Saturday, August 21, 2010

Book Review: Great Maria by Cecelia Holland


Great Maria
Set in eleventh-century Italy, Cecelia Holland’s Great Maria is the story of strong-willed Maria and her struggles from young bride to strong, influential woman. Maria is married to the ambitious and ill-tempered Richard d'Alene, who loves Maria passionately but frequently treats her poorly. The novel spans decades, following Maria’s journey through many triumphs and struggles as a mother, wife and devoted Christian.  Like her husband, she is also very ambitious and will go to great lengths to see her plans come to fruition.  The world in which she lives may be ruled by men, but she finds ways to hold her own power and conquer in her own ways.

I found Great Maria to be an interesting, yet ultimately unsatisfying novel. Holland’s story was epic in scope and felt very authentic, but I never came to the point of truly enjoying it.  At times the story seemed pointless and I struggled to understand where the plot was going.  The style of writing was very choppy, seemed to have huge gaps in continuity and just had an odd flow about it.

At over 500 pages, Great Maria is not completely devoid of compelling moments. The main characters of Maria, her husband Richard and his brother Roger provided scenes of passion, collusion, poignancy and triumph. Maria was forced to marry Richard by her robber baron father while she preferred the charming Roger. Richard loved Maria, but his ambition frequently came between them. Roger not only desired to have power with women but in society as well. Maria gave birth to several children and we see them grow and become leaders in their own right. There are tensions with religious issues, the conquered Saracens and in familial relationships. But ultimately this is a story about a woman who loved her family, was devoted to her faith and desired to rule as any ambitious man would during her time.

Great Maria was originally published in 1974 and certainly has its admirers. And while it could be compelling, I can’t say that I would recommend this title to those who share my taste in literature. I don’t always have to have characters who are appealing, but I at least need a narrative that I can enjoy enough to want to return to.  In this case, I’m glad to let Maria go.





**GIVEAWAY CONTEST NOW CLOSED**

Guidelines for entering to win my advanced copy of Great Maria:

  • Leave a comment below; this counts as your entry.
  • Entries accepted until 11:59pm on Saturday, September 4th
  • The winner must supply a US mailing address for prize shipment.
  • Make sure at least one posted comment includes your email address. If you'd rather not have your email posted here, you may contact me directly to give me that information after you've entered here.
  • I will compile the entries and the winner will be chosen by Random.org, so even one entry can make you a winner.
  • Should you win, I will contact you on Sunday the 5th.  Please take measures to ensure that my email will make it past your spam filters, lest you miss my message. (CalicoCritic@gmail.com) You'll have 72 hours to respond before I pick another winner.
  • More information on the giveaway policies can be found on the Contact / Policies page.


Bonus Entries

Please make note of all your bonus entries in your comment(s).  You may post separate comments or a single large comment.  Here are your bonus entry options:

  • Follow The Calico Critic by clicking on the Google "Follow" button on my sidebar (old or new followers both get the bonus entry, just please let me know that you're following).
  • Follow me (@LHartness) on Twitter and tell me your @UserName.
  • Tweet about this ARC giveaway on Twitter.com; be sure to use an URL linking back to this blog posting in your tweet. You may do this as frequently as every 8 hours between now and September 4th at 11:59pm EST.  For each tweet, please come back and post the direct URL link to that specific tweet, not just your @Username.


That's it!  Thanks for stopping by, and good luck to all the entrants!


This title was provided to me by Sourcebooks Landmark. No obligation other than an honest review was required.












CymLowell


24 comments:

  1. hellraisercollk@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would like to give it a try to see if I like it.

    CarolNWong(at)aol(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am a follower of your blog.


    CarolNWong(at)aol(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sounds like an interesting book. My daughter's name is Maria!

    autumn .crochet (at) gmail. com

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm a follower of your blog via GFC

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm following you on twitter @galvezbookgirl

    autumn. crochet (at) gmail. com

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'd love to read this :)
    thanks!
    kangabunnie@Gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  8. follow you GFC
    thanks!
    kangabunnie@Gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  9. So glad to see folks coming forward, wanting to give ol' Maria a shot! Good luck to you all, and I hope you enjoy!

    Laura

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks for the chance to win. I follow you on GFC.
    marcie.turner@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  11. There was a hiccup the first time I tried to post this comment, so my apologies if you suddenly get duplicate comments from me!

    Thank you for the giveaway -- I'm happy to follow you now as I like your blogging style, and I appreciate the honest review of this novel. I've seen a lot of Ms Holland recently because of her newest book, but I'm curious about her older stuff. I'm following you on Twitter as well as via GFC.

    audra
    thesibylqueen at gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  12. thanks for the opporutunity to read this fabulous novel :)

    karenk
    kmkuka at yahoo dot com

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thanks for hosting a giveaway. I would love to read this book.
    Hope i win....
    chaarmedone1512@aol.com

    ReplyDelete
  14. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  15. My son would love that pi email address!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I would love to try for a shot at winning this book. Sounds great and I love historical fiction.
    caliblue7 at gmail dot com

    ReplyDelete
  17. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I'd love to win!

    aikychien at yahoo dot com

    ReplyDelete
  19. I'm a follower.

    aikychien at yahoo dot com

    ReplyDelete
  20. Twitter follower @aikchien

    aikychien at yahoo dot com

    ReplyDelete
  21. This sounds like an awesome book. I win books and then donate them to out public library so we all thank you for this contest
    chaarmedone1512@aol.om

    ReplyDelete
  22. I am a blog google follower
    chaarmedone1512@aol.com
    USA

    ReplyDelete
  23. I am following you on twitter @Lora1967
    chaarmedone1512@aol.com

    ReplyDelete

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