Drowning Room

"Mr. Pye's lyrical, unabashedly literary novel...plunges into the head and heart of a woman who flowered here, on this old island, 350 years ago. It's a daydream about the city's origins with all traces of innocence expunged...Mr. Pye's Holland is vivid and convincing. He recreates with a rapid, delicate touch the tidy clockwork bustle of Dutch culture, its muted opulence. But America beckons, and his New Amsterdam, though equally convincing, is inherently less interesting; except for the looming wild, there's not much there. What tugs the reader along is the contrast between the Old World and the New...Mr. Pye is strong on the details of historical context, weak on character and plot...Gretje herself [is] too obviously subject to Mr. Pye's manipulation. His ideas determine her trajectory, and for all her energy she never comes to life."Pye, Michael is the author of 'Drowning Room' with ISBN 9780140141498 and ISBN 0140141499.