Company of Liars by Karen Maitland Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Company of Liars
Book Review: A medieval mystery with great storytelling
Summary: 5 Stars
I am really into British History from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, so I was eager to read this when I heard it was a retelling of the Canterbury Tales. As others have said, it has similarities to that story, but it is very much its own story.
I was interested to see the reactions of common people as the Black Death grew in England. I sometimes wonder whether I would have been clever enough to get out of the cities and towns if I had been living then, but of course, we know so much more now about the world by the time we're in third grade (germs, contagious diseases, etc) than even the most learned people in the Middle Ages knew. So while I'd like to think that I'd have been able to figure something out, chances are I would have been a statistic in that gruesome period as well.
So it was interesting to see the start of the Plague in a seaport town along the Southern coast of England. News traveled slowly, and rumors were everywhere, so for a while people didn't take it seriously and life went on as normal. Eventually, though, the Plague catches up to towns where no one ever expected it to turn up.
The storyline between the nine travelers grows tense as the Plague gets deadlier, and I thought that was an interesting interplay between the development of the sickness, and all the evil that went along with it (blaming the Jewish people, burning witches, weird customs involving the social outcasts, the self-flagellating people, etc) along with the growing mystery between our nine intrepid heroes.
One thing really bugged me though. If you only went off of this book, you'd think that the Middle Ages were a pretty miserable time. We can look back and think it was pretty bleak, but I'm pretty sure that the people living in the Middle Ages didn't walk around going, "woe is me. We live in the most godawful time in western human history. In 800 years textbooks will print out pages covering the poverty, poor harvests, and misery of our time. Oh, life is terrible. I think I'll lay down and die right now." I'm sure your average people just went through life planting their crops, getting married, having families, and trying to do the best they could - just like we do. Who knows what people will say about us in 800 years. But I think there was probably some music, love and happiness, even during the Black Death. Humans have this amazing ability to bring joy to even the most miserable experiences, and I would have liked to see more of that in the book.
Also it had a really trippy ending that's still totally confusing me, but hey, that's another review for another time.
Book Review: A nasty, brutish age
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
This bleak tale of 14th century England during the infamous Black Plague follows the journey/pilgrimage motif famously done first in English by Chaucer. A band of travelers comes together seemingly by chance, and they journey together to escape the plague, a hopeless task. The England of Maitland's story is a tough place; Christianity exists side-by-side in a society that still believes in spells and signs, witches and curses. There are no gallant knights and elegant ladies here; civil society is rapidly breaking down as the plague spreads inexorably from the coasts and seaports inland.
Maitland writes well and the story is engrossing, although be prepared to suspend disbelief. From p. 1 the narrator Camelot knows that the child Narigorm is a witch in the making; Maitland makes it so obvious it became hard to believe that the other characters continued throughout the story to see her as an innocent child. And, without spoiling anything, I thought the ending was both a trick and a set-up. But "Company of Liars" is an enjoyable read nonetheless.
Book Review: A powerful character-driven story and why you should read it
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
A lot has been made of this book being a re-telling of The Canterbury Tales. It isn't. There are some superficial similarities, but that is all. This is however a very wonderful character-driven book and I enjoyed it thoroughly, much more so than I ever did Chaucer. This book follows a group of people as they slowly accrete around the narrator, the "Camelot" who is an itinerant peddler of bogus religous artifacts. The time is 1348 and the Black Death has made its way to England's shores. The Camelot decides to make his way north and inland to try and get as far away as possible from the Southern ports where the plague first appears.
Along the way the Camelot picks up a rag-tag bunch of company; a misanthropic magician with his malformed fetus display, to a master and apprentice musician, an eerie young fortune-teller, a healer, a story-teller, and an artisan and his wife. The plague dogs their heels as the group face incessant rain, privation and starvation as they try, in wretched circumstances, to stay beyond the curtain of death sweeping England. The book powerfully conveys what England was like at this time, the prejudices, the fears, the strange beliefs, the greediness of the priests, the squalor, the filth and the terror and horror of the Black Death.
Despite this grim backdrop, the tale is powerfully compelling as the story focuses not upon these grim external conditions, but upon the goodness and hopes of the characters themselves. None of the characters are quite who they claim to be and all have secrets they desperately wish to keep. Over the months they travel together, eat and sleep together, face misfortune and disaster together they learn more about their companions until all the secrets are fully revealed in turn, often with dire consequences. What makes this book so powerful is the beautifully rendered characters. They are exquisitely drawn, full of humanity and the range of human hopes and fears, and you will feel compassion and empathy for them as the story unfolds. This book is well worth the reading and will stick with you for long after you've closed the pages.
Book Review: A road novel--a road of mud and plague.
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I'm not sure what I expected, based on the plot summary given to me when I ordered this book. But rest assured, this is neither a werewolf story, nor is it a retelling of Chaucer. It's a road novel. The muddy, dangerous road is one on which none of us would ever want to travel in life, but from the safety of a warm chair, it's a riveting journey. Beggars, charlatans, thieves and church-sanctioned sadists travel this plague road, and the company of nine that bands together to survive the trip is composed entirely of liars. Peeling back the layers of character to find the truth of each character is the work of the book. It's beautifully done, even if the subject matter is far from beautiful most of the time.Book Review: A story of survival
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
The story takes place in early 14th century England at a time when old superstitions still competed with hardly more enlightened medieval Christian beliefs. The Black Death has entered the country through the ports and many are attempting to flee its advance by seeking refuge in lands they believe will be beyond the reach of the contagion. A small group of strangers are drawn together around one horse and wagon that soon becomes their lifeboat in a turbulent sea that includes not only the Black Death but cutthroats, swindlers, and corrupt civil and religious authorities. Reflecting on the breakdown of society, Camelot, our narrator, muses, "There was a new king and his name was pestilence. And he had created a new law--thou shalt do anything to survive".
Like the occupants of John Steinbeck's Lifeboat, our group of refugees cannot agree on the direction they should take in their desperate attempt to reach safety. Should they trust the most experienced travelers in the group... or should they trust the runes cast by their youngest and most mysterious companion. In time, we learn that each member of the group is concealing secrets and that they are fleeing more than the plague. As much as they attempt to work together and care for one another, their competing fears and interests soon lead to conflict. Secrets are revealed and tragedy strikes. We learn that what lives only in our imagination can be as deadly as any "real" threat.
While reading the opening chapters of the novel, I was reminded of the novel Suite Franciase and Irene Nemirovsky's description of how an individual's response to a crisis reveals much about their character and that one's class or level of education are poor predictors one's response. The description of the desolate villages brought up images from Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Like these authors' stories, Karen Maitland's story is as relevant to our time as that of the characters. Regardless of our greater level of literacy, scientific knowledge and affluence, our ancestors experienced the same emotions we experience in our own lives. I also found that many of the characters' concerns regarding society still apply. My favorite quote is that of Rodrigo who protests "The priests tell us that a man is born as he is because God wills it so, then they punish him for being that man."
I love this novel and I hope to read more works by Karen Maitland. If there is a sequel to this novel, it will be at the top of my Amazon wish list!