Recent Reviews
Finding Margaret Fuller by Alison Pataki
Allison Pataki’s powerful novel brings the brilliant feminist Margaret Fuller to life. Delving into the historical record, Pataki celebrates this intellectual heroine who changed 19th century American thinking only to fade into the shadows of history.
Born in 1810, Fuller was a talented journalist, writer, translator and teacher who advocated for women’s equality. Her demanding father was determined to provide her with the same education as a boy. He tutored her himself. Fuller spoke multiple languages and read Shakespeare, Virgil, and Goethe while she was young. By all accounts, her genius stunned all those whom she encountered. Later, she taught school in Boston and Providence and, in 1839, became the first woman editor of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s transcendentalist journal called The Dial. Later that year, Fuller became the editor of Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune, where she wrote opinion pieces and literary criticism.
She was a feminist before feminism entered the lexicon and forged a path for women’s suffrage before an organized movement emerged in the United States. Ignoring the restrictive roles dictated by men, she unapologetically advocated for women’s equality and became a model of an independent woman. She said, “We do a great disservice to all people, male and female when we relegate a lady’s talents only to the hearth and home.” In 1845, she published her groundbreaking book Woman in the Nineteenth Century, a feminist critique that bemoaned the injustices inflicted upon American women.
Pataki’s novel starts slow, but gains momentum after the first few chapters. Though Fuller’s articles and books dominated the bestseller lists in the 1840s, it is curious that her legacy has not endured like her friends Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Louise May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Elizabeth Barret Browning, and Edgar Allen Poe, all of whom are characters in this novel.
This fact makes Allison Pataki’s novel even more important. Not only is it the first fictionalized account of Margaret Fuller’s life, but it is also an acknowledgement of her fierce advocacy for women’s equality, the end of slavery and prison reform. As Susan B. Anthony said, “Fuller possessed more influence on the thoughts of American women than any woman previous to her time.” If you haven’t read about Margaret Fuller, I recommend this novel.
Thanks to my sister-in-law Mary for giving me this book. 4/5
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
With great insight, Elizabeth Strout’s newest novel probes the complexity of human relationships. How well can we know another person? How well can we know ourselves? She concludes not well: “We are all such mysteries.” But her novel offers an antidote to this isolation. Listening to other people’s stories connects us to them and causes us to empathize with their plight. Exchanging stories is a gift we can give to ourselves and others.
This character-driven novel takes place in the fictional town of Crosby, Maine. We have met the protagonists in Strout’s prior books: Bob Burgess, Lucy Barton, and Olive Kittridge. The plot revolves around their deepening friendships, the stories they share, and the murder of an elderly woman on the outskirts of town.
Strout’s characters are defined by the traumas (often unknown to others) that shaped their journey. Her characters’ ordeals occurred in their childhoods and have been the engine (consciously or unconsciously) driving their lives. Olive Kittredge says, ‘If you don’t think everyone is broken in some way, you’re wrong.” The novel’s characters have endured sexual abuse, suicide, alcoholism, disease, divorce, poverty, and the guilt of accidentally killing a parent.
The novel has a wistful tone as the characters wrestle with themselves and those they encounter. They share their fears and worries, their joys and pleasures, and the stories they hear about other people in town. Just when you are about to judge a character’s cruel action or poor choice, the character’s background is revealed, and you feel compassion instead.
The book can sometimes feel like a quirky collection of short stories. Still, Strout weaves them into an existential narrative about how people overcome their hardships and connect with others. Lucy Barton states, “People just live their lives with no real knowledge of anybody.”
In this world filled with so much suffering, Strout suggests that listening to others without judgment is a gift of love and the only antidote to the existential loneliness of our minds. This novel is poignant, provocative and packed with insights. I highly recommend Tell Me Everything. 5/5
By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult
Jodi Picoult’s By Any Other Name is a must-read for Shakespeare lovers. This novel is a thought-provoking story based on research about the real-life Emilia Bassano, who lived in the 16th century and might have authored some of William Shakespeare’s plays. A second thread follows Melina Green, a fictional playwright living in present-day NYC. Male producers steadily reject her work until a friend submits one of her plays using a man’s name. Compelling and engaging, this novel celebrates the talents of two women seeking to bring their words to life despite the prejudice they face.
Because the book details the customs of Elizabethan England, including facts about Bassano’s life, the notion of her authorship of Shakespeare’s plays seems plausible. Collaborating and selling plays were part of the theater milieu. Bassano received a robust private education as a young girl and then was forced to become a mistress to Lord Chamberlain who oversaw all theater productions in England. Like other writers, she could have sold her plays to Shakespeare. That she was a talented writer is not in question. After years of prohibition, in 1611, Bassano was the first woman whose poetry was published in England.
Shakespeare, the writer and actor, is also a character in the novel. However, the narrative offers many facts (sources are listed in the author’s notes) and questions whether Shakespeare wrote all the plays attributed to him. Among the facts that caught my attention: he wrote strong female characters and yet had two daughters who could not read or write, he never traveled to the locations where some of his plays took place, and there is no record that Shakespeare played a musical instrument. Yet, his plays collectively have more than two thousand musical references. When he died, he left no books or manuscripts. Nor is he buried in Westminster Abbey like other revered writers of England.
As I pondered Picoult’s hypothesis, I reminded myself that history is written by those in power. The men in charge of the theater would not consider women capable of such erudition. But even if the novel’s premise is not proved over time, By Any Other Name is an engrossing story that highlights two women writers, one real and one fictional, living centuries apart, yearning for their voices to be heard. The story is a reminder that despite progress, parity between men and women has yet to be achieved. I highly recommend this novel. 4/5
