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| Pinot Noir - Veraison - Beamsville, Ontario, Canada |
I was delighted by a recent 4**** STAR review of TRILLIUM by Canadian novelist Marian Thorpe that appeared on Goodreads and the American Amazon book site - all the more because Marian is currently roaming around the backwaters of Asia Minor in search of snow leopards. She managed to post the review before she disappeared into the hinterland without WIFI access. We pray for her safe return!
I am always intrigued by what an author 'takes away' from reading TRILLIUM - especially when aware of the critic's background. - "Marian Thorpe is a writer currently living and working in Guelph, [Ontario, Canada.] Originally from Southern Ontario in Essex County, Marian was born to British-immigrant parents and grew up thinking of the United Kingdom as a second home. Her father instilled an early love of British history and Roman-British history informed much of the fictional work of Marian's series." So, Marian is second-gen Canadian. This fact does seem to shape her interest and interpretation of TRILLIUM.
Excerpts from her critique follow:
‘A sweeping, multi-generational, multi-family saga, TRILLIUM tells the story of the European settlement and development of the Canadian lands bordering #LakeOntario, the Niagara peninsula in particular. ...
For readers interested in the details of this area, from the names of personalities behind towns such as #Beamsville, or the vagaries of technological advances that left #Ancaster and #Dundas as sleepy towns compared to #Hamilton’s industrial bustle ..., Trillium is a wealth of detail and research framing the fortunes of three fictional families. ... Characters are to some extent place-holders establishing the foci and purpose of the three families. .... the same could be said of other sweeping tales, such as London and Sarum by Edward Rutherford. .. As TRILLIUM approaches the modern day ... the three families entwine ... and focus shifts to personalities. The tone of the narrative changes ...The themes become more adult ... with the author reflecting .. on the increasing freedom and changing behavior of the post WWII years.
It is obvious that the author knows the #geography and #history of the #Niagara peninsula well. ... Her deeply appreciative eye shines through. Recommend for anyone wishing to better understand the long European settlement history of this area ... 4****STAR - Marian Thorpe
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| John Howard's Vineyard of Distinction |
As a counter-balance to her somewhat distanced review, I am adding a slightly different tangent to this post of a recently released 'author interview' conducted by Vincent Lowry.
In it, I explain how the idea of TRILLIUM came to be and what, generally, I hoped to accomplish through this new literary work.
Yes, I did intend to focus on local history and farming life. But more importantly, I wanted to get at some inalienable facts about Family.
I hoped to demonstrate, through fiction, how blood, genes, and general familial temperament are passed on through basic biology. I wanted to convincingly show how certain familial - and biological - characteristics manifest through generations ...
When people say, "oh, you are just like your distant Aunt Marge and/or Uncle Bob", there's very good scientific reason for those pronouncements. It is basic science. We are a composite of what came before us. We all carry the genetic DNA of our ancestors. Farmers who breed livestock and graft vineyards understand these fundamentals very well. The author interview can be found here : - > https://eauthorresource.wordpress.com/2019/09/11/interview-with-ml-holton-author-of-trillium/
TRILLIUM by M.L.Holton
(available as an ebook or trade paperback)
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