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The Mere Wife door Maria Dahvana Headley
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The Mere Wife (origineel 2018; editie 2018)

door Maria Dahvana Headley (Auteur)

LedenBesprekingenPopulariteitGemiddelde beoordelingAanhalingen
4881949,965 (3.98)12
From the perspective of those who live in Herot Hall, the suburb is a paradise. Picket fences divide buildings--high and gabled--and the community is entirely self-sustaining. Each house has its own fireplace, each fireplace is fitted with a container of lighter fluid, and outside--in lawns and on playgrounds--wildflowers seed themselves in neat rows. But for those who live surreptitiously along Herot Hall's periphery, the subdivision is a fortress guarded by an intense network of gates, surveillance cameras, and motion-activated lights. For Willa, the wife of Roger Herot (heir of Herot Hall), life moves at a charmingly slow pace. She flits between mommy groups, playdates, cocktail hour, and dinner parties, always with her son, Dylan, in tow. Meanwhile, in a cave in the mountains just beyond the limits of Herot Hall lives Gren, short for Grendel, as well as his mother, Dana, a former soldier who gave birth as if by chance. Dana didn't want Gren, didn't plan Gren, and doesn't know how she got Gren, but when she returned from war, there he was. When Gren, unaware of the borders erected to keep him at bay, ventures into Herot Hall and runs off with Dylan, Dana's and Willa's worlds collide.… (meer)
Lid:wandering_star
Titel:The Mere Wife
Auteurs:Maria Dahvana Headley (Auteur)
Info:Scribe UK (2018), 320 pages
Verzamelingen:books I have read, Not mine
Waardering:*****
Trefwoorden:fiction, feminist retelling, Beowulf, jan, 2022, fear of outsiders

Informatie over het werk

The Mere Wife door Maria Dahvana Headley (2018)

  1. 00
    Beowulf een prozavertaling door Beowulf Poet (Cecrow, jjackunrau)
    jjackunrau: If you want a less allusive telling of Beowulf, in accessible contemporary poetry, Headley's translation of the epic is also great.
  2. 00
    Unwieldy Creatures door Addie Tsai (Aquila)
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1-5 van 19 worden getoond (volgende | toon alle)
Superb. It really feels like a story taken from the Younger Edda, especially when told through the lens of Willa and Dana. Willa is such a delicious character. She has an interesting mix of being repulsive and benevolent but only in the worst of ways. Dana, on the other hand, is very much maternal and combative to the world around her. Much of the story is centered around these two mothers unwittingly being the catalyst for their family's destruction. This, however, is a small backdrop to all the themes and motifs used to tell an allegorical tale about trying and failing to stay afloat when you are a member of the downtrodden. Another important element is how society treats women and how women rise above that. Diane and Tina, for example, are prime examples of this. Which reminds me of that famous scene in Dolores Clairbourne when Vera says "Sometimes you have to be a high-riding bitch to survive. Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman has to hold onto" Plenty of motifs are present but none is used more consistently than this. Even though I loved the book I was really bummed about the ending. W.T.F, like really? I can't have one slither of hope in this world, you gotta take that away from me too! Overall I was really taken aback by how much I cared for these characters especially Dylan and Gren. (how could you?) and Can you puh-lease write a romance novel? ( )
  OnniAdda | Nov 22, 2023 |
I love the concept of this book however after multiple attempts to read (over several years), did not find it engaging or what I was looking in a novel at this time. Ultimately I passed the book onto a free library and hope someone finds its rewards. ( )
  maitrigita | Sep 25, 2022 |
I liked this modern re- telling based, more or less, on Beowulf. Headley’s stream of consciousness writing is poetic and I enjoyed that (though I did find it challenging at times to figure out who was speaking). I like the word play inherent in the title.
I didn’t like the “new housewives” vibe; I found that very distracting (but, i dunno, maybe that’s in keeping with a Lady’s court). I like the political themes in Headley’s treatment.
And I said this is loosely based on Beowulf. It starts closely aligned (or as much as possible for modernizing) but then deviates it major ways, enough so to undermine the marketing claim that this is a modern re-telling of Beowulf
So maybe just the four and a half stars.
So onto a reread of Gardner’s Grendel, and Headley’s and Tolkien’s interpretations of Beowulf.

Edit: just read Steve Donoghue’s review of Headley’s Beowulf in which he refers to The Mere Wife as “overhyped and underwhelming” which is accurate though I stick by my rating as I found this exploration entertaining. ( )
  jimgosailing | Nov 18, 2021 |
Read this. The moment you finish your current book, read this. The language is gorgeous, the suburbs are insidious, the mountain is alive, and everyone is a monster and no one is a monster. I might go 4.5 if I could, since I didn't feel deeply emotionally connected to the characters, but that's how I feel reading most classic books. And this will be a classic, I feel. Students could write finals and theses on this. I was wishing I could whip out my pencil and do my English major exercises followed by a discussion.

It's a super hot day and my brain is fried. And anyway, I have in my bag Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf which I intend to start the moment I finish this. Wish I could wait for Headley's upcoming translation, but I'm too impatient--I want to read Beowulf and then come back to read The Mere Wife again.

That, my friends, for me, is the sign of a good novel: a reread.

One thing I loved about this novel was how powerful the women felt. Willa may have had her moments, but even she overcame and took charge. Dina, despite her fears, despite moments on the edge, felt in charge. The mothers, a kind of Greek chorus usher people on and off and about the suburban stage, were a magnificent collective creature, cunning. They felt like Mean Girls, but with far more solid, sink-or-swim bonds.

And the whole text has this magic/dreamy/dream-horror feel about it. It'd definitely not horror in the traditional sense, but so much is subtly horrifying.

Like I said: brain fried, Beowulf waiting. Maybe I'll have some more intelligent comments my second time through.

Quote Roundup

The writing was stunning, but I did still manage to flag a few quotes.

p. 152) He doesn't say anything, but she can feel his thoughts now. They're the thoughts men always have. She's spent her life anticipating those thoughts, working around them, pouring their drinks and patting their shoulders, sewing their buttons on tightly so that they can feel secure when they undo everything. No more of that.

p. 153) There's a long tradition that says women gossip, when in fact women are the memory of the world.

p. 174) Willa wonders if her mother has plans for everyone she's ever met, graphic their futures on some invisible chart. Her mother and women like her are the reason men can live at all, running corporations, announcing wars. Every man has a woman at home, and every woman plots the course of the universe, putting it into his breast pocket, like a note attached to a kindergartner, sending him out into his day.

p. 269) Well-preserved. Oh, we hate that phrase. Are we pickles or are we jam? Are we sour or are we sweet?

THE POST-BEOWULF RE-READ 7/24/19

Yep, I'm really doing it! I want to emphasize that reading Beowulf has made me realize how much it is not important to be familiar with it in order to enjoy The Mere Wife. The allusions to the original are clever and wonderful, but the differences are so refreshing compared to the slavish way that YA retellings tend to stick to their source material. For example, there are elements in each of the three main characters--Dana, Willa, and Ben--of not only Beowulf but all three of his antagonists.

And man, I would love to do a vocabulary analysis. I mean, Headley couldn't make it much more obvious that her chapters start with different translations of the word hwaet, but the frequency (and subtlety) with which those translations appear in the chapters is just astounding.

So much of this book is making me think and stretch my decaying English major brain muscles. It's a wonderful feeling...I just wish I could share it with a good book discussion group.

August 2, 2019

The book was just as--if not even more--beautiful the second time around. Noted repetitions: blood and red, cave, listen, sing/song, mountain, monster. Okay, so most of those are kind of obvious, especially given that two of them start chapters...but especially "listen" was used with such dramatic effect in so many contexts throughout. Look, this book is amazing, okay? Its going to be the first in a very long time that gets my never-get-rid-of-this "S" stamp.

I stand by my observation that Dana, Willa, and Ben Wolff actually alternate being Beowulf, Grendel, and Grendel's mother, as well as other characters. I also noticed (though this is not necessary to know to enjoy the story) that there were many more subtle allusions as well: the knife, the cup, Ben Wolff/Beowulf's swimming competition, the soldiers who abandon their leader in his/her hour of need.

One oddball comment: I'm a bit puzzled by the ram on the front cover. There isn't really any reference to rams in the book, though deer are mentioned several times. The cover overall does seem to reflect the entanglement of good and evil, innocence and guilt, but it's not symbolism that directly appears in the book. ( )
  books-n-pickles | Oct 29, 2021 |
It's pretty rare that I pick up a book off the library's shelf at random and actually enjoy it, and it's even more rare that I sit down to read a new book and devour it in less than 48 hours. But the Mere Wife is an exception to these rules, since it's a truely exceptional novel.

I first read Beowulf in its entirety as part of a second year university course for which I no longer remember the context, but Seamus Heaney's lyrical translation of the epic gave the story the passion and drama it deserves and made it clear why the story has survived as one of the world's oldest epics. Headley takes the story of Beowulf and his otherworldly opponents and plants it firmly in the suburbia of current times, giving the world just a little push to be slightly more extreme than we normally see it. The story could have easily ended up being a trite melo-drama of one battle between housewives after another or a simple rehashing of the everyday American war, but the author channels House of Cards level politics (without the politics), Game of Thrones dragons (without the physical dragons), and wraps it neatly with a bow of unfulfillment and the motivations behind power dynamics. The reader is drawn in initially to sympathize with Dana Mills (the unwitting mother of a "monster"), but even though we're led to despise the encroachment of suburbia (symbolized neatly by Herot Hall and its socialites) we can't quite write off the characters who live there. Willa may be a contrived creation of her upbringing, but her son Dylan is an innocent, and it's absolutely heartbreaking to see his childhood innocence shattered by the judgement of adults. In true epic style Headley doesn't shy away from leaving a pile of bodies on the floor in the final scenes, but even tough we expected this ending that doesn't make it any easier to read. We hope that in the 1000 years between the writing of the Beowulf epic and now that humanity has evolved to be more accepting, but the reality is unfortunately the opposite. Unlike our forebearers, though, we are much more likely to question what we see and question the perception of others, so hopefully the message is slowly changing. ( )
  JaimieRiella | Feb 25, 2021 |
1-5 van 19 worden getoond (volgende | toon alle)
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» Andere auteurs toevoegen

AuteursnaamRolType auteurWerk?Status
Headley, Maria Dahvanaprimaire auteuralle editiesbevestigd
Meeks, MirandaArtiest omslagafbeeldingSecundaire auteursommige editiesbevestigd
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I make this song about me full sadly

my own wayfaring. I a woman tell

what griefs I had since I grew up

new or old never more than now.

Ever I know the dark of my exile.

The man sent me out to live in the woods

under an oak tree in this den in the earth.

Ancient this earth hall. I am all longing.

—Anonymous
"The Wife's Lament," ca. 960–90
translated from the Old English by Ann Stanford
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Wikipedia in het Engels

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From the perspective of those who live in Herot Hall, the suburb is a paradise. Picket fences divide buildings--high and gabled--and the community is entirely self-sustaining. Each house has its own fireplace, each fireplace is fitted with a container of lighter fluid, and outside--in lawns and on playgrounds--wildflowers seed themselves in neat rows. But for those who live surreptitiously along Herot Hall's periphery, the subdivision is a fortress guarded by an intense network of gates, surveillance cameras, and motion-activated lights. For Willa, the wife of Roger Herot (heir of Herot Hall), life moves at a charmingly slow pace. She flits between mommy groups, playdates, cocktail hour, and dinner parties, always with her son, Dylan, in tow. Meanwhile, in a cave in the mountains just beyond the limits of Herot Hall lives Gren, short for Grendel, as well as his mother, Dana, a former soldier who gave birth as if by chance. Dana didn't want Gren, didn't plan Gren, and doesn't know how she got Gren, but when she returned from war, there he was. When Gren, unaware of the borders erected to keep him at bay, ventures into Herot Hall and runs off with Dylan, Dana's and Willa's worlds collide.

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