A Woman of Pleasure takes place in Japan and follows the story of Ichi, who in 1903 at the age of 15 is sold into prostitution by her father. She comes from a remote island (Iojima) and when she arrives in Kyushu, she is dazzled by the large houses she sees. Although she has come so far away from home, and although she is raped as soon as she enters the large brothel, she seems oddly accepting of what is…
One reason I enjoy historical fiction is the opportunity to experience, vicariously, the lives of people from past time periods, and to learn about cultures and sub-cultures that are unfamiliar to me. The House of Eve, first published in 2023, gives readers glimpses of African-American experiences that many of us might not have known about. The novel starts in 1948 and is told from the point of view of two young Black women: Ruby, who lives in North Philadephia, and…
I knew of Anjali Enjeti as co-founder of the Georgia chapter of They See Blue, an organization to encourage progressive South Asian Americans to be politically engaged. Like many others, I was eager to see two Democratic senators elected from Georgia, and I was part of a letter-writing campaign from Ohio to Georgians. I was therefore very interested to learn that Anjali Enjeti is also an author! The Parted Earth, published in May 2021, takes place in 1947 in India…
I saw the movie based on this book in the early 1990s, when it first came out, and loved it. But for some reason I did not read the book until recently. Like Water for Chocolate was originally published in Spanish in 1989. The title is a Spanish saying that refers to the boiling water used for making hot chocolate. If someone is “like water for chocolate,” their emotions are boiling over—an apt title because this book is about characters…
First published in an English translation in 2013, this novel by a prize-winning Chinese author covers 90 years in the life of an Evenki woman (a nomadic people living in the mountainous forests of China and Russia). The unnamed narrator tells the story as an old woman whose way of life has almost disappeared. Each of the four sections of the book (Dawn, Mid-Day, Dusk, and The Last Quarter of the Moon) begins with an italicized section that takes place…
Illuminations illuminates the life of Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th century nun who founded her own abbey and composed beautiful works of sacred choral music. Hildegard’s journey to becoming a nun began against her will, when her mother “tithed” her to the church at the age of eight (she was her family’s 10th child). Hildegard became a companion to Jutta, who chose to become an “anchorite” nun, bricked into two rooms in the church. In compensation for Hildegard’s companionship, Jutta’s…
Diane McKinney-Whetstone is the acclaimed author of six novels, the first of which is Tumbling, first published in 1996. The story, which takes place in Philadelphia in the 1940s and 1950s, focuses on Noon, her husband Herbie, and their two adopted children. But their lives are so intertwined with other community members that the novel is really about the entire neighborhood of African-Americans. There are so many things I like about this novel, from the engaging story lines to the…
With Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Lisa See has allowed us a window into the secluded world of women’s rooms in rural China in the 1800s. The central characters of this heart-felt and ultimately heart-wrenching tale are Lily, the daughter of a farmer; and her laotong (lifelong emotional partner), Snow Flower. The two communicate using special writing unique to women, called nu shu. Their friendship deepens throughout their childhood and adolescence, but before Snow Flower’s marriage, Lily discovers something…
After I read Circling the Sun by Paula McLain, a historical novel based on the life of aviator Beryl Markham, I was curious about how it compared with Markham’s memoir, West with the Night, which Ernest Hemingway called “a bloody wonderful book.” West with the Night was first published in 1942, six years after Markham made her historic solo flight from east to west across the Atlantic. It is told in 24 essays which are not always in chronological order,…
Told as a series of anecdotes from a Jewish grandmother, Addie Baum, to her granddaughter Ava, The Boston Girl is a coming-of-age story set in the early 1900s. Addie’s parents have fled an unnamed country in Europe, and Addie is the first child born in the United States. Her father and sister work in a sweatshop, and the family lives in a tenement. Addie’s parents expect her to leave school after 8th grade and start working. Central to the story…