I was not able to get interested in this book and I did not finish it. The characters and the plot were not able to catch or keep my attention.

Every once in a while one stumbles across a book that is extremely difficult to review, and To Calais, In Ordinary Time is one such book for me. There was so much I admired about the scope of this novel—from the use of language (French, Saxon, archaic Latinate) to develop a rich setting and fascinating characters to the very topically relevant nature of a story of plague. There was an almost cinematic quality to the prose, and it lent itself well to the devices used in meticulously crafting narrative through languages.

But to me the narrative got bogged down in all of its cleverness. There were equal number of times where the archaic language was a hinderance as it was a boon, frequently it would provide such a challenge that it felt like it was running at odds to the construction of the novel itself. For a book that is not terribly long, it did take me quite a while to get through it.

All that said, I admire the work the author put into this novel, and I appreciate the thought that went into crafting it. However, it is ultimately a 3.5 star read for me.

I really enjoyed this book and the fact that the author showed three different characters viewpoints on events.

Unfortunately the book stopped workin after a little while, so I couldn't finish it. Seemed to be a DRM-issue.

Written very in-depth with deep character and setting description, this novel is to be savored slowly. As the Black Death looms over Europe, 3 travelers returning to France from England must face what this historical event will do to change their lives. A bit of a slow read, perhaps even plodding, nevertheless accurate and engrossing.

1348 and a varied group of travellers are making their way through England and heading for Calais, amidst rumours of a pestilence in France which has now crossed the Channel. Berna is a young noblewoman flleeing an arranged marriage, Thomas is a proctor reluctantly returning to his home in Avignon and Will is a bondsman sent with a group of archers to fight for the king and gain his freedom.

The story follows each of the protagonists as they come together with a band of archers. Berna is in search of her true love, Captain Haket, although her ideas of love are much influenced by a tale of courtly love. Will, despite leaving his betrothed in the village, also finds his own true love on the way. There are a number of sexual encounters on the way and the author spares us no blushes in the graphic description of them.

The language is difficult at times with many archaic words and constructions, particularly spoken by the low-born. Characters often complain that they do not understand their betters as they use too many French words. Feudal divisions are imposed rigidly but such divisions are blurred as the pestilence attacks both high- and low-born.

Reading this tale during a pandemic adds an extra dynamic to the story. Issues of mortality, loyalty within communities and love and friendship become more potent as readers face such issues in their everyday lives.

A tale well told, full of interesting stories as the group make their way through the country and vist a pageant, a castle, a priory and a number of plague-ridden villages.

Rating: 2 confusing stars

Historical fiction set in 1348 Europe. That is just the type of book I normally love. However, these are not normal times, and this is not a normal book. This book valiantly attempts to tell the story of three different types of people travelling from England to Calais, France. Calais is currently besieged by the plague, the Black Death. On the road to Calais, There is a group of English archers setting out to fight the French. A highborn lady escaping an arranged marriage. A cleric returning to his home in Avignon. I drew comparisons to the group on the road together in Chaucer’s ‘The Canterbury Tales’.

The good bit of the book is written in arcane languages and language forms that were hard to decipher. Depending on the person or group being featured, there was quite a bit of either French, Anglo-Saxon or Latin used. It took a lot of work to try to figure out what was being said. I never did understand the bits about the cleric. I finally figured out that ‘neb’ means nose. I could at least find ‘neb’ in my Kindle dictionary. That’s something I guess.

I think this is the type of book that you click with and love, or you struggle with and don’t enjoy very much. Sadly, for me, I fell into the latter camp. The premise was so promising. The arcane languages were just too hard to understand for this to be an enjoyable read for me. I would love to read the story told in modern English.

‘Thank-You’ to NetGalley; the publisher, Canongate; and the author, James Meek, for providing a free e-ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

While the writing was lovely, the pacing was slow and I rarely enjoy books that move between perspectives so quickly. For me, it didn't add tension and interrupted the momentum throughout. As work of historical fiction it does deliver on atmosphere and I appreciated the author's writing style but couldn't get past some of the choices with pacing and structure to enjoy the story.

Being honest, I have to say that I wanted to like the book more than I actually did. Some things aren’t totally resolved by the end and after a slow start, things never really picked up even when the plague finally arrived.

The language used in the book goes far beyond just a word or two. Initially I had to read carefully to grasp the meaning of unknown or vaguely understandable things.This required lots of concentration and slowed down my reading speed but kind of tied in with this being a slow journey mainly on foot for the characters. But I enjoyed sinking into this world of the English language at the cusp of melding into middle English.

I also appreciated how the world is presented as these characters would know it. People are still bondsmen and bondswomen and have no inkling that, when it’s over, the Black Death will have upended their social status and lead to the end of serfdom. No one thinks this is wrong, merely that some would like to escape this bondage and be free. There are other little things included that illuminate how different this world is such as the way working classes view their own countrymen from other counties as almost foreign to them. The meeting of Will with the King’s-mother is, at times, hilarious as she is staggered that he doesn’t know her name.

A lot of time is spent showing the differences between social classes – also something, for the most part, that is accepted as normal. The language used by the various people shifts between that of the commoners and those of gentle birth. Will and Hab often have to ask the meaning of words (common to us now) that they’ve never heard or had explained to them. Much is made of the differences that are thought (mainly by the aristocrats) to exist between the finer emotions felt by them that the rustic plough man is incapable of grasping or feeling. By the end, when our travelers reach areas stricken by the plague and must survive more on wits and strength, ideas of questioning the status quo drift into the minds of certain characters.

The inequality between genders is explored a bit with one character deciding that it’s far easier to travel as a man than a woman. One other is portrayed as gender fluid with a same sex lover who accepts them. The violated woman has her revenge and on her own terms. The day to day dirt and living conditions are layered into the story without getting too graphic.

Yet despite all that I liked, my attention was wandering by the time the story ended. There is a lot going on here, some of which is left unexplained or ambiguous. I kept mentally tapping my foot, eager for the plague to finally get there. Then there is the conceit of including bits and pieces of the “Romance of the Rose” which I found mostly boring as it seemed endless at times and served more to slow the pace of the action. The book is ambitious and at times magnificent but in the end, left me wanting as the whole didn’t quite live up to the sum of its parts. B- mainly for the bravura use of language and period detail.

I find it difficult to review <i>To Calais, in Ordinary Time</i>. I admired so much about it: the author's use of archaic Latinate, Norman French and Saxon vocabulary to flesh out the characters and setting, the laugh-out-loud bits of dialog, the almost Shakespearean nature of the plot, the almost cinematic nature of the prose, the experience of reading about the characters' fear of the plague while quarantined myself, nervously checking my temperature over and over to see if our modern day plague has infected me.

And yet, and yet. There were so many boring sections, so many places where the archaic vocabulary dragged me out of the story, so many sentences that were almost incomprehensible. For a relatively short book, it seemed to take an aeon to get through.

My final verdict is this: <i>To Calais, in Ordinary Time</i> would make an excellent movie or mini-series. A director would slash away the excessive use of archaic language that slows the story down and would be able to compress the boring bits. 3.5 stars; mildly recommended for the patient reader.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review this ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and Canongate for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

First off, let me say that I think James Meek has some impressive writing chops. His third book, The People's Act of Love, remains one of my favorite books. I was thrilled when I was approved for this ARC and had requested based off his writing merit alone.

This book follows the three main characters as the Black Death looms over Calais and spreads across Europe. It is set in the England in 1348. The writing is characteristic of that era and reads in a purposefully antiquated fashion.

Unfortunately, as a healthcare worker myself, reading about a pandemic while living in one was just not something that I wanted to be doing with my spare time. In addition, I found the language difficult to approach. I assume based on the author's previous works as well as the body of other reviews that should time be invested into the book, there is likely good payout in terms of reading enjoyment. However, for reasons listed above, I found myself unable to finish the book. DNF ~10%. This definitely fell into a "this is fine, not for me (right now)" kind of category.

What an accomplishment this novel is! It's about a group of British folks in the middle ages who set off to cross to Calais and fight the French. The language the author uses gives a feeling of authenticity. Characters meet with a variety of adventures, love, violence, crazy people, beautiful places, and the Black Death. To say this was an eerie and timely read during my first two weeks sequestered at home trying to evade Covid-19 is an understatement.
My stars and praise, however, do not mean this was an easy read. I often checked my kindle's dictionary for word meaning and also from curiosity about word origin. My own recent forays into French made this adventure both more understandable and richer. At times, reading the novel seemed like a lot of work because of the language and I drifted away from it for periods. Also the author is not shy of graphic violence or sex.. Still, the most wonderful things are not usually the most easily won.

I was so happy to choose this book since it's a little out of my "comfort zone" of reading. I usually stick to the same types of books that all have relatively the same plot.

I was intrigued as it seemed more like a diary of someone's thoughts as the book progressed. I feel the author did an excellent job on capturing the moods as they shifted, how people were being effected etc.

Definitely pick up this book if you are wanting something a little different than what you are use to but really enjoy this period in time. I was consumed by this book.

A fascinating story with an interesting and well thought cast of characters and a vivid and well researched historical background.
The plot flows and kept me hooked till the end.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

In a horrible sort of coincidence, I ended up reading the perfect book for waiting out a pandemic: a book about the beginning of another pandemic. The Black Death looms over most of To Calais, in Ordinary Time, by James Meek, until the characters run right into it on England’s southern coast in the summer of 1348. Some of the characters think that the plague is a hoax. Others think it’s a French plot. Yet other characters are so caught up in their own personal dramas that they don’t care about the plague at all until people start to sicken and die.

I picked this up because a reviewer for The New York Review of Books discussed how Meek wrote dialogue for his narrators in different registers of English at the time. I am a sucker for books that feature earlier varieties of English. (#wordnerd) Will Quate, a serf who makes a bargain with his lord for his freedom by servicing as a bowman in the English army, speaks in plain English. The daughter of his lord, Berna, speaks an English that his heavily seasoned with French. Berna is a big fan of the Roman de la Rose, a popular allegory of love. Thomas the Proctor speaks and writes a Latinate version of English. At times, the three narrators confuse each other with their vocabularies. Meek brilliantly recreates the Englishes of seven hundred some odd years ago.

To Calais, in Ordinary Time reads like a series of learning opportunities in the form of adventures on the road. Because it’s not safe to travel alone, first Berna and then Thomas join Will’s company of bowmen. There are fights, confessions, and even a pageant of the Roman de la Rose on the way. Slowly, while all of this is happening, Will and Thomas piece together what happened to the woman who is held captive by the bowmen, a Frenchwoman who was raped and abducted just before the battle of Crécy. Berna and her maid Madlen (actually a swineherd Hab, who has disguised themself as their own “sister”) are wrapped up in their own dramas as they chase after men they believe to be their true loves.

My linguistic entry point turned out to be a small part of To Calais, in Ordinary Time. This book revolves around issues of war crimes and rape, different kinds of love, oaths and obligations, atonement, absolution, what it means to be a man or a woman, and so much more. In spite of many opportunities to bend his moral code, Will mostly remains a stubbornly upright man, who refuses to cut and run even when he should. In contrast, Berna has to learn that, for her, romantic love is a fantasy that came from reading her roman too many times. Of all the narrators, she was the one I wanted to yell at the most because of her insistence on following her own plans. It’s only toward the end when Berna grows up. Lastly, Thomas provides many doses of worldly wisdom for his young companions as they make their way south to Calais. I liked Thomas a lot. He’s been on the planet long enough to know how to manipulate the guilty to reveal their crimes so that they can go to purgatory or heaven with a clear consciences.

The end of To Calais, in Ordinary Time, when the company encounters the plague and bowmen start to drop dead, is frightening. The helplessness and fear the characters feel was absolutely palpable, made all the more believable by what I’ve been seeing on the news over the past weeks. I am deeply thankful that the virus sweeping around the planet is far less destructive and deadly as Yersinia pestis was. Thinking back on this book and its apocalyptic ending, I find it very fitting that the plot is all about what characters are willing to fight for, their identities, their loves, and their (more or less malleable) codes of honor. When the world is ending, who are we and what do we stand for?

An astonishing and brilliant book intended to--and effective at--capturing the world and language of late 14th-century England. A former priest, an archer, and a noblewoman on the run find themselves traveling together to Calais in a time of plague, war, and uncertainty. Exploring social mores, religious belief, gender, sexuality, politics, and more, Meek creates a wondrous tale of resistance and persistence.

This book had great promise -- good plot, well developed characters and an interesting device, switching between 3 different narrators to tell the story. But the author tried too had to be "authentic" to his story and used only language appropriate to the time, which I found very jarring. It made the book hard to follow, having to try and look up so many words and not finding most of them in my dictionary. Even small details, like using "ne" instead of "no" made every line a translation exercise rather than a joy to read. I tried hard to get into this story, but the language kept me from loving it. Not recommended.

England, 1348. This story is driven by three main characters. Bernadine, a gentlewoman, who flees arranged marriage. A proctor, who is returning home from England to Avignon, France, where pestilence has already reached. Therefore, he doesn’t know what awaits him there; an empty villa or his housekeepers welcoming him. Will Quate, a handsome young ploughman, who is also a skilled bowman. He volunteers as an archer, thus it takes him on the same road to Calais as the fleeing bride and returning proctor.

I got interested in this story because of the Black Death, but this story is character driven, which are interesting and language driven, which is most challenging. It is very interesting how the social status of those three characters is presented through the usage of English language, some old English, some French influence, and some Latin influence. Thus, creating a bit challenging read.

I understand the uniqueness to present social classes through language, but that creates a trial for a modern reader. It takes a great skill to write in such style; however I don’t want to be guessing what I’m reading at times. Some will appreciate it. As far as it goes for me and my personal preference in general, I like the language to be the same and smooth, no foreign language words injections. So I can understand what I’m reading.

All this cool work with language and etymology, and the feeling I was left with more than any other was boredom. I didn’t care about the characters and I didn’t care about their stories. I didn’t even notice the differences in the languages used by the different narrators because I never felt like I had a handle on who all the narrators were. It felt like nothing more than a bunch of really small snippets of stories copied and pasted into one document. It wasn’t like Chapter 1 – Emma and then that whole chapter would be from Emma’s point of view. No, it was a few paragraphs from one person, then switch to another for less than a whole kindle page, then on to yet another person for such a short time that you can’t get a grasp of who is narrating let alone pay attention to what they’re trying to say. This jumping from POV to POV like a caffeinated bunny became less pronounced as the book progressed. There were some longer passages dedicated to one character, but on the whole, I felt many of the sections were too short to ever get a feel for the person we were supposed to be learning about. By the time I would realize who was narrating (especially early on in the book), I would be wrenched into another characters head and the whole thing would start over again. Even once I got a hang of who all the characters were, I found the story really rather boring. It was quite a ways into the book before the journey starts, maybe because the author really wanted us to know all the reasons why the people had to go on the journey? I really don’t know. It felt like the book started too early in the story, if that makes sense. Like the author easily could have cut the first 20% and then fed bits and pieces of it back to us throughout the rest of the book. As it is, it takes way too long to get going. It’s not until about halfway that the book really starts to pick up, once the plague-ridden inns and starvation kick in. Things finally begin to happen and the pace of the story increases, but the writing style never got easier to understand and I found my mind wandering whenever the “voices” of the characters became too overwhelming. These weren’t sentences that rolled off the tongue. I constantly stumbled over passages in my mind and had to reread because I simply couldn’t understand what they were saying.

TL;DR: I applaud what the author was trying to do with language, but it didn’t make for very entertaining reading.

I received a free copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

To Calais, in Ordinary Time is one of those books you enter like a world and realize you want to remain in. To Calais is set in the 14th Century as the Black Death arrives in Britain, so that wanting to remain is very conditional. One doesn't want the death, the brutality, the disrespect for women—but one does want the pacing and the unexpected relationships that form and the ethical considerations faced when every act (or absence) is seen as God's will.

To Calais follows an unusual cohort traveling south to the ports, so the members can sail to Calais for a variety of reasons. There are experienced archers who've fought in Calais earlier and who embody a volatile mix of brutality and honor; a woman these archers raped and abducted the last time they were in France; a young woman escaping marriage to a much older man; a neither-priest-nor-scholar intellectual, charged as the group's spiritual advisor; a young peasant newly joining the archers; and a swineherd in love with this peasant, alternately appearing as himself and as his "sister" Madlen, in hopes of winning that beloved's affections.

Watching these characters define themselves, both individually and in relation to one another, is fascinating and, at times, heart-rending. The language of the novel, which uses older word forms and highlights the difference between the English-English of peasants and the French-English of the nobility, slows the pace a bit in ways that are appropriate to the gradual speed of the journey the characters are undertaking. And, amid all the seriousness and exploration of the complexities of identity are generous moments of humor.

The experience this book offers is surprising, deeply engaging, challenging, and rewarding—a blend of all the best fiction has to offer.

I received a free electronic ARC of this title from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions are my own.