Donoghue, Emma - Slammerkin

[oyceter]

I preface this entry to say that this is most definitely not the best book to take with you on vacation to relax.

Unless, of course, you enjoy reading dark, grim, extremely depressing stories while on vacation.

Mary Saunders is in jail at 16 in the prologue; we spend the rest of the book finding out how she gets there and what happens after. She's the daughter of a seamstress in the 1700s, and eventually, she gives up her virginity in exchange for a red ribbon. Then we get into the rise and fall of Mary Saunders, if you can consider going into prostitution a rise.

Donoghue is very good about historical detail, like she was in Life Mask, and I have no doubt that her account of Mary's life is an accurate portrayal of the options open to women at the time, to the lives of those who didn't have money, and etc.

But... Mary is simply so miserable, and she makes so many choices that put me off. Many of the choices arise because there just aren't that many options open to a woman at the time, but others are poor personal choices. And it didn't help that I disliked Mary more and more as she grew older. Also, since she is a prostitute for some time, all the men in the story are merely walking penises. Decency is perpetually stripped away by lust (no pun intended). And... well, I am sure it is a very accurate mindset for a 16-year-old prostitute in the 18th century, but it was very miserable vacation reading.

The end is so grim and so depressing that I turned right to Naruto to try to get some of it out of my brain, but I ended up having bleak, grey dreams for several days after that. I would fault the author for unnecessary depressing-ness, except that the end is historical fact, and Donoghue wrote the book after discovering said fact and wondering how things might have gotten there.

So really, it is just grey and bleak and grim and made me feel like all people were horrible, and those who weren't horrible were fools.

Comments

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

That sounds horrid. I almost always take old favorites when I go on vacation. So much less chance of book trauma. *Carefully adds this book to her do not read list.*

[oyceter]

I was so very, very traumatized.

[riemannia.livejournal.com]

Poor you :( I had to put the book down, despite the excellent writing.

[oyceter]

It wasn't just all the angst in the beginning! I mean, it wasn't fun at all, but when I got to the end, and how she got in prison? Oh my god. And that's the part that's historically accurate, but still. Gah.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I am now morbidly curious about the ending, although not so much as to read the rest of the book.

[oyceter]

Bwahahaha! I probably should have told people a trick ending so they would go read and be as traumatized as me.