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A review by wendoxford
Bodies of Light by Sarah Moss
5.0
What a fabulous book effortlessly combining late nineteenth century art, the place of women overhung by maternal control. As if trying to study medicine as a woman wasn't tough enough, home is ruled with a maternal rod of iron, with no place for joy or family bonding. Masked as moral education, Ally is schooled in deprivation as her mother attends to the poor and fallen of Manchester.
Her father is an artist, a fictitious one who seems to be in the style of William Morris and Burne-Jones. He neither "rescues" her from her mother's discipline nor colludes. Her parents exist in parallel.
I found the history and the story fascinating - this is a hard-working novel of sacrifice on every level and all the richer for it. I was reminded of Dorothy Whipple whose "They Were Sisters" although set later, captures domestic bullying of women, albeit by different means. Fantastic read!
Her father is an artist, a fictitious one who seems to be in the style of William Morris and Burne-Jones. He neither "rescues" her from her mother's discipline nor colludes. Her parents exist in parallel.
I found the history and the story fascinating - this is a hard-working novel of sacrifice on every level and all the richer for it. I was reminded of Dorothy Whipple whose "They Were Sisters" although set later, captures domestic bullying of women, albeit by different means. Fantastic read!