East by Edith Pattou
Rose has always felt out of place in her family, a wanderer in a bunch of homebodies. So when an enormous white bear mysteriously shows up and asks her to come away with him — in exchange for health and prosperity for her ailing family — she readily agrees. The bear takes Rose to a distant castle, where each night she is confronted with a mystery. In solving that mystery, she loses her heart, discovers her purpose, and realizes her travels have only just begun. As familiar and moving as Beauty and the Beast and yet as fresh and original as only the best fantasy can be, East is a novel retelling of the classic tale "East of the Sun, West of the Moon," a sweeping romantic epic in the tradition of Robin McKinley and Gail Carson Levine.
I happened on this book as a recommendation from a work colleague. I don’t know her very well, but she saw me reading a large fiction book on my lunch and commented on it. I, in turn, saw this book in her hand, East by Edith Pattou. I asked her if it was good and she told me it was one of her favorite books. To make a comment like that for me is hard because I love books, so I thought that if she made that comment, it was worth looking into. I took the name of the book down and bought it a month later to discover that it was a wonderful story that I will have on my shelves and read to my children!
Quick Summary of Book
As a precursor, East is a retelling of a nordic fairytale called East of the Sun, West of the Moon so the story isn’t original to Pattou. However, her version of it is truly wonderful and inspiring. East opens with the story of a mapmaker who became a farmer to support his family. His wife believed in a superstition about the direction a child is facing when it is born. Each direction has it’s own meaning and North is believed to be the unlucky direction. The wife, Eugenia, who was born facing East as the first letter of her name suggests, surmised that she will birth a child for each direction on the compass to have good luck. They had seven children, one for each direction except North. Unfortunately, Elise, their East facing child, died suddenly. This was a great loss for the family so Eugenia set out to replace the child that had been lost to complete the compass. But when it came time for her baby to be born, the child was accidentally born North. Eugenia did not want to accept this fact and so she named their child Ebba Rose, claiming her birth direction was East. Everyone just called her Rose. Even though Rose was named to follow east characteristics, her actions still shows that she was a north child. She explored the land around their house. She got into trouble contantly and knew that there was more out there for her than just their small home. In her explorations, Rose saw a great white bear several times in her wanderings, watching her near by.
The family happened on hard times and soon more children started to die. One night, the great white bear came to them with a proposition: in exchange for Rose, he would bring the family health and propsperity. Rose convinced her father to let her go with the white bear. The bear takes her to his castle weeks travel away from her home. When they arrive, she is allowed to do whatever she wants within the castle walls. She spends her time making clothes and various items on a loom she found in one of the rooms. The bear comes to watch her and soon they grow a friendship, even though few words are spoken between them. All of her needs were always met at the castle. She had food whenever she wanted, but she was lonely. There were no other people in the castle except the white bear and two servants that kept the castle. The one peculiar thing that happened was each night she receives a visitor in her bed, who slept next to her. She never saw the visitor's face because the lights go out magically when they enter the room. However when Rose figures out how to keep the light lit - with the help of her superstitious mother - when her visitor comes, it turns out to be a man. The man was under a spell to be the great white bear during the day and change to a man only in the night. When Rose sees his true form, the spell is broken and the great white bear, whom is now a man, is taken away from her by the Troll Queen. Rose is left with the decision to go back home to her family or to rescue the great white bear from the fate that she has doomed him to. She decides to go on the quest to East of the Sun, West of the Moon to find the great white bear and rescue him. As to not spoil the rest of the book, I will leave it there and let your imagination fill in the rest.
Folktales
A folktale by definition is a story or legend forming part of an oral tradition. Folktales are generally passed down from one generation to another and speak to universal and timeless themes. They help the people make sense of their existence or cope with the world in which they live. East at it’s core, is a folktale so some of the story elements aren’t quite complete as a novel would have. Because the style of this book is more poetic and childlike, as it is meant to be, I don’t think that any of the normal critics really should come into play. Fairytales and folklore aren’t meant to be a completely developed story with dazzling characters that are fleshed out in the text. They are meant to be read aloud, sitting around a fire under the stars, with the whole family present to learn and cherish the art of story telling. Yes, this story has been adapted to a novel form. However, the original text is only “6 Chapters” long. I put that in quotations because these are more like small sections forming a very small novel.
East
Each chapter of East is written from a different character’s point of view. The different points of view shows a specific style depicting each narrator. The chapters are short, concise, and simply written. The point of views switch back and forth frequently, keeping the narrative fast and changing. Rose, the main character, is the most developed character in the story. She is adventurous and brave, going on a journey to save the great white bear whom she hardly knew. Even though the character development is more shallow than in other novels, Rose is a vibrant and vivacious female heroine who takes charge of her life despite what her family has always done. Once she learns about the direction of her true birth, she is angry with her parents and wants to go with the bear to save her family.
However, after being at the castle for months, she longs for home and so she makes a deal with the white bear to go home for a visit. She promises that she will come back and be with the white bear for the rest of her life. When she visits home, she sees the prosperity and good fortune that came to her family, just as the white bear said it would, and even though leaving her family was hard she still went back to the castle with the white bear. I admire her relationship with her older brother Neddie and the connection that they have is grounding. Then, when Rose breaks the spell and sentences the white bear to a life with the Troll Queen, she embarks on a journey to rescue a man that she only knew as the white bear. However, knowing that it was her actions that sent him to his doom, she felt responsible and followed him to the land East of the Sun, West of the Moon, which no one seemed to know where that is. Embracing her true north birth and compelled by her friendship and loyalty to the white bear, she endangers herself and faced perils that no one else would dream of doing for someone they hardly know. When no on thought much of her, except her father and brother Neddie, Rose took the journey to find her purposes and discover that there was so much more inside her than anyone else could have imagined.
This story is full of fun magical characters and twists to engage any reader who loves simple adventure stories. I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars and recommend it to any young readers or adults who still love reading a good fairytale story to brighten their outlook on the humanity. Rose’s adventures inspire all to follow their gut. It doesn’t matter what you have been told about yourself your whole life. Embark on a journey to find who you truly are and what you believe in. No one else can do it for you.
