Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
My mom called me all excited about this book. She stumbled across it on the internet and was intrigued by the story, a piece of US history that I’m sure most have never heard. She’d been reading for an hour before she called me and an hour later I was out hunting for it at the local bookstore. (I had to go to two before I found it-always call around first!)
Wench is a fictional account of the happenings at a resort in Ohio. But first, a bit about this resort. According to the author’s note Tawawa Resort opened in 1852 near Xenia, Ohio. She says that Southern slave holders visited the resort and brought along slaves as accompaniment. According to local history many of these slaves were mistresses, hence the name wench, and were a reason for the resort’s decline. Other visitors, including Northern abolitionists were not keen on these openly displayed relationships. Tawawa closed its doors in 1855. The Cincinnati Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church bought the land in 1856 and established the Ohio African University. After the beginning of the Civil War the school closed. The African Methodist Episcopal Church bought the property in 1863 and the school was renamed Wilberforce University. The Historical Marker Database has a bit more information about this site. Mom says she read that Perkins-Valdez imagined what it would be like to be an enslaved woman traveling to this resort.
The story centers around four women-slaves who accompany their masters to Tawawa House each summer for a vacation. They are also their master’s lovers and in some cases the mothers of their children. They have become close friends and each looks forward to this vacation and sprucing up the small cottages, and getting away from drab and dangerous plantation life. The men camp, hunt, fish, dine and smoke cigars while the women meet to share stories, recipes, and serve as a comfort to each other. These are women that can understand and appreciate each other’s circumstance. Initially we get to know each woman and a bit about her life.
Reenie comes to the resort with ‘Sir’ who is her master, brother, and lover. Sweet has multiple children at home and must continue to work in spite of her pregnancy. Glory, a Quaker with anti-slavery sentiments, lives with her husband near Tawawa House. Their farm supplies food to the resort. Described as a “Northern white… who didn’t understand the rules”, she sympathizes with the women and is willing to risk her life if she can help.
Mawu who, in an act of defiance, changed her name from Betsy accompanies Mr. Taylor (‘Tip’) up from Louisiana. She does not like him but he insists on being her lover. She has born him four children three of which he sold, the other suffered brain damage after a fall. Mawu is the newest to the group of women. She comes to Tawawa red hair ablaze; she refuses to have more children and is alive with thoughts of escape and of spells and herbs.
Lizzie (Eliza) belongs to Nathaniel Drayle of Tennessee both emotionally and physically. She has born him two children Nate Jr. his spitting image and Rabbit (May) who looks like a ‘white doll’. His wife Fran is not able to have children and overlooks the fact that her husband is sleeping with Lizzie. Lizzie has lived and worked in the house since she was a young girl. Drayle taught her how to read and favored her over the other slaves. As a young girl she learned early that she could receive things from him if she gave pieces of herself. She struggles with her love and affection for Drayle against the backdrop of realizing that she has no real choice, she is not free and neither are her children. She constantly struggles with the desire to escape but is held back by the fact that to escape would mean risking her children’s lives. Isn’t Drayle good to her? He tells her he loves her and does things for her and her children, her life can’t be so bad enough as to run away. She contemplates Mawu’s question: “Is he God to you?” But Drayle, like the other slave holders, is unpredictable. The life of a slave is unpredictable. As the story progresses, we learn more about Lizzie’s life and the story focuses on her point of view for the duration.
Time passes slowly until the women can make it back to their cottages at the resort. We are able to see what the resort means to each woman. The moral predicament is a delicate and complex one: that of slave and mistress, of love and contempt. At times the women wield amazing power and at others they are painfully reminded of their place in the world.
The servants did not hide their curiosity as the slave women walked through the kitchen. Each woman had experienced a range of reactions from the slaves back home: jealousy, pride, pity. Here in Ohio, they had not spoken much about what the free colored people thought of women like them. This was partly because they did not care. They had each other, unlike down south. There it was a lonely battle.
Wench is Dolen Perkins-Valdez’ debut novel and overall, not bad at all. This is a story I’ve read many times, though it never felt recycled. The inclusion of this piece of history made for an interesting story. The women were all very real to me especially Lizzie. It was obvious that by the end of the novel she’d been changed by her friends, her summers at Tawawa House, and new discoveries. The only thing that I would have wanted a bit more of was description. Sometimes I couldn’t quite imagine the surroundings; the clinking of china at the table, the dust flying in the slave quarters, the flouncing dresses of women in town. But then again, some people feel bogged down by that sort of thing. In historical novels for me it is sometimes the best part.
Off to drop this one in the mail, Ma is eagerly awaiting.
The Calligrapher’s Night by Yasmine Ghata
The years went by, and from being a pupil I passed to being a teacher. Why hurry? Now that I am dead I no longer have to count minutes. My memory is intact; memories are more tangible than reality. My life flashes past in front of me at the speed of light, assails me and then withdraws without warning. All that I could not grasp while still alive comes back to me intermittently. I am a witness to the visible and the invisible: now I can tell the whole story.
We meet Rikkat Kunt just as her life is ending. It is where the story of her life as a calligrapher begins. Calligraphy is a male dominated career, an art form that is highly regarded. We follow her path to practice among the best, to learn from the great masters. Rikkat describes the moments of calligraphy showing that at times her gift travels through her hand and is guided by the spirit of her deceased teacher and at times is influenced by emotion, and at others by a divine presence. She remembers her marriage and it’s end, the birth of her son and their forced separation, their reunion. In addition to working toward recognition as a woman and defending her work against her husband’s ideal of a woman’s place calligraphers in Turkey are threatened by cultural reforms in which the Arabic language and the art form are abolished to be replaced by the Latin alphabet.
The Calligrapher’s Night is Ghata’s fictionalized account of her grandmother’s life, who was a calligrapher.
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
It is 1899 and Calpurnia Virginia Tate is braving the Texas summer heat to become a “naturalist” even if young ladies don’t normally do such things. She is fascinated by nature and all of the moving and chirping creatures around her. As the only girl amongst 6 brothers she often wonders why expectations are different for her. She is not interested in knitting, cooking, and housekeeping but wants to romp around outside discovering the next big science thing. Her previously reclusive grandfather takes her under his wing and challenges her to make observations, ask questions, and then answer those questions. In her little red notebook pond water comes to life and a fat hairy caterpillar turns into a large fluttering moth.
At the introduction of each chapter Jacqueline Kelly includes a brief snippet from Darwin’s The Origin of Species which is the book that Calpurnia is reading. Overall the book was enjoyable but as a novel set in 1899 I didn’t always have that historical feeling. I didn’t really believe it was 1899. Mind you, I have no idea what 1899 in Texas looked and smelled like.
The world according to Callie Vee:
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My mother had got one girl out of seven tries at it. I guess I wasn’t exactly what she’d had in mind, a dainty daughter to help her bail against the rising tide of the rough-and-tumble boyish energy that always threatened to engulf the house. It hadn’t occurred to me that she’d been hoping for an ally and then didn’t get one. So I didn’t like to talk patterns and recipes and pour tea in the parlor. Did that make me selfish or odd? Worst of all, did it make me a disappointment?
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Now fainting. That’s a subject I’d always wondered about. The heroines in books seemed to faint a lot, swaying genteelly onto a handy padded couch or into the convenient arms of some concerned suitor. These heroines were always willowy and managed to land in graceful postures of repose, and were revived with the merest passing of a decorated flagon of smelling salts under their noses. I, on the other hand, apparently went over like a felled ox and was lucky to land on the grass and avoid cracking my head open.
Cool Girl’s Guide to Crochet by Nicki Trench
I crocheted some as a girl. My mom and auntie were very much into crafts, sewing, and the like. (They are both home economics majors) I’d since forgotten how to crochet and wanted to find a way to get back into it so when I stumbled upon this book on a bargain shelf I picked it up along with a set of crochet hooks and some yarn. It looked easy enough with step-by-step instructions and lots of photos. That same night I was able to complete a basic chain stitch and a few rows of single crochet but my work was lopsided and slowly turning in but I couldn’t figure out from the book how to fix it. Mom could tell me over the phone and that same day I finished my yarn and I think I’m making a scarf. I of course haven’t tried any of the patterns-they all seem a bit too hard for a beginner. And I think it would have been nice to have more photos of the stitch instructions. Anyhow online videos have been a great help and I’ve found a place that gives classes in crocheting and knitting. With my first snow of the winter it was a good weekend to crochet, read, and sip tea. Now I just have to get more yarn and I’ll be wearing my scarf to work this week.
The Group by Mary McCarthy
…their education had impressed on them the unwisdom of making large judgments from one’s own narrow little segment of experiences.
The Group follows eight graduates of Vassar College’s class of 1933 as they step out into the world after completing their university education. In 1930s New York City (during Roosevelt’s New Deal) “the group” of friends are looking for jobs, for love, and a general place in society (or to maintain that place). Each of their stories is unique and vivid with some women receiving more page time than others. In fact each chapter is devoted to one of the women and we are able to see how each life affects the others. It seems that each chapter unveils a major event in each character’s life-an event that they would possibly wish to remain unknown to the outside world. Dottie Renfrow meets a man who makes it clear he just wants sex and suggests that she be fitted for a cervical cap. Knowing all this she still talks herself into believing that he loves her and is beyond mortified to make her doctor’s appointment. Libby struggles to land a position as a book reviewer and after several practice edits finds herself being let go and must decide if she should say something to defend herself. Kay has married Harold as the book opens-she’s trying to learn how to cook, please her moody husband, and hold a job. Lakey travels abroad most of the novel and returns with more than suveniers. Polly works at the hospital laboratory administering metabolic tests to patients. And there’s Priss who has just had a baby and is trying breastfeeding amid all of the advice and warnings of the hospital staff and her husband. I’m missing somebody but that’s okay.
The common thread among the group (beyond their education) is that they refuse to be like their mothers and fathers meaning that they want to be forward thinking and not stuffy. They truly think they are liberal and for the most part they are headed in that direction. They encounter issues of navigating taboos around sex, relationships or marriage, motherhood, politics and the workplace. Their fight to remain independent and the way they handle these taboos all seem to be credited to their superb education and social standing. What becomes quickly apparent is that McCarthy means to discuss these pressing issues amongst women while also showing that their model education, ideal background and the society in which they live are at times the causes of their conservatism, blunders and occasional dismay. It is beyond interesting to watch as each young woman enters into the world with hopes to work and become independent of their parents, to make decisions, and live the best life. What is depressing is that they never seem to realize this dream- they more and more frequently refuse to make choices for themselves, to speak up and take hold of their lives and their bodies. This is exactly the point (well, I’m not McCarthy but I think it’s the point)-these women aren’t getting any New Deal perks, they don’t have the space to do such things amongst all the moral obligations society puts upon women (even with the education and background). McCarthy provides a well thought out satire of society, this group of elite women, and women like them. She shows that women’s rights are indeed beginning to surface but have far to go. She is extremely blunt and witty and her book was of course controversial at the time. For the time that this novel was published the topics of birth control, sex before marriage, mothering, breastfeeding, homosexuality, and women’s mental health must have been startling (because it is still a cause for commotion and debate today).
The issues that McCarthy addressed are of course relevant to every woman then and are relevant today. But I did find myself wondering about other women while reading this book. Considering the times, these women were extremely privileged and I couldn’t help but wonder about the concerns and day-to-day problems of women of other social classes and races. They would have had to cope with these same things as well as being poor, non-white, or immigrant. These are indeed brave women for questioning and in some occasions acting against the norm, against society’s place for women.
She started to get up then, till it dawned on her that she was just tamely accepting her dismissal without having heard one adequate reason
It was unnatural, she said to herself forlornly. Accidentally, she had put her finger on the truth, like accidentally hitting a scab. She was doing “the most natural thing in the world,” suckling her young, and for some peculiar reason it was completely unnatural, strained, and false, like a posed photograph. Everyone in the hospital knew this, her mother knew it, her visitors knew it; that was why they were all talking about her nursing and pretending that it was exciting, when it was not, except as a thing to talk about. In reality, what she had been doing was horrid, and right now, in the nursery, a baby’s voice was rising to tell her so-the voice, in fact, that she she had been refusing to listen to, though she had heard it for at least a week. It was making a natural request, in this day and age; it was asking for a bottle.
…she had never for a minute been out of her mind. But as she advanced to the dining room, a terrible doubt possessed her. They were using psychology on her: it was not her own choice, and she was not free…
The Group has been recently republished by Virago and is my 4th selection for the Women Unbound challenge. Even though the women do appear to be bound in many ways, I think having the desire to move forward in this respect is commendable. The movement had to start somewhere.
Short Stories on Sunday: The One-Armed Queen by Jane Yolen
This short story picks up where Yolen’s Sister Light, Sister Dark and White Jenna leave off. I have read neither but have heard they are good. The Gender Wars are over, White Jenna and her husband King Carum are assumed dead and their three children are fighting to replace them. Scillia is an adopted daughter, The One-Armed Queen. This story gives the history of Scillia’s adoption, the context of the Gender wars, and Scillia’s journey to gather supporters and assume the throne. In addition to narrative the story is told through myth, legend, and song.
After publishing this story Yolen wrote it into the third book of the series.
Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg
Finishing this book on writing I realized that it could teach me about life as well. Writing Down the Bones is a series of short essays on writing and ways to open up and just let your voice out onto the paper-you have to practice you have to believe in yourself. I originally frantically compiled books on writing. I was having a moment of panic-well a series of moments over a span of about a week about a paper I was writing for work. I was looking for a particular book on writing to kind of get me started because as a researcher if you don’t understand something, what do you do but look up the answer. I stalked around bookstores browsing the table of contents, crept through the library reading jacket covers, and surfed online to see what other folks were reading. I rifled through a few books but they weren’t what I was looking for. Goldberg gives us funny stories about writing and life-what worked for her and what did not. So as an exercise similar to those she provides I decided to write this review-no editing, non-stop, and no fear.
Someone At A Distance by Dorothy Whipple
“A grain or two of sand can start a downward trickle on the sand-hills which eventually alters the shape of the immediate scene”
Ellen North is a loving mother and wife. She runs her home, lavishes her two children with love, is blissfully happy in her post-war English country home. It is said that her garden provides the best insight into her mood and her home is always filled with fresh cut flowers. Her husband Avery is a publisher, her daughter Anne is away at school and is crazy about her horse Roma. Hugh the oldest child serves in the Army. All things are as they should be.
We first meet the family through Avery’s mother, old Mrs. North, whose husband has died. She decides to place an ad for a companion which is answered by a young French woman, Mademoiselle Louise Lanier. Of course Louise is beautiful and old Mrs. North is smitten by her. For others, Louise leaves a decidedly bad taste. She is rude, demanding, and parades around like some sort of princess when really she is from a provincial French town and is the daughter or a bookseller. This standing in her town has ensured that she was dumped by her love interest for a woman of more appropriate standing. This fuels Louise through the book. We are never really sure what she wants, nothing seems to satisfy her-money, affection, attention, things, the pain she causes others.
“There are times in our lives when the slightest move is dangerous”
At old Mrs. North’s death Louise is given 1000 pounds and must stay in England to secure her inheritance. During this spell Louise intentionally attracts Avery’s attention. Ellen is unaware, she has never had a reason to not trust Avery. Though she does not particularly like Louise she makes allowances and convinces herself be cordial and hopes for a friendship. Initially Avery is not interested, then is becomes angry, then he he falls for Louise’s flirtations and off we go with scandal and the beginnings of a new predicament for both Ellen and Louise.
Flipping through the Persephone catalog this seemed like a pretty normal story of fairly normal interest. In fact, it wasn’t one of my first choices but since it was published as a classic it was easy to get a hold of here in the US. It of course sat on my shelf for a while. I’d heard plenty about Dorothy Whipple since coming to know Persephone and she is recommended by many. I quite enjoyed Someone At A Distance. The characters are well developed and the ordinary plot is extraordinarily written. While their reasons are not always rational, Whipple makes us equally aware of each character’s perspective. Ellen is able to maintain her relationship with her children and work out a new life for herself and generally seemed to be moving on, though she remained hopeful that Avery would come to his senses and do the right thing. She refused to be demeaned and she remained composed for her children. But I wasn’t at all expecting the ending, I think I’m mad about it!
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