Worth a Read Meh Length 368 Quick Review An old man looks back at letters written during WWI. The narrative is 98% letters. It’s a sweet wartime love story.
Last Christmas in Parisby Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb is my last holiday read of the season… a month late. I actually finished it a few weeks ago, but I have been so busy I didn’t get around to writing this review. Oops. Oh well, that’s life.
The most interesting part about Last Christmas in Paris is the narrative style. It’s told mostly through letters from the past between several people during WWI. An old man tells a story in the “present,” which is the 1960’s. There wasn’t anything remarkable about the style or plot. It was a good historical fiction piece. It’s not terribly Christmas oriented, so it works for any time of the year. I liked the characters just fine. It was a fairly bland story. The fact that the narrative was driven by letters made the reading process go really quickly.
My favorite relationship in the book was not the romantic one. That one was very boring. Sweet but boring. I liked the friendship between the two female characters. They were supportive, kind, blunt, and had fun banter.
There was a lot of talk about “war neurosis” in Last Christmas in Paris, which is old timey speak for PTSD. I’m glad this was a part of the book, but it was a fairly minor part of the book.
Overall, it’s a really good mindless read to take your mind off life. It’s pretty forgettable, though.
Memorable Quotes “I know you are convinced that my heart was stolen by Tom Harding years ago while I wasn’t paying any attention, and I’m beginning to think you may be right, darling.”
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Title: Last Christmas in Paris Author: Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb Publisher: William Morrow (HarperCollins Publishers) Copyright: 2017 ISBN: 9780062562685
Read Maybe Length 304 Quick Review Pat Barker retells the Iliad in The Silence of the Girls from a new and forgotten point of view: the women. Briseis was queen of a city before it fell making her a slave to Achilles.
We know the story of Helen of Troy. We know of Helen through the stories of men. What about women? Where were they? What is their story? They were lost to history, so Pat Barker gives them a voice in The Silence of the Girls through Briseis, a queen who fell with her city.
Briseis was still a teenager and a queen of a neighboring Trojan city when the Greeks attacked her city. As a little girl, she lived in Troy spending time with Helen. She was a proud Trojan woman. She watched everything and everyone she cared for destroyed by the Greeks led by Achilles. She became a slave to Achilles in the Greek camp outside of Troy. Briseis is used as a pawn and as a woman, but she listens and watches. The Silence of the Girlsis Barker’s take on what the women, who were barely old enough to be called women, went through as victims of war. Pawns of men.
The women in the camp have one role: serve the men. They do it in a variety of ways: being “bed-girls,” working in the medical tent, weaving, and serving. They go where they are told, when they are told, and they do it silently. They are no longer women; they are objects with a purpose. They were a fundamental reason the Greeks won the war.
The Silence of the Girlsis told mostly from Briseis’ perspective. There are minor chapters told from Achilles’ perspective. Briseis is strong and broken and full of disgust for her owners and situation because who wouldn’t be. BIG BUT. Briseis is the flattest character in the novel. The side characters were far more interesting. Briseis showed almost nothing but disgust the women who were fond of their captors. Achilles was the enemy, but he was complicated as all humans are. As a woman with a past of abuse, it’s far more complicated than the simplicity of emotion that Barker illustrates in Briseis. Stockholm syndrome is real and complicated. In a world where there is very little kindness, Briseis was on the receiving end of a lot of kindness, which would affect how she felt about her captors, but it just doesn’t in the novel. Barker really needed to dive into the psyche of an abused woman, and she didn’t.
I’ve seen The Silence of the Girlsreferred to as a masterpiece. It’s good, but it’s not that good. The emotions fall flat for the situation. The Washington Post’s reviewsaid the only remnant of Briseis’ past as a queen is a tunic of her father’s and that Pat Barker upends the storytelling of famous women, who have the most privilege. Except this isn’t true at all. Barker is telling the story of a privileged woman. Briseis was a queen and a young, beautiful one at that. She was Achilles’ concubine because she was a queen. A “prize.” Had she been a woman of lesser or no status, she would have been one of the women scavenging under tents and dying with the rats. Briseis complained of her life as a slave, but even her atrocious status as a “bed-girl” was much better than women of lesser status. She was not beaten. She was not passed around. She was not starved. She was not on the receiving end of so many possible horrors. There is no gratitude for that, and victims of abuse always, always, always see how it could be worse. Briseis doesn’t.
I truly did enjoy reading The Silence of the Girls. It was a really entertaining book to read with the right amount of mysticism and historicity. It could have been more, though. It could have been a triumph for abused women. Instead it fell flat.
Memorable Quotes “Oh, I watched him all right, I watched him like a mouse.” “Men carve meaning into women’s faces; messages addressed to other men.” “How on earth can you feel any pity or concern confronted by this list of intolerably nameless names.”
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Title: The Silence of Girls Author: Pat Barker Publisher: Doubleday Copyright: 2018 ISBN: 9780385544214
Read Yes Length 496 Quick Review A tail of ruin and riches, love and heartbreak, joy and sorrow. History and fantasy entwine in Imogen Hermes Gowar’s debut novel The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock to completely captivate the reader.
I was hesitant about this novel. I don’t read much historical fiction anymore because I have a tendency of getting caught up in the historical inaccuracies because I love history. So when The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar arrived on my doorstep, well, I hoped the writing was as pretty as the cover. I was exceptionally surprised.
Set in London of 1785, Mr. Hancock is a middle-aged merchant widowered many years prior. Anjelica Neal is a courtesan with a tenuous position but a lot of confidence. They are both getting by without experiencing joy. Their lives have completely different trajectories and motivations. Due to circumstance, they are brought together.
Courtesans are often the subject and driving force behind historical fiction. It’s rarely done well or with any respect to the conditions sex workers were forced to live and work under. This is different. It’s gritty and real. It doesn’t use courtesans as a thinly veiled excuse to create sex and passion for women readers thirsting for a little jolt into their lives. Instead The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancockuses courtesans and a brothel to critique modern day racism, sexism, and sex work. A staunchly feminist piece of piece of literature, it drags the reader into a plot of betrayal, obsession, and mysticism.
I’m not a huge fan of fantasy. I like my literature real and a little bit stressful. Imogen Hermes Gowar creates a completely believable fantasy for me because the mermaid isn’t a star in this. Though it motivates the plot, it sits in the backseat letting the more realistic plot play out.
The writing and narrative style is beautifully constructed. The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancockfocuses on the perspectives of Mr. Hancock and Anjelica Neal shifting from chapter to chapter. Every once in a while, a secondary character’s perspective will be explored to add layers and complexities to the world created.
Memorable Quotes “Men are not fearful; they build one another to greatness. Women believe their only power is in tearing one another down.” “Treat them as if they are the centre of the world, and they do not hesitate to believe it. A charmed life these men lead…”
Title: The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock Author: Imogen Hermes Gowar Publisher: Harper Copyright: 2018 ISBN: 9780062859952
