Sunday, August 28, 2011

"Slammerkin"

I read "Slammerkin" by Emma Donoghue right after I read the "Sealed Letter" (or skimmed through most of it).



The main character, Mary, is a plain young girl living in the slums of London. Her family is very poor and she longs for bright, colorful things like she sees in the streets. One night, she asks a peddler to buy a ribbon, but the price is too much. She begs him for it; he rapes her and gives her a ribbon. When she gets home, she starts to tell her family what happened, but something prevents her. 

A few months later, her mother receives a note saying: "Your daughter is a hore. Just look at her." Her mother flattens Mary's dress against her stomach, sees the baby bump, and freaks out. She throws Mary out of the house to fend for herself. 

Mary is 14. 

A prostitute, or "miss" as they're call in the book, finds Mary laying in the gutter after she's been accosted by several more men. Doll Higgins becomes Mary's good friend. She takes her to a place in London where Mary gets "the baby business" taken care of. She'll never be pregnant again. Because Mary is on her own, now, and Doll found her, Mary becomes a Miss, just like Doll. She likes the freedom and money that comes with the job, although she dislikes the job itself. 

About a year later, Mary gets sick and goes to a hospital for the winter. Doll tells her they let people in to take care of them and it's very easy living. When Mary leaves in the Spring, she goes back to find Doll frozen to death in the alley outside their apartment. She feels sick and scrapes together all the money she can find, packs her bags, and heads to a town in Welsh country where her mother grew up. She ends up as a maid/apprentice to a seamstress in town--an old friend of her mother's. Mary lies to her and tells her that her mother died with the final wish of Mary living with her old friend. 

Mary hates being a maid. After a few complications, she finds a job as a Miss at a stable in town. She works nights as a Miss, and days as a maid. As this life continues, something snaps inside Mary. One day, she tries on a beautiful dress that her mistress has just finished making because she thinks she deserves it more than the customer. Her mistress finds her wearing the dress and tells her to take it off. Mary gets mad and kills her mistress. She is then put on trial and hanged, ending her life at 16 years of age.

Throughout the book, Emma Donoghue points out that Mary's view of the world is very materialistic. She carefully hoards her stash of "expensive" clothing--which she finds out really isn't that valuable after working for her seamstress mistress. "Clothes are the greatest lie ever told" writes Emma.

Her writing is much improved from The Sealed Letter although you may have to suffer through a few "gross" passages where Mary's tragedies are described in great detail. It's a dark book, but well written in general.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

New Books!

Hey y'all. Just dropping by to share a few titles. These are the books that either I'm reading right now, or they're next on my reading list, or I read them this past week. Plus a new CD that I got.


"The Devil Wears Prada" 
by Lauren Weisberger

I'm reading it right now--I'm about halfway through it. Review to come soon!

"Violin"
by Anne Rice

Next on my reading list. 

"Lord John and the Private Matter"
by Diana Gabaldon

I read this last week. I'll be doing a review on it sometime in the next couple of days.

"The Writer's Guide to Queries, Pitches, & Proposals"
by Moira Allen

I'm in the middle of reading it. It has some really good tips. Review soon.

"Slammerkin"
by Emma Donoghue

I finished this a while ago and forgot to write a review. So I'll do that.


aaaaand my new CD: "Eclecticity". It's the solo CD from one of the band members in Everywhere West. (the band that played in Cody, Wyoming. click here for more info on them.) I highly suggest you check them out. Ryan Martin is the guy I have a CD of. He's an amazing instrumentalist.

Happy reading and listening!

Sunday, August 7, 2011

"The Sealed Letter"

I've been trying to read some new authors recently, and while I was at the library last week, I picked up a couple of Emma Donoghue's books. I started with The Sealed Letter

The Sealed Letter centers on the Codrington divorce in 1864. Set in England, it's based on a true story, although some of the facts have been filled in by the imagination of the author. I can't summarize it any better than the inside leaf of the book does:

"Miss Emily "Fido" Faithfull is a "woman of business" and a spinster pioneer in the British women's movement, independent of mind but naively trusting of heart. Distracted from her cause by the sudden return of her once dear friend, the unhappily wed Helen Codrington, Fido is swept up in the intimate details of Helen's failing marriage to a stuffy admiral and her obsessive affair with a young army officer. What begins as a loyal effort to help a friend explodes into a courtroom drama that rivals the Clinton affair--complete with stained clothing, accusations of adultery, counterclaims of rape, and a mysterious sealed letter that could destroy more than one life."

Sound exciting? I thought so until I started reading. It started out interesting enough, with the story of Emily and Helen becoming acquainted once again and with Emily's discovery of Helen's affair. Emily tries to dissuade Helen from her army officer and Helen pretends to go along with it for a while, all the time continuing the affair. Emily finally agrees to help Helen, albeit reluctantly. One night, Helen sends a telegram to her husband claiming to be having dinner with Emily and her parents. When her husband responds with a message about their daughter being ill, and Helen doesn't show up for three hours, he becomes suspicious. 

I'll be honest. That's as far as I got. Emma Donoghue wrote The Sealed Letter in present tense with an omniscient narrator. In other words, the author knows what everyone is thinking and constantly switches back and forth between characters. It was quite confusing and after a while, I found it too boring to labor through the constant POV switches. So, I skipped ahead to the end. 

Captain Codrington, Helen's husband, ends up with custody of the children, and Helen ends up on the streets. (her lover has gone back to Scotland and gotten married, leaving her alone.) Helen comes to Emily to ask for money and takes everything Emily has readily available. Emily's reputation has been ruined by the sealed letter that Capt. Codrington produced as proof that Helen and Emily were "involved." Capt. Codrington sends Emily the sealed letter, telling her to open it if she wishes. She ends up opening it, right as the book ends. It's only a blank page. 

(By scanning through the middle, you read that the Captain's lawyers urged him to find something else they could pin on his wife. So, he creates a sealed letter from 7 years ago to use as proof. It's never opened during the trial, but is enough evidence for the Captain to win.)

All things considered, it's a halfway decent book, although I wouldn't read it again simply because of the style of writing (present tense, omniscient narrator). However, the characters are well written, and the setting seems to be historically accurate. If you don't mind the style of writing, I would recommend it.