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Rapture Redux
May. 21st, 2011 10:52 amIn honor of the today's Rapture That Didn't I thought I'd use the excuse to recommend one of my favorite books that not enough people have heard of, Fitcher's Brides by Gregory Frost.
Fitcher's Brides takes place in New York state in 1843 and concerns a preacher who has prophesied that the end of the world is very soon in coming and three sisters whose father and stepmother have fallen under the Reverend Elias Fitcher's spell. Not only are these parents willing to sell everything they own and join the rest of the believers in Fitcher's created community of followers preparing for the End Times, but also to offer up the oldest daughter for marriage to the reverend. Eventually they end up offering her two sisters as well, for this is a Bluebeard story.
I feel completely inadequate to the task of describing this book and why it's so good. The sense of time and place is captured nicely and is fairly interesting. Alongside that is an atmosphere of quiet menace, a subtle but growing unease that continues past a showy climax to the last sentence. Frost has used history and two fairy tales as foundation stones to build a rich and full novel.
Fitcher's Brides takes place in New York state in 1843 and concerns a preacher who has prophesied that the end of the world is very soon in coming and three sisters whose father and stepmother have fallen under the Reverend Elias Fitcher's spell. Not only are these parents willing to sell everything they own and join the rest of the believers in Fitcher's created community of followers preparing for the End Times, but also to offer up the oldest daughter for marriage to the reverend. Eventually they end up offering her two sisters as well, for this is a Bluebeard story.
I feel completely inadequate to the task of describing this book and why it's so good. The sense of time and place is captured nicely and is fairly interesting. Alongside that is an atmosphere of quiet menace, a subtle but growing unease that continues past a showy climax to the last sentence. Frost has used history and two fairy tales as foundation stones to build a rich and full novel.