The usual preface: I'm not a book review site. If you want honest, nice, snark or a rating, go see Smart Bitches, Mrs. Giggles, Dear Author, Karen Scott, Romance Divas, etc...Book 21 in the 50 Book Challenge:
The last page in Ami McKay's The Birth House was turned at 2AM yesterday morning. Yes, I'm tired, but the few hours of lost sleep was worth it. The story is a snapshot of life in Scots Bay, Nova Scotia in the years before, during and after WWI. The central theme, I would say, is about the friendship of women, how we provide strength, knowledge and companionship to each other during good times and bad, and how we inevitably band together as sisters when our ways are threatened. Goodness, I just read that sentence back and I haven't really done the story any justice. Dora Rare, the protaginist, is trained as a midwife/healer in a time when science and medicine are becoming popular. Many begin to distrust her methods thanks to a pushy doctor who blames all the ills of women on hysteria and neurosis. Actual medical journals are excerpted (is that even a word?). It's amazing to me, in light of their disgusting misinformation, that more men weren't murdered in their sleep back in those days. How our female ancestors put up with the ignorance of the male species (and accompanying crap!) for so long amazes me. Honestly, it's a bloody wonder we're not a race of cloned lesbians...
But I digress.
I liked this book. It's full of raw emotion, the sadness and joys of being a woman, the struggle of our foremothers, the forebearance of the human race. It reminded me a little of Anita Diamant's The Red Tent.
But... the entire time, I couldn't help but compare it to Ann Marie MacDonald's award winning book Fall on Your Knees, which was also set in Eastern Canada in the early 1900's, but was superior in story and writing. The Birth House was a good book, Fall On Your Knees was a GREAT book. Had I been aware of the similarities, I wouldn't have read them so close together because I don't think I was able to give The Birth House a fair shake.
Seriously, don't read my upcoming book Destiny By Design after a pulizer winning novel, okay?? Perhaps I'll distribute copies of 'The Book So Awful It Shall Not Be Named' to everyone on May 15th, just so mine will look like a literary gem in comparison.
Go buy The Birth House.
