Company of Liars by Karen Maitland Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Company of Liars
Book Review: Keep This Sort of Company Outside
Summary: 2 Stars
If this sort of company shows up at your door for the holidays, my suggestion would be to turn them away at once. While I did enjoy the author's writing style and period detail, I did not enjoy the characters, the plot, or the disturbing secrets revealed by the nine characters as they fled the plague. What I especially didn't like was the comparison of this book to The Canterbury Tales. It's a cheap marketing ploy that actually backfires since the reader realizes - too late - that this has nothing to do with Chaucer. But I don't hold that against the author; rather, it's the publishing house's fault for stooping to such a dirty trick. I would never have picked this book up otherwise, and I might have saved myself the time it took to read about characters which only ended up boring me. I'd give this one a pass.Book Review: Lies = Hope?
Summary: 4 Stars
On the surface this novel is a medieval suspense thriller. When one reads this text on the critical level it becomes a haunting allegory on the nature of death, truth, hope, religion, and love. You can read this book on the literal level and enjoy it. (Think a better written Dan Brown novel, except Ms. Maitland knows how to end a book.) However, to read this text on the surface level is to shortchange the reader. If one looks for the obvious symbolism and philosophical context, this text will stick with you long after you turn the final page.
The novel follows nine travelers running from the "Black Death" in 1348 England. The hard nature of life in those times is clearly drawn by Maitland and sticks with the reader. Hunger and death are accepted parts of everyday life. These characters don't complain, they deal. The difference to how we act today is staggering.
Through her wonderfully drawn characters Maitland explores the power of lies and how we use them to construct our reality. The text can lead its readers to endless debates about the power and need for lies in all of our lives.
Although the villain of the piece was obvious to me, the ambiguity of what the villain represents is still not secure in my mind. I don't think Maitland wants it to be. Is the villain a symbol for death, for the destructiveness of lies, or of holy judgment? All are perfectly possible.
(The preceding paragraph makes much more sense once you have read the book. I don't want to spoil anything!)
The narrator of this text (Camelot) is a wonderful voice to carry us through the proceedings and creates a sympathetic prism from which to view the other characters, all of whom have unlikable traits, but most of whom I was able to feel some empathy with.
The only drawbacks to the text are some small historical errors, and the fact that occasionally some of the characters seem to have 21st century values in 14th century England. These few moments jar the reader out of the world of the novel, and this detracts from the text. The character of Rodrigo is the character who most suffers from Maitland inserting her thinly veiled views on homosexuality and the Christian Church into the text. This hurts the novel.
Still, I greatly enjoyed this text, and I did not see the ending coming. Yet, the ending really does work, even if at first it seems outlandish.
The past does indeed creep up on us all.
Book Review: Making do in middle ages
Summary: 3 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
The novel is set in England, during middle ages, when disease strikes the country. In those times, there are people tied to the villages where they have their homes and families, and then there are tricks and hustlers who make their living telling fortune, performing music, telling stories or selling trinkets. The later ones move from place to place in attempt to make their living by thir wits. But at the times when people are dying in large numbers, they are in danger too not only from catching a disease, bit from being accused of spreading it by moving from one place to another. We get to meet a group of them, who move together in a caravan trying to stay out of trouble and working hard on tolerating each other's company. To "earn" their right of being part of the company they each tell their own personal stories. But these are no ordinary stories, these are fairy tale stories about vampires and magic that keep their audience engaged and their personal secrets safe.
I must admit I have not read a piece of historical fiction like this one in a long time. Writer gives disturbing representations of what life in a middle ages looked like in all its filth, prejudices and superstition. It is shoking to read about public events such as "cripples wedding" where a blind woman and her crippled groom are made to consumate their marrage in front of the entire village. Author deserves all the credit of vividly representing gruesome way of living during such terrible times in a history, but I am ready to start reading a little bit more cheerful piece of written work at this time.
Book Review: Moody, gripping and (fairly) accurate medieval mystery novel
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Company of Liars is a very well-researched mystery set in mid-14th century England as epidemics sweep the countryside and travellers attempt to stay ahead of the plague. Unfortunately the nine companions at the center of the novel cannot outrun their guilty consciences once one member of the party takes on the burden of extracting their painful secrets. I can't speak for the parallels between Company of Liars and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales but judging the book on its own merits I would unhesitatingly recomend it to mystery readers and especially to anyone intersted in English history. It may not be accurate to every detail but Maitland explains her rationale for the choices in plotting and dialog and also points to some of the real locations and practices depicted in the book. This review is based on an advance copy.Book Review: Mystical horror
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I could not put this book down once I started.It is utterly brilliant and intriguing.
The author has created an ominous atmosphere,replete with characters who slowly reveal themselves for who/what they are.It is set during the Plague,and one of the worst times to be alive.
The characters are brilliantly developed,and are not prepared for what awaits them and their traveling companions in the future.If there is one.
I love these kinds of stories:great characters,good or evil;set in a gloomy, dreadful time in history;well-researched and written.
Hats off to the author who has come up with a very rare treat for those of us who love books.