Taylor M Polites

I really had high hopes for this book, since it was written by a graduate of the MFA program at Wilkes University, where I would like to go for MY degree. However....if this is a "brilliant debut novel", as one review notes, then I'll eat my hat. The best sentence occurs on the first page: "The humidity hung in the air like wet sheets shimmering in the sunlight."

That was it. The rest of the book is murky, written in an awful subject-verb, subject-verb See Dick Run style that is awkward to the ear and to the mind; and the characters do nothing for me. "Simon had uncovered a nest of snakes...Rachel and Emma were wild with fear. They closed themselves up in the kitchen. It became so hot the bricks seemed to sweat. John helped Simon kill the snakes...." and so forth. "The attic room is so hot. The heat is early this year."

Enough!!

Don't waste your time on this book. I mean it.… (mehr)

Fascinating first person account of a widow after the Civil War living in northern Alabama. I found myself wanting to shake her, but ended up fist pumping her final act in the book. Rarely do I actually feel proud for a fictional character, but Polites made me do it. His intense study of all things reconstruction and southern for this time period are very apparent and extremely well done. Sometimes I find it difficult to read historical fiction or male writers writing female voices, but had no problems with either one with this book.… (mehr)

I must get one thing off my chest at the outset. Once again, I find myself very frustrated by how women were treated in the past. In our present times, when a woman's husband dies, she has rights. In most cases, she is the executor of her husband's estate and is usually the beneficiary of the life insurance and/or will. Of course, there are cases where a will may be in probate or a man may not leave anything to his wife (mostly in some cases of wealthy marriages), but for the most part, a woman has the right to her husband's possessions and/or money upon his death without having to worry about a family member (or other person) bullying in on her territory. Not so in ages past and nowhere is this fact more apparent than in The Rebel Wife. Augusta's husband, Eli, has died and she was under the impression that they were a well-off, well-settled family. Not according to her cousin, Judge. But she is getting conflicting stories from him and Eli's trusted and loyal servant as to the truth about the money. And Judge's treatment of Augusta, his literally taking over everything and treating her like she has no rights, is beyond infuriating. Mr. Polites does an excellent job of portraying exactly the situation that would have occurred back then and, although infuriating, it is the reality of the way things were.

Read the rest of my review at my blog: http://thetruebookaddict.blogspot.com/2012/02/book-tour-book-review-rebel-wife-b...… (mehr)