Recipe for a Perfect Wife
Karma Brown, 2019
Penguin Publishing
342 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781524744939
Summary
After reluctantly leaving New York City for the suburbs, newlywed Alice struggles with shifting roles at home and achieving domestic bliss in a new fixer-upper.
When she discovers a vintage cookbook in her basement, the allure of cooking up Baked Alaska and Chicken a la King soon leads her into the darker story of the woman who previously owned the house, unfolding in notes tucked into the book.
As Alice discovers striking parallels between this woman’s life and her own, she is finally forced to focus on the trajectory of her own life, questioning the foundation of her marriage and what it means to be a wife fighting for her place in a patriarchal society.
This mesmerizing dual narrative of a modern-day woman and a quintessential 1950s housewife is at once witty and charming and dark and sinister—much like its focus characters. With great care and gravity, this book offers a satisfying look at the lies we tell to feed the secrets we keep. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Karma Brown is an award-winning Canadian journalist and bestselling author of the novels Come Away With Me, The Choices We Make, In This Moment, and The Life Lucy Knew. In addition to her novels, Brown's writing has appeared in publications such as Self, Redbook, Canadian Living, Today's Parent, and Chatelaine. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
[It] turns out Nellie has a lot more to teach Alice about being a wife and a woman than how to bake a good batch of cookies. The most important? Take those trappings you resent so much—cooking, gardening, bearing children—embrace them, then wield them like weapons.
Jenny Rosenstrach - New York Times Book Review
A captivating read, full of twists and turns. Brown weaves a thrilling story that parallels the lives of two characters who struggle with being strong, independent women in a patriarchal world.
Associated Press
(Starred review) Chapters alternate between Alice and Nellie…. Brown kills it; her latest is a winner so captivating that fans of modern and old-fashioned stories about women could easily read it in one day.
Library Journal
[Brown] excels at bringing the complexities of women’s lives to the page, and her latest novel questions how much has really changed for women over the last 60 years. The pacing is brisk, the characters are appealing, and both timelines are equally well realized. Thoughtful, clever, and surprisingly dark.
Booklist
With plentiful historical details (including recipes and depressingly hilarious marriage advice), the pages devoted to Nellie come to life. …An engaging and suspenseful look at how the patriarchy shaped women’s lives in the 1950s and continues to do so today.
Kirkus Reviews
Strong, well-drawn women anchor Brown's deeply thought-provoking, feminist novel. The spellbinding dual stories complement each other, raising themes of self-discovery, self-preservation and liberation for two women living eras apart.
Shelf Awareness
Discussion Questions
1. What similar challenges do Alice and Nellie face in their marriages? What are differences between these two relationships? Do you think these similarities and differences are products of the different personalities at play, or of the different eras that these relationships occur in?
2. Food plays a role in bonding the characters in this book together, and also in creating power dynamics. Do you see food playing a similar role in your own life, ever? Did you relate to the ways Alice and Nellie emotionally connected with the dishes they prepared?
3. Was it a mistake for Alice to agree to leave Manhattan? Does running away from your problems ever work out? What personal experiences have you had trying to start over in a new place?
4. Were you surprised by the quotes from old books and women’s magazines? What did you make of them?
5. Were you surprised by the plot twist in Nellie’s point of view?
6. Do you have a collection of old family recipes like Elise left Nellie? What is your favorite recipe passed down by family?
7. Do you see anything symbolic or metaphorical about Nellie’s tending to the garden? Does she remind you of other women from literature or mythology because of her skill for planting?
8. Do you identify more with Nellie or with Alice? Why?
9. Is there a parallel in Nellie’s life to the situation Alice is forced to endure with James Dorian?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Lady Clementine
Marie Benedict, 2020
Sourcebooks
336pp.
ISBN-13: 9781492666905
Summary
From Marie Benedict, the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Woman in the Room! An incredible novel that focuses on one of the people who had the most influence during World War I and World War II: Clementine Churchill.
In 1909, Clementine steps off a train with her new husband, Winston. An angry woman emerges from the crowd to attack, shoving him in the direction of an oncoming train. Just before he stumbles, Clementine grabs him by his suit jacket.
This will not be the last time Clementine Churchill will save her husband.
Lady Clementine is the ferocious story of the ambitious woman beside Winston Churchill, the story of a partner who did not flinch through the sweeping darkness of war, and who would not surrender either to expectations or to enemies. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• AKA—Heather Terrell
• Birth—ca. 1968-69
• Raised—Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania, USA
• Education—B.A., Boston College; J.D., Boston University
• Currently—lives in Sewickley, Pennsylvania
Marie Benedict, AKA Heather Terrell, writes both adult and young adult fiction. She is perhaps best known as Marie Benedict for her works of historical fiction: The Only Woman in the Room (2019), Carnegie's Maid (2018), and The Other Einstein (2016).
As Heather Terrell, she has written Brigid of Kildare (2010, based on the medieval life of Ireland's St. Brigid) and two suspense novels, The Map Thief (2008) and The Chrysalis (2007).
Her young adult books are also under Heather Terrell: the Books of Eva series (Relic, Boundary, and Chronicle), as well as the Fallen Angel series (Fallen Angel and Eternity).
Benedict/Terrill has been drawn to stories of strong women, especially unsung heroines, both real and fictional. A book lover from childhood, it was a gift from her aunt that sparked her imagination—Marion Zimmerman Bradley's tale about the women of the Arthurian legend, The Mists of Avalon. As she told Book Reporter:
This book opened my eyes to the hidden voices and truths lurking in history and legend—particularly the buried histories of women—and set me on an admittedly circuitous path toward a life of uncovering those unknown stories and memorializing them through fiction.
Before becoming an author Benedict/Terrill practiced law in New York City. She received her B.A. from Boston College and her J.D. from Boston University. She met her husband in 2002 while standing in the customs line after landing in Hong Kong. The two were married in 2002 and have since moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where they live with their children. (Adapted from various online sources.)
Book Reviews
A true tale of Clementine's ferocity and ambition through political unrest and two world wars, the novel spotlights one of the most influential behind-the-scenes women of her time.
Parade
A fascinating fictionalized account of the consummate political wife.
People
Benedict gives us a novel based on the life of the woman who historians say quietly advised Winston Churchill throughout his career.
Glamour
Benedict…delivers a winning fictionalized biography of Clementine Churchill…. It’s an intriguing novel, and the focus on the heroic counsel of a woman that has national and international impacts will resonate in the present day.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) This outstanding story deserves wide readership. Fans of historical fiction, especially set around World War II; readers who appreciate strong, intelligent female leads; or those who just want to read a compelling page-turner will enjoy this gem of a novel. —Pamela O'Sullivan, Coll. at Brockport Lib., SUNY
Library Journal
Well-researched, illuminating account of a complex, intelligent woman.
Booklist
[A] fast-paced narrative.… The thrilling ride is marred only by repetitive scenes of an impassioned Winston lashing out at Clemmie, whose stern looks immediately remind her Pug to take better care of his Cat. A rousing tale of ambition and love.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers Questions to help start a discussion for LADY CLEMENTINE … then take off on your own:
1. How would you describe Clementine? Talk about her childhood, her social position as an outsider, and her maternal insecurities.
2. Explore the influence Clementine had on her husband Winston throughout their marriage, especially during the vital years leading up to and including the Second World War. To what extent do you think Winston's success, and the Allied's, is due to Clementine's wise and steady guidance? Can you point to specific incidents in the book that stood out most vividly to you?
3. What traits in, or specific actions of, Clementine do you find most admirable, considering, that is, that you find her admirable? Are there aspects of her personality which you find less to admire than others?
4. How does Winston Churchill come across in this fictional account? Where you surprised at his frequent outbursts at Clementine?
5. What other books have you read, or films have you viewed, about the famous Churchill couple? How does this fictional account compare? What insights have you gained about the two after reading Lady Clementine?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Last Tudor
Philippa Gregory, 2017
Touchstone
528 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781476758763
Summary
Philippa Gregory's latest novel features one of the most famous girls in history, Lady Jane Grey, and her two sisters, each of whom dared to defy her queen.
Jane Grey was queen of England for nine days. Her father and his allies crowned her instead of the dead king’s half sister Mary Tudor, who quickly mustered an army, claimed her throne, and locked Jane in the Tower of London.
When Jane refused to betray her Protestant faith, Mary sent her to the executioner’s block, where Jane transformed her father’s greedy power grab into tragic martyrdom.
"Learn you to die," was the advice Jane wrote to her younger sister Katherine, who has no intention of dying. She intends to enjoy her beauty and her youth and fall in love.
But she is heir to the insecure and infertile Queen Mary and then to her half sister, Queen Elizabeth, who will never allow Katherine to marry and produce a Tudor son. When Katherine’s pregnancy betrays her secret marriage, she faces imprisonment in the Tower, only yards from her sister’s scaffold.
"Farewell, my sister," writes Katherine to the youngest Grey sister, Mary. A beautiful dwarf, disregarded by the court, Mary keeps family secrets, especially her own, while avoiding Elizabeth’s suspicious glare.
After seeing her sisters defy their queens, Mary is acutely aware of her own danger but determined to command her own life. What will happen when the last Tudor defies her ruthless and unforgiving Queen Elizabeth? (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 9, 1954
• Where—Nairobi, Kenya
• Raised—Bristol, England, UK
• Education—B.A., Sussex University; Ph.D., Edinburgh University
• Currently—lives in the North York Moors, Yorkshire, England
Philippa Gregory is a British historical novelist, writing since 1987. The best known of her works is The Other Boleyn Girl (2001), which in 2002 won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award from the Romantic Novelists' Association.
Early life and academic career
Philippa Gregory was in Nairobi, Kenya, the second daughter of Elaine (Wedd) and Arthur Percy Gregory, a radio operator and navigator for East African Airways. When she was two years old, her family moved to Bristol, England.
She was a "rebel" at Colston's Girls' School where she obtained a B grade in English and two E grades in History and Geography at A-level. She then went to journalism college in Cardiff and spent a year as an apprentice with the Portsmouth News before she managed to gain a place on an English literature degree course at the University of Sussex, where she switched to a history course.
She worked in BBC radio for two years before attending the University of Edinburgh, where she earned her doctorate in 18th-century literature. Gregory has taught at the University of Durham, University of Teesside, and the Open University, and was made a Fellow of Kingston University in 1994.
Private life
Gregory wrote her first novel Wideacre while completing a PhD in 18th-century literature and living in a cottage on the Pennine Way with first husband Peter Chislett, editor of the Hartlepool Mail, and their baby daughter, Victoria. They divorced before the book was published.
Following the success of Wideacre and the publication of The Favoured Child, she moved south to near Midhurst, West Sussex, where the Wideacre trilogy was set. Here she married her second husband Paul Carter, with whom she has a son. She divorced for a second time and married Anthony Mason, whom she had first met during her time in Hartlepool.
Gregory now lives on a 100-acre (0.40 km2) farm in the North York Moors national park, with her husband, children and stepchildren (six in all). Her interests include riding, walking, skiing, and gardening.
Writing
She has written novels set in several different historical periods, though primarily the Tudor period and the 16th century. Reading a number of novels set in the 17th century led her to write the bestselling Lacey trilogy — Wideacre, which is a story about the love of land and incest, The Favoured Child and Meridon. This was followed by The Wise Woman. A Respectable Trade, a novel of the slave trade in England, set in 18th-century Bristol, was adapted by Gregory for a four-part drama series for BBC television. Gregory's script was nominated for a BAFTA, won an award from the Committee for Racial Equality, and the film was shown worldwide.
Two novels about a gardening family are set during the English Civil War: Earthly Joys and Virgin Earth. She has also written contemporary fiction—Perfectly Correct; Mrs Hartley And The Growth Centre; The Little House; and Zelda's Cut. She has also written for children.
Some of her novels have won awards and have been adapted into television dramas. The most successful of her novels has been The Other Boleyn Girl, published in 2002 and adapted for BBC television in 2003 with Natascha McElhone, Jodhi May and Jared Harris. In the year of its publication, The Other Boleyn Girl also won the Romantic Novel of the Year and has subsequently spawned sequels—The Queen's Fool, The Virgin's Lover, The Constant Princess, The Boleyn Inheritance, and The Other Queen. Miramax bought the film rights to The Other Boleyn Girl and produced a film of the same name starring Scarlett Johansson as Mary Boleyn and co-starring Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn, Eric Bana as Henry Tudor, Juno Temple as Jane Parker, and Kristin Scott Thomas as Elizabeth Boleyn. It was filmed in England and generally released in 2008.
Gregory has also published a series of books about the Plantagenets, the ruling houses that preceded the Tudors, and the Wars of the Roses. Her first book The White Queen (2009), centres on the life of Elizabeth Woodville the wife of Edward IV. The Red Queen (2010) is about Margaret Beaufort the mother of Henry VII and grandmother to Henry VIII. The Lady of the Rivers (2011) is the life of Jacquetta of Luxembourg, mother of Elizabeth Woodville, first married to John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, younger brother of Henry the Fifth. The Kingmaker's Daughter (2012) is the story of Anne Neville, the daughter of the Earl of Warwick, the wife of Richard III. The next book, The White Princess (2013), centres on the life of Elizabeth of York, wife of Henry VII and the mother of Henry VIII.
Controversy
In her novel The Other Boleyn Girl, her portrayal of Henry VIII's second wife Anne Boleyn drew criticism. The novel depicts Anne as cold and ruthless, as well as heavily implying that the accusations that she committed adultery and incest with her brother were true, despite it being widely accepted that she was innocent of the charges. Novelist Robin Maxwell refused on principle to write a blurb for this book, describing its characterisation of Anne as "vicious, unsupportable." Historian David Starkey, appearing alongside Gregory in a documentary about Anne Boleyn, described her work as "good Mills and Boon" (a publisher of romance novels), adding that: "We really should stop taking historical novelists seriously as historians. The idea that they have authority is ludicrous." Susan Bordo criticized Gregory's claims to historical accuracy as "self-deceptive and self-promoting chutzpah", and notes that it is not so much the many inaccuracies in her work as "Gregory’s insistence on her meticulous adherence to history that most aggravates the scholars."
Media
Gregory is a frequent contributor to magazines and newspapers, with short stories, features and reviews. She is also a frequent broadcaster and a regular contestant on Round Britain Quiz for BBC Radio 4 and the Tudor expert for Channel 4's Time Team. She won the 29 December 2008 edition of Celebrity Mastermind on BBC1, taking Elizabeth Woodville as her specialist subject.
Charity work
Gregory also runs a small charity building wells in school gardens in The Gambia. Gardens for The Gambia was established in 1993 when Gregory was in The Gambia, researching for her book A Respectable Trade.
Since then the charity has dug almost 200 low technology, low budget and therefore easily maintained wells, which are on-stream and providing water to irrigate school and community gardens to provide meals for the poorest children and harvest a cash crop to buy school equipment, seeds and tools.
In addition to wells, the charity has piloted a successful bee-keeping scheme, funded feeding programmes and educational workshops in batik and pottery and is working with larger donors to install mechanical boreholes in some remote areas of the country where the water table is not accessible by digging alone. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 9/22/2013.)
Book Reviews
Gregory's deep knowledge of the period shows…the story of how proximity to power brought tragedy to the three young women is worth telling again. This is a compelling and convincing interpretation.
Times (UK)
Immaculate research, pacy narratives, and a stubborn insistence that history is not only about men.… [A] powerful reminder of how precarious the lives of Tudor women could be.
Daily Mail (UK)
Master of historical fiction Philippa Gregory returns this summer with another installment in her titillating The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels collection. In The Last Tudor, readers get to know Lady Jane Grey — England's queen for only nine days, but their martyr for all of history — and her two sisters, Katherine and Mary, all of whom buck expectations and defy orders in order to shape their own destinies during the Tudor dynasty rule. Poised to be another outstanding addition to the best-selling saga, this late-summer release is worth waiting for.
Bustle
True to her style, Philippa Gregory weaves a story that draws readers in and tugs at the heart, featuring characters who defy everyone’s expectations.… She delivers every emotion so subtly that you’ll be crying even before the intensity of the scene hits you. Gregory is at her best.
Bookreporter
(Starred review.) Gregory’s first-person perspective on late Tudor England’s turbulent history will delight existing and future fans.
Library Journal
Expect high demand for another outstanding entry in Gregory’s ongoing and best-selling Tudor saga.
Booklist
Gregory’s multivolume chronicle of the Tudor dynasty, with its emphasis on the women, now turns to the ill-fated scholar and Protestant reformer Jane Grey and her two sisters, Katherine and Mary, grandnieces of Henry VIII.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. What role do faith and religion play during the time period represented in The Last Tudor? What is the relationship between religion and politics, and how does this relationship affect the cultural climate of England? Is the country mostly united in their faith or divided? What impact does this have on the royals of England?
2. What is "the true religion" according to Lady Jane Grey? Why does Jane believe that she and her family do not need to earn their place in heaven as others do? Does her faith ultimately serve her well? Discuss.
3. Consider the title of the book. Who are the members of the Tudor family? Which character or characters does the title of the book refer to?
4. Evaluate the roles and the treatment of women as represented in the novel. How are marriage and childbirth depicted? Is the education of women perceived as positive or negative? Would you say that the women of the novel are depicted as powerful or helpless? Do they garner much loyalty from the men in their lives? Discuss.
5. Katherine believes that "if you are a Tudor you don’t really have parents." What does she mean? What does her statement reveal about family dynamics and the relationship between parent and child during this time?
6. Why does Elizabeth punish Katherine and Mary for their marriages? Why does she refuse to show the same mercy for the Grey sisters that she shows for some others? Do you believe that her actions are justified or were you surprised by her lack of mercy to her relatives?
7. What does Mary Grey believe is Elizabeth’s greatest fear? What does Mary say that she has come to believe is the greatest sin and what does this reveal about Elizabeth? Do you agree that this "sin" is Elizabeth’s greatest flaw? How does this same "sin" or characteristic affect the others in the novel?
8. How does each Grey sister respond to her incarceration? What is the outcome for each? What does Mary wear at the conclusion of the novel and what does she believe this clothing represents? Is her choice to do this surprising? Why or why not?
9. What advice does Jane leave for her sisters after she receives the news of her impending execution? Do Katherine and Mary follow her advice? How does each interpret their sister’s final words?
10. Consider the theme of loyalty. Which of the characters is loyal and to whom? What seems to be at the root of their allegiance? Conversely, who betrays another person and why? Does the novel ultimately suggest to what or whom one should be most loyal? Explain.
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Baby Teeth: A Novel
Zoje Stage, 2018
St. Martin's Press
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250170750
Summary
A battle of wills between mother and daughter reveals the frailty and falsehood of familial bonds in award-winning playwright and filmmaker Zoje Stage’s tense novel of psychological suspense, Baby Teeth.
Afflicted with a chronic debilitating condition, Suzette Jensen knew having children would wreak havoc on her already fragile body. Nevertheless, she brought Hanna into the world, pleased and proud to start a family with her husband Alex.
Estranged from her own mother, Suzette is determined to raise her beautiful daughter with the love, care, and support she was denied.
But Hanna proves to be a difficult child.
Now seven-years-old, she has yet to utter a word, despite being able to read and write. Defiant and anti-social, she refuses to behave in kindergarten classes, forcing Suzette to homeschool her. Resentful of her mother’s rules and attentions, Hanna lashes out in anger, becoming more aggressive every day.
The only time Hanna is truly happy is when she’s with her father. To Alex, she’s willful and precocious but otherwise the perfect little girl, doing what she’s told.
Suzette knows her clever and manipulative daughter doesn’t love her.
She can see the hatred and jealousy in her eyes. And as Hanna’s subtle acts of cruelty threaten to tear her and Alex apart, Suzette fears her very life may be in grave danger. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Zoje (ZOH-yeh) Stage published her debut novel, Baby Teeth, in 2018. Before that she spent a number of years in film and theater, with fellowships from the Independent Filmmaker Project (2012) and from the New York Foundation for the Arts (2008). In 2009 she won the Screenplay Live! competition and was given the opportunity of directing a staged reading of her winning script, The Machine Who Loved.
After spending years in Rochester, New York, Stage returned to her hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she now lives. (Adapted from the author's blog.)
Book Reviews
Propulsive.
New York Times Book Review
You might want to cover your eyes (The Must List).
Entertainment Weekly
A deliciously creepy read.
New York Post
Baby Teeth is a mesmerizing thriller that effectively taps into deep-seated anxieties that any parent will find uncomfortably familiar. Hard to put down and harder to forget, the book will delight readers looking for an escape over the summer.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A stay-at-home mom desperately tries to connect with her mute 7-year-old daughter, whose disturbing behavior continues to escalate in this gripping debut novel from an indie screenwriter.
InStyle
(Starred review) Stage’s deviously fun debut takes child-rearing anxiety to demented new heights.… [The author] expertly crafts this creepy, can’t-put-it-down thriller into a fearless exploration of parenting and marriage that finds the cracks in unconditional love.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) [A] deliciously creepy thriller…. The author keeps the suspense taut by alternating chapters between Hanna and Suzette, offering a terrifying glimpse into the inner thoughts of a budding sociopath. —Kiera Parrott
Library Journal
A totally engaging and unnerving read. Debut novelist Stage has convincingly created one of the youngest villains ever, and readers will be unable to resist the urge to meet Hanna.
Booklist
(Starred review) Tightly plotted, expertly choreographed.… Stage palpably conveys …the deleterious effects that motherhood can have on one's marriage and self-worth… [fusing] horror with domestic suspense to paint an unflinching portrait of childhood psychopathy and maternal regret.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Was Hanna a misunderstood child, mentally ill, or evil? Did you have any compassion or empathy for her? Would she be any different if Suzette were out of the picture?
2. Do you think Suzette bears any responsibility for Hanna’s naughty behavior? Has she been an instigator of any kind?
3. Do you think Alex bears any responsibility for Hanna’s duplicitous behavior, as he has been the beneficiary of her "good" side, her love?
4. Did Suzette’s upbringing—and the baggage she brought to motherhood—make her a better or worse mother?
5. Why do you think Hanna chooses not to speak? Is it intentional? Is she afraid of something? What do you make of her unusual means to make herself understood?
6. Who is the most selfish character—Suzette, Alex, or Hanna—and why?
7. Who is the most sympathetic character—Suzette, Alex, or Hanna—and why?
8. What was the largest contributing factor to the Jensens’ delay in realizing their child needed serious help: Alex’s denial and need for perfection? Suzette’s fear of losing Alex? Hanna’s ability to manipulate both of them? Or something else?
9. What do you think happens next with Hanna? Do you think she can be successfully treated?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
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The Illness Lesson
Clare Beams, 2020
Knopf Doubleday
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780385544665
Summary
At their newly founded school, Samuel Hood and his daughter Caroline promise a groundbreaking education for young women.
But Caroline has grave misgivings. After all, her own unconventional education has left her unmarriageable and isolated, unsuited to the narrow roles afforded women in 19th century New England.
When a mysterious flock of red birds descends on the town, Caroline alone seems to find them unsettling.
But it's not long before the assembled students begin to manifest bizarre symptoms: Rashes, seizures, headaches, verbal tics, night wanderings. One by one, they sicken.
Fearing ruin for the school, Samuel overrules Caroline's pleas to inform the girls' parents and turns instead to a noted physician, a man whose sinister ministrations—based on a shocking historic treatment—horrify Caroline.
As the men around her continue to dictate, disastrously, all terms of the girls' experience, Caroline's body too begins to betray her. To save herself and her young charges, she will have to defy every rule that has governed her life, her mind, her body, and her world.
Precisely observed, hauntingly atmospheric, as fiercely defiant as it is triumphant, The Illness Lesson is a spellbinding piece of storytelling. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Clare Beams is the author of the story collection We Show What We Have Learned, which won the Bard Prize and was a Kirkus Best Debut of 2016, as well as a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award, and the Shirley Jackson Award.
With her husband and two daughters, she lives in Pittsburgh, where she teaches creative writing, most recently at Carnegie Mellon University and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Think City Upon a Hill ideals and The Scarlet Letter-style misogyny, and you'll have a pretty good idea of this sly debut novel, which scarily hints that, since the 19th century, perhaps not a whole lot has changed.… Best of all is Beams's tone: ironic and arch when relaying the spirited optimism of Samuel's precious experiments, urgent and sinister when depicting their nightmarish outcomes. Astoundingly original, [an] impressive debut.
Siobhan Jones - New York Times Book Review
[U]nusual and transporting.This is Alcott meets Shirley Jackson, with a splash of Margaret Atwood. It’s dark, quirky and even titillating, in a somewhat appalling way… a series of creepy events and phenomena that balance on the edge between realism and ghost story.
Marion Winik - Washington Post
The past is a clever place from which to discuss modern preoccupations around ownership, identity and the body.… In the present-day narrative, a handful of young women choose to attend the elite boarding school. Initially well drawn and vibrant, most of these characters sadly fade to obscurity, which is a particular shame given the subject matter of the book. The problem is one of overloading—Caroline’s mother’s back story, and the mystery of her death, is given too much prominence.… Beams’ depiction of the treatment of women at the hands of men—even supposedly enlightened men—recalls The Fever by Megan Abbott. There are echoes of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, too. Beams keeps us guessing as to the girls’ culpability, though a rushed ending sweeps them off stage, choosing instead to focus on Caroline’s story.… The Illness Lesson is a colourful, memorable story about women’s minds and bodies, and the time-honoured tradition of doubting both.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
[P]art horror, part case study and—I mean this as a compliment—part feminist polemic.… Reading The Illness Lesson is like watching someone with superior intelligence work out a proof. If I felt a tinge of sorrow that its characters did not necessarily surprise me, the satisfaction in seeing a problem so flawlessly worked out was a worthy substitute. The fog literally gets under their skin, and by the end of the novel, it also got under mine.
San Francisco Chronicle
[P]rovocative.… Beams excels in the details of this prescription. The sections on symptoms and their causes expose archaic misinformation and enforced misogyny.… Despite its finely wrought prose and incisive dialogue, The Illness Lesson is often overburdened by its obvious message and its telegraphed plot. Nevertheless, it is a scathing indictment of early toxic masculinity, a measured diatrbe against male-dominated medical and educational institutions.… Ultimately, it is a blistering condemnation of a patriarchal society which would deter the empowerment of independent female thinking. It also suggests that sometimes a bird is just a bird. Except when it’s not.
Washington Independent Review of Books
This masterfully considered if uneven study of gender and society cramps readers into the quarters of a 19th-century New England school for girls.…Clare Beams’ cool, cutting prose hypnotically evokes the oppression of female bodies and minds, though her rushed conclusion feels less vivid than frenetic.
Entertainment Weekly
[D]aring.… Beams excels in her depiction of Caroline, an intriguingly complex character, and in her depiction of the school, which allows the reader a clear view of changing gender roles in the period, with parallels to today’s sexual abuse scandals..… [P]owerful and resonant.
Publishers Weekly
Beams successfully shapes the characters who tell the story, capturing the mores of the times and delving deeply into the psychological aspects of the situation. The underlying secret creates a tension that is resolved only in the final pages. Readers of general fiction will enjoy.
Library Journal
(Starred review) [L]uminous.… This suspenseful and vividly evocative tale expertly explores women’s oppression as well as their sexuality through the eyes of a heroine who is sometimes maddening, at other times sympathetic, and always wholly compelling and beautifully rendered.
Booklist
(Starred review) Beams takes risk after risk…, and they all seem to pay off.… [T]he friction between the unsettling thinking of the period and its 21st century resonances make for an electrifying read.… A satisfyingly strange novel from the one-of-a-kind Beams.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Why do you think the author chose to begin the story with the red birds, or “trilling hearts”? How did they set the tone for the rest of the novel?
2. Each chapter begins with a quote from the novel-within-a-novel, The Darkening Glass, which represents a cultural touchstone for the characters. Can you think of a literary work that carries similar popularity and relevance in our current time?
3. Caroline observes that her father imagines the students as “a kind of beautiful clay: dense, rich, formless, and waiting for him.” What do you think this says about his intentions as a teacher? Have you ever had a teacher who wielded this kind of influence?
4. Eliza is the students’ ringleader and she is also the first to fall ill. How did your feelings towards Eliza change over the course of the novel?
5. The “treatment” that Dr. Hawkins administers is based on a real historical treatment for “hysteria.” What do you think his methods say about the 19th century understanding of women’s bodies?
6. How does the atmosphere of the school change after Sophia’s abrupt departure? What effect does being the only adult woman left at Trilling Heart have on Caroline?
7. What did you make of Caroline’s decision at the end of the novel? If you were in her position, do you think you would have made a different one?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)