Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Completion Date: July 10, 2011

Reason for Reading: Received a review copy of the 20th Anniversary Edition.

In Outlander, a 600-page time-travel romance, strong-willed and sensual Claire Randall leads a double life with a husband in one century, and a lover in another. Torn between fidelity and desire, she struggles to understand the pure intent of her heart. But don't let the number of pages and the Scottish dialect scare you. It's one of the fastest reads you'll have in your library.

While on her second honeymoon in the British Isles, Claire touches a boulder that hurls her back in time to the forbidden Castle Leoch with the MacKenzie clan. Not understanding the forces that brought her there, she becomes ensnared in life-threatening situations with a Scots warrior named James Fraser. But it isn't all spies and drudgery that she must endure. For amid her new surroundings and the terrors she faces, she is lured into love and passion like she's never known before.

I was lame and sore in every muscle when I woke next morning. I shuffled to the privy closet, then to the wash basin. My innards felt like churned butter. It felt as though I had been beaten with a blunt object, I reflected, then thought that that was very near the truth. The blunt object in question was visible as I came back to bed, looking now relatively harmless. Its possessor [Jamie] woke as I sat next to him, and examined me with something that looked very much like male smugness."

Gabaldon creates characters that you'll remember, laugh with, cry with, and cheer for long after you've finished the book.

Another reread! I don't reread a lot, so this is impressive. I had the chance to get the 20th Anniversary edition of this book from Random House Canada, so I decided now was the perfect time to revisit the book. I originally read the book back in 2006 and posted a review. That means it has been just over 5 years since I read the book last. I enjoyed my experience with it once again. It is not my normal sort of read to begin with, but there is enough other elements that I enjoy. I still have never read on in the series. I thought maybe after finishing the book for the second time I would feel compelled to; but I still think the first book ends satisfactory and have no burning desire to read on.

I am not even sure if there is much point saying much about this book. It has been around for 20 years and I have heard my fair share about it. I was happy to discover through my reread that while I remembered the basics of the story, there were still things that I felt like I was reading for the first time. I also had a different experience with the book this time. The first time I read it, I wasn't entirely sure what I was getting myself into. I am not a big fan of romance novels and that is pretty much what this is. I was a bit intrigued by the historical aspect, though, and the idea that there was time travel. This time, I knew that I loved it before and I was a bit worried it wouldn't hold true this time around. I am happy to report that I loved this book all over again and am excited I will have the 20th Anniversary Edition to read again in the future.

If you are one of the about 10 people that haven't read this book, you really should give it a try. It makes me wish I reread more often, but I know that will only last until I see a new book and my attention is drawn off into that direction. I still might read on in the series one day, but I am happy to have just read this book and loved it as much as I did.

My thanks to Random House Canada for sending me a copy of this book!

You can read an excerpt from this book here.

Outlander - Diana Gabaldon

I first tried to read Outlander a couple years ago, and I found that for whatever reason I couldn't get into it. Then, people started talking about it all around me these last few months, so I decided to give it another go. I couldn't find my copy of it at first, so I had to borrow from my friend, but I have read it now. I don't know what was wrong with me last time I tried because I loved it this time around!

From the back of the book:

The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon - when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is Sassenach - an "outlander"- in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord... 1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life... and shatter her heart. For here James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire... and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

The novel starts out rather dull, so I can understand why I didn't like it the first time through. The man that Claire has married in 1945 is rather addicted to history, and gets so wrapped up in that there is very little action until Claire touches the stones that send her back into history. I must be honest, I like fantasy, so time-travel is not all that strange to me. It was the idea of time travel in a historical fiction novel that always makes me a little leery. The truth is, though, I think that the way that Gabaldon sends Claire back into time is believable because she uses something that people today do not understand. The rocks that stand, like Stonehenge, are a archealogical mystery, so who is to say if you are not standing there at a certain time during the year that you will not be sent back in time. Stranger things can happen.

When Claire goes back in time, she is obviously not sure what is going on around her. One minute she was picking an interesting flower, and the next time men in ancient uniforms are running around her. She is not dressed properly for the times, and the first people she runs into are the British army, specifically a man by the name of Jack Randall, her husbands many great, grandfather. A man that her husband respects and looks up to because history has painted a wonderful picture of him. We quickly learn, though, that history does not always tell the whole story. Jack Randall is a brute who is bent on anger and injury. He shows up many times throughout the novel, and never once does he show the sunny picture that Claire's husband painted him as.

Who would have imagined what would have happened if she had been left with this heartless man, but when Randall thought he had her a man comes out of now where and whisks her off on another adventure. These are Scottish men, men that Claire finds herself connected to for the time being. She shows them that she is not a hopeless woman when she saves one of their injured, James Fraser. It is nothing at the time, but before the novels end, James (Jamie) will become an important part of the novel. You see, Randall is not finished with Claire, and in an attempt to save her, a member of the MacKenzie clan sees to that she marries a Scottish man so that she does not fall under the category as being a English woman, and thus at Randall's beck and call. This Scottish man is none other than Jamie Randall.

This marriage opens interesting circumstances for the young heroine because she is determined to return to her own time, so how can she marry this Jamie person when her heart belongs to another man in another time. In the end, though, she values her life more than worrying about infidelity. This begins a whole new chapter in her life because this strange, young Scottish man genuinely loves her and she finds feelings for him developing. So, when the choice is presented to her that she go back to 1945 or stay here with him, she has a difficult choice to make.

As your read this novel you can really imagine that you are living in the 1700's, the picture that Gabaldon paints through Claire's eyes is that clear. You get to witness the clan fights, see deep dark secrets about history played out, and understand what it is like to go from having a comfortable existence to going back to a time where many modern (for 1945) luxuries do not exist. Gabaldon will have you hooked as you get going, and you will not want to stop experiencing this English woman's adventures through time with her young Scottish love.

5/5