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| The Thread's Must Read |
Remarkable women in historical fiction
Today I want to recommend three unforgettable characters from historical fiction — and I have to begin with Barbara Kingsolver’s Orleanna Price of “The Poisonwood Bible.”
She is just a teenager — bright and curious and quiet — when she marries Nathan Price, a missionary who will move Orleanna and their four daughters to the Congo.
Rev. Price is stubborn and resistant to the customs of the people he’s ministering to, and as his work becomes more challenging, it is Orleanna who must hold the family together and save her daughters’ lives by making a desperate choice.
My next must-read character from historical fiction is, of course, Jane Eyre. Not a summer goes by that I don’t reach for Charlotte Bronte’s novel and skim through my favorite passages including this one: “I am not an angel, I asserted, and I will not be one til I die; I will be myself.” That’s hard-wisdom from one of the best female characters ever conjured in fiction!
Finally, the late Toni Morrison’s Sethe in "Beloved" is one of literature’s most remarkable and unsettling women. Morrison endowed this former enslaved woman with an unyielding will and a deep humanity in the face of inhuman violence and loss. “To Sethe,” we are told, “the future was a matter of keeping the past at bay.”
Who are your favorite women in fiction? You can tell me on Twitter @kerrimpr.
-Kerri Miller |
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| | | Talking Volumes 2019 season guide |
MPR and the Star Tribune are proud to announce the 20th season of Talking Volumes. This season will feature interviews with Alice Hoffman, Saeed Jones, Tim O’Brien, Karen Armstrong, Lindy West and Tracy K. Smith.
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Think less magic, more Victorian-era memoir. That’s the twist on this fantasy series following the world’s most respected dragon expert.
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