Often, after I finish a Lori Wick book, I promise myself I'll never buy another one. I did that tonight. I may end up breaking my promise to myself yet again, but that was the feeling that Jessie, the third novel in the Big Sky Dreams trilogy, left me with.
As usual, Wick has a wonderful plot premise here. After a brief, tension-ridden marriage, Seth abandons Jessie and their infant daughter Hannah, unaware that he has also left Jessie pregnant with their second child. Jessie goes on with life, raising her girls, and running her store. Eight years pass, and Seth returns, fresh out of prison, a man changed by Christ, determined to make things right.
Wonderful, right?
Wrong.
Wick, in spite of all her great ideas, struggles with writing characters with believable thoughts, personalities, or emotions, and Jessie and Seth might very well be the worst of the lot. They are merely names in a drone of encounters and conversations that might be designed to show their growing love for one another, but fail to impart any sort of emotional reaction in the reader. Jessie, aside from insisting she needs time to 'think' shows no emotion or thought at the reappearance of her husband, and Seth is simply a floating presence who moves improbably quickly back into his family's lives. There is no tension, no excitement, and the inevitable conclusion arrives with all the fanfare of a traffic light turn.
The 'fun' link to another, slightly better, trilogy (Yellow Rose), is actually painful, because it harkens to the most improbable, ridiculous plotline in the whole of that series. The Seth shown in Jessie is not the man from A Texas Sky, changed by Christ, he is a completely different character. The name is the same, that's about it.
Some of Wick's earlier works were very good. Sophie's Heart is extraordinary; I still read it from time to time. Pretense and Bamboo and Lace are still worth picking up, and the Californian series, for the flaws it does have, is an engaging read, providing spunky, lively, well-drawn, (if a little cliche) characters. Even the Kensington Chronicles have something lush and compelling in them, if you ignore the historical improbabilities, and just enjoy the passionate intensity of the characters and the more probable emotional plotlines. But now wonder if Wick has gotten lazy. Her books sell because of her name on them. Good or bad, they will sell, so is it worth the extra effort to make them good? Wick is better than this; she's proved herself as such. And I do hope, in Chestnut Valley Farm, she can live up to her potential. We, her patient and faithful readers, deserve it.
Not Recommended.
Showing posts with label Big Sky Dreams Trilogy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Big Sky Dreams Trilogy. Show all posts
Friday, October 3, 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Sabrina - Lori Wick
I was thrilled when I first saw the summary for Sabrina, the second book in Wick's Big Sky Dreams trilogy. The title character is a prostitute, which is, to say the least, an unusual occupation for the heroine of a work of Christian fiction. It's a stretch for Wick, who tends to stick to a very safe, conservative line of storytelling, so I was really interested in what she'd do.
And yes, I was painfully disappointed. I've read, both fiction and nonfiction, about the lives of prostitutes in nineteenth-century North America, and Wick presents such a painfully sanitized version it's almost impossible to read. Yes, she caters to a conservative readership. But even conservative people understand that the lives of prostitutes were never pretty, nor were they relatively safe, tidy, and without contracts, madames, pimps, violent johns, diseases and social stigma.
The novel itself is the story of Sabrina, a young prostitute in Denver who is convinced by a caring police officer and his former-prostitute wife to leave her way of life and turn herself over to Jesus. That itself is wonderful. I'm sure there were young women who were given such a gift in 1880's Western America. Sabrina, afraid of the men who continue to ask to be serviced by her (never growing rude or violent), chooses to leave Denver for Token Creek, Montana, where she is instantly and miraculously taken in by the whole town. She begins a thriving ministry to the independent, madame-and-pimp-less prostitutes in town, whose feelings actually get hurt when their customers are attracted to other women. She falls in love with a man who does not even flinch at her past, in spite of the fact that, in that time period, in that location, a woman with even one lover in her past would be considered ruined and unmarriable. In general, the highly sanitized process Wick presents is so glaringly impossible it takes a great deal away from what could be a great story. Yes, God can help humans to forgive one another, but that takes time, thought, and inner struggle, and a great deal of prayer.
Not Recommended, for the fact that Wick ignored some really extraordinary opportunities here. There are far better ways to spend reading time than reading this particular book.
And yes, I was painfully disappointed. I've read, both fiction and nonfiction, about the lives of prostitutes in nineteenth-century North America, and Wick presents such a painfully sanitized version it's almost impossible to read. Yes, she caters to a conservative readership. But even conservative people understand that the lives of prostitutes were never pretty, nor were they relatively safe, tidy, and without contracts, madames, pimps, violent johns, diseases and social stigma.
The novel itself is the story of Sabrina, a young prostitute in Denver who is convinced by a caring police officer and his former-prostitute wife to leave her way of life and turn herself over to Jesus. That itself is wonderful. I'm sure there were young women who were given such a gift in 1880's Western America. Sabrina, afraid of the men who continue to ask to be serviced by her (never growing rude or violent), chooses to leave Denver for Token Creek, Montana, where she is instantly and miraculously taken in by the whole town. She begins a thriving ministry to the independent, madame-and-pimp-less prostitutes in town, whose feelings actually get hurt when their customers are attracted to other women. She falls in love with a man who does not even flinch at her past, in spite of the fact that, in that time period, in that location, a woman with even one lover in her past would be considered ruined and unmarriable. In general, the highly sanitized process Wick presents is so glaringly impossible it takes a great deal away from what could be a great story. Yes, God can help humans to forgive one another, but that takes time, thought, and inner struggle, and a great deal of prayer.
Not Recommended, for the fact that Wick ignored some really extraordinary opportunities here. There are far better ways to spend reading time than reading this particular book.
Cassidy - Lori Wick
The first Lori Wick book I ever read was Sophie's Heart, and I remember thinking 'wow, this writer's incredible. What attention to quality and detail!"
I've changed my mind.
On the one hand, Wick is prolific, versatile, and does have an enviable ability to come up with new and interesting plot ideas. However, I'd love to sit down with her and give her some brief lessons in research, consistency, and characterization.
Don't get me wrong, Cassidy isn't completely unfortunate. Wick's gift for originality and interesting plotlines comes to the forefront yet again. The book itself is the story of Cassidy, a young woman who has mysteriously come alone to the small Montana town of Token Creek to open a dress shop. She's befriended by various members of the town, and but works hard to keep her past a secret. There is the inevitable love story with the local man, which is threatened by the disappointingly lame secret from Cassidy's past.
So why did I read it, and why have I read it a second time? The answer again goes back to Wick's skill in spinning plots. In this case, it's a series of interesting subplots, including Theta Holden, a woman who has been permanently brain damaged after a severe beating from her husband, and Jessie, owner of the local dry goods store, who is a single mother with two young children. In the Big Sky Dreams trilogy (watch for reviews of the other novels soon), Wick does take a darker, and possibly more realistic turn, in her content, than she ever has before. Spousal abuse and abandonement, and violence are present, in ways that they haven't been in her previous work. The next books get even darker.
I know people who like Wick's work for the spiritual message, the content of which she does very well. However, she presents it in sermon form, so much so that the story gets interrupted by what feels like a dry Sunday-morning sermon. There are ways to present spiritual truth within a story without preaching, but it's rare that Wick's work evinces any of this.
Whether or not this book is recommended depends entirely on what you want out of a read. There is something about Wick's work, in spite of its flaws, that is compelling. Do you want to think, or do you just want to relax for a little while? That will determine whether or not you want to read this. And right now, I'm waiting for the painfully slow Canadian postal service to deliver Jessie.
I've changed my mind.
On the one hand, Wick is prolific, versatile, and does have an enviable ability to come up with new and interesting plot ideas. However, I'd love to sit down with her and give her some brief lessons in research, consistency, and characterization.
Don't get me wrong, Cassidy isn't completely unfortunate. Wick's gift for originality and interesting plotlines comes to the forefront yet again. The book itself is the story of Cassidy, a young woman who has mysteriously come alone to the small Montana town of Token Creek to open a dress shop. She's befriended by various members of the town, and but works hard to keep her past a secret. There is the inevitable love story with the local man, which is threatened by the disappointingly lame secret from Cassidy's past.
So why did I read it, and why have I read it a second time? The answer again goes back to Wick's skill in spinning plots. In this case, it's a series of interesting subplots, including Theta Holden, a woman who has been permanently brain damaged after a severe beating from her husband, and Jessie, owner of the local dry goods store, who is a single mother with two young children. In the Big Sky Dreams trilogy (watch for reviews of the other novels soon), Wick does take a darker, and possibly more realistic turn, in her content, than she ever has before. Spousal abuse and abandonement, and violence are present, in ways that they haven't been in her previous work. The next books get even darker.
I know people who like Wick's work for the spiritual message, the content of which she does very well. However, she presents it in sermon form, so much so that the story gets interrupted by what feels like a dry Sunday-morning sermon. There are ways to present spiritual truth within a story without preaching, but it's rare that Wick's work evinces any of this.
Whether or not this book is recommended depends entirely on what you want out of a read. There is something about Wick's work, in spite of its flaws, that is compelling. Do you want to think, or do you just want to relax for a little while? That will determine whether or not you want to read this. And right now, I'm waiting for the painfully slow Canadian postal service to deliver Jessie.
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