Reviews for A wayside tavern

The average rating for A wayside tavern based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-11-25 00:00:00 John Langridge Note, April 12, 2017: Just now, I edited this again, this time to correct a typo. Note, Sept. 3, 2014: I've just revised this review slightly, to correct some information on the historical background of St. Cerdic. As the reasonably accurate Goodreads description above indicates, Lofts covers an enormous sweep of English history in this book, nearly 16 centuries. (The edition I read was actually a different, hardcover one; and the cover art on the edition above is misleading. It suggests a romance novel, which this isn't, and there's no couple in the book that clearly resembles the one on the cover in looks or behavior.) One of the author's last novels, it's also one of her most ambitious. In content and style, there's much here that's typical of Lofts' work, including the Suffolk setting. The One Bull, whose history she imagines here (with fictional characters) is a real eatery, originally built in Roman times, in her beloved hometown of Bury St. Edmund, which serves as the model for Mallow here. It also serves, in many of her novels, as the model for her fictional Baildon, a town that's mentioned here once in passing. (Some readers have considered it a flaw that she created a different town here, finding it difficult to fit into actual Suffolk geography or into the imagined geography of her total Suffolk corpus, but I don't have any problem with it; IMO, readers shouldn't be too concerned with exact geographic placement of invented locations. That's an attitude probably influenced by the fact that, as a Yank, my knowledge of East Anglian geography is hazy anyway!) In real life, the One Bull does abut the ruins of an abbey; St. Cerdic here is apparently based on St. Edmund in actual Suffolk history and lore (though Edmund was martyred in 869 A.D., not 834). Again typically for Lofts, her characters, across the span of generations (throughout which the One Bull always remains the home of one family line!) are a wide variety of personality types, with widely varying fates and fortunes. As in much of her work, her focus isn't on the makers of history, but on the common people who live through the history that gets made (suffering and dying in the wars, dealing with plague and religious upheaval, scraping out a living under a changing economic order whose changes aren't meant to benefit the many). Strong women who take charge of their own lives, do things that make a difference in their little corner of the world, and face the worst life can throw at them without flinching, aren't uncommon in Lofts novels, and several ladies here are a worthy addition to that sorority. Strong males aren't absent either. Not all of these people are wholly admirable or likeable (and some not at all); and some of their attitudes and actions can be horrendous. Lofts, as is her wont, doesn't praise or blame; she just helps us understand each person and lets us draw our own conclusions. (We can often learn a lot about life and human relationships from negative examples, as well as positive ones; but there are really positive examples here, too.) Her writing is always characterized by a recognition of both the tragedy and injustice of life in this world; bad things can (and often do) happen to good people, and sin isn't always punished, nor virtue rewarded, in this life. This isn't an argument for meaninglessness and nihilism; it's a realistic recognition that meaning and decency exist in the face of a darkness in the world that has to be taken seriously. Indeed, there is an affirmation of meaning here, most obviously in the celebration of heritage and continuity in human affairs, and of family ties. And there's also the low-key note of the transcendent; the bones of St. Cerdic, martyred in the 9th century and interred in the little church behind the One Bull, possess an ongoing power to effect genuine miracles in human lives --sometimes physical healing, but more often a bringing out of the best of what's already latent in the hearts of those who kneel or stand on the grave. (This ascription of real spiritual power to a physical relic, of course, is more a feature of a very "high-church" type of faith than of typical Protestantism; but this staunchly low-church believer didn't mind it here!) If this novel can be said to have a flaw, it might be that the scope is too ambitious for a single book; there isn't space enough to develop each generation's story with optimum fulness. (Indeed, often the author has to "tell," through characters' memories and reflections, rather than "show," and straight narration bulks fairly large here in relation to dialogue.) In her House trilogy, the author follows the fortunes of a house through some six centuries in three books; the comparison/contrast here, where many more centuries are covered (though here, of course, many generations are left out of the picture altogether) is instructive. Nonetheless, this is still an absorbing, rewarding novel that I recommend to historical fiction fans.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-04-01 00:00:00 Kelampiran Legion Despite a salacious cover in the thumbnail of some editions (the edition I read was a bit less mills n boon in the cover art than some others) it was quite a good read. A definite forerunner to Edward Rutherford's historical novels which are about a place or family through the ages. I preferred this as with Rutherford's there was too much unrealistic repetition of events and or family traits, although both are well written otherwise. The author covers the history of a tavern and the Gildersons from Roman times to the 1970s. If you enjoy historical fiction it is an enjoyable read.