I firmly believe the world needs more queer literature, so I’m glad this book exists to help create more visibility. Especially as it tackles queerness for women in history. Depicting one of the many ways that has played out throughout history. I wanted to love this one, but I don’t love it. The overall book feels like it is being pulled in two directions and neither are particularly well portrayed: being a lesbian in a society and time that does not condone or allow it and surviving an abusive marriage in a society and time that condones and allows it. Basically, as a woman, you’re fucked if you do, fucked if you don’t. The main character in The Disenchantment is fucked all around except in the most literal way.
As both a lesbian and survivor of domestic violence at the hands of men… I could not connect with this book, and I really should have. Marie Catherine is a Baroness in Paris during the Affair of Poisons. She’s married to a physically and emotionally abusive older man with whom she has two young children. She is having an affair with another noblewoman. There’s storytelling and an artist who gets caught up in the whole thing. There was so much potential in this not-so-little novel, but my attention was not kept. I think I read four books in the time it took me to get through this one.
I had more fun taking these pictures than reading this book.
The plot is muddy, while the narrative is meandering. Bell is tackling too many massive topics in one debut novel. If she would have focused on a singular theme, the book would have benefited and had a larger impact.
I desperately wanted to love this because it is all about the lady-gay, female empowerment, overcoming obstacles, and surviving abuse. Unfortunately, I just could not get on board with it. I expect great things from Celia Bell, but this was not it.
Memorable Quotes “So Marie Catherine had quietly believed for years that she had been made with something lacking, and any spark of inclination that she might feel for a man in company was a short-lived thing that fizzled out after the first imaginary movement of love. Then she had met Victoire de Conti.” … “She didn’t love as some women did.” “”I forgive you.” She said it as if she were a priest who had the power to offer absolution. And, for a moment, she felt that she did, as if the words had lit a candle flame inside her mouth that burned with the light of her love. She did not, would never, believe that flame was the flame of hell. Not if every confessor in France lined up to tell her that she was damned.”
Worth A Read Yes Length 621 Quick Review Three young women from drastically different backgrounds converge on Bletchley Park in 1940 and meet the consequences head on in the days leading up to Princess Elizabeth’s wedding in 1947.
Kate Quinn does an exceptional job at creating three complex and intriguing women in her heroines: Osla, Mab, and Beth.The Rose Code is lovely historical fiction featuring fictionalized versions of real people and composites of real people. Full of friendship, intrigue, loyalty, war, love, and searching for meaning, Quinn creates the captivating world of 1940’s Bletchley Park, England to dive into.
When there is more than one protagonist, I find myself identifying with one over the others and dredging through the others’ narratives until it finally comes back round to the one I like best. Quinn focuses on three women from drastically different backgrounds with an amazing ability to make them all equally likeable, disagreeable, moving, and interesting. I enjoyed each one’s narrative, and found myself rooting for all of them to “win”. Osla is a smart debutante from high society. Mab is a tall working girl from London. Beth is a good Christian daughter. They all struggle with the role society has dictated for them in the midst of being a woman during war time.
Women were an integral part of the war effort in every country and culture. From the U.S. to Britain to Algeria to Russia to Japan, women played key roles. These women were forced back into their boxes after the war without a thank you or much acknowledgement for their commitment, secrecy, and love of country. Quinn challenges the idea that men were the only ones to fight in the war and earn wounds. Women may not have fought on the front lines [depends on the country and how much you dig into history], but they were an integral part of the fight. Britain’s intelligence would have collapsed without women’s efforts; “Bletchley Park and it’s outstations had four women to every man…” The Rose Codedoes not just stop at the role they played at the time; Quinne discusses at length, throughout the entirety of the novel, the erasure of women from history and common knowledge. She tackles it head on particularly in the segment
“Where were all those women now? How many men who had fought in the war now sat reading their morning newspapers without realizing the woman sitting across from them at the breakfast table had fought, too? Maybe the ladies of BP hadn’t faced bullets or bombs, but they’d fought—oh, yes, they’d fought. And now they were dismissed as housewives, schoolteachers, silly debs and they just bit their tongues and hid their wounds.”
Osla, Mab, and Beth may be the focus of the novel, but they represent the countless women in Britain, Europe, and around the world who put their lives on hold and at risk to fight for their countries in the only way they were allowed. Without reward, thanks, or even recognition, these women worked tirelessly.
Quinn attempts to tackle the inequality of history in a variety of ways. Though her historical novel is hefty, there’s not enough room to adequately deconstruct all the inequities women and people of color faced. Racial inequality and racism are put under scrutiny through the book club’s reading of Gone with the Wind and the Egyptian-Maltese-Arab character of Harry Zarb. A look into the dark space that is an asylum. Beth is committed. Rather than being mentally unstable, she has knowledge. Throughout history, when a woman was difficult, intelligent, or an heiress, they were locked away in asylums, drugged into a state of mental decay. Quinn also explores the way these imprisoned women were exploited sexually. I’m glad she doesn’t leave these issues out of the novel, but they could have been explored deeper and more meaningfully.
I love Osla, Mab, and Beth. I see myself in each one of them for different reasons. Osla is judged solely on her appearance. Mab had to work hard for everything she has. I identified most completely with Beth: the good, Christian daughter, who stands up for herself against her domineering mother after being told she is dim the entirety of her life as her doormat of a father stood by. This bit lit me up inside:
“I’m your father. I have the right—” “No, you don’t.” Beth looked him in the eye. “You didn’t stop her throwing me out. You never defended me. You never told me I was clever, even though I can do the Sunday crossword ten times faster than you. You never told me I was anything.”
It is the story of so many women and girls. It’s the story of my own adolescence told in a tiny nutshell.
The Rose Codeis Quinn’s way of critiquing modern society through the use of historical fiction. The world has come a long way since war time 1940s, but in so many ways, it hasn’t progressed all that much. We still hold the same work done by men on a pedestal while reducing women’s to nothing more than “fluff”, “If you were a man and you wrote funny pieces about daily life, they called it satire. If you were a woman and you wrote funny pieces about daily life, they called it fluff.” On the surface it may seem like a social critique of the past, but the society and standards Osla, Mab, and Beth live in are still far too au courant.
Memorable Quotes “It sounded very poetic: “What lies at the center of a rose?” but it wasn’t the poetry that entranced Beth, or the scent. It was the pattern.” “The men shifted at the word brassiere, and Osla nearly rolled her eyes. Point out a security leak and they shrugged; mention a woman’s underclothes and everyone got in a wax.” “How much she hated being a woman sometimes: forever underpaid and underestimated and betrayed by your own body.”
bisous und обьятий, RaeAnna
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Title: The Rose Code Author: Kate Quinn Publisher: WilliamMorrow Copyright: 2021 ISBN: 9780062943477
Worth a Read Meh Length 432 Quick Review A fictional look into the tumultuous relationship between Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway as she grows from a talented young woman into a fearless writer.
Ernest Hemingway is one of the most revered writers. Martha Gellhorn is known as one of the greatest war correspondents. Yet one name is internationally renowned, and the other is recalled as the wife of the other if recalled at all – except in certain literary circles. These two remarkable humans met and fell in love, and their love story has been one of great interest. Paula McLain brings Martha to life in Love and Ruin.
Martha Gellhorn was an incredible woman and exceptional for her time. Born in 1908 in Saint Louis, she went to college but left to follow her dreams of becoming a war correspondent, which was unheard of at the time. She was a career woman with ambition, and that ambition caught the eye of Ernest Hemingway, an already great author, while she was on family vacation in 1936 in the Florida Keys. Assignments took them both to Spain, where they traveled and lived together. They began their relationship while he was still married to his second wife. It was a tumultuous time as wars raged on. Ernest was looking to stay put, but Marty was looking to stay in the action. She refused to let a brilliant man extinguish her ambition.
Throughout Love and RuinMarty Gellhorn is incredibly easy to relate to. She’s a free spirit, who wants to live life, make her own way, and be brilliant. She was a modern woman for her time, and people might even say she’s ahead of our current time. McLain creates an interesting and composed picture of the woman she was, torn by passion and purpose. One of the most moving moments was when Marty declares, “I wanted to say, when you fell in love with me you must also have been in love with my wings. Love them now. Love me. Love me, and let me go.” So many women have felt this way and, like Marty, never said it.
Ernest was just complicated enough to be interesting without taking the spotlight away from Martha. The entire novel, anyone in their right mind would be warning Martha away from the brilliant, narcissist he was. There was never any room in his life for another star, let alone another literary star. McLain allows him a few short chapters from his perspective, but Marty is the star in the relationship in a way she wasn’t in life.
Love and Ruin is a woman’s coming into her own story as much as it is a love story. She allows herself to fall in love, fall in life, and get back up. I’m not completely sure Love and Ruinis the appropriate title for this book. It implies to love Hemingway was to simultaneously be ruined. Yes, he did have a dramatic impact on the course of her life, but he in no way ruined her. She was an absolute success. She overcame so much to become one of the most important and insightful war correspondents of the 20th century, and she was a woman! Titling the book as such is a disservice to her memory even if the book is not.
It’s a lovely piece of historical fiction. Honestly, I would have liked a book that focused on Martha Gellhorn as a person rather than the period of her life that related to Hemingway. Choosing one of the most famous and most covered portions of her life is a little boring. She had fifty-four productive and incredible years of her life post-Hemingway. Those deserve attention as much if not more than her love affair and first marriage.
Memorable Quotes “Women were so rare at the front they might as well have been nonexistent.” “I had said yes. And yes always came with a price.”
bisous und обьятий, RaeAnna
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Title: Love and Ruin Author: Paula McLain Publisher: Ballantine Books Copyright: 2019 ISBN: 9781101967393
Worth A Read Eh Length 496 Quick Review Anna of Kleve was the fourth wife of Henry VIII, faring better than any who came before or after, but was she hiding a secret love child?
I have a hard time reading historical fiction because I have a LOVE of history. To the point of obsession. I don’t love historical fiction because authors change and add and revise history like it’s their job, – it is – but the problem for me lies in the fact history is ridiculous enough, it doesn’t need changing. I understand making up conversations and filling in the gaps of history, but come on. I like Aliso Weir because she’s an actual historian with numerous historical nonfiction books and biographies published, focusing on the Tudors and other royal figures. She writes popular history, which is more accessible than academic writing for those who enjoy history and don’t want to be bogged down in academese. Her historical fiction is far more factual than most out there. She just knows her shit better.
Within the first few pages of Anna of Kleve, there is a sex scene. For me, it’s not a selling point, but the other 490 pages pretty much steered clear of the graphic sex scenes. Although, I think a lot of people read historical fiction just for the naughty bits.
Anna of Kleve was the fourth wife of King Henry VIII. She was never crowned, but she became a trusted friend of the king and loved by his children. Where his other wives found tragedy, Anna found a friend. Henry fell in love with her portrait, but he was disappointed by the reality he met. Henry famously told Oliver Cromwell, “I liked her before not well, but now I like her much less, for I have felt her belly and her breasts and as I can judge, she should be no maid.” the night after their wedding when he couldn’t or didn’t consummate their marriage. What does this mean? Alison Weir explores the possibility: Anna of Kleve was no virgin, but had a love child before their marriage.
Weir paints a convincing picture in her latest historical fiction novel Anne of Kleve, but is it convincing enough to change the way history views the fourth wife of Henry VIII? I found it interesting and compelling, but not revolutionary. As a student of history, it’s founded on a rumor that is not new. It circulated during Anna’s own time.
It’s a decent book. It took me a while to get through it. I highly suggest Anne of Klevefor lovers of historical fiction. For me, not my favorite.
Memorable Quotes “Men did commonly blame the wife if anything went wrong…” “…he had such a deep-rooted elied in his own righteousness that it would never occur to him that he might have wrecked her life.”
bisous und обьятий, RaeAnna
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Worth A Read Yes Length 271 Quick Review Charles Dickens is having a midlife crisis at Christmas time, and his publishers are demanding a Christmas novel when everything in his life is falling apart.
Silva bases her novel, Mr. Dickens and His Carol, off a real winter of Dickens’ life but reimagines and reorders facts and people to make an interesting novel. I’ve read a fair few Christmas novels, and this is far from the worst.
Charles Dickens should be feeling joy welcoming another child into the world before Christmas, but instead he’s feeling everything but. His latest book was a disaster, his family’s debts are piling up, his wife takes the children and leaves him, and his publishers are demanding a Christmas book. A usually jolly and kind man, Dickens becomes a morose grump searching for a muse when he stumbles on inspiration.
Ebenezer Scrooge’s journey is paralleled with Charles Dickens’ character development throughout the plot of Mr. Dickens and His Carol. It’s a sweet story full of Christmas spirit and a little mystery. Silva gets three points for using “defenestration” in a sentence – not a word that normally comes up.
The style can be a little much for the story. Silva has a tendency to become overly descriptive in an attempt to mimic the real Dickens but with less success. When Silva is not decorating the page with her verbosity, she tells a pretty good story about Dickens’ internal struggle to be a good father, husband, citizen, and writer while not giving in to the whims of publishing or depression. The character development is solid and interesting if not predictable.
Mr. Dickens and His Carol is a great easy read for the whole family this Christmas season. It will warm the heart and make you wish you could be in London listening to the real Dickens tell his carol.
Memorable Quotes “His father was north of sixty, but by temperament still a good deal south of death.” “He knew that every person was a fiery furnace of passions and attachments, unknown to every other.”
Worth A Read Yes Length 400 Quick Review A librarian stumbles across a puzzling part of history in the Berachah Home, where erring girls went for a fresh start.
Home for Erring and Outcast Girls by Julie Kibler is a much better novel than I expected to encounter. There are so many ways Kibler could have gone wrong, but she didn’t. Diving into complex women’s issues and how society dealt with the women in question paralleled by a century of “change.” Based on a real house in rural Texas serving real women, Kibler builds a world full of sorrow and empathy.
In 2017, Cate is a librarian working in a Texas University Library’s archives and becomes fascinated looking through documentation of the Berachah home after stumbling upon a cemetery in 2017. She has a penchant for running and running away; she lives a solitary life aside from making a connection with one of her student workers. Dealing with a mysterious past, flashbacks to 1998 as a highschooler slowly reveal insight into her troubled past. In 1904, Lizzie Bates, Docie, and Mattie Corder are escaping the evils of a patriarchal society by finding refuge in the Berachah Home for Erring and Outcast Girls. They find solace surrounded by religion and other fallen women and their children as they are taught skills to fend for themselves.
Kibler touches on everything from drugs to rape to incest to abuse and more in this raw historical fiction about loss and friendship. Home for Erring and Outcast Girls drives home the fact that women take a backseat to men, always. Their plans. Their dreams. Their reputations. Their futures. This has been a truth for the majority of societies for as long as history can document. As much as things are changing, much remains the same. Including Cate, as a contemporary woman, shows the parallel between the two eras and how little has changed for women. How little choice there is.
The Berachah Home really did exist outside of Arlington, Texas and was founded by James and Maggie Upchurch. They had a revolutionary idea to keep the children with their mothers. At the time, mother’s were separated from their children without a choice, more often than not, when the children were born out of wedlock. There are real excerpt from The Purity Journal, which went out to graduates of the home and donors.
Abuse is a central point in Home for Erring and Outcast Girls. Kibler makes a beautiful statement I and many other survivors of abuse, loss, abandonment, addiction, rape, assault, and more have felt: “Or how I maybe didn’t fight hard enough, or say no the right way, or at the right times.” Guilt and shame are a raw undercurrent in this book about being helpless and reclaiming an identity in the after. Everyone survives their own hell, but so many of the emotions and recovery processes are the similar.
Religion is a character in its own right in this novel. It plays a role of savior but also demon. Kibler is not afraid to show the church in the light of benefactor and evil doer depending on the point of view of the character. Religion is not one size fits all, and everyone has different experiences. Even in the most positive of lights, the church do not do right by women. Women are often depicted as temptresses “because churches, in general, are still bastions of judgement masquerading as refugees of grace and acceptance.”
I was utterly surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but Julie Kibler captured my interest and respect with her cutting and insightful novel Home for Erring and Outcast Girls.
Memorable Quotes “A room filled with people can be lonelier than solitude.” “Her ma had done what she must to survive, and that was how it was for women.” “It was always the man who took what he wanted, and the woman who lost everything.” “Devastation was a pain you thought would never go away, and sometimes it didn’t.”
