Call Upon the Water by Stella TillyardMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This historical novel is set in the mid 1600’s in two locations, England and the New World. This book is told mostly from the point of view of a Dutch engineer Jan Brunt, writing, to you. Jan starts the book in New Amsterdam as he is writing in his diary. We soon find out who this you is, not to the reader, but one of the native fens woman, Eliza. They had a secret romance.
Water abounds and the Dutch engineer is there to control it, change the land, hold the water at bay, bend it to their needs. So these fens, the wetlands, will be drained made into the Great Level, so the land could be made useful for the English. The native, fens people had already sabotaged a prior attempt to alter the natural landscape.
Much of the book was enjoyable, but it was a slow paced novel. It is not long, but it took a long while to read it. The writing is good, the story is mainly interesting, but there is lingering. I wavered during the relationship parts, and that seemed to take over the entirety of the novel, yet not quite. There is a bit more.
It was an odd choice for the author, Tillyard, to only give the reader Eliza’s point of view towards the later part of the book. Then we return to Jan’s briefly once more, and it is odd that this back and forth wasn’t for the entire book. After completing the book entirely you can understand more of each character, yet part of me desires that the entire book was just one point of view. In any case, the choice didn’t ruin the book at all, just a little different with the structure. Also, I didn’t feel the voice of Eliza’s writing was much different from Jan’s, it is only the author telling us this is which character.
I did enjoy the historical aspect of the book, the turning of the city from the Dutch to British with New Amsterdam becoming New York. Even saw a different side to Virginia.
Book rating: 3.5 stars
Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
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