THE SEVEN AGES

by Eva Figes ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 23, 1986

Conceits of good, old-fashioned feminism resurface in Figes' (Walking; Light) poetic explorations of a modern midwife's mystical encounters with women and childbirth in seven different historical periods, from feudal England to WW II to Greenham Common. The brutality, abstraction, and intellectual vanity of men confront the kindness, practicality, and natural wisdom of mothers and midwives throughout the ages."" Past, present and future merge in the contours of this unremarkable landscape,"" muses one of the narrators, amidst a profusion of new moons rising and herbal remedies. Fables of beneficent witchcraft and endless lists of weeds, roots, and simples flow back and forth through history, all delivered through the consciousness of the grandmotherly midwife. This wise old soul argues with her feminist daughter. Then, burning leaves in the autumn twilight, she stares into the crackling bonfire and the rising smoke and is transported back to the 16th century. Throughout the seven ages, male doctors called to pregnancies and child-birth diagnose badly and prescribe bleedings and poisons. Meanwhile, peasant midwives prepare healing herbal brews. Politically sound, hypnotic, a sort of hymn to the superority of women and to the centuries of their common experience, this lavish novel might best be enjoyed with a nice cup of mild chamomile tea.

Pub Date: Jan. 23, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Pantheon

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1986

Categories: FICTION