By knittingmomof3, on June 10th, 2010
Pixie-Led: The Lure of Lore
I’m learning that one of my favorite themes to explore in a narrative is narrative, story in its own right, which for me includes the literature of childhood: fairy tales, fantasy, myths, and folklore.
Many of my books, especially my first historical novel, Angel and Apostle, are conversations with other writers.
But even in a novel like Captivity, which doesn’t owe its existence to favorite books or authors (though it nods to William Blake and Walt Whitman), I’m often lured down paths that point to story in all its forms, from nursery rhymes to ghost lore.
Clara Gill, one of the two protagonists of Captivity, is science-minded, a skeptic, but she’s an artist, too. The influence of tales and their tellers on her worldview shows through her rational exterior. “The best stories belong to childhood,” admits Clara, who grew up on her housemaid’s tales of changelings and other faerie mischief, even as her surrogate uncle, Sir Artemus Lever, taught her the myths of classical Greece and Rome.
At one point Artemus equates Clara with his namesake. To the ancient Greeks, he confides, Artemus was goddess of the hunt and the animals, “a wild thing who begged her father never to make her marry… who would traipse through the forest with her lop-eared hounds and never answer to a soul.”
When Clara first meets Will Cross, the unsuitable (and doomed) object of her young affections, she claims to “know this moment in her own story. She’s being pixie-led into a wood where he’ll feed her treats with lovely long fingers and she’ll forget her name and how to get home again, for perfectly virtuous and otherwise clever girls are led astray in just this way and ruined daily…”
In middle age, Clara finds herself narrating the myth of the prophetic old sea god, Proteus, in her sketchbook. Proteus shifted shape to elude those who would have him tell their futures, and to reveal him, Clara, a zoological artist, furiously draws creature after creature. The god takes many forms, but she outlasts him, and Proteus must finally show himself. “And so appears, like a wolf loping out of a fog, a man’s face. Not the gnarled old sea god — eyes sunk in their webs of flesh, the stained ivory of a foot-long beard — but a beloved face unfurling against her will, frightening for its likeness.” The face belongs to young Will Cross, who belongs in Clara’s past, not her future.
Even the traditional ballad Will cites (we know it today as “Scarborough Fair”) is a play on British faerie lore, about an elfin prince who invites a maiden to more or less achieve the impossible, teasing, “and then you will be a true a lover of mine.”
These are only a handful of the stories within the story, but for me, tales, myths, and folklore — together with history — act as narrative fuel. I stray down those paths gladly.
~ Deborah Noyes
About the Author:
Angel and Apostle is Deborah Noyes’ first novel. Her short fiction and reviews have appeared in The Threepenny Review, The Boston Sunday Globe, Seventeen, The Washington Post Book World, The Chicago Sun-Times, Stories, The Miami Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, The Bloomsbury Review, Boston Review, and other publications. She has also written and edited numerous books for children and young adults, including the award-winning teen anthology Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales.
My sincere gratitude to author Deborah Noyes for taking the time to write a post for my blog. I also would like to thank Unbridled Books for making this post a possibility.
By knittingmomof3, on June 10th, 2010
 Title: Captivity
Author: Deborah Noyes
Publisher: Unbridled Books
Publication Date: June 1, 2010
Hardcover: 352 pages
ISBN: 978-1936071630
Genre: Historical Fiction
About the Book:
This masterful historical novel by Deborah Noyes, the lauded author of Angel & Apostle, The Ghosts of Kerfol, and Encyclopedia of the End (starred PW) is two stories:
The first centers upon the strange, true tale of the Fox Sisters, the enigmatic family of young women who, in upstate New York in 1848, proclaimed that they could converse with the dead. Doing so, they unwittingly (but artfully) gave birth to a religious movement that touched two continents: the American Spiritualists. Their followers included the famous and the rich, and their effect on American spirituality lasted a full generation. Still, there are echoes. The Fox Sisters’ is a story of ambition and playfulness, of illusion and fear, of indulgence, guilt and finally self-destruction.
The second story in Captivity is about loss and grief. It is the evocative tale of the bright promise that the Fox Sisters offer up to the skeptical Clara Gill, a reclusive woman of a certain age who long ago isolated herself with her paintings, following the scandalous loss of her beautiful young lover in London.
Lyrical and authentic—and more than a bit shadowy—Captivity is, finally, a tale about physical desire and the hope that even the thinnest faith can offer up to a darkening heart.
My Review:
Captivity by Deborah Noyes is a stroke of literary genius and written unlike any other novel I have read, which captures and at the same time commands the reader’s attention to even the smallest of details. A highly philosophical novel, Captivity must be savoured in small quantities and thought about before the reader can proceed further with the novel. Noyes’ writing captures the era, the sites, sounds, and beliefs of a time long past. In Captivity, based on the historical Fox sisters and the fictionalized Clara Gill and with brilliant creative license, Noyes’ characters are written in such a manner that they become quite real to the reader. The story takes place in 1840s New York, toggles back and forth between the Fox Sisters and Clara Gill’s life, at times intersecting, while other times Clara’s narrative takes the reader back to England when she still went out and was relatively carefree and in love. The Fox sisters, Leah, Maggie and Kate have a gift, referred to as knocking, that allows them to commune with the dead. Naturally, due to the times, there were many who believed but many who did not believe and felt at they very least they were committing fraud. The Fox sisters go through a series of committees and public hearings and are found innocent of all counts of fraud, yet each time the public demands yet another committee. All the while the Fox Sisters, whether knowing it or not are beginning a new phenomenon in America. Meanwhile, a scandal occurred in England forcing Clara and her father to flee into relative obscurity, settling in New York. Clara, indulged by her father is so reclusive she rarely even leaves the safety of her room. What secret binds Clara and her father so close, yet so distant? What cruelty has occurred in Clara’s past to cause a once enthusiastic woman to choose to seclude herself within her darkened room with only her memories, her seashells, and her sketches? When Maggie is sent to help in the Gill residence, is it a kindred soul she sees in Clara Gill, if not, how else can one explain Maggie’s repeated attempts to draw Clara Gill out, literally and figuratively? While it may appear as though I have given the entirety of the novel away, rest assured I have not even begun to touch the depth and breadth of this extraordinary novel. Noyes has created a deeply profound and at times quite philosophical novel, which lends itself to contemplation and would make for a brilliant discussion group novel. Captivity is in a class all its own. The distinctive narratives and relationships are masterfully crafted and are seamlessly interwoven until the story reads as a singular novel rather than several tributaries, which make up the whole. My words cannot do justice to this work of literary genius and it is my fervent hope that Deborah Noyes is working on yet her next literary masterpiece.
About the Author:
Angel and Apostle is Deborah Noyes’ first novel. Her short fiction and reviews have appeared in The Threepenny Review, The Boston Sunday Globe, Seventeen, The Washington Post Book World, The Chicago Sun-Times, Stories, The Miami Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, The Bloomsbury Review, Boston Review, and other publications. She has also written and edited numerous books for children and young adults, including the award-winning teen anthology Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales.
I received a complimentary copy of Captivity by Deborah Noyes from Unbridled Books. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.
By knittingmomof3, on March 18th, 2010
 Title: Captivity
Author: Deborah Noyes
Publisher: Unbridled Books
Publication Date: June 1, 2010
Hardcover: 352 pages
ISBN: 978-1936071630
Genre: Historical Fiction
About the Book:
This masterful historical novel by Deborah Noyes, the lauded author of Angel & Apostle, The Ghosts of Kerfol, and Encyclopedia of the End (starred PW) is two stories:
The first centers upon the strange, true tale of the Fox Sisters, the enigmatic family of young women who, in upstate New York in 1848, proclaimed that they could converse with the dead. Doing so, they unwittingly (but artfully) gave birth to a religious movement that touched two continents: the American Spiritualists. Their followers included the famous and the rich, and their effect on American spirituality lasted a full generation. Still, there are echoes. The Fox Sisters’ is a story of ambition and playfulness, of illusion and fear, of indulgence, guilt and finally self-destruction.
The second story in Captivity is about loss and grief. It is the evocative tale of the bright promise that the Fox Sisters offer up to the skeptical Clara Gill, a reclusive woman of a certain age who long ago isolated herself with her paintings, following the scandalous loss of her beautiful young lover in London.
Lyrical and authentic—and more than a bit shadowy—Captivity is, finally, a tale about physical desire and the hope that even the thinnest faith can offer up to a darkening heart.
My Review:
Captivity by Deborah Noyes is a stroke of literary genius and written unlike any other novel I have read, which captures and at the same time commands the reader’s attention to even the smallest of details. A highly philosophical novel, Captivity must be savoured in small quantities and thought about before the reader can proceed further with the novel. Noyes’ writing captures the era, the sites, sounds, and beliefs of a time long past. In Captivity, based on the historical Fox sisters and the fictionalized Clara Gill and with brilliant creative license, Noyes’ characters are written in such a manner that they become quite real to the reader. The story takes place in 1840s New York, toggles back and forth between the Fox Sisters and Clara Gill’s life, at times intersecting, while other times Clara’s narrative takes the reader back to England when she still went out and was relatively carefree and in love. The Fox sisters, Leah, Maggie and Kate have a gift, referred to as knocking, that allows them to commune with the dead. Naturally, due to the times, there were many who believed but many who did not believe and felt at they very least they were committing fraud. The Fox sisters go through a series of committees and public hearings and are found innocent of all counts of fraud, yet each time the public demands yet another committee. All the while the Fox Sisters, whether knowing it or not are beginning a new phenomenon in America. Meanwhile, a scandal occurred in England forcing Clara and her father to flee into relative obscurity, settling in New York. Clara, indulged by her father is so reclusive she rarely even leaves the safety of her room. What secret binds Clara and her father so close, yet so distant? What cruelty has occurred in Clara’s past to cause a once enthusiastic woman to choose to seclude herself within her darkened room with only her memories, her seashells, and her sketches? When Maggie is sent to help in the Gill residence, is it a kindred soul she sees in Clara Gill, if not, how else can one explain Maggie’s repeated attempts to draw Clara Gill out, literally and figuratively? While it may appear as though I have given the entirety of the novel away, rest assured I have not even begun to touch the depth and breadth of this extraordinary novel. Noyes has created a deeply profound and at times quite philosophical novel, which lends itself to contemplation and would make for a brilliant discussion group novel. Captivity is in a class all its own. The distinctive narratives and relationships are masterfully crafted and are seamlessly interwoven until the story reads as a singular novel rather than several tributaries, which make up the whole. My words cannot do justice to this work of literary genius and it is my fervent hope that Deborah Noyes is working on yet her next literary masterpiece.
About the Author:
Angel and Apostle is Deborah Noyes’ first novel. Her short fiction and reviews have appeared in The Threepenny Review, The Boston Sunday Globe, Seventeen, The Washington Post Book World, The Chicago Sun-Times, Stories, The Miami Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, The Bloomsbury Review, Boston Review, and other publications. She has also written and edited numerous books for children and young adults, including the award-winning teen anthology Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales.
I received a complimentary copy of Captivity by Deborah Noyes from Unbridled Books. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.
By knittingmomof3, on March 16th, 2010
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
Here is mine:
“The truth is harder to see and serve these days, so she’s thankful for her eccentric employer (dare she say friend?). Clara Gill is a beacon of blunt truth but unreliable as solace goes, given her temperament.”
~Page 118 , Captivity by Deborah Noyes (This is an Advanced Reader’s Copy, so the page number may be different in the final published book)
What are you reading?
By knittingmomof3, on January 9th, 2010
 Title: Angel and Apostle
Author: Deborah Noyes
Publisher: Unbridled Books
Publication Date: September 10, 2006
Paperback: 304 pages
ISBN: 978-1-932961-29-4
Genre: Fiction
About the Book:
At the end of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel, The Scarlet Letter, we know that Pearl, the elf-child daughter of Hester Prynne, is somewhere in Europe, comfortable, well set, a mother herself now. But it could not have been easy for her to arrive at such a place, when she begins life as the bastard child of a woman publicly humiliated, again and again, in an unrelentingly judgmental Puritan world.
With a brilliant and authentic sense of that time and place, Deborah Noyes envisions the path Pearl takes to make herself whole and to carve her place in the New World. Beautifully written with boundless compassion, Angel and Apostle is a heart-rending and imaginative debut in which Noyes masterfully makes Hawthorne’s character her own.
My Review:
As a reader I find it amazing how such a beautifully complex and multi-layered story can be Deborah Noyes’ first novel. Noyes takes up the story of The Scarlet Letter seamlessly where Nathaniel Hawthorne left off, with the story of Hester Prynne’s daughter Pearl. Angel and Apostle is told from the perspective of Pearl, beginning with her childhood memories in Boston and her mother’s Scarlet A, which she still must wear and the burden it carries for them both. Most of Pearl’s memories are not fond ones as she recounts her early years in Puritan New England as well as her and her mother’s rushed departure to London. Sadly London does not bring much more joy to Pearl as she recounts her and her mother’s lives in London, her inheritance and marriage and with sadness her own mother’s choice to return to the only place she feels she belongs although still not accepted, New England. Pearl’s life as a wife and mother in many ways reflect those of Hester’s leaving the reader to wonder if Pearl will head Hester’s advice to never leave her daughter Abigail’s side or if history is doomed to repeat itself. With vibrant descriptions one feels as though one is living amongst the Puritans of New England, seeing, hearing and smelling as they do. Noyes captured the art of the speech and so richly has her narrator described Pearl’s life as a feared outcast, a lonely child and woman desperate for attention and love. Abandoned time and again and forced to grow up far too quickly, Pearl’s story makes such a compelling read I was loath to put the book down and quite saddened when the story ended, as I would like to know what happens next. Angel and Apostle is a brilliant novel in its own right or a wonderful and creative continuation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Angel and Apostle can easily be enjoyed without any knowledge of Hawthorne’s work, however, it is such a brilliant tale in its own right, and I would be rather remiss not to recommend his book as well. Angel and Apostle is so beautifully written I look forward to re-reading it time and again and cannot give enough praise to this remarkable novel.
About the Author:
Angel and Apostle is Deborah Noyes’ first novel. Her short fiction and reviews have appeared in The Threepenny Review, The Boston Sunday Globe, Seventeen, The Washington Post Book World, The Chicago Sun-Times, Stories, The Miami Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, The Bloomsbury Review, Boston Review, and other publications. She has also written and edited numerous books for children and young adults, including the award-winning teen anthology Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales.
I received a free copy of Angel and Apostle by Deborah Noyes from Unbridled Books. Receiving a free copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.
By knittingmomof3, on January 5th, 2010
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
Here is mine:
“What silly girls we were, and how little I knew myself then or the dark in my own heart, and in the heart of the world. I had forgotten more than I’d learned in seven uneventful years, careening to womanhood with hardly a second thought.”
~Page 134, Angel and Apostle by Deborah Noyes
What are you reading?
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