An intelligently conceived and artistically executed reconsideration of religious history.
A novel reimagines the life of the Buddha’s wife, a powerful spiritual figure in her own right.
As Yasodhara, the daughter of the “village oligarch,” mourns the accidental death of her younger sister, Deepa, she is thrown into confusion and despair. She vows to find and rescue her sister’s spirit one day, a commitment poignantly depicted by McHugh: “Under the white misshapen moon, I knelt down and promised my sister that if at all possible I would find her soul so she could be with her family again and not have to travel through realms of samsara, lonely forever.” But years later, when her older sister, Kisa, on the cusp of marriage, dies as well, she offers to take her place and marry Siddhartha, hoping to lift the weight of her mother’s grief. Siddhartha has a reputation for frivolously enjoying sensuous pleasures but becomes a devoted husband, though he is plagued by the suffering of the world and tired of therapeutically creating “false paradises” to avoid it. He abandons Yasodhara and their son, Rahula, only days old, to seek spiritual enlightenment; he’s gone for so long she considers remarriage. Siddhartha eventually finds both spiritual awakening and a considerable following, but when Yasodhara decides to join his order, she is prohibited because she is a woman, a problem thoughtfully portrayed by the author. Refusing to be daunted, Yasodhara disguises herself as a male aspirant and assumes the name Ananda. She not only attempts to become a monk, but also persuades Siddhartha, now the Buddha, to open his ranks to women, a possibility some consider “preposterous.” McHugh deftly manages to vividly convey a moving drama with a message about female empowerment at its core without indulging in any heavy-handed, didactic sermonizing. This is an impressive tapestry of history, spiritual philosophy, and literary drama and an edifying look at the patriarchal limitations of Buddhism’s genesis.
An intelligently conceived and artistically executed reconsideration of religious history.Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-948626-23-1
Page Count: 360
Publisher: Monkfish Book Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PROFILES
A compulsively readable account of a little-known yet extraordinary historical figure—Lawhon’s best book to date.
A historical novel explores the intersection of love and war in the life of Australian-born World War II heroine Nancy Grace Augusta Wake.
Lawhon’s (I Was Anastasia, 2018, etc.) carefully researched, lively historical novels tend to be founded on a strategic chronological gambit, whether it’s the suspenseful countdown to the landing of the Hindenberg or the tale of a Romanov princess told backward and forward at once. In her fourth novel, she splits the story of the amazing Nancy Wake, woman of many aliases, into two interwoven strands, both told in first-person present. One begins on Feb. 29th, 1944, when Wake, code-named Hélène by the British Special Operations Executive, parachutes into Vichy-controlled France to aid the troops of the Resistance, working with comrades “Hubert” and “Denden”—two of many vividly drawn supporting characters. “I wake just before dawn with a full bladder and the uncomfortable realization that I am surrounded on all sides by two hundred sex-starved Frenchmen,” she says. The second strand starts eight years earlier in Paris, where Wake is launching a career as a freelance journalist, covering early stories of the Nazi rise and learning to drink with the hardcore journos, her purse-pooch Picon in her lap. Though she claims the dog “will be the great love of [her] life,” she is about to meet the hunky Marseille-based industrialist Henri Fiocca, whose dashing courtship involves French 75 cocktails, unexpected appearances, and a drawn-out seduction. As always when going into battle, even the ones with guns and grenades, Nancy says “I wear my favorite armor…red lipstick.” Both strands offer plenty of fireworks and heroism as they converge to explain all. The author begs forgiveness in an informative afterword for all the drinking and swearing. Hey! No apologies necessary!
A compulsively readable account of a little-known yet extraordinary historical figure—Lawhon’s best book to date.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-385-54468-9
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
An engrossing, impeccably researched tale connecting passionate, creative women across time.
In this novel, two strong-willed women strive to build artistic, independent lives in different centuries.
High-powered Los Angeles–based auctioneer Emsley Wilson has a lot on her plate. She spends her days arranging political auctions for celebrity donors, and after-hours, she has a complicated personal life to manage. Her ex-boyfriend and business partner, Trey, dumped Emsley for a close friend of hers who also works for their auction house. But Emsley always makes time for her grandmother Violet, a legendary New York City artist, gallery owner, and socialite recovering from a stroke in a rehabilitation facility. When Violet sells her Greenwich Village brownstone, Emsley’s mother insists that she clean it out because “who knows what risqué pictures of Violet with her celebrity friends might be at the house.” Violet then presses an ancient diary into Emsley’s hands before she returns to the West Coast. On the plane, Emsley begins to read it and is instantly transported to 19th-century Amsterdam and the life of Johanna Bonger, van Gogh’s sister-in-law. Like Emsley, Johanna wants to chart her own path as an independent woman. But according to Johanna’s mother, “Women are like the canals, steady and calm, the supporters of life. Men are like barges traveling to the seaports, having adventures and collecting their treasures.” Emsley barely has time to read the diary before she has to confront Trey’s plot to dissolve their business, which transforms into a demand that she pay him $1 million within 30 days for his shares or walk away from everything she’s built. As Emsley struggles to save her business, she is drawn into Johanna’s family life and quest to establish van Gogh’s artistic legacy. Fans of Maggie Shipstead’s novel Great Circle will find much to love in Emsley’s and Johanna’s braided storylines, with romance, knowledgeable references to art history, and evocative descriptions of Amsterdam, New York, and Paris. Molnar’s witty dialogue advances the plot briskly; in one fun exchange, Johanna’s brother mocks Monet’s move to Giverny, France, and claims that the artist’s decision to paint waterlilies “will be the end of him in the profession.” But the cleverly drawn supporting characters would be more robust if they had additional opportunities for action and reflection instead of banter.
An engrossing, impeccably researched tale connecting passionate, creative women across time.Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-940627-52-6
Page Count: 354
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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