From The Drop Of Heaven: Legends, Prejudice and Revenge by Juliette Godot

July 04, 2024

Outstanding, Emotional, Gripping

Genre: Historical Drama/Family

From The Drop of Heaven: Legends, Prejudice and Revenge by Juliette Godot Author     

At a time when social status, money and wealth determined a person’s social standing in society, and rumour and superstition were rife, this recounting of real events, tells mainly of a second generation in two families, who know nothing of the superstitions, rumours and fear forged by past generations and passed on. However, in a world where people still continue to spread their vitriol and stop at nothing to defend what is theirs and what they believe in, the youngsters are forced to carry the heavy burden of guilt by association even though they do not fully understand the implications. The forging of two households sustains a bond that is tested many times by ex-lovers, neighbours, those in power, and even other family members at times when they are distanced by commitment. But even whilst facing the harshest of outcomes, their ties can still not be broken. 

This novel isn’t my usual type of read. I am not a big history buff and know nothing of as far back as the Sixteenth Century…or I knew nothing. I can’t quite put into words how emotionally connected I felt with the younger characters and the fact that it is based on true events really has me wanting to know more. Since finishing it, I have been pouring over Google search for locations mentioned, and now have a longing to visit them and know more. 

At the time of reading this I had recently watched a documentary about two famous witch trials which took place a century or so after the accounts in this book. The recounting of that time, and the attitudes in all three instances bore a stark resemblance, however consequences that women were subjected to because they were different in some way, or in being kind, they unwittingly brought attention on themselves, putting themselves in situations where their actions could be twisted, differed slightly, getting much harsher. I found this quite distressing as any kind of torture is a bit of a trigger for me both in books and on screen. Thankfully, this is only described, albeit fairly graphically, in a very short passage. 

It is extremely heart-warming and satisfying to see how the coming together of the offspring in the De La Goutte de Paradis family and Cathillion family unite the parents, and as the children develop affection for each other, they grow into the most wonderful supportive family, the De La Gouette De Paradis’, defensiveness of anything said against Francisca and her family, with maybe the exception of Elizabeth at first. 

As the mysteries, some hidden until they are revealed and some a little more obvious as you read, begin to unravel, Humbert’s rebellion against the church, Francisca’s secrets from the past, the introduction of various priests due to a random gunshot, and the abhorrent actions of another, it really made me think about the lives of the descendants of this award winning Author, and the struggles they endured at that time. The actions of one man that has a devastating and reverberating effect, when he returns to the village to settle old scores and ends up embroiling old foes that the family thought they had ridden themselves of. Plus, the severe punishments brought on anyone choosing to follow a path that was considered to conflict with ‘the norm’. 

For much of the narrative, we follow Francisca, who has her own accusers, and in the end she seeks to gain the upper hand in a very controlled but preventable turn of events, having gone to the aid of a man she has come to think of as family when he is in need of care, only to be viewed by many suspiciously, and not for the first time. 

This book really opened my eyes to the savage and relentless realities of living in a largely lawless society and how what had gone before could impact on generations to come. However, I really enjoyed it, both from an educational aspect, the sheer fascination relating to the magnitude of extremes of living and people’s beliefs and thinking, and knowing that I was reading about real people. It was by far the best book of a biographical genre that I have read to date. 