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[``Gab Fraser]

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JAMIE FRASER > EDWARD CULLEN

I just finished rereading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. My reasons for reading it again being 1) It’s an excellent book, 2) I sort of forgot what happened, and 3) I still haven’t finished the series, so I figured I should know remind myself how it started, at least. The book’s a good healthy size, around 800 pages and it took me about a week and a half to read. That should be a good indication of how much I like it.

And just because Jamie is just a normal human, it doesn’t make the circumstance of his relationship less amazing. Here are Jamie and Claire, forced together because of unforeseeable and horrible chances, and they make the best of it. Perhaps, the dearest part is that Jamie fell in love with Claire the first time he held her when she cried, shortly after being captured by the big burly Scotsmen. For Claire, the process is slower and tortuous because she still loves her husband from her own time. The passion the two have for each other, the tender love to care for each other, and the raw desire they have for each other and all so strongly laced in the book. It’s really fabulous.

On a non-romance note, the book is also really clever. The plot is very complex (don’t let that scare you away), and that’s really what life is like, it’s not one simple plot, it’s a lot of plots tangled up in a big mess. The emotions and motives of all the characters are very carefully thought up and incredibly detailed. Having just finished the book, one part that I remember vividly now, is the aftermath of an ordeal Jamie went through. His pain is so great and it makes you cry as if he has died.

Great book. 5 stars, 2 thumbs up, however you want it. Now, I need to reread the second book so that I can start the third one for the first time. Whew.

Oh by the way, well, you would have realized by now. NOTHING to do with the Outlander movie that’s came out last summer.

[``Jennifer MacKenzie]

08/04/07
Kate rated it: five stars
bookshelves: alltimefavourites

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The genius here is that historical fiction merges with science fiction, to produce a kind of double whammy of the historical.

The novel is set, initially, in 1946 Scotland, where a couple take a second honeymoon after the Second World War. Whilst not a huge presence in the piece, WW2 is something that feeds into the motivations of Claire, the protagonist, and informs the story. Through magic, science, coma, act of God or who knows what else, Claire Randall finds herself in mid eighteenth century Scotland. She meets the fearsome ancestor of her husband, English officer, Jack Randall, and finds herself put in danger through his suspicions that she is a spy. Given refuge by the MacKenzie clan, she embarks upon numerous journeys of self discovery, and a journey of impossible love.

The romantic lead of the piece is Jamie Fraser. Strong, young, witty, and a little innocent, he is everything that Claire's husband in 1946 is not. The love between Jamie and Claire is beautifully paced, and the main focus of the novel. It is different to most romantic fiction I have read in that throughout their affair, they face the world together, growing as a couple. When the time comes for one to turn the other away, it doesn't feel like it is simply a necessary part of the formula, or a plot device, but rather an organic development of character.

It is the characters that make this novel what it is. Each with their own personality, story to tell and multiple motivations, they are crafted with precision. It is, of course, Jamie and Claire who shine through. I recently wrote an essay on George Orwell, and read a piece of criticism which quoted him as saying that first person novels do not work, because they focus too much on the individual and not on a greater span of humanity. Rather than going into how Orwell failed to achieve an avoidance of focus on the individual, I will simply say that Gabaldon proves him wrong in Cross Stitch. Claire is the first person narrator, and so we see a world unfamiliar to us through her equally unfamiliar eyes. This grants us easier access to the more alien aspects of the society she finds herself in. But we are not restricted to Claire's perspective. Multiple times throughout the novel, stories are recounted to Claire by other characters, part told in dialogue, part by Claire's narrative, switching almost imperceptibly into a third person narrator.

Something that shows Gabaldon's skill as a storyteller particularly well is the way that history is integrated. I feel that the sign of a weak historical author is one who says 'this is how this was in this particular century, and this is how that was' (which is how I felt when I tried to read novels by Robert Harris and Phillippa Gregory, but that's a matter for another day). Gabaldon does not tell her reader about history, she shows them. Rather than history ruling the story, it becomes a texture of the setting, making the novel even more of a joy to read.

Something I love about this novel is Gabaldon's treatment of what may be seen as taboo subjects. If not so much now in some cases, certainly in 1991 when this novel was originally published. There are issues of rape, husbands beating wives, hysteria, mental illness, abortion, homosexuality. Some are explored in depth, some skimmed over. But all are treated as part of life: they are treated honestly, and not made to look any better for the sake of the reader. In some respects, this is extremely brave of Gabaldon. There are points where readers could be lost for it, but there is a truth in these scenes that cannot ever really be presented in any medium other than the novel, and it is scenes like this that we sorely need, if we are ever going to gain anything from reading novels.

Cross Stitch is by no means great literature, nor will it ever find its way into the canon, but it is entertaining storytelling at its best.

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