Status Updates From The Wake

I'm loving Buckmaster. What an anti-hero! He's exactly the demo that would be most impacted by the Norman Conquest - smallholder without retainers or any real political power. Yet, he and his family could have survived on his land, except perhaps for his sons, if he was not so boneheaded, arrogant, egotistical and stuck in the past. Most of his misfortune is self-inflicted. A leader would have united his ham.

He is obsessed with the idea of "freedom", yet he doesn't know that freedom is not given to every man, and is a luxury, not a virtue. Not to mention, he is all bluff and bluster. Has he actually ever swung his grandfather's sword? He was gone at that critical moment when he could have lived up to his words and ideals, to protect his land and family, even though he was warned that moment was coming.

Buckmaster of Holland is a metaphor for the modern American. He sits atop a pile of wealth and privilege, looking down on everyone else. He doesn't realize that his wealth was built through conquest, the same forces he is facing now. He clings to the past in a superficial way. He doesn't love the old gods. He just rejects the modern world. Then, he has delusions of greatness. He thinks he is the chosen one.

So glad I opted for the audiobook. I would’ve been distracted by trying to learn the vocabulary. I see that the vocabulary doesn’t really matter, and I get the gist. The narrator really helps with this.