The romantic lead of the piece is Jamie Fraser

The genius here is that historical fiction merges with science fiction, to produce a kind of double whammy of the historical.The novel is set, initially, in 1946 Scotland, where a couple take a second honeymoon after the Second World War. Whilst not a huge presence in the piece, WW2 is something that feeds into the motivations of Claire, the protagonist, and informs the story. Through magic, science, coma, act of God or who knows what else, Claire Randall finds herself in mid eighteenth century Scotland. She meets the fearsome ancestor of her husband, English officer, Jack Randall, and finds herself put in danger through his suspicions that she is a spy. Given refuge by the MacKenzie clan, she embarks upon numerous journeys of self discovery, and a journey of impossible love.
The romantic lead of the piece is Jamie Fraser. Strong, young, witty, and a little innocent, he is everything that Claire’s husband in 1946 is not. The love between Jamie and Claire is beautifully paced, and the main focus of the novel. It is different to most romantic fiction I have read in that throughout their affair, they face the world together, growing as a couple. When the time comes for one to turn the other away, it doesn’t feel like it is simply a necessary part of the formula, or a plot device, but rather an organic development of character.
It is the characters that make this novel what it is. Each with their own personality, story to tell and multiple motivations, they are crafted with precision. It is, of course, Jamie and Claire who shine through. I recently wrote an essay on George Orwell, and read a piece of criticism which quoted him as saying that first person novels do not work, because they focus too much on the individual and not on a greater span of humanity. Rather than going into how Orwell failed to achieve an avoidance of focus on the individual, I will simply say that Gabaldon proves him wrong in Cross Stitch. Claire is the first person narrator, and so we see a world unfamiliar to us through her equally unfamiliar eyes. This grants us easier access to the more alien aspects of the society she finds herself in. But we are not restricted to Claire’s perspective. Multiple times throughout the novel, stories are recounted to Claire by other characters, part told in dialogue, part by Claire’s narrative, switching almost imperceptibly into a third person narrator.

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