Enjoyment: ★
Plot: ★★☆
Characters: ★★
Setting: ★
Overall: ★★
"Before cockcrow when my
mistress is still abed and I'm
sitting on my heels coaxing the
embers into life with my breath,
I stare into the fire wiht no fear of
the devil. The devil, I think, wakes
up when my mistress does."
Johanna is a serving girl to Dame Margery Kempe, a renowned medieval holy woman. Dame Margery feels the suffering the Virgin Mary felt for her son but cares little for the misery she sees every day. When she announces that Johanna will accompany her on a pilgrimage to Rome, the suffering truly begins. After walking all day, Johanna must fetch water, wash clothes, and cook for the entire party of pilgrims. Then arguing breaks out between Dame Margery and the other travelers, and Johanna is caught in the middle. As the fighting escalates, Dame Margery turns her back on the whole group, including Johanna. Abandoned in a foreign land, the young maidservant must find her own way to Rome.
Inspired by the fifteenth-century text, The Book of Margery Kempe, the first autobiography in English, the novel chronicles Johanna’s journey through fear, anger, and physical hardship to ultimate redemption.
There is something about religion that makes me feel so ugh. When I was second grade my parents suddenly got the random need to go to church every single Sunday yet for some reason whenever I went I always felt gross afterward. I am not very good with a lot of people and I have the horrible problem of hating to be touched by others without warning. I need at least ten seconds before any physical touch is initiated. My dad turned into a relious fanatic and my mother is just moderate. What does this have anything to do with this book you ask. Quite a bit, now shush while I listen to my own voice.
When I was reading this book I could not figure out if it was making fun of religion or something else because it jacked up almost everything that had to do with religion. Why couldn't she just call him Jesus? She tried to change the names in what could be seen as a, I have no clue, type of mood but whatever she was going for I think she failed. The women put about fifty saints on every page and for about fifty percent of the book you continually see the words, "I prayed to so-and-so for this-or-that."
Don't even get my started on the characters and setting.
Oops I am going to start NOW!
The main character Joanna or Joanne, I can't really remember and I kinda don't care is annoying. In the first few chapters she complains about how hard she works and how no one appreciates her work. Then in every chapter following it whenever she is told to do something she complains before, during, and for years after she does the task. Her change to horrible handmaiden to starworker is not graduate at all. It is more of a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am kind of feeling. One chapter she is annoying and the next she is being praised and is so sorry about how she treated her sister's family. Puke.
Setting. I really doubt that the author did any kind of research because to me it seems that she took the modern world and just rambled on about how dirty it was. You get a really good picture on just how dirty it is. She goes in really good detail on the disgusting junk that Jo steps in. I think she got a lot of her ideas for the Canterbury Tales and The Wiki site.
There is something about religion that makes me feel so ugh. When I was second grade my parents suddenly got the random need to go to church every single Sunday yet for some reason whenever I went I always felt gross afterward. I am not very good with a lot of people and I have the horrible problem of hating to be touched by others without warning. I need at least ten seconds before any physical touch is initiated. My dad turned into a relious fanatic and my mother is just moderate. What does this have anything to do with this book you ask. Quite a bit, now shush while I listen to my own voice.
When I was reading this book I could not figure out if it was making fun of religion or something else because it jacked up almost everything that had to do with religion. Why couldn't she just call him Jesus? She tried to change the names in what could be seen as a, I have no clue, type of mood but whatever she was going for I think she failed. The women put about fifty saints on every page and for about fifty percent of the book you continually see the words, "I prayed to so-and-so for this-or-that."
Don't even get my started on the characters and setting.
Oops I am going to start NOW!
The main character Joanna or Joanne, I can't really remember and I kinda don't care is annoying. In the first few chapters she complains about how hard she works and how no one appreciates her work. Then in every chapter following it whenever she is told to do something she complains before, during, and for years after she does the task. Her change to horrible handmaiden to starworker is not graduate at all. It is more of a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am kind of feeling. One chapter she is annoying and the next she is being praised and is so sorry about how she treated her sister's family. Puke.
Setting. I really doubt that the author did any kind of research because to me it seems that she took the modern world and just rambled on about how dirty it was. You get a really good picture on just how dirty it is. She goes in really good detail on the disgusting junk that Jo steps in. I think she got a lot of her ideas for the Canterbury Tales and The Wiki site.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
I encourage feedback because it reminds me that I am not talking to myself. I don't mind if you comment on my post, recommend a book, or just want to say hello. You can even have a conversation with each other. All civil correspondence is welcomed.
Don't forget to check back for my response