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A review by bookwhimsy2
Say Anarcha by J.C. Hallman
3.0
Say Anarcha makes significant contributions to the history of medicine. Knowing more about the women that Sims experimented on is immensely valuable, and I cannot praise that enough. However, the book is unnecessarily bloated with the stories of people tangentially related to the lives of Anarcha and Sims.
Anarcha was one of the enslaved women that Dr. Marion Sims experimented on extensively on his path to fame. He has been celebrated as the father of American gynecology, while the enslaved women he performed surgeries on without anesthesia 20 and 30 plus times have been erased from the medical and history books. This is difficult history to recover, but Hallman's extensive work revealed important stories.
The book is worth it for the chapters on Anarcha and Sims. The writing here is approachable and perfect for both a wider audience as well as experts. However, I found the focus on comets and celestial bodies completely unnecessary to the story, and there are too many chapters dedicated to detailing the lives of people that, while interesting in their own right, don't add significantly to understanding either Anarcha or Sim.
The speculative nature of the history here is necessary, given how little evidence we have of Anarcha or her point of view. The speculative parts were well done. Though as a historian, I would have appreciated more of a discussion of sources and the choices made by Hallman. There are parts where that was done with other people's stories, and it was expertly done, so why not with Anarcha?
I received a free advanced reader's copy of the book via NetGalley.
Anarcha was one of the enslaved women that Dr. Marion Sims experimented on extensively on his path to fame. He has been celebrated as the father of American gynecology, while the enslaved women he performed surgeries on without anesthesia 20 and 30 plus times have been erased from the medical and history books. This is difficult history to recover, but Hallman's extensive work revealed important stories.
The book is worth it for the chapters on Anarcha and Sims. The writing here is approachable and perfect for both a wider audience as well as experts. However, I found the focus on comets and celestial bodies completely unnecessary to the story, and there are too many chapters dedicated to detailing the lives of people that, while interesting in their own right, don't add significantly to understanding either Anarcha or Sim.
The speculative nature of the history here is necessary, given how little evidence we have of Anarcha or her point of view. The speculative parts were well done. Though as a historian, I would have appreciated more of a discussion of sources and the choices made by Hallman. There are parts where that was done with other people's stories, and it was expertly done, so why not with Anarcha?
I received a free advanced reader's copy of the book via NetGalley.