Keneally imagines the touching relationship between a high-spirited English girl and the 'Ogre' that is Napoleon during his final exile on the mid-Atlantic island of St Helena. He perfectly captures the claustrophobia of life on such a remote colony, eliciting great sympathy for the two main protagonist through their unlikely friendship, but disdaining both the French hangers-on and the British rulers as personified by a vindictive new governor. The denouement is both shocking and sad.
(Jeremy Miller - bwl 85 Summer 2017 ) |
