Two book quasi-reviews and thoughts on women and history

I’ve read two really good books in the last month that seemed to be very different when I picked them up but had some surprising parallels in the end.

The first book, which I can’t recommend highly enough, is The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. I knew the name Anne Boleyn and knew she was associated with one of the king Henries in England (the one who wanted a son so desperately). That was about the extent of my historical knowledge about that time period before I started reading this novel. In this book, Gregory takes known facts about Boleyn’s life, and generates a terrific story of love, lust, intrigue, jealousy, and ambition. Anne Boleyn actually had a sister, Mary, who at one point also had been the mistress of Henry VIII and likely bore him two children. This novel is told from Mary’s point of view.

For the Boleyns in this novel, the utmost imperative was to maintain the favour and attention of the King, for this was the way to acquire more power and wealth through royal grants and gifts. The Boleyns were happy to plot and strategize the use of their daughters as ways to gain this power and royal regard. Gregory characterizes Mary as having few options, whereas Anne is more calculating and works to advance herself to become queen. Either way, both women use their female charms and their bodies to achieve their objectives. They also have to be very intelligent and witty in order to survive the treacherous environment of the royal court.

The second novel I’d like to mention is Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. It’s not exactly a new release, but I read it for the first time a couple of weeks ago. This story follows a young Japanese girl who is basically sold into slavery to become a geisha, and how she suffers (particularly at the hand of a geisha who perceives her as a threat) until she realizes that becoming a geisha is her only way to a measure of independence and happiness. Again, this young woman uses her wits and intelligence, and learns to use her womanly charms and her body in order to survive.

Do you hear the subtext? I’m probably not being very subtle. I thoroughly enjoyed each novel and found them both to be well-written, compelling reads. But in the end, the women in these stories have to prostitute themselves in order to survive or to improve their life situations. I guess this is just a fact of life until very recent history, but it still drives me a bit crazy. It makes me want to try to find a copy of Iron-Jawed Angels to watch over and over again … LOL

Don’t get me wrong – both books are great, and there are elements of romance in each. They both educated about me about a particular time and place (although I’m sure there are some historical inaccuracies in each) in an entertaining way. And I guess I just appreciate all the more that I have the freedom to marry or not, and that I don’t have to use sex as a way to secure my economic survival. You know, women in the suffrage/liberation movement really turned history on its head for us in the West!