Letters from Skye By Jessica Brockmole
Some of the books and movies I love pull back the veil and reveal me to be a hopeless romantic, and this is going to be one of them. I sat and read this cover to cover without a break, except for when the emotions got too intense and I flipped over to check my e-mail. The entire book, set during both world wars, is written in letters. During the first world war, the letters are between a female poet living on the Isle of Skye and a slightly younger male fan of her work. The second world war letters are between more than two people, trying to unravel the mystery of the first.
Maybe it's because I believe in love growing between strangers who have never met, or maybe it's because I have experienced the intimacy of letters from a far off place, but this book grabbed the breath out of me. Add to it being set in the isles of Scotland with bits of Gaelic thrown in for good measure, and I'm surprised I can even write coherently. Jessica Brockmole After the topic of depression and suicide in my last read I needed something lighter. This is unashamedly a love story. Elspeth, a published poet, receives a fan letter one day in 1912 that leads into correspondences with a young man that encompasses World War 1. Yes, you can see where it is heading from the start and that romance will develop, but it is about the letters and the journey that is the key, because this romance is not as simple as it first appears.
There are other letters in the narrative from Margaret to Paul and an uncle she has never met. These are during 1940 and take in some of the events in World War 2. Margaret wants to know about her father and why her mother has kept so much of her life a secret. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out where this is heading. Even when I didn’t agree with the choices made by these characters at times somehow I got sucked in to reading this novel very quickly. I did think the Isle of Skye itself could have been revealed more than it was. I never really got a clear picture of it. But, all in all I enjoyed this novel and really liked the cover. Worth reading if you want something light and you might just find your emotions involved at times.
Jessica Brockmole I love an epistolary novel! It feels like I'm reading through the commentary of a relationship. The inner voyeur in me just a good mystery steeped in letters.
Elspeth Dunn is a poet living on the Isle of Skye when she receives a letter from a fan- David Graham from Urbana, IL. What's happens next is alternating timelines between WWI & WWII, men going to war, lyrical poems written, and secrets.
I found the back and forth created a tension that I appreciated, and made for a super quick read. I struggled a bit with some of it, the whole idea was a little bit of struggle for the buildup of the relationship given how it started, however if I suspend belief and set everything aside, I really enjoyed this one. Jessica Brockmole A beautiful love story comprised of letters . In this day of texts and tweets , it was wonderful to learn about these people solely through their letters. I had forgotten what it was like to write or receive one of those letters that told it all . While the ending was somewhat predictable, I loved it none the less. Jessica Brockmole Thoroughly enjoyed this book, a love story between a poet from the isle of Skye and a young man from Urbana, Illinois told in letters. There’s two timelines, the first from 1912-1917 and the second mostly 1940. The early part of the book when they begin their correspondence is sweet and as the story progresses I thought it was headed for major tragedy but it pulls back from that and the ending is possibly a more predictable one that felt just a little anticlimactic for me. But it’s a lovely read that I got very involved in. Jessica Brockmole
Download î E-book, or Kindle E-pub ¿ Jessica Brockmole
A sweeping story told in letters, spanning two continents and two world wars, Jessica Brockmole’s atmospheric debut novel captures the indelible ways that people fall in love, and celebrates the power of the written word to stir the heart.
March 1912: Twenty-four-year-old Elspeth Dunn, a published poet, has never seen the world beyond her home on Scotland’s remote Isle of Skye. So she is astonished when her first fan letter arrives, from a college student, David Graham, in far-away America. As the two strike up a correspondence—sharing their favorite books, wildest hopes, and deepest secrets—their exchanges blossom into friendship, and eventually into love. But as World War I engulfs Europe and David volunteers as an ambulance driver on the Western front, Elspeth can only wait for him on Skye, hoping he’ll survive.
June 1940: At the start of World War II, Elspeth’s daughter, Margaret, has fallen for a pilot in the Royal Air Force. Her mother warns her against seeking love in wartime, an admonition Margaret doesn’t understand. Then, after a bomb rocks Elspeth’s house, and letters that were hidden in a wall come raining down, Elspeth disappears. Only a single letter remains as a clue to Elspeth’s whereabouts. As Margaret sets out to discover where her mother has gone, she must also face the truth of what happened to her family long ago. Letters from Skye
This was an unusual book. It took a little while to get into it and I found it to be a book which I didn't just read straight through. I would move on a little and quite enjoy pondering on the thoughts and feelings of the people involved in it. A quote on the book said...Words on the page can drench the soul and after reading I quite agree with parts of this book. The mention of the Isle of Skye first drew me to it as I have always wanted to visit there. I do believe that often with a friendship by mail or letter can encourage many to reveal their deepest feelings to each other. For some reason a friendship of this nature can become really deep and fulfilling. I recommend a book and the film called Green Journey by Jon Hassler for anyone who likes this sort of book. Elspeth and David share private things they have never spoken of to another living soul. They may have never met but they know each other. Anyone like me who has had such a friendship will understand. World War 1 finally interferes with their lives. Elspeth is waiting, always anxious on Skye and David in the war as an ambulance driver. I found it a beautiful book full of the richness and power of a love story with a difference. I recommend it highly and will be reading it again for sure. Jessica Brockmole I loved this beautiful, gentle love story spanning WWI and WW2.It all starts when Elspeth Dunn, a 24y old published poet living on Skye receives a fan letter from an American college boy, David Graham. She is so surprised she writes back and they establish a friendship by letter gradually flowering into a romance. However, there are complications. Elspeth is recently married to her childhood friend and her husband soon enlists to fight in WWI. The story is told not only through the letters of Elspeth and David but also through letters from Elspeth's daughter Margaret to her fiance, who is fighting in France in WW2. Margaret knows nothing of her mother's past and tries to unravel the story through her mothers letters and estranged relatives.
I noticed that many reviewers felt that the voices of Margaret, David and Elspeth were not sufficiently different to be distinct. I do agree somewhat with that but found that their characters were well enough built up through their writing that I had a clear mental image of them as individuals. I would also agree that the style and tone of the letters was very modern and not in the style of letters written in 1916 but perhaps this could be partly attributed to Elspeth and David being such free spirits. However, this did not detract from the story for me. I also felt that the author could have made more of the wildness and romance of Skye but my imagination filled in the gaps so again this did not detract from a wonderful story. Despite these small quibbles I enjoyed the book very much 5★ Jessica Brockmole I thought this would be a lot better than it was. It's just one step above your standard WWII romance novel, not particularly deep or insightful. And adultery just isn't romantic to me, no matter how you package it. I read half and skimmed the rest.
Kim (in the comment thread) had a good suggestion: Forget this novel; just look at pictures of Skye instead:
Much better, I promise. Jessica Brockmole Letters from Skye is a sweet and simple book that ultimately disappointed me because the author seemed to believe that the cliched plot twists and insubstantial characters and setting could be saved by a charming concept.
I love the idea of a novel told in letters or diaries and just last week read and reviewed a great example of this type of novel - Margaret Forster's Diary of an Ordinary Woman. But to make that kind of novel succeed you have to have a strong narrative voice, a sense of a real person setting events down in real time. Unfortunately, all of the letter writers in Skye sound the same - there's no differentiation in voice between an American college student and a Scottish poet in 1912 or a young woman and her boyfriend in the midst of WWII.
I've read interviews with the author and she seemed to have done a great deal of research on the language of the time. The words may have been correct but her diction and language structure was completely off - the letters read like zippy emails back and forth, full of jokes and some fairly explicit conversations between a man and a woman in 1912. I suppose I'm inclined to nit-pick because I have all the letters between my great-grandfather and his parents, covering a time period from the 1880s-1930s. People wrote very differently back then and spoke about things in a far more poetic way than we do. I didn't feel any of that in Skye.
I reached a point about halfway through the book when I realized it wasn't going to work for me. I plowed through to finish it as I'd received a review copy and kept myself occupied by wondering what the novel might have been like as a straight-forward narrative with the key letters interspersed throughout. I think this could have been a very good novel in the vein of a dual-timeline, Kate Morton-type story full of secrets. The different settings - the isolated Isle of Skye, college life in the U.S. in the early part of the 20th century, the battlefields of France during the Great War and Blitz London. What amazing settings - what an opportunity for a sweeping novel showing the impact of war on families. None of that comes through in Skye because of the limitations imposed by the letters.
I'm sure many readers will not be bothered by these problems and can accept this as a sweet, generic love story. Unfortunately, I feel as though I've read this book many times and had hopes for something more.
Disclaimer: I received an advance e-galley of this book for review. Jessica Brockmole I loved everything about this audio book. Loved, loved, loved.
At first I was worried I wouldn't understand the Scottish speakers, but it was no problem and simply lovely. It had a perfect calming effect on my currently frazzled nerves. World Wars one and two provide a background, but the growing love between a Scottish poet on the Isle of Skye and her American fan from Illinois, told in letters, is front and center.
Did I say I loved this? Jessica Brockmole
