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A review by expendablemudge
The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys
3.0
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Book Report: It is a matter of historical record that the Thames, giant river and estuary that drains the heart of Southern England, has frozen solid forty times in the span of record-keeping that we possess. Author Humphreys sets about telling the story of these extraordinary events, one at a time, and in a very compressed and taut way, by giving us brief slices of the lives of people experiencing the once-in-a-lifetime event. Each of these stories is very, very short, and often accompanied by lovely historical illustrations of the Thames and of the Frost Fairs that took place on the mighty river.
My Review: This is a physically beautiful book. The paper is heavy matte-coated stock, perfect for the illustrations and the nature of the text. It's all too rare to find such a lovely match between subject and medium coming from a major US publishing house. I was pleasantly surprised by this.
I was a little less pleasantly impressed by the somewhat smug little Author's Note, in which Humphreys says that, due to the exigencies of global warming, she's trying with this set of stories to preserve “...the idea of ice {in} our consciousness.”
Oof.
One whole star off for hubris, and for the slightness of the edifice built in memoriam for the concept of ice. Much much more would be required to capture an essence of the vast power of ice. Enough to say that this book is meant to capture some of the experience of ice as a transformative force. Going that extra length to make it so global...well, that's just too far, too much, and too bad.
The Book Report: It is a matter of historical record that the Thames, giant river and estuary that drains the heart of Southern England, has frozen solid forty times in the span of record-keeping that we possess. Author Humphreys sets about telling the story of these extraordinary events, one at a time, and in a very compressed and taut way, by giving us brief slices of the lives of people experiencing the once-in-a-lifetime event. Each of these stories is very, very short, and often accompanied by lovely historical illustrations of the Thames and of the Frost Fairs that took place on the mighty river.
My Review: This is a physically beautiful book. The paper is heavy matte-coated stock, perfect for the illustrations and the nature of the text. It's all too rare to find such a lovely match between subject and medium coming from a major US publishing house. I was pleasantly surprised by this.
I was a little less pleasantly impressed by the somewhat smug little Author's Note, in which Humphreys says that, due to the exigencies of global warming, she's trying with this set of stories to preserve “...the idea of ice {in} our consciousness.”
Oof.
One whole star off for hubris, and for the slightness of the edifice built in memoriam for the concept of ice. Much much more would be required to capture an essence of the vast power of ice. Enough to say that this book is meant to capture some of the experience of ice as a transformative force. Going that extra length to make it so global...well, that's just too far, too much, and too bad.