A review by alexiacambaling
Mary Olivier: A Life by May Sinclair

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I first picked up May Sinclair’s work after doing a bit of research into some influential, but forgotten authors. It was then that I saw May Sinclair actually coined the term ‘stream of consciousness’ and her novels were considered ‘modernist’ like Virginia Woolf’s. I’ve tried reading Virginia Woolf before and didn’t really ‘click’ with her, although I do want to give her novels  another try. In any case, after reading The Life and Death of Harriet Frean, I could confidently say I liked May Sinclair more than Virginia Woolf. That book was my introduction to her writing and I haven’t read a book like that before which explored the main character’s life from her birth to her death. 

Mary Olivier: A Life is in many ways similar to The Life and Death of Harriet Frean. It is longer though, while the latter is a novella. Mary Olivier also only follows the life of its main character from her birth to middle age. I’d also argue that its main character is happier and more fulfilled in life. I think that both should be read together as both are examinations of the lives of the main characters and their relations with the people important to them. When reading them together, I would recommend The Life and Death of Harriet Frean first as it is shorter and a good introduction to this style.

I highly enjoyed the writing style of Mary Olivier: A Life. It starts off simple as the author gets into the mind of an infant, the narrative voice developing as the main character grows, becoming more complex. It charts the growth of Mary from a precocious child to an independent adult. The writing itself reflects the character study of Mary and you get to see how she changes over the years.

Mary’s relationships with others is at the forefront of this novel. You see how she chafes against the society she was raised in and how she stays true to who she is. Mary is honest to a fault and sometimes uncompromising. I see her as a foil to Harriet Frean who tried to adhere to societal norms at the cost of her own happiness. With Mary, even as she is admonished that she is making her mother unhappy due to her independence, her self-will, and unbelief remained steadfast to her beliefs and stubbornly held on. Her own relationships with men were affected by this, and I’m glad that she wasn’t actually worse off for it.

Mary’s relationship with her mother in particular is important. As I was reading, I thought that this book must be what it’s like to be raised by a Victorian ‘boymom’ or a mother who actively resented her daughter and prefers her sons. In some ways, it is like that, but it’s also more complicated. I understood the era in which the novel was written and how expectations for men and women differed. The exploration of Mary and her relationship with her mother is complex, sometimes adversarial, sometimes touching. Her mother’s admission of how jealous she was of Mary is, in my opinion, an acknowledgment of this sort of relationship and that perhaps she wished she could be more like Mary.

All in all, I absolutely loved Mary Olivier: A Life. I recommend reading the Life and Death of Harriet Frean but the novels are not connected in any way, except for the style. It’s a beautiful novel that charts the growth and development of a girl to an intellectual woman, self-willed and independent. Both are in the public domain and available for download on Project Gutenberg.