Finished one..

Well, the New Year got off to a bad start reading wise but I am now back on track! Managed to finish my book today so here it goes.

##SPOILER ALERT##

The Last Witchfinder - James Morrow
I liked it! I always wanted to know more about how this bizarre notion of being able to tell who is a witch and who is not managed to persist for so long and get the backing of both church and King alike. The book gives a good insight into how people were "cried out" as witches and how hey were bound to be found guilty as the "science" behind witch finding was seriously flawed. Even though people did not seem to know how to defeat the "science" some knew that there was no harm in knowing more about healing than you neighbour or investigating why a ball made of stone and one made of feathers would touch the earth at the same time.
The book takes on a journey of discovery and lets us view the fall out from Witch finding via the main character Jennet Stearne. She is a inquisitive young girl who is being taught by her aunt to be inquisitive and base her opinions on observation rather than having them prescribed by society. when her aunt Isobel is accused of being a witch and burned at the stake she vows to gather the evidence that will convince the world that there is no such thing as witchcraft. He efforts are noble and thwarted by adversity. She is forced to go to America, then almost gets killed when her village is raided by Indians with whom she lives fro a number of years. She has a child but unfortunately the girls dies. She's "rescued" from the tribe and enters into a loveless marriage with Tobias Crompton and gets a change to work on her Argumentum Grande against witchcraft. She even has a second child (Rachel), eventually meets the love of her life (Ben Franklin). They "swive" intensely and she then has another son (William) whilst marooned on an island on the way back from England (don't ask... it's too complicated). They get themselves rescued by pirates en settle down back in America. You'd think that was enough for anyone to cope with but her fate seems sealed when she concocts a plan to ensure she gets a chance to put her "proof" against witchcraft into practice. She gets herself arrested on witchcraft and... surprise surprise, her brother and his crazy wife ensure that she is found guilty of witchcraft. She does manage to escape the gallows with the help her "Bonny Ben" and his cronies and after another short stay with the Indians returns to live out her days in relative quiet. Oh well, unless you count her long lost brother turning up one day and burning himself in front of her and all the scientific experiments she does as upheaval.
I'll admit it's a lot to fit into a book but it sort of works.
The part the I really like is the structure Morrow has created for his story. He gets a book to tell us the story of Jennet and not just any old book. This book in question is the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy by Isaac Newton. You can tell it loves, maybe even adores Jennet and it tells us her story. Every now and again it intervenes in the story and teaches us that one books flows from another and ideas blend and develop through time. People's ideas, voices and thoughts are what makes books comes alive and this natural process has been going on for ages. Also it wants us to fight ignorence with knowledge and I like that idea...... a lot!!!! It's a nice touch to imbue a book with feelings for a person and use it as story telling device... clever!

So was it all good??? Well no, I have no idea why Jennet was made to have children. Two of them are introduced and both seem equally superfluous. They serve no particular purpose in propelling the storyline or giving us an insight into Jennet's emotional life or development. Also, had the book ended with her going back to the Indian tribe and staying there until she dies that would have been fine with me. Why did she need to go back to "civilisation"? It's nature that she seeks to understand and harness to her purpose, why then does she not stay in an environment that is closer to nature than the life she returns to. Her life with the indians gives her "tranquility" yet she opt to leave it. Also the way her borther is dealt with does not sit right with me. He was the one that got her convicted and the scourge of those accused of witchcaft, to some extent he was the scourge of Jennet's life as it is his beliefs she fights tirelessly against. All he is accorded at the end is the discovery his wife is faking demonic attacks, is a vindinctive woman and the realisation that perhaps everything he stands for is a lie. Oh, and then he bashes his goodwife's brains out, goes over the edge and then turns up on Jennet's lawn one day and burns himself to death in front of her eyes... well... okay. Guess that's that then?!


Title: The Last Witchfinder
Author: James Morrow
Phoenix
541 pages
ISBN nr 978-0-7538-2153-4


State of play
Books to be read: 67
Books bought: 2