12/1/09

The Green Bronze Mirror, by Lynne Ellison, for Timeslip Tuesday

The Green Bronze Mirror, by Lynne Ellison (CnPosner Books, 2009, younger YA, 117pp), was first published when the author was just 14, back in 1966. It has recently been republished in a new paperback edition, with new illustrations by Philip Smiley, and I was offered a review copy. Time travel back to Roman Britain and Rome itself--how could I say no?

What follows is a mixed review. But since I so almost liked this a lot (and I am certain I would have liked it more when I was 12, perhaps even loved it), and I think that others (in particular 12 year-old girls who love Rosemary Sutcliff) may enjoy it more than me, I decided to go ahead with it.

I was captivated by the story's beginning. Fifteen-year old Karen is on a sea-side holiday with her family, but spurning the dubious attractions of tourist shops, she makes her way alone along the beach, reveling in her solitude, pretending a little to herself.

Here's a bit I particularly liked, that I'm putting in because it made Karen come quite real to me:

"She went slowly down to the sea again, and finding a piece of wood brought in by the tide, she drew a horse in the firm wet sand; a good horse, because she'd been drawing them a long time, galloping along the ground with its legs in an interesting position. The position was correct, though; she had studied photographs and knew just how a horse's legs behaved when it galloped" (pp 6-7).

And when Karen finds a green bronze mirror, and looks into its polished surface, and travels back in time to Roman Britain, I was prepared to lose myself in the story.

Indeed, it was a tremendously interesting read, for the most part. Karen, now a slave, is taken to Rome to be sold, where she finds herself a nanny to two somewhat spoiled Roman children. She is appalled by the (graphically described) spectacle of the Roman games, joins a community of secret Christians, and falls in love with a handsome young man who is a slave like herself. But this is Nero's Rome, and it's not a safe place for anyone when it starts to burn. Particularly not safe for Christians....

There are parts of the story that sing, parts that enthrall and excite. Time travel-wise, it's good stuff--an excellent picture of Rome and the Romans seen through modern eyes.

But it's very much a fourteen year old's book. Things happen with a suddenness that is disconcerting--there's no skilled writerly build up to Karen's romance or her meeting with the Christians, and by the time she's ready to head back to England and find the mirror again, with the help of a magical druid a Roman witch has told her to find, I was no longer sure I cared that much.

The introverted, imaginative girl I had fallen for had become lost in a sea of events.

Karen accepts her lot as a slave with a disconcerting matter-of-factness. Surely it would be an introvert's nightmare to be in her position, but it doesn't seem to bother her. There are jarring awkwardness in the writing--as when suddenly, although we are told Karen was not particularly religious in the present, she is proclaiming things like "One day the whole world will be converted to our way of thinking" (p 68). Um. Not so, actually, and this spoiled, for me, the lovely bits about her experience with the small community of the faithful. Her relationship with her young man is also unevenly written. One moment they're in each others arms, and then, when she tells him she wants to go back to the present, his response "It's a pity, though" (p 94) lacks a certain emotional umph. This sort of choppiness spoils what could have been a swoon-worthy relationship. I could go on in this vein...

Then there is the copy editing, or, more accurately, the lack thereof. We all are guilty of typos (some of us more than others), but this book really exceeds the excusable with its misplaced and missing bits of punctuation, odd formatting, and whole words left out (although an errata note for the worst page is provided). The text, incidentally, is very small, which I thought would bother me, but didn't.

So I am disappointed--I wanted to like this book so much, and it could have been so very good, if, in the republishing, some of it had been tweaked a little by the author. Incidentally, Lynne Ellison never went on to write another book. This is a pity--I would love to read more by her, especially now that she's no longer fourteen!

At Historical Fiction, there's a guest post by Ellison and a giveaway of the book.

(disclosure: as mentioned above, I received a review copy of this book from its publisher).

7 comments:

  1. I'm glad you're keeping up with Timeslip Tuesday, Charlotte! I wonder why the author never published anything again; it certainly sounds like a promising start.

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  2. Having read this book for review also, I can understand all the points you bring up. I felt the same way as well as other reviewers who have read the book. Would be interesting to get a young reader's take on this book, no?

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  3. Charlotte, I would love to borrow this some time, if you kept it. And I will look for my copy of Romansgrove by Mabel Esther Allan which I think you would enjoy.

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  4. A new version of this book has now been printed including corrections of the errors in the 2009 printing.

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  5. I read this book as a 13 year old, and loved it so much I searched for it for thirty years after I returned it to the Bookmobile!

    It was with great excitement that I downloaded the ebook after all these years.

    Yes. All the reviewer comment are valid. As a writer, there are several things that I'd fix. However, I remember as a 14 year old, I adored the romance of the adventure. Having been ripped away from my love that summer by a parent move, I was feeling choppy and fatalistic about relationships myself. I was also equally hot and cold about faith.

    It was definitely a 14 year old's book, but it demonstrated a promising talent. I hope Lynne Ellison Newark is crafting another adventure!

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  6. I recall a book that sounds similar. The cover depicts a woman at the wheel of a VW Beetle and looking at her thru the side window is a Roman Centurion. Yes, it's cheesy I know, but still very clever and likely to grab the attention of any Sci-Fi fan. The protagonist travels back to Ancient Rome and is enslaved. The book describes very well how hard it was for slaves. It's just a vague memory but a think she describes how poorly she is treated and how she loathes her owner with a passion, just as any sensible modern day woman would. Nor is there any romance. From this review and others, I feel that "The Green Bronze Mirror" cannot be the book I recall, especially as it does not seem to depict how cruel slavery was.

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  7. I remember reading a book similar to this, but with young boy characters who traveled back to the battle of Alesia, during Caesar's Gaulic Wars - I don't remember the author or title, just the basic idea and I loved it at the time - was 4th or 5th grade - written about the same time as this one. Would love to find it again, any help?
    thanks
    chytha

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