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In 1590, Gabriella Mondini loses her physicians’ guild membership due to her mentor-father’s longtime absence and leaves Venice to find him. His past letters provide clues to his location and mental state, which appears to be deteriorating.
With her devoted servants, she treks through Germany, Holland, Scotland, and France, sharing medical lore with other scholars, suffering occasional losses, and learning more about herself. The treatment of women varies from place to place: a red-haired Scottish doctor becomes a kindred spirit and more, while one German city remains eerily absent of females following a massive witch-hunt.
During the journey’s initial stopping points, Gabriella comes across as rather stiff; midway through, however, a surprising revelation shakes up her reserve and kicks the narrative into high gear. O’Melveny draws her scenes with vivid immediacy, opening readers’ eyes to the mysteries and wonders surrounding them during this transformative era.
The Book of Madness and Cures was published by Little Brown on April 10th at $25.99 (hardcover, 336pp). John Murray published it in the UK at £17.99. This review originally appeared in Booklist's February 15th issue. I'd agreed to take it on for my blog before the magazine assignment came through, so here it is!
Opinions on this novel are all over the place. See Amazon UK - there are far more reviews there than on Amazon US - and on Goodreads. It took a while to grow on me, so I understand where everyone is coming from. If you've read it, please leave a comment!
I really enjoyed The Book of Madness and Cures. I thought O'Melveny's strength was in infusing just about every paragraph with details of the era, without it ever once coming across as a clumsily obvious I-did-my-research. With so many different locales, she manages to keep each distinct and vivid. Although the story itself stretched the imagination at times, the prose was what kept things moving for me.
ReplyDeleteI'm halfway through 'The Book of Madness and Cures' and am so loving it. I love the characters, all the different settings. ALL! I hope Ms. O'Melveny has many more stories in her. It seems the authors i fall in love with the most don't publish books as often. Of course there's a reason for that. They're so much better written and well researched than many books, that they take awhile.. like this one did. It will be worth the wait, i'm sure! :)
ReplyDeleteI just bought this on my Nook and was not happy to see all the negative reviews. Jessica and Mary have given me hope! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteIt was a treat to read about all of the different settings, and each of them was vividly described. I especially enjoyed the scenes set in Germany and Morocco, which don't figure in a lot of novels. For me, the storyline seemed rigidly structured... I could clearly see the outline beneath it, and it took the heroine's breaking out of her assigned role to make the plot come alive. I'm glad I read it in the end.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read the book yet, but I have to say, it seems I have seen this same cover (painting by Domenico Ghirlandaio) on several different books in the last few months.
ReplyDeleteHah! I haven't seen this one on other covers yet, but it wouldn't surprise me. I've seen the original painting in books before.
ReplyDeleteA fellow blogger recommended this one to me after reading a review of mine. Sounds intriguing.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like quite the interesting read. I have read generally positive reviews on the blogosphere - I will probably wait to this to hopefully become available on audio book, rather than take the chance with my valuable reading time. Thanks for the review.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this book. You may read my review at: http://mnleona.blogspot.com/2012/06/book-of-madness-and-cures.html
ReplyDeleteI am sending someone who read my review your blog.
Leona
Thanks for sending the link to your review!
ReplyDelete