In the year of our Lord 1894, I became an outlaw.
Such is the opening sentence of Chapter 1 of Outlawed ©2021 by Anna North. Newly married, 17-year-old Ada is in love with her husband. She remembered when he was her beau and she spent "hours talking about his broad shoulders, his awkward but charming dancing, the bashful way he always said my name". The first few months of their marriage were sweet ones. "My husband and I were hungry for each other all the time." The situation changed to grim when she failed to get pregnant within a year, thereby being derelict in her duty to "produce a baby for Jesus". In this era and region, barren women were accused of being witches, believed to cause others to miscarry or similarly to fail to conceive.
Ada is forced out of her dwelling with her husband and forbidden to practice the trade she has been learning as an apprentice from her mother, who is a highly trusted and respected mid-wife in the community. Furthermore, out of fear for the wrath and harsh punishment, even execution, that could befall her as a witch – and her sisters by association – she needed to leave her childhood home to fend for herself and keep her family safe. There is a brief sojourn in a convent with other women who also have not succeeded in becoming mothers. The path Ada's life takes is simultaneously courageous and heart-wrenching, and also unanticipated.
This novel can be described as a feminist western, complete with bank robberies, stage coach hold-ups, and the self-proclaimed group name "Hole in the Wall Gang". Although I am not a fan of western shoot-'em-up movies myself, I enjoyed the novelty of this book. Women banned from society and their communities because of infertility or sexual proclivity, or shunned because of inappropriate mannerisms, band together in a supportive pseudo family. Mutual acceptance is an overall theme and even extends to the other gender. This is not a lesbian focus nor a male bashing. This is a unique way to survive a life and live it to the extent their genetic makeup will allow them within the ignorant and cruel confines of a "Christian" society.
That sounds like a pretty impressive book... although I have a hard time conflating the ideas of a "western" (which we were always taught was a time and place where women were rare as hen's teeth & sought after) and "cast out due to lack of fertility." If you want a lighter read, Karen Witemeyer does a fun romance series about an "all female colony" that starts out as a refuge for women who are escaping bad situations and/or want to live independently of men, but of course as the series progresses, the residents fall in love and the colony becomes coed again. It's a light romp, though, and not a thinkpiece like this one sounds like it might be,
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading this book last night and rated it 2 stars (my 2 stars pretty much align with your 2 stars in your rating system). I didn't think the writing was very good and there were holes in the story. I had a hard time empathizing with the main character and her outlaw ways. This book brought to mind a much better book that I do highly recommend (the main female character also portrays herself as a man in the Wild Wild West) - Whiskey When We're Dry by John Larison.
ReplyDeleteThanks for giving it a try. It was long enough ago for me that I do not a have an impression of the writing style and you may very well be correct. It did get me to think a bit and so I do not regret reading it. Sorry it was such a flop for you. I will try Whiskey When We're Dry.
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