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Book Reviewed by:A sweeping debut that crosses continents and generations, Rebellion tells the story of Addie, Louisa, Hazel, and Juanlan: four women whose rebellions, big and small, are as unexpected as they are unforgettable.
At the heart of the novel lies a mystery: In 1900, Addie, an American missionary in China, goes missing during the Boxer Rebellion, leaving her family back home to wonder at her fate. Her sister Louisa - newly married and settled in rural Illinois - anticipates tragedy, certain that Addie's fate is intertwined with her own legacy of loss.
In 1958, Louisa's daughter Hazel has her world upended by the untimely death of her husband. It's harvest time, and with two small children and a farm to tend, she is determined to keep her land and family intact. Yet even while she learns to enjoy her independence, Hazel realizes that the tradeoff for some freedoms is more precious than expected.
Nearly half a century later, Juanlan has returned to her parents' home in Heng'an. With her father ill, her sister-in-law soon to give birth, and the construction of a new highway rapidly changing the town she once knew, she feels pressured on every side by powers outside her control. Frustrated by obligation and the smallness of her own dreams, Juanlan at last dares to follow desire, only to discover an anger that cannot be contained.
Moving from rural Illinois to the far reaches of China, Rebellion brilliantly links through action and consequence the story of four women, spanning more than a century. From the secrets they keep and the adventures they embark on, to the passions that ultimately drive them forward, the characters at the center of this electric debut dramatically fight against expectation in pursuit of their own thrilling fates.
Excerpt
Rebellion
When George and Lydie Hughes came up the drive in their pickup, I was coming out from the barn. I'd been feeding the pigs and thinking how glad I was that the little ones were finally weaned: one of our sows had failed to nurse after she farrowed, and we'd had to bottle-feed her piglets until early October. Only four from the litter had survived. But they were putting on weight, and now that feedings were easy again and I didn't have to spend so much of my time perched on a stool in the half-dark, cradling a piglet in my lap, I felt almost the same as I had a couple months before when Debbie went off to kindergarten. Relieved, but also just a little bit sad. Now, in the mornings, I got Joe and Debbie ready for school while Karol ate breakfast, and by the time they ran down the lane to catch the bus, I had only dirty dishes to keep me company at the empty table. It wasn't entirely a bad thing to be alone for so much of the day. But it was an ...
Though the Boxer Rebellion is the presumed cause of Addie's disappearance, the historic event stays mostly in the background. The meat of the novel comprises the four stories and each character's means of rebelling against the bounds of her circumstance. These personal rebellions aren't easy to define. They are messy. Each character changes her situation, but there is always a price on the other end...continued
Full Review
(800 words)
(Reviewed by Chris Fredrick).
Cecily Wong, author of Diamond Head
Patterson writes with tremendous attention, the strokes of her words fluent and vivid, and it is a rare pleasure to feel that what we have conjured in our minds is exactly what Patterson intended. Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Gold Fame Citrus
Molly Patterson is a writer of the first order, and her debut novel is a revelatory, immersive miracle. Ambitious in scope and exacting in its language, Rebellion becomes a grand exploration of fate and circumstance. Michele Filgate, writer and contributing editor at Literary Hub
The women who occupy Molly Patterson's debut novel share a bond that stretches across continents and generations: a desire for more out of life. Rebellion is an epic, electric novel about the large and small ways defiance can transform a person. Peter Orner, Author of NBCC Award Finalist, Am I Alone Here? and Love and Shame and Love
I found Molly Patterson's Rebellion hypnotically compelling. I was taken by the grand sweep of the story, the simple, direct beauty of the prose, and above all these characters - people I came to know so well. Patterson captures rich, complex lives with great sensitivity and humanity.One of the main characters in Rebellion is a Protestant missionary to China in the 1890s, who goes missing during the Boxer Rebellion.
Though not nearly as old as Confucianism, Christianity existed in China as early as the seventh century, but the presence of Christianity in the country varied widely as Nestorian Christian, Roman Catholic, and Russian Orthodox groups fell in and out of favor with Chinese rulers. The Protestant branch arrived through missionaries beginning in the 1800s.
In the late 1890s, a secret group of Chinese rebels, the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, began attacking Christian missionaries and the Chinese who had converted to Christianity. They began their resistance in the north, but eventually made...
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