Review by LinPen -- Lara's Story by Diane Merrill Wigginton
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LinPen
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- Latest Review: Lara's Story by Diane Merrill Wigginton
Review by LinPen -- Lara's Story by Diane Merrill Wigginton
[Following is a volunteer review of "Lara's Story" by Diane Merrill Wigginton.]
Bottom line: Diane Wigginton’s professed desire to lift and give hope to people with this story is in my opinion somewhat thwarted by an element of hypocrisy common to other, less ambitious historical romances. I am rating this 3 out of 4 stars because I think most casual readers of this genre will like it, but it needs another round of editing, mostly for small spelling mistakes and homonyms.
As simply a historical romance Lara’s Story is pleasant and inoffensive. “Old Ireland” has a strange pull for me. I think it does for many others as well. A beautiful red-headed family living poor but proud on the Dingle coast makes for an appealing beginning to the story. I liked this part of the book best. Later in America, there are pretty dresses and glittering balls, a mischievous friend and a smolderingly handsome love interest, late-night adventures with “Gypsies”, and moments of loving and learning with her new family. If the author asked us to judge the book simply on these lighter qualities, I would call it a nice, well-researched story suitable for both young and older teenage girls. It has elements that would be likely to entice and engage them while also teaching them some valuable things about history that they would be unlikely to learn elsewhere. The writing could have been more polished, but it is fairly clear and accessible.
The author, though, having endured pain and loss herself, has the admirable goal to offer compassion and encouragement to others who are experiencing difficulties. The idea expressed by this line from the dedication of Lara’s Story is overtly repeated throughout the book: “I wish to dedicate this book to all those who have endured difficult times in their lives. Know that you are not alone, for we all are called on to do the difficult things in life.” Because she raised this expectation with this overt purpose, I viewed the implicit messages and themes of the book more critically and was pained by something I observed.
Lara, a young, beautiful Irish girl approaching maturity in the time of the great Irish potato famine, does experience great difficulties. She loses loved ones. She is torn from a once happy home. She suffers a truly bitter betrayal by someone she loves. She does something to protect herself that causes her fear and shame. She experiences cold, hunger, and sickness. She also faces physical and moral danger and suffers mentally and emotionally from the effects of it.
And when she is adopted by new, kind parents and lifted out of trouble, she makes admirable use of her advantages and shows grit and moral fiber as she deals with the aftermath of her experiences and new sorrows. Overall, her life is a pretty fair example of enduring and overcoming tragedy.
What I liked least about this book and found frustrating is that the author, like so many writers, repeatedly (three to four times) uses the inherent tension and “thrill” of threatened sexual violence to make her story more exciting but never comes close to addressing how her protagonist would endure and overcome if that threat were ever actually realized. She reinforces the cultural narrative that for a girl to be beautiful or adventurous enough to be in danger of sexual violence, and smart and brave enough to escape it, makes her interesting and exciting, but that once it actually happens to her she is broken, and no one will want to hear her story. In so doing I feel she betrays in some measure her professed intention of helping her audience.
So many of the girls and women the author hopes will read this book already have or will endure some form of sexual abuse, and they will find very, very few stories whose protagonists have faced similar difficulties. They will read a great many featuring girls who have the culturally coveted advantage of sexually attracting both the admiration of honorable men and the lust of unscrupulous men, but who escape the associated dangers either by luck or, perhaps even more damagingly, their own wit, grit, and skill. In the shadow of these heroines will often be a girl or girls, created by the author with far less effort to invite interest and admiration, who are not so lucky or smart or strong. She’s just there to highlight what could have happened to the heroine. The story will never be about her. No one wants to hear about her. She makes them uncomfortable, and they want to be entertained.
This book offers nothing new in this regard. Because Lara escapes this violence each time (and has wealth and connections to shield her from the shame and stigma that even a rumor of her danger would have inflicted on her in that place and period) she has a beautiful loving fiancé, retains significant financial and social power (for a woman of that time) to help her family and others, and with the love and protection of said fiancé she overcomes the emotional and psychological damage associated with her traumatic encounter. As if we didn’t already know it all too well, elements of the narrative repeatedly emphasize the very different outcome for a girl with no powerful protectors, no advantages of physical or mental strength, and no hovering Lady Luck. There is no hint that Lara’s fiancé would have the emotional maturity to defy society and help her through the greater emotional and physical trauma, that she might find a way to maintain or regain her standing and influence, or that she could find a way to be happy and useful and whole despite losing these things I feel that the author had an opportunity to add to our very insufficient cultural roadmap for overcoming and healing from sexual trauma and instead chose to add to the unrealistic and unhelpful stereotypes already common in our society.
Those are my two cents. I appreciate the author for using her platform to help people. I wish her and her book well. In general, it is a good, wholesome, and mildly entertaining book.
******
Lara's Story
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Bottom line: Diane Wigginton’s professed desire to lift and give hope to people with this story is in my opinion somewhat thwarted by an element of hypocrisy common to other, less ambitious historical romances. I am rating this 3 out of 4 stars because I think most casual readers of this genre will like it, but it needs another round of editing, mostly for small spelling mistakes and homonyms.
As simply a historical romance Lara’s Story is pleasant and inoffensive. “Old Ireland” has a strange pull for me. I think it does for many others as well. A beautiful red-headed family living poor but proud on the Dingle coast makes for an appealing beginning to the story. I liked this part of the book best. Later in America, there are pretty dresses and glittering balls, a mischievous friend and a smolderingly handsome love interest, late-night adventures with “Gypsies”, and moments of loving and learning with her new family. If the author asked us to judge the book simply on these lighter qualities, I would call it a nice, well-researched story suitable for both young and older teenage girls. It has elements that would be likely to entice and engage them while also teaching them some valuable things about history that they would be unlikely to learn elsewhere. The writing could have been more polished, but it is fairly clear and accessible.
The author, though, having endured pain and loss herself, has the admirable goal to offer compassion and encouragement to others who are experiencing difficulties. The idea expressed by this line from the dedication of Lara’s Story is overtly repeated throughout the book: “I wish to dedicate this book to all those who have endured difficult times in their lives. Know that you are not alone, for we all are called on to do the difficult things in life.” Because she raised this expectation with this overt purpose, I viewed the implicit messages and themes of the book more critically and was pained by something I observed.
Lara, a young, beautiful Irish girl approaching maturity in the time of the great Irish potato famine, does experience great difficulties. She loses loved ones. She is torn from a once happy home. She suffers a truly bitter betrayal by someone she loves. She does something to protect herself that causes her fear and shame. She experiences cold, hunger, and sickness. She also faces physical and moral danger and suffers mentally and emotionally from the effects of it.
And when she is adopted by new, kind parents and lifted out of trouble, she makes admirable use of her advantages and shows grit and moral fiber as she deals with the aftermath of her experiences and new sorrows. Overall, her life is a pretty fair example of enduring and overcoming tragedy.
What I liked least about this book and found frustrating is that the author, like so many writers, repeatedly (three to four times) uses the inherent tension and “thrill” of threatened sexual violence to make her story more exciting but never comes close to addressing how her protagonist would endure and overcome if that threat were ever actually realized. She reinforces the cultural narrative that for a girl to be beautiful or adventurous enough to be in danger of sexual violence, and smart and brave enough to escape it, makes her interesting and exciting, but that once it actually happens to her she is broken, and no one will want to hear her story. In so doing I feel she betrays in some measure her professed intention of helping her audience.
So many of the girls and women the author hopes will read this book already have or will endure some form of sexual abuse, and they will find very, very few stories whose protagonists have faced similar difficulties. They will read a great many featuring girls who have the culturally coveted advantage of sexually attracting both the admiration of honorable men and the lust of unscrupulous men, but who escape the associated dangers either by luck or, perhaps even more damagingly, their own wit, grit, and skill. In the shadow of these heroines will often be a girl or girls, created by the author with far less effort to invite interest and admiration, who are not so lucky or smart or strong. She’s just there to highlight what could have happened to the heroine. The story will never be about her. No one wants to hear about her. She makes them uncomfortable, and they want to be entertained.
This book offers nothing new in this regard. Because Lara escapes this violence each time (and has wealth and connections to shield her from the shame and stigma that even a rumor of her danger would have inflicted on her in that place and period) she has a beautiful loving fiancé, retains significant financial and social power (for a woman of that time) to help her family and others, and with the love and protection of said fiancé she overcomes the emotional and psychological damage associated with her traumatic encounter. As if we didn’t already know it all too well, elements of the narrative repeatedly emphasize the very different outcome for a girl with no powerful protectors, no advantages of physical or mental strength, and no hovering Lady Luck. There is no hint that Lara’s fiancé would have the emotional maturity to defy society and help her through the greater emotional and physical trauma, that she might find a way to maintain or regain her standing and influence, or that she could find a way to be happy and useful and whole despite losing these things I feel that the author had an opportunity to add to our very insufficient cultural roadmap for overcoming and healing from sexual trauma and instead chose to add to the unrealistic and unhelpful stereotypes already common in our society.
Those are my two cents. I appreciate the author for using her platform to help people. I wish her and her book well. In general, it is a good, wholesome, and mildly entertaining book.
******
Lara's Story
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Lara's Story by Diane Merrill Wigginton
