Nose in a Novel

  “ So that was life. People came, stayed briefly, went away. No good, then, placing your trust in people. Only land remained forever. The red soil of Somerset and the stone walls of Hillcrest would be here centuries hence. Nothing else. ” The above quote I memorized when I first read this book at age 16 and it has stayed with me ever since. I found it infinitely comforting in my adolescent depression and still think it is a beautifully written thought if quite sad. In a change from the other books in this series, very little page time is spent on the Purcell's early years and WWI. We do get to go along on the walk over the Quantocks and get to know Gwen and her fears and her relationship with Antony. The majority of this book follows Gwen at age 38 as the world prepares for another war. Gwen as homebody is the perfect anchor for this series to end on. She and Hillcrest are closely tied to one another and are the touchstone her sisters return to throughout their lives. That b...

  I am sorry I waited so long to re-read this series. Each book only gets better, and goes a little further in time, filling in more of the Purcell's (and Mackenzie's) story. Julia's Story spans 1910-1930, ten years past the previous two books. I relate to something in each sister, and each is my "favorite" while I'm reading her book, which is a testament to what an amazing author Ruth Elwin Harris is. In memory this was the most romantic of the books, and I would still say so, though the romance is bittersweet and takes up less page time than I remember. I love how the writing manages to be both restrained and descriptive in equal force. The sparser the words the harder the feelings hit. After Sarah's Story the writing and content feels much more adult than young adult, not in risque content or language, but rather the age and experience of the characters. While I loved these stories before, I feel like I understand them better now. These books made (ma...

    When I read these books when I was a teenager, I remember finding Frances' Story slow moving and a bit boring after Sarah's Story , but that is not the case at all on my re-read as an adult. I enjoyed this book as much (if not a bit more than) the first book. We already know the broad strokes about what happened to the Purcells (and the Mackenzies) from 1910-1920, but we see the years again through Frances' eyes and some of the events and details Sarah could not have known are sketched out. I enjoyed seeing Frances as she saw herself, not just as the stern (occasionally unfeeling) older sister that Sarah saw her as. I understood Frances as an adult in a way I didn't when I was young. I found her refusal to marry perfectly valid, and in fact got a little annoyed that Gabriel kept asking, as it felt like he was infantilizing her in his refusal to accept that she knew her own mind. I also liked that she allowed herself to grow and change her mind towards the end of th...

  I have not re-read The Sisters of the Quantock Hills in almost twenty years (!) because I was held back by two fears: What if I couldn't handle how sad the stories are in places? What if my memories are colored by nostalgia and the writing not as good as I remember? This re-read put both fears to rest. The sadness is realistic but not without hope. And the writing is amazing. I will always feel that this series is an underappreciated gem. This series was one of my favorites when I was 16. I loved the physical books- the gorgeous cover art, the font, the thick pages, even the smell of the paperbacks. I loved the story. The same period of time, told four times over, from four different perspectives, the readers gaining a deeper understanding of the "whole story" with each new point of view. These stories are beautifully written - vivid descriptions and strong emotion but all done in a very tight, almost sparse writing that makes the feelings hit that much harder because ...