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Ellen Isaacs | |
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The Brothers of Gwynedd tells the story of Prince Llewelyn of Wales, grandson of Llewelyn Fawr and the first person to unite all of Wales under one leader. It is told through the eyes of Samson, a (presumably fictional) boyhood friend to Llewelyn who as an adult becomes his personal assistant. The story covers Llewlyn's struggle to keep Wales from fighting within itself and focusing on defending itself against England. It shows how Llewelyn's struggle with his three brothers was much a microcosm of the country as a whole. Ever since I read Sharon Kay Penman's historical fiction trilogy about this period in English and Welsh history, I've been hungry for more, but every time I've tried to read other acclaimed historical fiction writers (e.g. Dorothy Dunnet, Zoe Oldenbourg) I've been disappointed. And once again, this book disappointed me. Unlike in Penman's books, only a few of the characters in the story came alive for me. By the time I reached page 328, almost half way through the 821-page volume, I had lost interest and couldn't go on. More and more, the book covered events that were happening far from the main character, and so they read like plain history rather than historical fiction. If the book had tracked more than just Samson, perhaps it could have done a better job of explaining the points of view of King Henry, and later King Edward, of England as well as the Welsh leaders in the Marshes, whose infighting was a constant threat to Welsh unity. I was also disppointed at the lack of detail about the daily life of the people during that time, another feature I look for in historical fiction. I didn't get a strong sense of the homes, the clothing, the food, the commercial practices, or even the military practices. Perhaps those who enjoy history as much as historical fiction, and those who care more about what happened than the people who made it happen, will enjoy this more than I did. Meanwhile, I continue my quest for good historical fiction, and hope that Penman goes back to writing more such books (rather than the mideival mysteries she's been experimenting with most recently).
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