The Carpenter of Auguliere by D. Wayne Dworsky

Nice read with a good lesson.by growingupugly-com

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June 19, 2009: The Carpenter of Auguliere arrived in the mail and the appealing folk art cover and the "fairy-tale" print, made me want to begin reading right away. While this adult-style fable could be read in one sitting, the deeper meanings lurk in the background, causing the reader to slow down and reflect.

The simplicity of the narrative reminds one of tales passed down from one generation to another; accounts told and re-told to teach a certain moral and to demonstrate a lesson.

A small in descript village, Auguliere, set in the beautiful European countryside is plagued by a man, Mr. Robertson, who is referred to as the "landlord". He runs the community and has been declared by his ancestry to own the village and all that is part of it. Therefore, greed takes over and he taxes the people into poverty. The villagers are so down trodden and stressed that they have stopped seeing the beauty which surrounds them each and every day.

Characters include Madeleine, a pretty young maiden with a gentle heart and her ailing father, whom the young woman cares for, along with several other townspeople with their own quirky personalities. Mr. Dworsky uses several other well thought out individuals to make up the tapestry of this quaint settlement.

A young carpenter, Gilbert O'Sullivan crosses the mountains to get to the tiny town and he sees the beauty that the citizens no longer see. They see dismal surroundings and he sees a lush countryside and sunshine. They see only the unpleasantness, but as the carpenter makes his way into the community, the attitude begins to change. Soon, though, their reverence of Gilbert is ruined by distrust of one another and by the landlord's trickery.

The chronicle ends at just the right time. The story is told and the end is surprising, leaving the reader questioning their own outlook on life. This book is a gift for the present times we are in, teaching us as it entertains us, about positive attitude, morality and spiritual vindication.

I highly recommend this book for one of the most thought provoking, enjoyable reads of the season.

Reviewed by: Donetta Garman, Allbooks Review www.allbookreviews.com

A Carpenter Comes to Townby Anonymous

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March 16, 2007: A book is awe-inspiring when it captures your imagination in ways that put the entire setting and characters in your mind in a meaningful way. So has The Carpenter of Auguliere. In a classic theme of good vs. evil, we see the beautiful little hamlet, nestled in the magnificent Sayan Mountains of Russia around the turn of the century, a time when ponies and horses were a way of life. We meet the people who populate this place and their attitude about each other. It seems that the village is falling apart because the resident carpenter has grown weary with age and sickness and his daughter, weary with despair. Everyone in the village goes about his business in a state of gloom, until a young carpenter rides into town in a wagon pulled by two enormous horses. He makes friends easily and earns the townspeople?s respect by rebuilding the dilapidated village. All is well until the town?s mayor, referred to as the ?landlord? finds this do-gooder carpenter?s presence annoying. So, the he makes a plan to stop the carpenter?s works and drive him from Auguliere. I fell in love with the heroine, felt very sorry for the hero and was angered by the landlord?s evil plan. This proved to me that the author uses strong emotional attitudes to drive his story. Several chapters are real tearjerkers. You can see the story unfold page by page as these people do what they have to. As the reader meets the characters, he can see the powerful emotional turmoil that persists in their actions. In as much as this story is easy reading and very entertaining, I found it rather fable-like and was quite surprised at the ending. The writer has a wonderful way with words, drawing pictures inside your head by the ocean of similes, analogies, metaphors, alliterations, irony and symbols. This not to say that it is a literary novel, just well-written.