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sawood 's review for:
One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd
by Jim Fergus
Woof, this sure was a book. I’m about to get on a cruise and if I wasn’t worried about pollution, I would throw this thing overboard.
The author is a white man narrating from an 1870s woman’s perspective with a lot of really fun hot takes. The main character is #notlikeothergirls. She’s also racist as all get out. Racism is a pretty big theme here and while I recognize that we’re talking about the 1870s, there’s a way you can write that history without succumbing to the prejudice and bigotry yourself. Rape and sexual assault is also a pretty significant theme which was SO great to read from a man’s perspective. Side note for a weird detail that came up a lot; penis size was mentioned competitively in a way that I haven’t heard since middle school. Which is obviously exactly what a rape survivor/frontier woman/asylum patient from 1870 is talking about. I don’t think I have the space or the energy to detail the extent of the racism in this book, but in brief, there are Black, Irish, Swiss, Indigenous, and French characters who are all little more than a caricature. The Black and Indigenous characterizations are among the most appalling. There’s also gratuitous use of racial slurs.
I realize this book was published in the 90s but I am legitimately shocked that it was approved for publication at all. Don’t waste your time with this one. If you want to understand the vibe of this book, maybe talk to your friendly neighborhood white supremacist.
Edit: I just learned this monstrosity is part of a trilogy????? It’s giving the biggest ick.
The author is a white man narrating from an 1870s woman’s perspective with a lot of really fun hot takes. The main character is #notlikeothergirls. She’s also racist as all get out. Racism is a pretty big theme here and while I recognize that we’re talking about the 1870s, there’s a way you can write that history without succumbing to the prejudice and bigotry yourself. Rape and sexual assault is also a pretty significant theme which was SO great to read from a man’s perspective. Side note for a weird detail that came up a lot; penis size was mentioned competitively in a way that I haven’t heard since middle school. Which is obviously exactly what a rape survivor/frontier woman/asylum patient from 1870 is talking about. I don’t think I have the space or the energy to detail the extent of the racism in this book, but in brief, there are Black, Irish, Swiss, Indigenous, and French characters who are all little more than a caricature. The Black and Indigenous characterizations are among the most appalling. There’s also gratuitous use of racial slurs.
I realize this book was published in the 90s but I am legitimately shocked that it was approved for publication at all. Don’t waste your time with this one. If you want to understand the vibe of this book, maybe talk to your friendly neighborhood white supremacist.
Edit: I just learned this monstrosity is part of a trilogy????? It’s giving the biggest ick.