Or Give Me Death: A Novel of Patrick Henry's Family » (1)

ANN RINALDI is an award-winning author best known for bringing history vividly to life. A self-made writer and newspaper columnist for twenty-one years, Ms. Rinaldi attributes her interest in history to her son, who enlisted her to take part in historical reenactments up and down the East Coast. She lives with her husband in central New Jersey.

See, through the eyes of two of Patrick Henry's children, the secrets and horror going on within their home as their father rouses a nation to arms.

Publishers Weekly

This often gripping but also melodramatic novel set just before the Revolutionary War explores Patrick Henry's tragic domestic life, from the point of view of two of his daughters. Patrick's wife, Sarah, is "mad"-in the opening scenes, she tries to drown their infant son. As Patrick travels extensively, "to talk about the new evils sent to us by the king," 16-year-old Patsy, the oldest child and the first narrator, is left to cope with his disregard for "the evil going on here at home under his own roof." It falls to Patsy (and her intended, MyJohn) to investigate the institution someone recommends and, when it proves barbaric, to contrive for her father to confine her mother to the cellar. Throughout, Patsy must run the household and supervise her four youngest siblings, albeit with the help of slaves. Rinaldi (A Break with Charity) effectively switches narrators midway through, when she adopts the voice of spirited middle sister Anne, who chafes under Patsy's tyrannical rule and the web of household secrets. While the portrayal of Patrick Henry is unusually complex, the author romanticizes Sarah's illness. For example, the unstable woman's pleadings get credit as the source of Henry's most famous line ("Give me liberty or give me death!"), and the plot hinges on the device that Sarah is both prophetic and recognized as such by her daughters. Some young readers may enjoy the supernatural overlay; to others, it may cloud an otherwise perceptive view of the dynamics of a family in distress. Ages 10-14. (July) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.