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A review by shrrawat
Matrix by Lauren Groff
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A story of female power and sisterhood, "Matrix" focuses on Marie de France, a bastard sibling to King Henry II, who is sent by Eleanor of Aquitaine to become prioress and later abbess of a failing nunnery. How she raises the nunnery from poverty and sickness to a sanctuary for feminine companionship and power forms the rest of the story.
I found this book to have a very slow beginning, in part because of the literary choice of having no explicit dialogue (perhaps to accentuate the lack of overt voices of women in medieval history) and run-on sentences. Still, as Marie grows into her own as abbess, I found the book to gain a bit more interest, as the community of women grows and prospers. I especially appreciated that most of the book focuses on Marie after she hits menopause (showing that women's lives can flourish into middle age), and that Groff features disabled women among the nuns, expanding the feminine experience displayed in the book.
I found this book to have a very slow beginning, in part because of the literary choice of having no explicit dialogue (perhaps to accentuate the lack of overt voices of women in medieval history) and run-on sentences. Still, as Marie grows into her own as abbess, I found the book to gain a bit more interest, as the community of women grows and prospers. I especially appreciated that most of the book focuses on Marie after she hits menopause (showing that women's lives can flourish into middle age), and that Groff features disabled women among the nuns, expanding the feminine experience displayed in the book.