conversations in a hayloft

Women Talking by Miriam Toews
Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: A small group of women gather to decide what to do after it is revealed that they, along with most other women and girls in their community, have been repeatedly drugged and raped by the men of their small Mennonite colony.  Will they forgive the men, stay and fight, or leave the colony?  Their discussions range over what it means to have the freedom to choose, whether one can be a pacifist if one harbors a desire a kill, how best to protect one's children, and many more philosophical topics.

It was somewhat jarring that a book that seemed as though it was to be about female empowerment was told from a man's perspective, but it worked.  He is privy to the women talking as an amanuensis; none of the women can read or write, but want their deliberations preserved for posterity.  He's an outsider in the colony, for reasons that aren't entirely clear, but his outsider status allows the women to trust him for this task, and makes him appropriately sensitive to them, in a way that no other man of their acquaintance could, or would, be.

And perhaps this is a realistic notion of what could happen when such an insulated group of people is threatened in this way.  But I found it troubling to read about a group of women facing such a threat to themselves and their children and spending two days sitting in a hayloft debating the finer points of free will, rather than making actual plans.  The lack of action in the books gives it a claustrophobic feel, which seems appropriate under the circumstances, and that feeling of clautrophobia helps keep the pressure on throughout the narrative, having the effect of sucking the reader through the story, rather in the manner of a pneumatic tube.

So what will the women decide to do, and will they be able to follow through on that decision?  That is what they are talking about, and the question of whether they will be able to sieze their freedom, no matter what they decide, will leave the reader thinking long after the last page.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

more than just a sequel

Daughter of Moloka'i by Alan Brennert
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)
Genre: historical fiction
Review: Alan Brennert doesn't pull his punches when it comes to some of the more shameful aspects of history.  In Moloka'i he explored the segregation of Hansen's Disease patients in Hawai'i, through the eyes of Rachel Kalama who was removed from her family and sent to the leper colony on Moloka'i at a young age.  Now, in Daughter of Moloka'i, Brennert tells the story of Ruth, the daughter Rachel was forced to give up for adoption.  And his unstinting gaze falls on the racism against Japanese immigrants and the Japanese internment camps of WWII.

As always, Brennert's gaze falls beyond the immediate drama to give us the full and rich sweep of a life.  Ruth's life is fully imagined, from her time in an orphanage and her dreams of finding a family to her happiness with her adopted parents and brothers to the hardships they faced as farmers in rural California to their internment and beyond.  Once Rachel is re-introduced into the narrative, it is fascinating to watch Brennert tell the same story, even many of the exact same scenes, but told from Ruth's perspective.  Reading the books back-to-back turns them into a wonderfully faceted multi-generational story that is a pleasure to read.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.