My Review: A Violet Season is a brilliantly rendered debut novel, rich in historical detail, that tells of a family struggling to secure their livelihood in the booming violet industry of the late 1800s. Ida Fletcher, wife to Frank and mother of four, is a reluctant wet nurse; forced to nourish, love, and then relinquish the children of others so that she might help repay her husband’s sizable debt.
Ida’s story, and that of her sixteen-year-old daughter,
Alice, is an intricate exploration of women’s rights in a time when a woman was still considered
the property of her husband or father, and entirely subject to his whims and
control. As time wore on, women slowly began
to defy traditional gender roles and deigned to do more than what they were
told. Similarly, as the story progresses,
both Ida and Alice strain against societal mores that hold them in place and eventually
take steps to redefine their own lives.
All Ida’s fears are confirmed when Frank returns home
from a trip to town without their daughter. Without Ida's consent, he has sent Alice to work in a factory and “earn her keep,” and refuses to provide her with more information on the matter. At one point, Ida wonders how Frank views her,
stating, “…did he even see it that
way? Did he love her enough to think of
her as a person with her own feelings, capable of being betrayed? Or had he seen her all along as a mere object
in his life, a tool to be used for an express purpose: a hoe for weeding, a
shovel for digging, a wife for cooking and cleaning and bearing children. If that were true, he was capable of doing
anything to her.”
About halfway through the book, we discover the truth
about Alice’s new job. I wanted to kill her father when I found out what he’d
done. I’m sure you can guess the
details. Unfortunately, the descriptions
of Alice’s new life were occasionally graphic and unpleasant, and would likely
bother some readers. I wouldn’t recommend this book to every
reader, but would recommend it to those who aren’t particularly sensitive to
sexual content (see, sensitive reader
section for details).
A Violet
Season is an achingly resonant portrayal
of what a mother will endure, and sacrifice, for her children. In
hindsight, this probably wasn’t the best book for a post-partum, nursing mother
to be reading. While I understand Frank’s
different motivations, his actions were unthinkable; it had me in tears and made
me incredibly cranky! The bitter
unfairness of it all made me want to scream.
It’s a good thing my husband wasn’t home when I was reading because I’d
have torn his head off if he’d so much as asked me what was for dinner. Above all, I felt an overpowering sense
of frustration and sadness for the real
women who were trapped in such a state of inequality.
Any novel that can overwhelm your emotions – make you want to scream, cry, and
contemplate the various ways you might be able to kill fictonal characters – is
usually a pretty good novel. A Violet Season does all that and
more.
My Rating: 4 Stars (It would
be a higher rating if I felt like I could recommend it to everyone.)
For the
sensitive reader: Some sexual dialogue and sexual
situations. One or two instances of
profanity. One disgustingly graphic
scene of male masturbation. Skip. It.
Sum it up: Kathy Leonard
Czepiel delivers a beautifully written, at times painfully frustrating, debut
novel.
3 comments:
Mindy, what a well-written, heartfelt review. We cannot thank you enough!
My warmest thanks for a thoughtful and passionate review of 'A Violet Season.' Mindy, I wish you all the best with your new baby. A friend who is a nursing mother also found the novel pretty intense! I haven't been there for a decade now, but I was definitely writing from the experience of having been a nursing mother, too.
Thank you, Kathy!
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