Review-The Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Leveen

 

 
THE SECRETS OF MARY BOWSER,
Lois Leveen
William Morrow
2012, pb, 496pb
978-0-06-2107909.








Lois Leveen will admit that when she studied The Civil War in school she found it to be rather dull. For the author, it wasn’t until she began to examine the social and cultural climate during the war, rather than specific battles that defined the war that changed her opinion. Fortunately for the reader, Leveen begins a search to answer a few curious questions. The result is a blend of known history and her imagined historical fiction surrounding the lives of three people who spied for the Union they were Mary Bowser, Elizabeth “Bet” Van Lew and Thomas McNiven.


This story takes place in Richmond Virginia where Mary is a house slave for the affluent Van Lew family.  The Van Lew’s have a daughter Elizabeth who has strong abolitionist views.  It is “Bet” who notices that Mary is quite bright. Although she can not read, she has a unique memory and demonstrates a quick mind. When Elizabeth manumits Mary, she arranges to send her to live in Philadelphia to attend school. Years later, Mary returns to Richmond to join with “Bet” to spy for the North. Mary, assumes the identity of a slave and works for Jefferson Davis and his wife. With clever irony Mary assumes the part of an illiterate and simple minded slave who actually has a photographic mind, is highly educated and has a natural mature poise. “Bet” Van Lew is believed to be pro-South, but is a true abolitionist. With her Southern charm and hospitality she apparently eludes suspicion.
  

The Secrets of Mary Bowser is an irresistible story of espionage and bravery.  Leveen has opened up the souls and minds of people who lived during this divisive war.   Whether slave, abolitionist, soldier, slaveholder, woman, freed African American, northerner or southerner, the Civil War impacted peoples’ lives beyond each gruesome and gory battle in disparate ways.   To this day, there is an unquenchable allure for books, articles, photos and anything about the Civil War. What makes this period of American History so compelling?  Perhaps it is a desire to seek understanding as we unravel the evil mark that slavery left on our history. The Secrets of Mary Bowser will satisfy those seeking historical fact and lovers of historical fiction who search for any perspective that will move us a step closer to understanding the disunion to e pluribus unum.


Wisteria Leigh, May 21, 2012

Disclosure: 
Copy of book received from TLC Tours for review.  
Alternate copy purchased :Kindle edition. 
 
 © [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2012].

Review-The Personal History of Rachel Dupree, by Ann Weisgarber

THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF RACHEL DUPREE
by Ann Weisgarber
Viking Penguin
978-0-670-02201-4
$25.95
336 pages
August 12, 2010





 Why is this little girl suddenly about to be lowered to the dark bottom of their well attached to a plank, while her mother stands above praying for Jesus to stay by her daughter’s her side?  The Personal History of Rachel Dupree opens with a disturbing image, frightening details of a six year old child conjure a number of possibilities as to why she is strapped to the plank. Weisgarber sets a foreboding tone with intense dramatic tension from the onset.  Questions bombard your metacognition with a compulsion to read on for answers. 

The story is about Rachel, a worker in a boardinghouse, who becomes smitten by the owner’s son.  Isaac Dupree,  an African American, is from a socially prominent family in Chicago.  His dream, to the disappointment of his domineering mother, is to own land out west and acquire a spread with considerable acreage. Isaac believes landownership will guarantee status and respect among his predominately white neighbors.  To Isaac, land makes the man, it means everything.   Isaac agrees to marry Rachel, in return, she will deed her allowable 160 acres to him. They make a pact to stay married one year as they journey to the Badlands of South Dakota to stake their claim. To Rachel love is the force that drives her, with a determination to make her marriage last beyond one year. 

The Badlands, a desolate and harshly brutal environment is not an easy life for most women.  The isolation can be miserable and lonely with the proximity of neighbors a distance away.  Yet, it is breathtakingly beautiful with majestic panoramic landscapes that appear infinite. Isaac is quite successful and his quest to acquire land has made him one of the largest landowners around.  

In 1917, after surpassing their one year anniversary by thirteen years, they are still married and a severe drought is threatening their world. Rachel is pregnant again and her family means everything to her. Survival in the Badlands is not easy for anyone, but Isaac Dupree has something to prove, he is on of the few African American ranchers around, and to him land earns him respect.  Rachel sees more opportunity for her children, wanting them exposed to city life. A fissure begins to widen between the two that threatens to fracture the family.

Weisgarber’s story is a moving memoir-like read of a pioneering women with tremendous strength and wisdom who faces tough choices. The dialogue flows with a natural rhythmic cadence you would expect to hear at this time. 

The Great Plains offered little support for the supplicant role of women, or the displaced Indians. You will embrace The Personal History of Rachel Dupree, a rich affecting read that will endure.

Disclosure: This book was a free copy sent to me by IRB for review. The review posted is my honest opinion and free of bias.


© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2011]. 

Review-Stranger Here Below, by Joyce Hinnefeld

STRANGER HERE BELOW
Joyce Hinnefeld,Unbridled Books,September 28, 2010, $24.95/$28.95 CAN, Hardcover, 299 pp., 978-1609530044.

Book Description from the Publisher

In 1961, when Amazing Grace Jansen, a firecracker from Appalachia, meets Mary Elizabeth Cox, the daughter of a Black southern preacher, at Kentucky’s Berea College, they already carry the scars and traces of their mothers’ troubles. Poor and single, Maze’s mother has had to raise her daughter alone and fight to keep a roof over their heads. Mary Elizabeth’s mother has carried a shattering grief throughout her life, a loss so great that it has disabled her and isolated her stern husband and her brilliant, talented daughter.
The caution this has scored into Mary Elizabeth has made her defensive and too private and limited her ambitions, despite her gifts as a musician. But Maze’s earthy fearlessness might be enough to carry them both forward toward lives lived bravely in an angry world that changes by the day.
Both of them are drawn to the enigmatic Georginea Ward, an aging idealist who taught at Berea sixty years ago, fell in love with a black man, and suddenly found herself renamed as a sister in a tiny Shaker community. Sister Georgia believes in discipline and simplicity, yes. But, more important, her faith is rooted in fairness and the long reach of unconditional love.
This is a novel about three generations of women and the love that makes families where none can be expected. http://unbridledbooks.com/our_books/book//stranger_here_below

My Review

STRANGER HERE BELOW, is an intensely rich novel that left me temporarily paralyzed. Hinnefeld is an author with a story to tell that reaches beyond the last page. The three main women in this book Maze, Mary Elizabeth and Georginea are interconnected to each other with a family history that has far reaching influence. Even though the book ends in 1968, themes and events that shape the characters lives still still hold value today. I can’t say I identified with any specific woman, but more an amalgamation of all many personalities. Women who read this will no doubt experience a similar connection, perhaps more of one than another, but with heartfelt empathy for all.

It is hard to fathom the influence the men in the story held over the women’s lives through the generations with 21st century eyes. Yet, given the time period of the setting, it is not surprising. I was unable to abandon the lives of these characters. I kept flipping back to reread passages with many thoughts to ponder and meaning to interpret. The lives of those who live in Stranger Here Below are compelling, not easily forgotten, nor is the reasoning presented in Sister Georgia’s life reflection:

“She had spent fifty years hiding, she knew now, from the black-coated men who drove the engines of the world. Youth--she and Tobias, Maze and her young man and their friends--so powerless in the face of their laws and their wars. yet children were born, Marthie among them, faces without masks and hearts still pure, their futures unknown.”


Hinnefeld presents her novel in chapters that fluctuate among the varied characters and from a time period that spanned from the 1870‘s through 1968. In my opinion, this technique kept the reader on edge from the onset. Absorbing throughout, this attracted the reader with multiple perspectives and the multi-layered depth given by hearing from all three women.
This is a deeply reflective and noteworthy historical fiction novel I highly recommend.


Wisteria Leigh
December 2010

Disclosure: The copy of this book was sent to me for review as a participant in Library Thing’s Early Reviewer program and represents my unbiased opinion.


© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2010].