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A review by readingspells
Property by Valerie Martin
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I hoovered between 2 and 3 stars for this Women's Prize for Fiction winner. In the end I decided to be generous and go for 3 but then I wrote this review and realised it doesn't deserve that.
It's saving grace is it's a short/quick read because this book is full of problems and in 2003 and I would have expected a book about the slave era in America to be more than just some raciest white woman's story.
Sure Manon is a victim too, of men, of a patriarchal misogynistic world but she that seems to have made her cold and viciously raciest. You would have thought she might have sympathy for the way the black slaves, especially the women, are treated but she doesn't. She sees them as either criminals or essentially livestock to own and use. Her humanity, well she doesn't have any particularly where slaves are concerned. She doesn't see them as human.
This book is about a white women, the slaves stories, their voices are silenced. I don't know if I am meant to have sympathy for Manon but I don't. Nothing about her warrants that.
Maybe 2003 white women shouldn't be writing slave stories any more!
It's saving grace is it's a short/quick read because this book is full of problems and in 2003 and I would have expected a book about the slave era in America to be more than just some raciest white woman's story.
Sure Manon is a victim too, of men, of a patriarchal misogynistic world but she that seems to have made her cold and viciously raciest. You would have thought she might have sympathy for the way the black slaves, especially the women, are treated but she doesn't. She sees them as either criminals or essentially livestock to own and use. Her humanity, well she doesn't have any particularly where slaves are concerned. She doesn't see them as human.
This book is about a white women, the slaves stories, their voices are silenced. I don't know if I am meant to have sympathy for Manon but I don't. Nothing about her warrants that.
Maybe 2003 white women shouldn't be writing slave stories any more!