Review: Beowulf: A New Verse Translation

Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Unknown
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After reading The Mere Wife, of course I had to go back and read Beowulf! I originally read most of it in high school, though I'm pretty sure we left out the digressions. I can still remember the way Ms. Philbin said "Grendel's mother!" and I actually still have her drawing of Grendel in my scrapbook of things-that-used-to-hang-on-my-walls.

It was interesting to have the old English and the modern side by side, as I was occasionally able to pick out words that seemed almost identical to what they are today, or spot similarities. I was annoyed, however, by Heaney's decision to use some of his family's old Celtic words in the text--wasn't the whole point of the translation to make this epic accessible to a modern audience?

Anyway, I couldn't flag passages because this was a library book, so no quote roundup this time. Though I do remember that the phrase "bone-house" was used several times to, it seemed to me, refer to the body, or at least the rib cage. I absolutely love the imagery, so it stuck!

And now back to The Mere Wife for my second reading!

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Review: The Mere Wife: A Novel

The Mere Wife: A Novel by Maria Dahvana Headley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Read this. The moment you finish your current book, read this. The language is gorgeous, the suburbs are insidious, the mountain is alive, and everyone is a monster and no one is a monster. I might go 4.5 if I could, since I didn't feel deeply emotionally connected to the characters, but that's how I feel reading most classic books. And this will be a classic, I feel. Students could write finals and theses on this. I was wishing I could whip out my pencil and do my English major exercises followed by a discussion.

It's a super hot day and my brain is fried. And anyway, I have in my bag Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf which I intend to start the moment I finish this. Wish I could wait for Headley's upcoming translation, but I'm too impatient--I want to read Beowulf and then come back to read The Mere Wife again.

That, my friends, for me, is the sign of a good novel: a reread.

One thing I loved about this novel was how powerful the women felt. Willa may have had her moments, but even she overcame and took charge. Dina, despite her fears, despite moments on the edge, felt in charge. The mothers, a kind of Greek chorus usher people on and off and about the suburban stage, were a magnificent collective creature, cunning. They felt like Mean Girls, but with far more solid, sink-or-swim bonds.

And the whole text has this magic/dreamy/dream-horror feel about it. It'd definitely not horror in the traditional sense, but so much is subtly horrifying.

Like I said: brain fried, Beowulf waiting. Maybe I'll have some more intelligent comments my second time through.


Quote Roundup

The writing was stunning, but I did still manage to flag a few quotes.

p. 152) He doesn't say anything, but she can feel his thoughts now. They're the thoughts men always have. She's spent her life anticipating those thoughts, working around them, pouring their drinks and patting their shoulders, sewing their buttons on tightly so that they can feel secure when they undo everything. No more of that.

p. 153) There's a long tradition that says women gossip, when in fact women are the memory of the world.

p. 174) Willa wonders if her mother has plans for everyone she's ever met, graphic their futures on some invisible chart. Her mother and women like her are the reason men can live at all, running corporations, announcing wars. Every man has a woman at home, and every woman plots the course of the universe, putting it into his breast pocket, like a note attached to a kindergartner, sending him out into his day.

p. 269) Well-preserved. Oh, we hate that phrase. Are we pickles or are we jam? Are we sour or are we sweet?

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Review: Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen: A Novel

Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen: A Novel by Sarah Bird
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Progress update: I was absolutely loving this book...until characters went completely out of character in order to drive the inevitable romance forward with eye-rolling tropes. Now no one seems to care whether Cathy's caught out. Sigh. I should finish in a day or two. Full review to come then.

~~~

Full Review:

Well, I guess I probably set myself up for disappointment with this one. I just wanted so badly to love it, but in the end it fell into a bunch of corny romance-y tropes that just lost me--though I want to emphasize that said tropes are totally valid and may well be what others absolutely love, so if this sounds like a book you want to read, please don't let me deter you! It's definitely worth it, and I'm still glad I read it.

The writing style was absolutely beautiful, a perfect balance of dialect with the intelligence and wisdom that came from Cathy's upbringing with a remarkable family and an educated father from the North. I appreciated that Cathy never learned to read and write for herself--so often that's treated as a turning point for a character, and as a reader I do understand that, but literacy is also an immense privilege that not everyone can have, and it's important to see that illiteracy and a lack of formal education in no way takes from the worth and strength of remarkable people.

The historicity of people and events seems impeccable, though I don't know enough details about this time period (a big part of my attraction to the book) to know for sure. It seems a bit convenient that Cathy/Cathay's troop (view spoiler)[never had to actually hunt down and slaughter Native Americans (hide spoiler)], but at least there was still some discussion about the conflicting feelings some soldiers may have felt about their mission.

The book was suspenseful and agonizing in a way that many woman-disguised-as-a-man books are not. It seems that most of those books gloss over the realities of just how dangerous it was to be a woman in the past and the potentially brutal consequences if the character is caught. That agony of always being on the edge of discovery was palpable, and I was glad that my commuting time for reading gave me some breaks.

There was so much to love in the first two thirds of this book...but unfortunately it's time to get back to my disappointment. I can pinpoint the exact moment where everything went off the rails for my personal brand of enjoyment: page 282.

I'd resigned myself early to the fact that we *had* to have a love interest, because of *course* no woman is complete without a perfect man in her life. Cathy's quick bond with a dying soldier in the early pages of the book was believeable enough to me, someone who has made fast--if temporary--friends in unfamiliar new situations. I'd also kind of accepted that it might be possible for Cathy to have a major crush in spite of her constant anxiety about being found out, and to a few stupid actions in the name of love. I thought that Cathy's early, failed encounters with the love interest were realistic responses and well done, so I had hope for a more realistic ending.

Instead, oh boy. I'm going to get really specific with the spoilers here, so stop reading now if you have any interest in this book.

(view spoiler)[
Starting with page 282 the romance tropes and stupid actions started piling on thick:
>> deathly-cold-and-only-body-heat-will-save-them
>> love-makes-her-beautiful
>> insta-love
>> randy-as-rabbits
>> sex-solves-(almost)-everything
>> bury-your-gays (I slightly forgave this one when my prediction that (view spoiler)[the love interest would die (hide spoiler)] also came true(view spoiler)[ish (hide spoiler)])
>> romantic-partners-can't-have-platonic-friends
>> she's-suddenly-so-gullible
>> life's-not-worth-living-without-him

Everyone seemed out of character after this point. After years of saying that being thought gay was almost as bad as being caught a woman, suddenly Cathay doesn't much care who sees her sneaking off for a roll in the hay with another soldier. The level-headed, practical love interest is off his head careless. The black villain seemed like an idiot for basically knowing Cathay's secret but never outright saying it or demanding blackmail. The white villain was ludicrously, suicidally stupid (though given some of the stupid things people have done out west, I couldn't find this totally unbelievable). The third corner of the obligatory love triangle is suddenly happy for Cathay instead of jealous and sad (okay, I honestly thought that was refreshing!).

Everything became more predictable, too. Sure, I'd guessed some of the key romantic plot points--hard to avoid it when you've read as much as I have and when every. single. book. about a strong woman in history *has* to have a love interests--but suddenly I was plodding through every "twist" as inevitably as the Buffalo Soldiers plodded through the desert.

Then the ending felt rushed compared to so much else. After being highly, rightly suspicious of white men, Cathy just takes it without question that (view spoiler)[her love interest is dead. There was even that soppy line about learning each other's bodies completely, which turned out not to be true when it mattered most (hide spoiler)]. There was no explanation for why Cathy (view spoiler)[chose not to go south into Mexico or west to San Francisco, either of which seemed more likely than going north into the States that had so failed every single black person (hide spoiler)]. Again, I guessed the very last twist, and consequently the final chapter felt more trite than anything else, like a very clumsy attempt at an Atonement-type ending.

I realize this all sounds harsh. My only excuse, if it exists, is that I felt so let down by the final third after loving the first third so much, that the disappointment makes me more critical. Well, that and I tend to criticize the media that I either love or hate. Since I'm definitely not on the hate spectrum here, I think it's because I wish that last third had done the rest of the book justice.
(hide spoiler)]

Ah well. Let me say again that this book was well worth the read, no matter how annoyed I was during the last third of the book. I learned so much about the "contraband" slaves in the Civil War, the Buffalo Soldiers, and--of course--Cathy Williams. It was a privilege to read about her, even if it was fiction, and I'm glad I did so. I just wish her fictional self could have had less silly romance washing out the tough, never-quit attitude her character had for most of the book.

Quotes & Comments

I didn't take many quotes because I was enjoying the writing and snark so much that I knew I'd never stop once I started. Please read through page 281 1/2!

p. 207: Not a spoiler, but I was interested in Sergeant Allbright's theory of why slavery took off. He theorizes that it's because the presence of water meant bigger crops, which meant more laborers were needed. So out west in the desert, there was no need for slaves. It's an interesting idea, and one that probably only applies to the States, since there were plenty of nomadic, desert-dwelling Biblical slave-holding societies. Of course, Egypt does also fit the pattern. Still...makes me think.

p. 214: (view spoiler)[Okay, so Cathy's trick to show off Cathay's peeing powers has really been bothering me. Wouldn't the coffeepot spout have had ragged metal edges? Yikes! And how the heck would she know where to put the large end? Most women today don't know where the pee comes out, and that's with the benefit of mirrors to check out what's down there! (hide spoiler)]

p. 296: (view spoiler)[The man-illusion-maintaining trick with Mary the Murderer seemed cruel to me. Mary hadn't done anything to hurt Cathy and she also wasn't white, so I was surprised that there was almost no description of sympathy or guilt for the way Cathy used her. Cathy is normally a very introspective character, so I would have expected some kind of pondering on the nature of redemption, once the immediate fear had passed. (hide spoiler)]

p. 365: (view spoiler)[Kind of sadly ironic these days that crossing the Rio Grande into Mexico is the ticket to freedom here. (hide spoiler)]

p. 375: Also not a spoiler, and the only quote: "The instant that doing the right thing became a financial advantage, the mob of curs turned righteous..." Yep, ain't that the state of the world. All these corporate diversity campaigns supporting gay rights and hiring athletes of color to represent them only once it presents more of a financial gain than a potential liability. Ugh. Cynical and feels true.

And finally, what is with that useless historical note? If there's hardly anything about Cathy, I want to know everything that we do know!

Anyway, this FINALLY concludes my review. Again, all the reasons this went from awesome to annoying for me may very well be the reasons why others would love this book. The first two third are worth it. Don't let me put you off!

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