Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

My first Atwood. I was very excited to dive into this seeing as how her books have been on my list for ages.

Alias Grace is a fictionalized account of a true story. In 1843, Grace Marks, a Canadian housemaid, was convicted of murdering her employer and his mistress. She and her supposed accomplice, James McDermott were both found guilty and set to hang, but Grace's sentence was later reduced to being committed to an asylum. Grace then spent the next thirty years in a variety of asylums and prisons.

This book has Grace telling her story to a young Dr Simon Jordan. However, if you're looking to find out if she really was willingly involved with the murders, or if she was unwillingly involved in them, you won't find that information here.

Instead, Grace draws you into her world. With her words she memorizes you. You start to feel sympathy for her. When she gets to the murders, she gives vague recaps, such as events that may or may not have been dreams or real life. She never lets it known whether she's guilty or not.

After thirty years of incarceration, Grace was pardoned and moved to New York. What happened to her is unknown, but Atwood gives a nice 'what might have happened to her'. The truth of her guilt is still doubted to this day.

After finishing Alias Grace, I have become eager to delve into Atwood's other work.

And with this, I am finished with the Women Unbound Challenge.

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

A Room of One's Own is an extended essay. However, I saw it as a bunch of different stories tied together.

At one point Woolf talks about the limitations of women when it comes to writing. 'A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.' She says how there are virtually no female writers in the 16th century due to this. She then travels forward through the centuries bringing to the surface the progress of women writers. Such as Lady Winchilsea, Margaret Cavendish, Dorothy Osborne and Aphra Behn. She talks about how the limitations of women during their times affect each of their works. Winchilsea especially would write about her frustrations and how women weren't taken seriously as writers.

Woolf then makes up a fictional character to make this point: Judith Shakespeare, a fictional sister of William Shakespeare. She uses this imaginative sister to prove that if a woman had Shakespeare's same talents, she would not come anywhere close to having the same opportunities due to her sex.

There are other points, of course, but the ones I mentioned in the last two paragraphs are the ones that particularly struck me and have stayed with me.

I've always felt more drawn to women writers, but A Room of One's Own gives me an entirely new perspective. While I read works by the great women writers of history - I appreciated the work - I never thought of the real struggles, how many walls they had to break down. How even as a published and successful author, they were still not taken seriously.

The main thing I've taken from reading this is to do more exploring into the history of women writers, all the writers that have been overlooked and buried by history. It's time to bring them back to the surface.

Read for the Women Unbound Challenge.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

A semi-autobiographical tale about a young woman's slow decent into a mental breakdown.

This was a heartbreaking, and at times, disturbing book. We traveled inside the head of a young woman from the start of her mental breakdown while at a magazine internship in New York to the final plunge of her insanity while home in Boston and through the several institutions she finds herself in.

I'm not going to get too personal here, but there were some things in this book I could identify with. And when you read a book of this kind of magnitude and find yourself thinking, "Wow, I've been there," it's not a happy thing to realize. Thankfully, I am well past all this stuff, but it brought a lot back.

The Bell Jar is probably one of the most real books I've ever read. It was painstakingly honest. There was no holding back for Plath.

I'm still digesting it. It will be awhile before I read this again, if I decide to.

Wild Heart by Suzanne Rodriguez

A very interesting account about a very interesting lady.

Natalie Clifford Barney, born in Dayton, Ohio in 1876 in a wealthy family was, from the start, a free spirit. She lived her life defying society's conventions. She lived openly, never hiding or giving excuses for being a lesbian or feminist or for her dreams as a writer. She refused to marry and instead moved to Paris in the early 1900s where she would live for the rest of her life.

I can't recall where I first came across Barney's name, but the more I read about her, the more fascinated I became. I was thrilled that there was full length bio out there. This seemed to be a very good one, thankfully, seeing as how it seems to be the only one.

It was definitely a tome, which was fine by me. Rodriguez hit on just about everything. Everything from the smallest detail to mentioning a person Barney only met once or twice. We were given long accounts of the women who played important roles in her life such as Pauline Tarn, Liane de Pougy and Romaine Brookes. Deriving from personal papers and the memories of people who new Natalie, Rodriguez paints a very vivid portrait of the woman most knew as 'The Amazon.'

Rodriguez also did not make excuses for Barney's faults. And she did have them. A few things I had a problem with was that Barney was a feminist, but a few times gave off a few misogynist quotes, which I found surprising, seeing as how she was a woman who loved women and was in the forefront of advancing women's talents. Another was her anti-semitic views. Which, as Rodriguez states, seems to come out of no where. Barney was herself 1/8 Jewish and had at times seemed to be proud of her Jewish ancestry, but somewhere around WWII she gave off some very nasty comments. No one seems to know what sparked Barney to say such things.

Barney was a patron of the arts, and didn't know much about politics and such. When Erza Pound went off on his rants before WWII, Barney sat next to him and agreed with him. She was the only one. Everyone else just thought he was nuts and he ended up going away for treason. I found it interesting how she just accepted whatever he said because it sounded good.

Back to the good stuff, Barney played a huge part in advancing the careers of both men and women writers and painters, especially those she was close with: lovers and close friends. At her famous salon (which lasted about 60 years), referred to simply as 'Fridays' she sometimes dedicated a Friday to one person's work. What I wouldn't give to go back and time to witness these 'Fridays' firsthand. The most famous names in the arts would visit Barney's salon and would discuss art, literature and so on. Plays would be put on, buffets would be set out, ideas would be exchanged.

I could go on, but this book covered so much. When I finished Wild Heart I came away with a deep appreciation for a woman who was definitely a rebel.

Wild Heart is a deep, fantastic book about a glittering world of time gone by.

For the Women Unbound Challenge.

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

My very first novel by Virginia Woolf. I was terrified to read it and now I'm terrified to write a review, but I shall overcome all that and just do my best.

I took this book to be about nothing in particular. This was a novel of human behavior. We saw how people reacted to what another person said or did, whether that person was a stranger or a familiar face. We saw how people reacted when someone who has always been there is now gone and they must tread the world on their own. We saw how differently the same person reacted as a child to when they're an adult.

I connected the most with Lily and seemed to follow her around more so than the others. Lily is a creative soul, who loves to paint, but is often hounded by Charles Tansey who is constantly telling her that women can neither paint nor write. So, I immediately took a dislike to him. At the end of the book, Lily seemed to come to grips with everything in her life that she had been hanging on to, things that had been keeping her down. She finished a painting, that she started years ago, but more than that, she finally came to terms with who she was.

Ten Days in a Mad-House by Nellie Bly

I do not know where to even start with this. The fact that this was non fiction just blew my mind. I've read fiction books that take place in mad houses during the 19th century, but the fiction was more of a reality than I had originally thought.

Nellie Bly is a journalist and gets an assignment in 1887 to go undercover and spend ten days in a mad-house and report her findings. She goes about this by purchasing a room in a women's boarding house and acting peculiar. She says that all ...more I do not know where to even start with this. The fact that this was non fiction just blew my mind. I've read fiction books that take place in mad houses during the 19th century, but the fiction was more of a reality than I had originally thought.

Nellie Bly is a journalist and gets an assignment in 1887 to go undercover and spend ten days in a mad-house and report her findings. She goes about this by purchasing a room in a women's boarding house and acting peculiar. She says that all the other women are crazy; she sits up all night; she keeps asking where her trunks are. None of this is even remotely crazy behavior, but the other boarders become agitated and the police are called in. Just goes to show how quickly a label was placed on somebody. Eventually, she is declared mad and sent off to the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island.

When Nellie is in the mad house, she discovers that absolutely nothing is being done to help anyone, and just how quickly women were admitted. Some women were just getting over physical illnesses, some women couldn't even speak English! Nellie acts perfectly sane once she arrives, but no matter what she says, it's blown over as 'ravings.' Someone women actually ask the doctors to test them to see if they are insane or not, but they are ignored. And the doctors do absolutely nothing. They do not even listen to the women. Everything they say is written off as ravings of a mad woman.

The women were fed food that wasn't even fit for animal consumption. There was absolutely no heat, so the women practically froze to death. The women were given baths in cold water that wasn't even changed until the water got thick. ICK. The nurses used physical violence, along with agitating some of the women to act mad in front of the doctors. Some women were afraid to report this to the doctors, but it was no use if they did, because the doctors didn't listen, anyhow. There were no activities to stimulate the minds of the patients, so, if anything, these so-call "hospitals' actually made most of the patients - who weren't even mad to begin with - actually mad.

When Bly left, her reports launched a jury investigation, and surprise surprise! Things started to improve.

This book was riveting. It mad me angry; it disgusted me. Nellie Bly was truly an amazing woman. I suggest reading more about her.

The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield

Oh, Katherine Mansfield, where have you been all my life?

I'm no expert on this type of writing, but I know beautiful stuff when I read it. With 15 stories crammed into this small volume, I felt immensely involved with the characters of all of them. To me, none of the stories had a real beginning, nor end. It was as though you were just plopped into a certain character's life on just any old day and were observing them. You witnessed their emotions, listened to their thoughts and sometimes observed them making a life altering decision.

My favorites from this collection were: At the Bay, The Garden Party, The Voyage, Miss Brill, and The Lady's Maid.

Most of the stories dealt with women. You saw some of them go out into the world for the first time, but the characters that affected me most were the ones with the sad stories. Miss Brill, for example, who has formed this imaginary world around her, feeling that she is needed and has formed imaginary connections with strangers. When she overhears a comment by a young couple, she is snapped into the reality that she isn't needed, but is immensely lonely. In The Lady's Maid you witness a woman giving up true happiness because of her connection with her mistress. It is sad, seeing these women when they suddenly witness where they are with their lives.

It's blasphemy that Mansfield isn't as celebrated as other writers from her era such as Woolf and T.S. Eliot. Her work should be more revered than it is.

I'm including this in my list for the Women Unbound Challenge. 

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

I'm including this book in my list for the Women Unbound Challenge because it has been categorized as feminist fiction. However, I don't agree that it is.

I loved this story for the beautiful writing and the intricate way of exploring the life of a tragic woman. I saw this as a tragic story, not as the example that feminists having been using it as for decades.

The feminist themes are there, no doubt, but I don't think that Chopin intended it to be used as an example of what a woman in a similar situation should do.

The Awakening is a story of a woman who feels bound and oppressed by her marriage and by motherhood. This stuff was never for her and she tries to escape them. I don't agree with her ways of escaping them, especially what she did to her children! Is that what feminists want to use as an example? I don't want to give too much away for someone who hasn't read this, but her actions in this book are too extreme.

Seeing this simply as a tragic story of a selfish, oppressed woman, it is wonderful. At times I felt for this character and at times I was frustrated with her. The writing was, as I said, beautiful. Chopin really had a knack for conveying emotions without much dialogue.

Women Unbound Challenge - DONE

From the Women Unbound blog:


The challenge runs from November 2009-November 2010, but you may join in the fun whenever you wish! Participants are encouraged to read nonfiction and fiction books related to the rather broad idea of ‘women’s studies.’ 

Interested in participating? Great! There are three levels you can choose as a reader:

• Philogynist: read at least two books, including at least one nonfiction one.
• Bluestocking: read at least five books, including at least two nonfiction ones.
• Suffragette: read at least eight books, including at least three nonfiction ones.

I'm gonna go for it all and go with being a Suffragette. I have a ton of books related to this topic and this is a good way to go ahead and read them.

My list:

Fiction
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

Non-Fiction
Ten Days in a Mad-House by Nellie Bly
Wild Heart by Suzanne Rodriguez
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

Women Unbound Start-of-Challenge Meme

I'm joining the Women Unbound challenge, but first, the fine people hosting the challenge put up this meme for us to do first.

1. What does feminism mean to you? Does it have to do with the work sphere? The social sphere? How you dress? How you act?

It is about being looked at for what I can do, for my intelligence and my talents. It's not about being judged by my looks or if I'm married of if I have children or not.


2. Do you consider yourself a feminist? Why or why not?

Sometimes I think, "Hell yes, I am a feminist!" but I do not think I am. For one thing, I don't have an exact definition of what a feminist is, because I don't think there is one.


3. What do you consider the biggest obstacle women face in the world today? Has that obstacle changed over time, or does it basically remain the same?

God, I could be here all day. In a nutshell: EXPECTATIONS. Women are expected to get married and have children. And if they don't want to, they are met with, "Oh, you'll get over that." Get over what? I could be a best selling novelist, I could climb Mt. Everest, but if I do not chain myself to a man and reproduce, then I am a failure at life. I am a spinster or an old maid, while an unmarried man is considered a bachelor. Double standards. I am sick of it.