Saturday, August 27, 2011

Folly by Marthe Jocelyn - OPTIONAL

Jocelyn, Marthe. Folly, 246 pgs. Tundra Books (Random House), 2010. $8.99. Sexual Content: PG-13 (a couple of sex scenes, not super graphic); Language: PG (11 swears); Violence: G. Mary Finn leaves her home in 1876 to become a servant. By chance she meets dashing military man Caden Tucker. They have a secret whirlwind romance and Mary is pregnant. Eliza, a spiteful fellow servant, is jealous of Mary and tells Caden that the baby is not his, but another man’s. Meanwhile the story jumps back and forth from the perspective of James Nelligan, a foundling, ten years later. James’ story is poignant one as he must leave his foster mother at the age of six and go back to the foundling hospital. The treatment is rough, but he meets a kind teacher named Oliver Chester. The two stories finally converge at the end of the novel. Author Marthe Jocelyn bases her story on her great-grandmother who brought a baby to the foundling hospital in the 1880s. She successfully illuminates what it would be like to live in a foundling hospital at that time. Jocelyn main characters are believable, however, some of the supporting cast seem a little too much “good guy” and “bad guy.” The story is narrated by Mary, Eliza, James, and Oliver. The plot bounces back and forth between narrators and time periods, which is confusing for the reader. OPTIONAL – MS/HS. Samantha, Public Librarian.

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