Sandra Shwayder Sanchez's Three Novellas Reviewed By Lavanya Karthik of Bookpleasures.com
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Lavanya Karthik
Reviewer
Lavanya Karthik: Lavanya is from Mumbai, India and is a licensed
architect and consultant in environmental management. She lives in
Mumbai with her husband and six-year old daughter. She loves reading
and enjoys a diverse range of authors across genres.
By Lavanya Karthik
Published on April 7, 2011
Author: Sandra Shwayder Sanchez
Publisher: The Wessex Collective
ISBN: 978-0-9797516-0-8
Click Here To Purchase Three Novellas
Author: Sandra Shwayder Sanchez
Publisher: The Wessex Collective
ISBN 978-0-9797516-0-8
In these three novellas, author Sandra Shwayder Sanchez examines the human condition with elegance and an impressive eye for detail. Each of these stories is an unflinching exploration of alienation, human frailty and the arduous journey their protagonists make towards self discovery
There is an epic feel to ‘The Last Long Walk of Noah Brown’, the rousing story of a young man who overcomes physical and emotional hurdles to find acceptance, family and purpose. Reminiscent in many ways of Forrest Gump, Noah leaves behind abusive parents and a traumatic childhood in the first of a long series of journeys that will come to define and direct his life. Goaded by a dream he cannot quite explain , Noah - rather like the biblical character he is named after - builds a canoe that he will spend the next few decades watching over. And in a life mirroring that most famous of all Gumpisms – a box of chocolates – Noah endures love and loss, heartbreak and pain, until hurricane Katrina reveals to him his true purpose.
While Noah ‘s life is a quest to find family, Sara in “The Vast Darkness” prefers to shy away from it, living a solitary life out on the periphery of the communities she studies as an anthropologist. Her youth has been spent in a commune; two decades later, she camps in the woods outside an isolated community in the Appalachian mountains, trying to understand their insular lifestyle – the darkness that she attempts to span with the light of scientific explanation . But the darkness threatens to envelop her instead, as she battles troubling dreams and then finds her life threatened by a man she has inadvertently helped convict.
Powerful as these two novellas are, they still pale in comparison to the bleak fantasy world of ‘The King and the Clockmaker’ , about an artisan and the cruel monarch he serves. Intertwined with their story is another – that of the author of their tale, reflecting on their fates , the power of language, the nature of time and the human capacity for evil. Moving seamlessly across time, between worlds, from philosophical introspection to fairy tales, ‘The King..” is an ambitious narrative endeavour that Sanchez executes with flair.
These are challenging stories to read, with dark and disturbing subjects , complex characters and dense layers of subtext. And yet, they make for compelling reading, thanks to Sanchez’s skills as a storyteller.
Click Here To Purchase Three Novellas
Author: Sandra Shwayder Sanchez
Publisher: The Wessex Collective
ISBN: 978-0-9797516-0-8
Click Here To Purchase Three Novellas
Author: Sandra Shwayder Sanchez
Publisher: The Wessex Collective
ISBN 978-0-9797516-0-8
In these three novellas, author Sandra Shwayder Sanchez examines the human condition with elegance and an impressive eye for detail. Each of these stories is an unflinching exploration of alienation, human frailty and the arduous journey their protagonists make towards self discovery
There is an epic feel to ‘The Last Long Walk of Noah Brown’, the rousing story of a young man who overcomes physical and emotional hurdles to find acceptance, family and purpose. Reminiscent in many ways of Forrest Gump, Noah leaves behind abusive parents and a traumatic childhood in the first of a long series of journeys that will come to define and direct his life. Goaded by a dream he cannot quite explain , Noah - rather like the biblical character he is named after - builds a canoe that he will spend the next few decades watching over. And in a life mirroring that most famous of all Gumpisms – a box of chocolates – Noah endures love and loss, heartbreak and pain, until hurricane Katrina reveals to him his true purpose.
While Noah ‘s life is a quest to find family, Sara in “The Vast Darkness” prefers to shy away from it, living a solitary life out on the periphery of the communities she studies as an anthropologist. Her youth has been spent in a commune; two decades later, she camps in the woods outside an isolated community in the Appalachian mountains, trying to understand their insular lifestyle – the darkness that she attempts to span with the light of scientific explanation . But the darkness threatens to envelop her instead, as she battles troubling dreams and then finds her life threatened by a man she has inadvertently helped convict.
Powerful as these two novellas are, they still pale in comparison to the bleak fantasy world of ‘The King and the Clockmaker’ , about an artisan and the cruel monarch he serves. Intertwined with their story is another – that of the author of their tale, reflecting on their fates , the power of language, the nature of time and the human capacity for evil. Moving seamlessly across time, between worlds, from philosophical introspection to fairy tales, ‘The King..” is an ambitious narrative endeavour that Sanchez executes with flair.
These are challenging stories to read, with dark and disturbing subjects , complex characters and dense layers of subtext. And yet, they make for compelling reading, thanks to Sanchez’s skills as a storyteller.
Click Here To Purchase Three Novellas