Fall On Your Knees – Ann-Marie MacDonald
My rating: ***** 1/2!
I just finished reading Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald. This fictional story was about 500 pages long, and I swear, something important happened on each and every page. I’m not even going to get into the story itself… I’d have to take hours to give an in-depth story summary as I have with some of the other books I’ve reviewed here. Plus, it had a huge element of suspense that I wouldn’t want to ruin for any potential readers.
I’ll tell you this much: it seemed to deal with just about every conceivable topic of social deviancy and controversy. We’re talking incest, pedophilia, rape, prostitution, violence, crime, religion, superstition… and by “controversies” I mean interracial relationships and same sex relationships. Which, might I add, are two of my favorite topics to read about. The best part of all was that it took place in a historical setting. Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in the early part of the 1900s. That’s not a place and time you read about every day. The prose was beautiful. Haunting, even.
I love it when the characters I’m getting to know in a story automatically assign themselves to faces of people I know. When I get such a strong sense of the character’s personality, that I start to subconsciously form a picture of a familiar person in my life with similar personality traits. That happened immediately with this book. All of the characters were so painfully realistic, my brain selected faces without even consulting me. I can boldly and certainly say that MacDonald has crafted the most believable and deep characters I have EVER met in a story, in any book, any time.
The plot was heart-quickening. Sadly, I decided to read this book while on vacation at the beach, and I’ll have to admit that I don’t remember much about the vacation itself. The plot of this story was loud enough to block out crashing waves, my husband’s voice and even my own thoughts. That says a lot. If you are a fan of unexpected twists… mind-fuckery as I like to call it, you will be feasting royally on this one.
The setting and descriptions thereof caused me to acquire goosebumps, many times. I could picture it all so vividly, I could smell the Lebanese food cooking and hear Kathleen’s voice lessons. It made me feel more present in MacDonald’s world of Cape Breton and the Piper family than I’ve felt in my own family in a long time.
Lastly, the “sexual surprise” near the end left me reeling, shocked and strangely entranced.
This book will shock you. That’s my thesis statement… my summarizing sentence. Whatever. It was beautiful, haunting, and enthralling. Read it. The End.
