Arundel

Kenneth Roberts, a great author forming

As a Brit, I found the insights into pre-revolution life engrossing, as were the trade, relationships and conflicts between the colonial settlers and indigenous people. As always with a historical novels, we look back through the filters of what we have since learned, and because we now face accelerating environmental crises, it is poignant to read of the native Indians apparent naivety in trading away vast tracts of land, simply because they could not understand how land could be owned, or why one would want to. Roberts is clearly informed by his research, and sympathetic to the original people of North America. I admit to struggling with the length in which he describes Arnold's army's ordeal in crossing the unforgiving terrain between Maine and Quebec, a harrowing description of a tougher breed of men and women. I guess that Roberts wanted to stress the extreme sacrifices made in the early struggle for independence, however, I found his third book in the Arundel series much more enjoyable. That of course raises the conundrum of how an author balances the honest telling of a historical story against the pleasure that the average reader might expect. I comment as the latter, and i think that Kenneth Roberts might have hit his prime with Lively Lady, the third in the Arundel series.