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utahmomreads's review against another edition
5.0
Earlier this month I got a simple email message from my niece Anna: "I just read The Seamstress. Order it." So, I did.
The novel, by Frances De Pontes Peebles, is epic--641 pages--but is worth every glorious minute. Occasionally, after spending a significant amount of time with a book I am truly sad when it finally comes to an end (ie. The Count of Monte Cristo). I feel this way about The Seamstress. I will miss it.
With passionate and lush writing, Peebles tells the story of two sisters living in Brazil during the political upheaval of the 1930's. While both women manage to escape the poverty of their orphaned childhoods in the mountains of Brazil, they lead drastically different adult lives. In spite of this, they are tied together by the bonds of sisterhood and their training as expert seamstresses.
Emelia and especially Luzia are unique heroines. Peebles created fascinating and complex women characters who are at once strong and fragile, righteous and wicked and nearly always sympathetic. The women are so real and deal with the entire spectrum of human emotion, it is at times hard to believe they are fictional characters.
While the images of violence are often brutal and barbaric, Peebles writes without vulgarity or unnecessary sexual content.
I often give a book five stars upon reading it and then change my mind the more I think about the book and deconstruct it's themes, characters and plot (ie. Ahab's Wife). At this moment, only minutes after reading the final pages, I unabashedly award five stars to The Seamstress.
The novel, by Frances De Pontes Peebles, is epic--641 pages--but is worth every glorious minute. Occasionally, after spending a significant amount of time with a book I am truly sad when it finally comes to an end (ie. The Count of Monte Cristo). I feel this way about The Seamstress. I will miss it.
With passionate and lush writing, Peebles tells the story of two sisters living in Brazil during the political upheaval of the 1930's. While both women manage to escape the poverty of their orphaned childhoods in the mountains of Brazil, they lead drastically different adult lives. In spite of this, they are tied together by the bonds of sisterhood and their training as expert seamstresses.
Emelia and especially Luzia are unique heroines. Peebles created fascinating and complex women characters who are at once strong and fragile, righteous and wicked and nearly always sympathetic. The women are so real and deal with the entire spectrum of human emotion, it is at times hard to believe they are fictional characters.
While the images of violence are often brutal and barbaric, Peebles writes without vulgarity or unnecessary sexual content.
I often give a book five stars upon reading it and then change my mind the more I think about the book and deconstruct it's themes, characters and plot (ie. Ahab's Wife). At this moment, only minutes after reading the final pages, I unabashedly award five stars to The Seamstress.
iceangel32's review against another edition
3.0
Not a book I would have picked up on my own and kinda upset I am not still in MA to go to the book club meeting I read the book for.
It was a good book. I really didn't think it amazing, but it was story about two sisters that tried to escape their past and thoughts about them. Eventhough they both wanted to escape they both did it in completely different ways. However on their route they both met opposition and bumps in the road. Through all of it they both kept eachother and eachother's strength in their memories. They depend on eathother eventhough they are not present (physicaly) for eachother. This book had a great story of the amazing strength of family, and the strength of a strong woman.
It was a good book. I really didn't think it amazing, but it was story about two sisters that tried to escape their past and thoughts about them. Eventhough they both wanted to escape they both did it in completely different ways. However on their route they both met opposition and bumps in the road. Through all of it they both kept eachother and eachother's strength in their memories. They depend on eathother eventhough they are not present (physicaly) for eachother. This book had a great story of the amazing strength of family, and the strength of a strong woman.
mfraise05's review against another edition
3.0
Although I enjoyed the storyline(s), it was, ultimately, way too long. The theme of personal freedom is explored through a myriad of characters and situations yet the final moral, if you will, seems to be that we all make our choices and must either live with and suffer through them or find a way to escape them.
As much as i wanted to read this book in a few sittings, you can see that it took me about 2 years to actually finish it. I wanted to get to the end even though I knew what I would find.
As much as i wanted to read this book in a few sittings, you can see that it took me about 2 years to actually finish it. I wanted to get to the end even though I knew what I would find.
letitbrie's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
meme_too2's review against another edition
4.0
What an interesting story. Two sisters: seamstresses. One is taken by the local bandits and lives her life on the run. The newspaper reports on this notorious group often. The second sister grows up and marries into a wealthy family and becomes a socialite, also referred to, often, in the newspaper. In secret, the sisters keep tabs on each other over the years.
kathieboucher's review against another edition
3.0
I plodded through to the end of The Seamstress, enjoying the setting of the book--Depression-era Brazil is something I knew absolutely nothing about--but was less engaged by the story. The plot follows two sisters, one of whom is kidnapped and becomes a notorious female bandit in Brazil's back country. The other sister marries into a stuffy Recife family and endures her own private captivity in the suffocating social strictures of the era.
The life of the Recife sister presented much more scope for fleshing-out, but this never happened in the 600+ pages of the book.
The life of the Recife sister presented much more scope for fleshing-out, but this never happened in the 600+ pages of the book.
aggie2010's review against another edition
4.0
Such a great book. The story of these two sisters and the different paths they take in life makes for a very interesting read. It is a long book but worth the read.
donnaadouglas's review against another edition
3.0
I liked this book, particularly Luzia's storyline, but I felt the whole thing dragged on a bit too long. There were moments where it really lagged and I lost momentum.
ridgewaygirl's review against another edition
4.0
This book was a surprise to me. It's a large book with a pretty, but generic cover. I knew it was worthy and historical and set somewhere in South America; all of which were fine things, but not things that called me to read it. So the amount of enjoyment I got from this book, the sheer fun I had reading it, was unexpected. I didn't know beforehand that Frances de Pontes Peebles had written a rip-roaring adventure story that ran the gamut from hardscrabble survival in the Brazilian hinterlands to coastal high society to political turmoil to life in an outlaw gang, evading the law and enacting vengeance, all set during the last few years of the 1920s to the first few years of the 1930s.
The Seamstress follows two very different sisters, being raised by their aunt, who teaches them a trade and manners. Emilia longs for a more elegant life, the one depicted in the magazines handed down to her by her employer. She refuses to look at the stolid farmer's sons who would court her, setting her sights on the refined sewing teacher from the capitol. Luiza, tall and with an arm crippled in a fall from a mango tree, has no use for the things Emilia loves. She likes her life in her aunt's house, although she is prickly and rebellious. Circumstances sent one sister to live in luxury in Recife, the provincial capital, while the other joins a band of bandits, led by The Hawk, a feared but canny outlaw. Brazil is changing rapidly, and those changes challenge each woman. Both Luiza and Emilia are complex, interesting and believable characters. They are both strong women, although their strengths fall in different areas.
The book begins slowly, but it wasn't long before I was hauling it around with me to read a few more pages whenever I could. Generally, I only travel with an ereader or a light paperback, but I was willing to lug The Seamstress around with me until, all too quickly, it came to an end.
The Seamstress follows two very different sisters, being raised by their aunt, who teaches them a trade and manners. Emilia longs for a more elegant life, the one depicted in the magazines handed down to her by her employer. She refuses to look at the stolid farmer's sons who would court her, setting her sights on the refined sewing teacher from the capitol. Luiza, tall and with an arm crippled in a fall from a mango tree, has no use for the things Emilia loves. She likes her life in her aunt's house, although she is prickly and rebellious. Circumstances sent one sister to live in luxury in Recife, the provincial capital, while the other joins a band of bandits, led by The Hawk, a feared but canny outlaw. Brazil is changing rapidly, and those changes challenge each woman. Both Luiza and Emilia are complex, interesting and believable characters. They are both strong women, although their strengths fall in different areas.
The book begins slowly, but it wasn't long before I was hauling it around with me to read a few more pages whenever I could. Generally, I only travel with an ereader or a light paperback, but I was willing to lug The Seamstress around with me until, all too quickly, it came to an end.
kmcneil's review against another edition
3.0
Just barely getting into this book and wish I could really delve into it based on Santica's recommendation. The only thing holding me back is my exhaustion and the fact that I can only manage to read a few pages every night before my eyes go blurry. I'll report back with a review when I'm done - which may be six months or so at the rate I'm going!
Update on 10/27/09: It took me about 150 pages to get interested in this book, but I am finally enjoying it. The details of the politics in Brazil circa 1930 are weighing this book down a bit for me, but the stories of the two sisters (Emilia and Luzia) are interesting. I want to keep reading to find out how their lives turn out.
Update on 11/28/09: FINALLY!! I am finished with The Seamstress. The story line of two sisters from a back country town in Brazil and the very different paths their lives took was an interesting one.
Emilia, who wanted a more glamorous life, manages to escape her small mountain town to the comparatively large city of Recife. But her escape came with costs - being married to Degas who was far from the perfect husband she dreamed she would have, and having to live with the Coehlos, his uptight and stringent family. She managed to learn how to behave in the company of "society" and even manages to start a clothing business. But underneath it all is an unsatisfying and secretive life that makes Emilia's feel constantly unsettled and unfulfilled. And, now being part of society, Emila can never admit to having a sister who chose a completely opposite path in life, but for whom she nevertheless has deep love and loyalty.
Her sister Luzia was captured by the cangceiro (i.e. outlaw) group lead by the notorious Hawk. In alternating sections of the book, we hear how Luzia was forced to become part of the group and how she, ultimately, falls in love with the Hawk. We learn how she adapts to the caatinga (scrubland) environment and becomes a formidale cangaceira- nicknamed "The Seamstress"- in her own right. As we learn of Emilia's questioning of the path she chose, we also learn of Luzia's questions about who she really is at heart and her own "choice" to become a nationally feared and loathed outlaw in Brazil.
The Seamstress was an interesting story and I do reccomend it. It is well written and truly takes the reader to another time and place in history. However, as I commented in October, I did feel the that the details of the politics of Brazil in the 1930s under Celestino Gomes weighed this book down. While I appreciated the historical backdrop it provided, it gave more intricate detail than I thought was necessary. Nevertheless, Frances de Pontes Peebles is an excellent writer and I love that she chose such an original topic for her first novel.
Update on 10/27/09: It took me about 150 pages to get interested in this book, but I am finally enjoying it. The details of the politics in Brazil circa 1930 are weighing this book down a bit for me, but the stories of the two sisters (Emilia and Luzia) are interesting. I want to keep reading to find out how their lives turn out.
Update on 11/28/09: FINALLY!! I am finished with The Seamstress. The story line of two sisters from a back country town in Brazil and the very different paths their lives took was an interesting one.
Emilia, who wanted a more glamorous life, manages to escape her small mountain town to the comparatively large city of Recife. But her escape came with costs - being married to Degas who was far from the perfect husband she dreamed she would have, and having to live with the Coehlos, his uptight and stringent family. She managed to learn how to behave in the company of "society" and even manages to start a clothing business. But underneath it all is an unsatisfying and secretive life that makes Emilia's feel constantly unsettled and unfulfilled. And, now being part of society, Emila can never admit to having a sister who chose a completely opposite path in life, but for whom she nevertheless has deep love and loyalty.
Her sister Luzia was captured by the cangceiro (i.e. outlaw) group lead by the notorious Hawk. In alternating sections of the book, we hear how Luzia was forced to become part of the group and how she, ultimately, falls in love with the Hawk. We learn how she adapts to the caatinga (scrubland) environment and becomes a formidale cangaceira- nicknamed "The Seamstress"- in her own right. As we learn of Emilia's questioning of the path she chose, we also learn of Luzia's questions about who she really is at heart and her own "choice" to become a nationally feared and loathed outlaw in Brazil.
The Seamstress was an interesting story and I do reccomend it. It is well written and truly takes the reader to another time and place in history. However, as I commented in October, I did feel the that the details of the politics of Brazil in the 1930s under Celestino Gomes weighed this book down. While I appreciated the historical backdrop it provided, it gave more intricate detail than I thought was necessary. Nevertheless, Frances de Pontes Peebles is an excellent writer and I love that she chose such an original topic for her first novel.