as it is beyond good read, its one the best
i think its safe to say you must read mary doria russell, as it is beyond good read, its one the best
February 16, 2009
I am a huge fan of Mary Doria Russell, and her themes of the intersections of disparate groups of people. This novel is timely as it refers to a historical period when change could have gone many directions in the Middle East, and the ramifications of that time in history. She says her next book is about the Old West. Another thing I love about her is that everything is unique, no ruts here. I would have given this five stars but I was a little mystified by the ending, which seemed a bit rushed.
June 23, 2018
This book was quite enjoyable. Egypt at the end of WW 1, was the backdrop setting and was splendidly described. At first I wasn't sure where the story was going, but it came together nicely. And my goodness how appropriate to today!
Want to read
July 14, 2008I live in hope of the day MDR writes sf again. Till that time, I shall seek solace in the pages of her excellent historical fiction.
August 5, 2019
This is the story of Agnes Shanklin, a middle-aged woman from Ohio who has been under the thumb of her mother her entire life. Then, in 1919, the influenza epidemic takes the lives of her entire family and she suddenly finds herself the heiress of a sizable chunk of change and free from any obligations. She decides to take a trip to Egypt, and in 1921 finds herself mixed up in the periphery of the Cairo Peace Convention.
Mary Doria Russell, the author of one of my favorite novels, "The Sparrow," is an amazing storyteller, but this book left me unsatisfied. It felt a bit Forrest Gumpish in that Agnes happened to be on the scene for these important historical events. I wasn't able to suspend disbelief enough to accept that a no-name woman from Ohio would be welcomed into the social and political circles of the likes of T.E. Lawrence, Lady Gertrude Bell, and Winston Churchill.
I also felt, reading this book, like I was being preached to--not about God--and it seemed the author made a special point of not making this about God--but about war and peace and how we should all treat each other as equals. We should all let everybody make their own decisions, and we should learn from our mistakes of the past and not continue to make the same mistakes now. A little of this would have been ok, but she was relentless. I felt like she was preaching to the choir and I grew a bit weary of hearing about it.
I also felt that the idea of Agnes telling this from the grave was a little lame. Agnes is Forrest Gump even in purgatory, as she looks down on the earth and discusses war and current events with the likes of Ptolemy XIII, Saint Francis, Napoleon Bonaparte, and George McClellan. This section just seems hokey and random.
Despite all of these things, and despite the fact that the narrator's attention seem to flitter from one subject to the next, I really did enjoy this novel. I was engrossed in the story and didn't want to put it down, wondering what might possibly happen next. Plus, it is a helpful history lesson and a bit of insight into why the Middle East is having the troubles it's having now and why what we're doing now to try to fix it is unlikely to be successful.
Mary Doria Russell, the author of one of my favorite novels, "The Sparrow," is an amazing storyteller, but this book left me unsatisfied. It felt a bit Forrest Gumpish in that Agnes happened to be on the scene for these important historical events. I wasn't able to suspend disbelief enough to accept that a no-name woman from Ohio would be welcomed into the social and political circles of the likes of T.E. Lawrence, Lady Gertrude Bell, and Winston Churchill.
I also felt, reading this book, like I was being preached to--not about God--and it seemed the author made a special point of not making this about God--but about war and peace and how we should all treat each other as equals. We should all let everybody make their own decisions, and we should learn from our mistakes of the past and not continue to make the same mistakes now. A little of this would have been ok, but she was relentless. I felt like she was preaching to the choir and I grew a bit weary of hearing about it.
I also felt that the idea of Agnes telling this from the grave was a little lame. Agnes is Forrest Gump even in purgatory, as she looks down on the earth and discusses war and current events with the likes of Ptolemy XIII, Saint Francis, Napoleon Bonaparte, and George McClellan. This section just seems hokey and random.
Despite all of these things, and despite the fact that the narrator's attention seem to flitter from one subject to the next, I really did enjoy this novel. I was engrossed in the story and didn't want to put it down, wondering what might possibly happen next. Plus, it is a helpful history lesson and a bit of insight into why the Middle East is having the troubles it's having now and why what we're doing now to try to fix it is unlikely to be successful.
August 10, 2017
“To be enjoyed, life must be shared.”
Historical fiction at its best: opens a past as can only be done by fiction; while connecting to the reader’s present in ways that are both entertaining and informative. Neatly melds modern opinion with history. Compare this with James Michener’s Caravans, telling in 1963 how the world was going to lose Afghanistan.
“America, I recalled, were notorious colonial troublemakers.” “As the Arabs promise to be,” Lawrence said quietly.
All of the narrowness and prejudices one would expect of a 1920s American abroad--like Mark Twain’s 1869 The Innocents Abroad, but Russell’s protagonist is open to learning and change. Ideal point of view character.
“Soil so fertile that you could plant a pencil and harvest a book.”
Great writing. Published in 2008. Cairo changed little from 1921 to 1984, when I visited. De rigueur atheists abound.
“To leave the apple unpicked--that was sin.”
Russell referred to documented statements by her historical characters to render their dialogue representative of their real opinions. Loved the Churchill quotes, present and future, and Agnes’ contribution to one of his most famous.
“You may believe you know what the flu epidemic was like for us. Pray, now, you never learn how wrong you are.”
Quibbles: Many of one character’s facts are wrong about Egypt, perhaps intentionally. Great Pyramid was not the tallest manmade structure in the world until 1889. Half a dozen of Medieval European cathedrals and the Washington Monument surpassed it in the fourteenth to nineteenth centuries.
“The dreamers of the days are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.” T. E. Lawrence
Historical fiction at its best: opens a past as can only be done by fiction; while connecting to the reader’s present in ways that are both entertaining and informative. Neatly melds modern opinion with history. Compare this with James Michener’s Caravans, telling in 1963 how the world was going to lose Afghanistan.
“America, I recalled, were notorious colonial troublemakers.” “As the Arabs promise to be,” Lawrence said quietly.
All of the narrowness and prejudices one would expect of a 1920s American abroad--like Mark Twain’s 1869 The Innocents Abroad, but Russell’s protagonist is open to learning and change. Ideal point of view character.
“Soil so fertile that you could plant a pencil and harvest a book.”
Great writing. Published in 2008. Cairo changed little from 1921 to 1984, when I visited. De rigueur atheists abound.
“To leave the apple unpicked--that was sin.”
Russell referred to documented statements by her historical characters to render their dialogue representative of their real opinions. Loved the Churchill quotes, present and future, and Agnes’ contribution to one of his most famous.
“You may believe you know what the flu epidemic was like for us. Pray, now, you never learn how wrong you are.”
Quibbles: Many of one character’s facts are wrong about Egypt, perhaps intentionally. Great Pyramid was not the tallest manmade structure in the world until 1889. Half a dozen of Medieval European cathedrals and the Washington Monument surpassed it in the fourteenth to nineteenth centuries.
“The dreamers of the days are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.” T. E. Lawrence
August 19, 2013
I had put off reading this book because reviews generally said that it is not as good as her other books. I should have known better. Russell's worst writing blows most other writers out of the water and I’m not even sure that I agree that it is her least enjoyable book. This story is a bit more meandering than her other novels, which might throw readers off. However, two things made it well worth my while to read.
1. The history in this book covers events that I knew very little about - the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference - and that history directly relates to the horrors taking place in our world today. It was fascinating and nauseating all at once. I have a strong desire to invent a time machine, travel back in time, and smack several of the west's dignitaries on the back of the head. And also rip up their idiotic, imperialist plans. I was intrigued by T.E. Lawrence and felt silly when I realized that he was a real person. I somehow always thought that Lawrence of Arabia was a mythological figure. I'll be watching the classic film and a documentary about him soon.
2. Agnes and her little dog Rosie. This is the brilliance of Mary Doria Russell. Rather than showing us the Conference through the eyes of the decision makers, we watch on the outskirts through the eyes of the ever practical Agnes. We get to explore Egypt and Jerusalem as tourists and through her relationship with Lawrence to understand the political machinations occurring in the conference. Agnes is an interesting narrator, often given to rambling thoughts, but always open minded and willing to admit when she is wrong. Her relationship with her mother, the deep grief she experiences at the loss of her family, and her excitement about her travels all make her a very relatable character. The narrator of the audiobook brings her perfectly to life with a crisp Ohio accent.
1. The history in this book covers events that I knew very little about - the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference - and that history directly relates to the horrors taking place in our world today. It was fascinating and nauseating all at once. I have a strong desire to invent a time machine, travel back in time, and smack several of the west's dignitaries on the back of the head. And also rip up their idiotic, imperialist plans. I was intrigued by T.E. Lawrence and felt silly when I realized that he was a real person. I somehow always thought that Lawrence of Arabia was a mythological figure. I'll be watching the classic film and a documentary about him soon.
2. Agnes and her little dog Rosie. This is the brilliance of Mary Doria Russell. Rather than showing us the Conference through the eyes of the decision makers, we watch on the outskirts through the eyes of the ever practical Agnes. We get to explore Egypt and Jerusalem as tourists and through her relationship with Lawrence to understand the political machinations occurring in the conference. Agnes is an interesting narrator, often given to rambling thoughts, but always open minded and willing to admit when she is wrong. Her relationship with her mother, the deep grief she experiences at the loss of her family, and her excitement about her travels all make her a very relatable character. The narrator of the audiobook brings her perfectly to life with a crisp Ohio accent.
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