Flight of the Heron read-along: Part III chapters 1-2

[regshoe]

Charlie chose the place himsel', the graveyard of Culloden...

Well, it looks like Keith's prophecies about the fate of the Jacobites, at least, weren't too inaccurate...

Next week we'll read chapters 3 and 4 of part III.

Comments

[regshoe]

Welcome, nice to meet you :) And I'm glad you're enjoying the book and the fic—hehe, this novel certainly does get the emotions...

Oh, it's good that you enjoyed the Edinburgh chapters when you've lived there!

Yes, Lochiel is definitely the centre of Ewen's loyalties here. Broster describes Ewen's Jacobitism as being as natural to him as breathing, and he's devoted to Charles's cause as a matter of course, but his loyalty to Lochiel is more personal and more immediately emotional.

Broster's descriptive writing is utterly lovely always—it's one of my favourite things about the book—and the sense of awful impending doom at the end of chapter 2, with those perfectly chosen images, is an especially good bit.

there is still plenty of story left.

Ahaha, there certainly is...!

[tgarnsl]

Lochiel wasn't known as 'Gentle Lochiel' for nothing. I like his relationship with Ewen, the unspoken father-son dynamic of it, and the way that Lochiel's personality seems to have shaped Ewen's own. I was listening to the In Our Time episode on the Jacobite Rebellion and found it interesting just how important Lochiel's decision to join the uprising really was.

I look forward to what comes next!

[regshoe]

I remember reading in one of my history books about the importance of Lochiel deciding to join the rising (and how nearly he didn't, which I thought was an interesting contrast to Ewen's ardour). Like all the history, Broster's portrayal of him seems to be both accurate historically and interesting fictionally!

Ah, I've found the In Our Time episode, I might give that a listen—is it good?

[tgarnsl]

In Our Time is always good for giving an overview of something, and I think it does a good job at that. I'm not sure there's a huge amount in the episode that you might not already know, but I always find them enjoyable listens at any rate.