I appreciate historical fiction because I always learn something new, and in this case it’s the story of Marguerite de La Rocque, a French noblewoman from the mid 1500s whose parents died when she was young, leaving an inheritance of lands, castles, and riches, and also, unfortunately, a cousin (or uncle–historical records are unclear) who became her guardian. After mortgaging and then selling all her properties to pay his debts, he forces her to accompany him an expedition to New France in 1541, where he intends to overcome the native population, create a settlement, spread Catholicism, and gain new riches. During the trip, Marguerite falls in love with her guardian’s servant/secretary, angering her guardian enough to drop the two of them (along with her life-long maidservant) at a remote island off the Southern coast of Quebec in the Gulf of St Lawrence. This info (all of which is in Wikipedia), is part of historical record and is also true in the book (plus the fact that Marguerite alone survived and made it back to France).

A number of the people, places, and events that Goodman conveys here are also of historical record, and her notes at the end clarify that as well as where she took liberties for the story (clearly, many of them). She also includes a number of further reading references for more information about Marguerite de La Rocque. That’s the gist of the story, and it seems rather captivating that a young woman who knew nothing of life outside castles, gowns, and needlepoint could survive on a remote island for over two years with few practical provisions. Not only did I want to admire her, but I wanted to feel like I was living on that island with her, persevering through struggles and acquiring the skills to survive.

Unfortunately, I found the writing rather bland and the characters distant. Certainly there were lots of details of her daily life before sailing as well as details on the ship and on the island–they just didn’t pull me in. It’s an intriguing story that one reviewer described as both “overwrought and pragmatic” which feels like an accurate description. It seemed much too slow and detailed in many places and then much too fast/lacking details in others. The pacing is so off. At one point, she kills, skins, and roasts the meat of a polar bear and also drags its carcass to the shore–all described in less than a page. Earlier in the story, it takes multiple pages to convey the imbalance of power between her and her guardian, a scene that could have been successfully executed in a few paragraphs, or even a few sentences.

A lot of readers and reviewers loved this book–I’m just not one of them. I think I loved the potential and intrigue of the story, but not the execution of it.

In the past two months, I’ve read 6 novels that ranged from pretty good to meh. It’s been too long since a novel really grabbed me with excellent writing (the way The Correspondent and Hard by a Great Forest did).