McCloud's Sunset Series Off to a Good Start

Articles in this Topic Discussions in this Topic

Jul 3, 2001

Exotic 19th Century India provides an alluring background for the first novel in Susan Evans McCloud?s recent Sunset series. The book, Sunset Across India(1995), introduces us to Charlotte Simmons, a young orphan of mixed blood growing up in the household of an English officer, a friend of her late father?s. As the child of a British man and an Indian woman, Charlotte does not know where she belongs. Her identity crisis becomes more unbearable when she falls in love with a young native, a man so beneath her station that she is forbidden to be near him. To ease her suffering, she forces herself to go on with life, even though that seems to bring even more difficulties. As she travels across India and finally to England, Charlotte finds herself facing challenges she never imagined, which she battles with strength she never knew she had. While dealing with the temporal issues in her life, Charlotte must also face questions about her past, about the parents she never knew. When she finally finds something to give her purpose?the newly-organized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints?she must ask herself if she possesses enough courage to sacrifice friends and family to join. The first volume ends here; the subsequent novels follow Charlotte as she travels to America to face new struggles as she moves her family to a foreign land to align herself with a strange, new religion.

As Charlotte slams into trial after trial, the reader cannot help but empathize. We see her naivety, her weakness, and finally, her strength as she endures incredible challenges. We grieve with her as she begs for clues about her parents, desperately trying to piece together her own identity. We care so much because Susan Evans McCloud has created a character that seems real. With skillful construction, she has built a woman with the strengths and weaknesses we recognize in ourselves. Of course, Charlotte endures the unthinkable, making readers admire her strength. In short, she is some of what we are, but all of what we want to be.

Susan Evans McCloud also keeps the plot running smoothly, adding twists and turns to keep the reader guessing. Her vivid descriptions make readers feel as if they really are in India witnessing the hopeless courtship of two people from completely different worlds. Not only that, but McCloud skirts away from the love story to create a tale of adventure, mystery and suspense. It combines all of these elements into a thorough, well-told story about one girl?s struggle through the hardships in life.

Go To Page: 1 2

The copyright of the article McCloud's Sunset Series Off to a Good Start in Mormon (LDS) Literature is owned by Eric Jordan Jensen. Permission to republish McCloud's Sunset Series Off to a Good Start in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.