Compelling Story, Potentially Offensive Material

books:


	• The Wise Woman: A Novel Philippa Gregory Touchstone, 2008 - 528 pages average customer review:based on 42 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

Historical Fiction (Emphasis on the FICTION)

As with many previous reviewers, I also am a fan of Gregory's work. This particular title caught my attention because I am a modern day Wiccan (a genuine Witch and Wise Woman). As such, I was utterly intrigued by the idea of Gregory taking up Wise Women in historical context.

While the reality of the setting - both time and place - are striking, I was amazed at Gregory's trivialization of her own work by turning the protagonist's "witchcraft" into nothing more than a Hollywood-style "magic and horror" show. All of Gregory's efforts to be true to the era were sadly washed out by the lack of any care or concern for what Wise Women were - and are today. Instead of focusing on the talent of these herbalist, mid-wife women (among their many talents), Gregory once again makes Witchcraft nothing better than a side-show with Hollywood horror style.

I was disappointed. While not looking for Gregory to support my Spirituality nor to vindicate those persecuted in the past, it certainly would have been nice to have her historical research delve into not only the conditions of the people at that time, but also to be as real about Wise Women as she is in all other areas of her research and writing.

for more information click here

Compelling Story, Potentially Offensive Material

Wise Woman / 1-4165-9088-9

This is now my fifth Philippa Gregory novel I've read, and the fourth I've reviewed, and I cannot understand how Gregory can be so radically different with each novel, in terms of prose, technique, and sheer quality. The Constant Princess was wonderful - crisp, clean prose, with a little bit of didactic dialogue, but it fit Catherine's character perfectly. The Other Boleyn Girl was terrible history, but a decent fictional story, even if Gregory did rely a little too heavily on virgin/whore stereotypes, and even if she deliberately reduced her heroine into an idiot in order that everything could be explained to her (and thus the reader) in dialogue. Earthly Joys was so painfully boring that I simply could not finish it (and thus didn't review it), and Virgin's Lover was just awful, with characters' motivations just told to us in hurried prose, rather than shown to us properly in actual actions and dialogues. And now we have Wise Woman.

The writing in Wise Woman is simply wonderful, especially after Earthly Joys and Virgin's Lover. The plot and the characters are wonderfully compelling because Gregory skillfully takes every stereotype and shortcut in a writer's manual, and turns each stereotype on its head, one by one. The entire cast of stock characters are here: the Reformed Rapist Lover, the Bitter Barren Wife, the Kind Supportive Old Father, the Cruel Uncaring Hag, the Sweet Understanding Foster Mother. And just when we, the readers, realize that we're dealing with a historical romance stereotype, and thus we know the outcome of the story, Gregory chooses that moment to show the ridiculousness of that stereotype and the reality of her own characters. Entitled, rapist nobles do not reform into loving husbands; bitter, barren wives have a reason to be bitter and have some kindness underneath their emotional armor; noble fathers can measure their "kindness" differently than ambitious pauper girls may; the worst hag has some hidden sympathy and the best mother has some hidden judgment. Because her characters are real - real people, and not stock characters from a romance novel - the plot is real, and unpredictably so. Because the reader is used to these ridiculous stereotypes, she is shocked and pleased to see the characters behaving as real people, and the plot following realistically along. Did you really think a lifetime of rape can be washed away by a pretty face?, Gregory seems to be asking. Did you really think that a lifetime of plotting and calculations would be abandoned simply because an old man is fond of a young girl?

Our heroine especially is allowed to be a real person. We wonder, as we progress through the novel, do we have a Virtuous Heroine on our hands, sweet and blameless, who will win marriage and love because of her virgin heart and snow-white conscience? Or do we have a Scheming Heroine on our hands, who will worm her way into castle politics and cleverly supplant the barren, unwanted wife? Perhaps we have an Anti-Heroine who, in her hate and anger, has decided simply to tear down her tormenters, even at the cost of her own life. Sometimes we wonder if, instead, we have a Mad Heroine who has been driven completely insane by the harshness of her life and we, the readers, can simply glimpse this madness through the limited point of view. It is halfway through the novel when we realize, to our chagrin, that our heroine cannot be stuffed into one stereotype or another - she is simply a real person, with real virtues and vices, real loves and angers, real wants and needs. She is not Virtuous for wanting to be a virgin, rather than be raped; she is not Scheming for preferring a clean castle to a lousy hovel; she is simply a girl, acting and reacting the only ways that she can think of. For this, and this alone, I would give Wise Woman five stars, and I would point it out as an example of how to do a historical romance right.

However, there's a big caveat to all this before you rush right out to buy this book. There's a lot of material here that many people will find very objectionable. Of the several graphic sex scenes in this book (at least six, I'd estimate), they all involve extreme violence, rape, forced drug use, and/or forced group sex. I wouldn't say that Gregory is condoning her characters' behaviors, and I'm not totally sure that the scenes aren't necessary to propel the plot, but I am certain that there's a lot of disturbing material here that will turn off a lot of readers. Since the real purpose of a review is to help people decide whether or not they want to read a book, this seems important enough to mention. I wasn't precisely 'offended' at the scenes, but I did feel a little queasy after many of them. This isn't light reading material.

Second on the "potentially objectionable material" list, Gregory has decided to make magic a real force in Wise Woman, and some of this magic could be disturbing or offensive to some readers. Personally, I don't find magic offensive at all, but I would have enjoyed the novel more if there was a possibility that the "magic" was all in the heroine's mind as an indication of spiraling insanity. As it is, Gregory makes it pretty clear that the magic our heroine works (and suffers from) is completely real, and not a hallucination. I would have preferred a little more subtlety.

The only other thing that keeps this from being a five-star book, in my opinion, is the ending. I don't have a problem with the ending, per se, it's realistic, it's cyclical, and it works - and goodness knows the ending is always the hardest part to write. But I do have a problem with the way the ending seems rushed and tacked on, as it Gregory had a page limit to maintain and realized, twenty pages from the end, that - oh no! - she needed to wrap this baby up fast. Her careful foreshadowing prose gets lightly tossed out the window in favor of a rushed dash to the finish line. The result is an ending that seems technically right, but feels horribly wrong.

Bottom line: If you are offended by graphic, violent sex scenes and/or graphic magic, you will not enjoy this book. If you are a fan of historical romances and you would like to see some irritating stereotypes followed through to their real, logical conclusion, you may enjoy this book, as I did. For all its joys, there are better novels out there, but if you are looking for something unusual and different, this is the Gregory novel for you.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

In this book, originally published after her bestselling debut with the Wideacre trilogy, New York Times bestselling author Philippa Gregory takes readers to Henry VIII's England, on a journey to the outer reaches of passion, where magic and female power meet.

Alys joins a nunnery to escape the poverty of her life on the moor with her foster mother, Morach, the local wise woman with whom she lives as an outcast, but she soon finds herself thrown back into the world when Henry VIII's wreckers destroy her sanctuary. Summoned to the castle as the old lord's scribe, she falls obsessively in love with his son Hugo, who is married to Catherine. Driven to desperation by her desire, she summons the most dangerous powers Morach has taught her, but soon the passionate triangle of Alys, Hugo, and Catherine begins to explode, launching them into uncharted sexual waters. The magic Alys has conjured now has a life of its own -- a life that is horrifyingly and disastrously out of control.

Is she a witch? Since heresy means the stake, and witchcraft the rope, Alys is in mortal danger, treading a perilous path between her faith and her own female power.

for more information click here

hot or not? What's your opinion? Write a review and share your thoughts!

recommendations

Superb Historical Fiction in 2008

novel

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel
Batman: The Killing Joke
Loving Frank: A Novel
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
A Thousand Splendid Suns

woman

Lakota Woman
Body for Life for Women: A Woman's Plan for Physical and Mental ...
Colters' Woman
Every Young Woman's Battle: Guarding Your Mind, Heart, and Body in a ...
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts

wise

Little Fur Family
Victims No Longer: The Classic Guide for Men Recovering from Sexual ...
Wise Investing Made Simple: Larry Swedroe's Tales to Enrich Your ...
The Wise Guy Cookbook: My Favorite Recipes From My Life as a ...
The Grit Cookbook: World-Wise, Down-Home Recipes

search for books
novel, wise, woman