Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Peasant, girlThu, rises through the Ranks to Kings Concubine, 25 Jun 1999
By A Customer
This extremely well-written prose by Pauline Gedge was a pleasure and delight to read. The writer's technique of using the English language to describe ancient egypt and events in this book is astounding! The peasant, Thu, growing up with her poor egyptian family, has high dreams for herself & is not content to be a mere "woman" in egyptian society or a midwife as her mother before her. She attains her dreams after all, but not in the way she would hope. She rises up from a life of poverty on her parents farm in the Delta through the help and mystery of the Seer, Hui, a strange, magical, man with long white hair and red piercing eyes. She befriends him, eventually loves him like a father, & leaves her home to take on several exciting, interesting and intriguing phases of her life before finally, realizing she is all along being prepared for a special mission in life. Partially by design and partially by deception by the people she loves, she attains royal residence as a concubine of the Pharaoh. She finds this submissive, royal, life unaccepting for a beautiful young woman, just being one of many favored by Pharaoh. The book is intriguing until the end and I would recommend this book highly. This is my first Pauline Gedge novel and I will now read all of them!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
 
|
|
|
|
|
|
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gedge brings Ancient Egypt to Glorious Life Again, 25 Jan 1998
By A Customer
Since I was 13, and read Child of the Morning, Pauline Gedge has been my favourite author. Now, nearly 20 years later, she continues to dazzle with Lady Of The Reeds (or House of Dreams in Canada). When I read her words, I can feel the heat of the sun and the breezes off the Nile; smell the sandlewood and jasmine; see the palaces, villages, and homes of the people she writes about. I loved this book and sequel with a fierce passion - for 4 days this summer I did not move off the deck, while I read them both. Thu may have been written as a character whose own character is less than lovable, but she charms you so completely that you really care about what happens to her, and hope that everything works out well. She is the perfect anti-heroine who proves that it's not just men who can be rather unlikeable and still have us cheering for them. It has never been acceptable for a woman to be seen in that light. Heroines have always had to be lily-white paragons of such virtues as kindness, gentleness, and are most certainly not allowed any ambition. Thu defies all those stereotypes, and makes us love her for it. I say Bravo! Ms. Gedge, and I only wish there could be more books about the fabulous Thu!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Ah, Horror upon Horrors!, 15 Nov 1997
By A Customer
Lady Thu, Lady Thu, Lady Thu. The entire Lady of the Reeds revolves like a spinning top or like those tiles in old cathedrals around Lady Thu. It is so unfortunate, then, as to how unpitiable the "ambitious" witch was made out. As the book progressed, I had to ask myself, "Where is the author of the Twelfth Transforming? Where is Pauline of the Child of the Morning? Where is that writing flair that accompanied the dangerously exciting domestic tragedy we call Mirage and the Canadians call Scroll of Saqquara?" The answer, it seemed, was that Pauline was in her nadir writing about one of the most detestable (to me) creatures to walk on the earth...and trying to make her seem all right. It is almost humorous to see Pauline attempt to instil good into the Lady Thu-this entire thing mirrors Shostakovich attempting to justify all of Katerina Ismailova's crimes in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.
What is most striking is that the reader never really gets in with how the author intends the protagonists to be. Thu is ambitious, good, but driven to do the things she must do-that is what the author says. What Thu says, though, is "I am evil, lazy, and decided to contrive my harem conspiracy simply because my emery board broke. And by the way, I intend to break out of prison because 'tomorrow is a bright new, sunny day'".
But that is not all. Pauline's greatest asset in her books was her capability to bring the pageantry and opulence of pharaonic Egypt to life in Child of the Morning and Twelfth Transforming. She fails to do so here. There is no marble flooring in Ramesses' time, and the Crown Prince Ramses was remembered mostly because his mummy was so ugly (as compared to the handsome Ramses in Lady of the Reeds).
Lady of the Reeds is not confined to one place, but its seemingly rapid shifting of rooms and scenes make it seem so. Pauline's other book, Mirage, on the other hand, was confined entirely to a domestic soap opera of "dumb husband marries evil-and dead-woman, forces old wife to leave, brings about death of son, destroys three souls and eventually falls victim to machination of God Thoth". Pauline actually makes this outrageous tale work, and wonderfully too. Well, the plaster is cracked here and the foundation stone flawed. Lady of the Reeds comes tumbling down, ending with Thu head over heels in the rubble and a lot of wasted marble, useless sideshow characters, and an idiot of a pharaoh.
Basically, I found Lady of the Reeds to be completely disenchanting. Hopefully Pauline can save this horror in her sequel, but otherwise don't read it if you expect the beauty and eloquence of Transforming, Mirage, and Child.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Pauline Gedge
by Pauline Gedge
by Michelle Moran
by Pauline Gedge
by Pauline Gedge
