TITLE: A.D. 62: PompeiiAUTHOR: Rebecca East
STARTED: August 6, 2008
FINISHED: August 10, 2008
PAGES: 292
GENRE: Fiction
FIRST SENTENCE: My Shakespeare-loving parents named me Miranda; and like my namesake, I longed for distant worlds.
SUMMARY: [From amazon.com] A twenty-first century woman is stranded in first century Pompeii when a time travel experiment goes awry; she is sold to a wealthy family as a house slave. This provides her with an intimate, upstairs/downstairs perspective on household life in ancient times. At first she does menial work, but she improves her situation by telling stories and making prophecies. As her influence grows, she wins the love of her master and his daughter and provokes the vengeful jealousy of his wife.
In this gentle fable about the power of stories to change people's lives, the heroine uses sources that include fairy tales and great works of literature to argue for women’s rights and the humanity of slaves, and to inspire herself and others to be resourceful, courageous and independent. Miranda's own life becomes as mythic as the stories she tells. In a narrative that is part adventure, part romance, and part fantasy, the heroine triumphs over adversity and makes a place for herself in the world of the past.
THOUGHTS: This novel was just bad fan-fiction for the ancient world. East was apparently writing a research paper on everyday living and then, one day, decided to insert a narrative. It was interesting to read because of the facts, but I would have rather read this book as a non-fiction.Also, for a book set in Pompeii, I was greatly disappointed in the lack of volcano explosion.
RATING: 4/10 [An "okay" book]
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