Review of Life‘s Untidy Weave

[Sam Ibeh]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Life‘s Untidy Weave" by C.P.H. Pennymaker.]

---

3 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Josh's dreams of adventure and living his full potential are daunted because he was born into a family of religious extremists and fanatics. He uncovers information that drives his desire to experience the world out there. Will he jump on the opportunity and leave his home? Will he rather stay back and not incur God's and his father's wraths?

Life's Untidy Weave is a book that cuts across themes on slavery, religion, hatred, and a bunch of other pertinent 19th-century issues. C. P. H. Pennymaker brings these controversial and interesting issues to life through this book. The book goes back and forth, from 1867 back to 1848 and forth again to 1867. This back-and-forth movement is for emphasis, and it helps build the storyline.

The religious fanaticism in the book was on a whole different level. Pennymaker depicted what Christianity was like in the 1860s. In those times, people presented God as a hater and despiser of men who sin. They portrayed God as a vengeful God who fed off on punishment and believed that men should first understand God's word before women. For a 21st-century Christian, it would sound more like daftness embedded in religion. Reading this was sadly humourous.

The evil of the slave trade would never be overemphasized. We'd keep talking about it for many generations to come. I found my eyes watering a little bit reading about Elijah's experience at the hands of enslavers. It was pointed out that the cigar, coffee, sugar, and many other things that the world used were products of slave labor. It bore the question of "how could they abolish something that was already part of them?" Pennymaker didn't make the story depend solely on the slave trade, but he hit the necessary points at the necessary times.

The type of English employed in the book was required of a historical book. Something I'd like to refer to as "Old English." I read some lines with a British accent and some with a ghetto American accent. I found it very exciting. This would be a good example: "We all know you was crazy."

The most infuriating issue with this book is the font size. The font was so tiny that I could barely read the words. I had to zoom in well to be able to read the texts. I wouldn't know if this would be different with the hard copy. Also, I did not understand the poems and quotes used to introduce each part of the book. They sounded vague to me. The book was divided into three parts, and each part began with a fresh chapter one, making it look like different books. It didn't make sense why the author didn't arrange the chapter numbers sequentially. Finally, the amount of grammatical and spelling errors in the book was alarming, and it had nothing to do with the English language variations.

Generally, the read was a good one, and I'd recommend it to lovers of historical fiction with tinges of the slave trade and religious fanaticism. I’d rate Life's Untidy Weave three out of four stars.

******
Life‘s Untidy Weave
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

[Mbenma Esther 080]

Virtue they say lies in the middle. It is trying become questionable that those who brought religion were the ones that engaged in the slave trade. Thanks for the review

[Mary Lou Mills]

I do enjoy historical fiction, but with such tiny print, I'm afraid I'd have to pass.

[Walter R]

This seems like quite an intriguing storyline. Would definitely love to add this to my shelf. Great review.

[Aisha Yakub]

Happened in the 1800s, but they're still a lot of people who'll like to try out certain adventures but are shackled by family principles. Thank you for the review