Saturday, September 08, 2007
Mary Saunders
I just finished reading a book about a real girl, Mary Saunders. Partly true, the story is fictionalized, but told in the setting like things were in the 18th century. There are several women's voices heard in the book, and it brings to mind the fact that we live such a changed version of life than have the women who came before us.
The story is Mary's short life that included poverty, ambition, rape, prostitution, redemption, domestic service, a short glimpse of romance, and then destruction and murder. Sounds depressing, doesn't it? I found the book in the reception office, and I picked it up on a whim. Who knew I'd get so into the story? Wow - it drew me in and I couldn't stop reading it.
From Mary's mother to her benefactor, to the small-town seamstress that gives Mary a second chance, I couldn't help contrasting their lives with my own and other women of the Western World today. What we owe these predecessors is hard to know. The fact that SO MANY have paved the way for me to have the rights I have today - to NOT live in poverty, to NOT have to be satisfied with a particular "station in life," to NOT have to be a 2nd class (or lower) citizen just because I'm female - it all makes me so aware and grateful to all of them.
Title of the book: Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue
The story is Mary's short life that included poverty, ambition, rape, prostitution, redemption, domestic service, a short glimpse of romance, and then destruction and murder. Sounds depressing, doesn't it? I found the book in the reception office, and I picked it up on a whim. Who knew I'd get so into the story? Wow - it drew me in and I couldn't stop reading it.
From Mary's mother to her benefactor, to the small-town seamstress that gives Mary a second chance, I couldn't help contrasting their lives with my own and other women of the Western World today. What we owe these predecessors is hard to know. The fact that SO MANY have paved the way for me to have the rights I have today - to NOT live in poverty, to NOT have to be satisfied with a particular "station in life," to NOT have to be a 2nd class (or lower) citizen just because I'm female - it all makes me so aware and grateful to all of them.
Title of the book: Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue
Labels: books, women's topics
# posted by Carol @ 9/08/2007 01:14:00 PM 
