Bonny Braes and Banks

[bibliogramma]

Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon

I have no idea why I waited so long to read this book. I'd heard about this great series about a woman from modern times (well, post-WWII, anyway) who is magically transported two hundred years into the past, where, despite having a nice husband in her own time, she falls in love - somewhat unwillingly - with another nice man in the past, and gets all mixed up in the events preceding the battle of Culloden.

But for some reason I just didn't get around to reading it until recently - and now I find that I must go out and buy about half-a-dozen sequels, because the first book was every bit as good as everyone has been telling me it was.

Outlander begins with one of the lead characters, Claire Randall, an English nurse, on a second honeymoon in Scotland. There's some discussion of the role her husband's ancestor, a Captain John Randall, played in the bloody hisory of the Jacobite Risings - the long attempt by the Highland Scots to return the house of Stuart to the throne of England and Scotland following deposition of James II in 1688, which was finally crushed in 1746 at the Battle of Culloden. (I should digress here to note that I myself am part Scot, part Welsh, and all Celt, and as far as the history of the time is concerned, my sympathies are all with the Scots and not the slightest with the Sassenach.)

While in Scotland, Claire discovers that there is a standing circle near where they are staying, where some of the local women still worship in the "old ways." When she explores the circle herself, she finds herself drawn back to 1745, where she finds herself caught up in the politics of the clans, the cause of the Jacobites, the invading Sassenach - one of whom is her husband's ancestor, and eventually a bold Scotsman named Jamie Fraser who wins her heart.

It's fascinating historical fiction wrapped up in a time-travelling frame, with all the complications that entails, it's a refreshing romance between two people who become friends and partners as well as lovers, and it's - most welcome of all - a story of an intelligent, resourceful, courageous and tough woman who survives and thrives despite being thrown out of her own time and all that she knows and understands.

Comments

[calico-reaction.livejournal.com]

I really need to read this freaking book, but like you, for some reason, I keep putting it off. I shouldn't, but I do, and now I'm at a point where I really need to STOP buying books cause there's so many on my shelf I haven't read. Boo!

Question: without spoiling too much, can you talk about how the relationship with Jamie played out? I ask because I've found a certain kind of bias against female characters who are married but end up having affairs with someone else. I know it can be done and done well and still keep the woman sympathetic (the obvious trick is having the woman's husband be a jerk), but I'm curious as to the dynamics in this, and how Gabaldon pulls it off?

Keep in mind, I could be completely crazy too. :)

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

It's handled very well, actually. I was worried about that myself as I started to get into the book, because her 20th century husband, Frank, is portrayed sympathetically - he is a good man. In fact, that may have been, on a not-very-conscious level, why I've been resisting the books for so long.

Once Claire is in the past, there is a slow-growing but obvious attraction and respect between Claire and Jamie - although it has ups and downs, because she is in a culture she doesn't understand, and he behaves in ways she does not expect. As she becomes more enmeshed in 18th century Scottish culture, he makes more sense to her, and she to him. They are friends and partners well before they are lovers.

Also, while she never gives up hope of getting back to the 20th century, she doesn't know if it's possible, and she is a young woman, possibly trapped forever in a time and place where her husband isn't even born yet, and it is difficult for a woman to make her way without being in a relationship with a man.

Then, through a set of specific actions that would be serious spoilers if I discussed them, but which arise naturally from the plot and setting, she finds herself in a position where a relationship with Jamie is the most practical way for her to achieve her goals - one of which is staying alive, and one of which - and this is an important thread that runs through the book, for reasons that are also spoilers - is making sure that Frank's ancestor lives to carry on the line so Frank can be born.

It helps a lot that she is conscious of and conflicted over the issue, and it also helps that she has a practical and earthy frame of mind, rather than a romantic "one twwu love" frame of mind.

And finally, Gabaldon, conscious of the problem this situation is going to raise for a lot of people, makes a point, very early on while Claire is still in the 20th century, of having Claire and Frank - who have been apart long periods of time during the war years - talk about issues of fidelity while one is separated from one's spouse in a relatively non-judgmental way.

I understand, however - and there is foreshadowing of this early in the first novel - that as the series goes on, it turns out that various people can and do move back and forth in time, and that will certainly make the situation more complicated - I'm not sure at all how Gabaldon handles that. But in the first novel, it's done in a way that does not detract from the respect one has for Claire - or for Jamie.

[devilwrites.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for your detailed response. I'm looking forward to picking this one up one day. :)