Facing the Story

Title: Mrs Everything

Author: Jennifer Weiner

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Piatkus

Publication date: 11th June 2019

My rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Summary:

“Jo and Bethie Kaufman were born into a world full of promise.

Growing up in 1950s Detroit, they live in a perfect ‘Dick and Jane’ house, where their roles in the family are clearly defined. Jo is the tomboy, the bookish rebel with a passion to make the world more fair; Bethie is the pretty, feminine good girl, a would-be star who enjoys the power her beauty confers and dreams of a traditional life.

But the truth ends up looking differently than what the girls imagined. Jo and Bethie survive traumas and tragedies. As their lives unfold against the background of free love and Vietnam, Woodstock and Women’s Lib, Bethie becomes an adventure-loving wild child who dives headlong into the counterculture, and is up for anything (except settling down). Meanwhile, Jo becomes a proper young mother in Connecticut, a witness to the changing world instead of a participant. Neither woman inhabits the world she dreams of, or has a life that feels authentic, or brings her joy. Is it too late for the women to finally stake a claim on happily ever after? “

My review:

Sisters Jo and Bethie could not be more different. Jo gets by through her early childhood and teenage years with short bursts of rebellion, convinced that her mother is ashamed of her. In contrast Bethie grows up as the favourite daughter until a tragedy turns her world upside down and she confides in her sister thereby changing both their futures. The bond the sisters share grows even deeper as the girls mature and face many difficulties that life throws at them.

The storytelling in Mrs Everything was superb and the plot progression kept me swiftly turning the pages from beginning to end. The author is very skilled at making the reader feel like a part of the story and I truly felt like I followed Jo and Bethie from their reckless and difficult teenage years through to adulthood. I experienced a wide range of emotions as I encountered the obstacles the girls faced, some more frightful than others, and found myself contemplating on many of these emotions after finishing the book.

As far as character growth goes, Jennifer Weiner presented two very believable and realistic characters. It was easy to relate to both Jo and Bethie and the struggles they faced as women who stood out from the rest of society in 1950s Detroit were incredibly well interlaced in their character development. I found it particularly interesting how Jo and Bethie “switched” as they grew and how in adulthood Bethie ultimately followed a more traditional path despite her past.

The pace in Mrs Everything felt somewhat too slow towards the middle of the book where several other characters were introduced. Nevertheless, the intensity of many tough themes such as sexuality, family relationships and the role of women in society was enough to keep me invested until the end and I found myself wishing the book would never end. A gem that is bound to capture the hearts of many readers, Mrs Everything is the perfect representation of what it means to be a woman in this complex world.

Title: A Woman is No Man

Author: Etaf Rum

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Harper

Publication date: 5th March 2019

My rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Summary:

“Palestine, 1990. Seventeen-year-old Isra prefers reading books to entertaining the suitors her father has chosen for her. Over the course of a week, the naïve and dreamy girl finds herself quickly betrothed and married, and is soon living in Brooklyn. There Isra struggles to adapt to the expectations of her oppressive mother-in-law Fareeda and strange new husband Adam, a pressure that intensifies as she begins to have children – four daughters instead of the sons Fareeda tells Isra she must bear.

Brooklyn, 2008. Eighteen-year-old Deya, Isra’s oldest daughter, must meet with potential husbands at her grandmother Fareeda’s insistence, though her only desire is to go to college. Deya can’t help but wonder if her options would have been different had her parents survived the car crash that killed them when Deya was only eight. But her grandmother is firm on the matter: the only way to secure a worthy future for Deya is through marriage to the right man.

But fate has a will of its own, and soon Deya will find herself on an unexpected path that leads her to shocking truths about her family – knowledge that will force her to question everything she thought she knew about her parents, the past, and her own future.

Set in an America at once foreign to many and staggeringly close at hand, A Woman Is No Man is a story of culture and honour, secrets and betrayals, love and violence. It is an intimate glimpse into a controlling and closed cultural world, and a universal tale about family and the ways silence and shame can destroy those we have sworn to protect.“

My review:

“I was born without a voice, one cold, overcast day in Brooklyn, New York. No one ever spoke of my condition. I did not know I was mute until years later, when I opened my mouth to ask for what I wanted and realized no one could hear me.”

A Woman is No Man explores the controversies and hardships in Muslim women’s lives spanning three generations and two continents. The contrast between the two timelines is surprisingly negligible as the differences between Isra’s life in the Palestine and her daughter Deya’s life in New York 18 years later are not so conflicting as one would imagine. Although Isra hoped for change and the possibility to voice her desires, she discovers soon after her marriage and move to New York that little has changed from her life in Palestine. This is a running theme which becomes more sombre as the story line develops and I had to stop reading at several particularly harrowing moments which were too difficult to endure.

I was completely taken aback at some of the scenes. The mere fact that thousands of women across the world still live without even thinking about the possibility of breaking their traditions and dreaming of lives different to those of their ancestors was too much. It was poignant and distressing how each woman ultimately yearned for the same basic needs in life despite growing up in different places. Some were more determined to stick to their traditions than others but they all wished for freedom of speech and respect.

“A daughter was only a temporary guest, quietly awaiting another man to scoop her away, along with all her financial burden.”

The characters in A Woman is No Man were all extremely well developed and it was easy to form a bond with each of them. By the end I found myself sympathising with Fareeda, wishing that Isra could escape in search for a better life and hoping that Deya would follow her dreams. The ending hit hard and left me numb and for a long time afterwards I struggled to concentrate on any other book. It was a perfect representation of these women’s struggles and painfully illustrated how precious and fragile life is.

Beautifully told with passion and care, A Woman is No Man captured my attention from the first word and left me experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions until the end. I am sure that this book has touched many readers and can only hope with this review that I encourage more people to read it.

“It took more than one woman to do things differently. It took a world of them.”