Set in the late 1600s to early 1700s, this book follows the life of Jennet Stearne, daughter and sister to two witchfinders. She is given purpose when her witchfinder father causes her beloved scientifically-minded aunt to be burned at the stake for witchcraft: Jennet will devote the rest of her life to proving the impossibility of witchcraft to get the Parliamentary Witchcraft Act overturned.
It’s a fantastic premise and the book is well-crafted – it’s a look at reason verses irrationality, and the Age of Enlightenment and what it should mean to us today. It’s also at times funny and philosophical, especially in the ostensible narrator, Newton’s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, a book with its own voice and soul.
However…
It didn’t quite work for me as much as I was hoping when I started reading. I could not get attached to Jennet, which surprised me since she should be the type of lead I love – an intelligent, determined woman. Part of it was the tone, which tried to mimic eighteenth century writing and therefore had the effect of distancing me (you can really see the contrast when the Principia chimes in, for it has a chatty modern voice).
Partly, also, my detachment came from the wide sweep of the book: having to cover almost her entire life meant broad swathes of years had to be covered in summary form, which meant I was constantly being surprised by Jennet’s motivations: for example, in the summarised six years between her aunt being burned and her father dying, I had no clue Jennet hated him, with no ambiguity or conflicted feelings about it. When she says to her daughter that forsaking her in the name of philosophy was the worst thing she ever did and ‘not a day passes but I feel the shame of it’, my reaction was ‘…Really? Not a day?…Where did that come from?’
I can understand her motivations intellectually, but not emotionally. This is a real flaw since many of the subplots, such as with the daughter and the brother, rely on familial emotions and just didn’t work for me.
I also thought it was far too long and the side-adventures with the Indians, the shipwreck, the pirates, all just annoyed me…yes, again, I can intellectually see how they were supposed to contribute to her grand theory to strike down the Witchcraft Act, but from a resonance point of view…they didn’t (resonant). They just felt like Morrow (or his editor) thought, well, better have some action now. Similarly, as amusing as the Principia is, I’m not sure its subplot contributed much in the end. Lastly, though I normally prefer a happy ending, in this particular book, I think an unhappy ending (in which a certain rescue does not occur) would have been more compelling and made a better climax.
My biggest problem came from the Indian subplot. Jennet’s whole village is slaughtered and she and other young girls of the village are taken off to be breeders for the local Indian tribe. Jennet, being a rational and adaptable person, casually accepts her fate and settles well into her new life. The way it’s presented, it’s no worse than any other arranged marriage where the woman doesn’t have any choice about her husband, and in fact it’s more pleasant than her second marrage of convenience later in the book.
Now, at one point, the Principia goes off on very amusing and apt rant about the modern-day Salem’s tacky witch-tourism, based as it is on the horrific murders of tens of thousands of people across Europe and America. To then have a subplot which more-or-less belittles and minimises the terrifying experience of seeing your family slaughtered and being kidnapped and raped is a bit hard to take.
Then there’s the Principia‘s fervant declaration of love for Jennet in its opening monologue. This makes it seem like this is going to be a major plot point, particularly the casual mention of copulation by proxy which makes it seem like Jennet is involved in the love affair…but then, it’s not a plot point at all, and the ‘copulation by proxy’ turns out to be taking over the body of one of Jennet’s lovers, mentioned again in passing near the end of the book…and this idea, given that Jennet is unaware of it, is distasteful at best.
The book is well-written, erudite, interesting, thoroughly-researched (without being perfectly historically accurate): I did like it, and I would especially recommend it to people interested in the fiction set in this era because on that level it succeeds very well.
James Morrow’s website is here. His latest book is The Philosopher’s Apprentice.
Interested? Buy it from Fishpond.com.au
