Sister Noon

Rating:
Summary: Misses its mark
Review: "Sister Noon" misses its mark. And I'm not sure I know what Fowler was aiming for. But despite the novel's failures in plotting and message, Fowler still creates an interesting book that speaks out on all sorts of interesting subjects.

The story is really a collection of other stories - rumors, newspaper columns, hearsay, inuendo, and imagination - the only kind of information the novel's protagonist, Lizzie, can expect to receive as a spinster in nineteenth-century San Francisco. Lizzie becomes caught up in the apparent machinations of one Mrs. Pleasant, a mysterious mulatto who appears to have political pull and supernatural powers. As we learn, not is all that is seems. Fowler's conclusion - and a slap to the face of her readers - is to lambast her novel-reading Lizzie for not putting down her books and experiencing life. That is, talking with people.

Kinda makes me wish I hadn't wasted my time with "Sister Noon."

In the course of the story, Fowler brings up race, religion, mysticism, San Francisco politics, ancestor worship, motherhood, and children. Above all there's a message about women, a warning against confinement and imagination, and an encourgement towards self-assertion and independence.

The review, sounds harsh, so I'd like to give credit to Fowler for attempting something unique. And she does have a unique voice, despite some obvious flaws in her prose that belies a lack of editing, and not lack of writing skill. It's worth a read if you liked "Sarah Canary," or are willing to watch a writer engage in risky manuevers.

(By the way, Fowler doesn't seem to be very familiar with San Francisco. There were a few inaccuracies, especially in describing the weather. "Swirling fog"? The fog definitely does not "swirl" here. Also the scent of ocean and sand would not be found in downtown Geary -- it's nearly 6 miles to Ocean Beach from there, where the wind and fog typically comes from...)

Rating:
Summary: Misses its mark
Review: "Sister Noon" misses its mark. And I'm not sure I know what Fowler was aiming for. But despite the novel's failures in plotting and message, Fowler still creates an interesting book that speaks out on all sorts of interesting subjects.

The story is really a collection of other stories - rumors, newspaper columns, hearsay, inuendo, and imagination - the only kind of information the novel's protagonist, Lizzie, can expect to receive as a spinster in nineteenth-century San Francisco. Lizzie becomes caught up in the apparent machinations of one Mrs. Pleasant, a mysterious mulatto who appears to have political pull and supernatural powers. As we learn, not is all that is seems. Fowler's conclusion - and a slap to the face of her readers - is to lambast her novel-reading Lizzie for not putting down her books and experiencing life. That is, talking with people.

Kinda makes me wish I hadn't wasted my time with "Sister Noon."

In the course of the story, Fowler brings up race, religion, mysticism, San Francisco politics, ancestor worship, motherhood, and children. Above all there's a message about women, a warning against confinement and imagination, and an encourgement towards self-assertion and independence.

The review, sounds harsh, so I'd like to give credit to Fowler for attempting something unique. And she does have a unique voice, despite some obvious flaws in her prose that belies a lack of editing, and not lack of writing skill. It's worth a read if you liked "Sarah Canary," or are willing to watch a writer engage in risky manuevers.

(By the way, Fowler doesn't seem to be very familiar with San Francisco. There were a few inaccuracies, especially in describing the weather. "Swirling fog"? The fog definitely does not "swirl" here. Also the scent of ocean and sand would not be found in downtown Geary -- it's nearly 6 miles to Ocean Beach from there, where the wind and fog typically comes from...)

Rating:
Summary: A quirky and enchanting novel...
Review: At the center of Sister Noon is the intrepid Lizzie Hayes, a member of the San Francisco elite with a lively and compassionate heart. Lizzie serves on the board of The Ladies Relief and Protection Society Home, known as the Brown Ark, an apt description of its somber but sturdy façade. The Brown Ark houses children whose parents are unable to provide for their basic needs, such as food and shelter. In 1890's San Francisco, Lizzie dedicates her days to good works, a respectable and valued member of society.

When Mrs. Mary Ellen Pleasant requests Lizzie's aid in placing a young girl, Jenny, at the home, Lizzie finds the child a bed and anticipates no complications because of her generosity. As it happens, Lizzie is indeed called upon to account for her decision. Later, as Lizzie's questionable relationship with Mrs. Pleasant becomes grist for gossip, Lizzie's first inclination is accede to the ladies' demands and shun the infamous Mrs. Pleasant. Yet she grows more uncomfortable with this compliance and a small rebellion seethes beneath her outwardly placid demeanor.

As for little Jenny, a five-year-old child of questionable parentage, she is a convenient target for the petty meanness of the other girls at the home. As a result, the tormented Jenny longs for escape to a place of safety.

When Mr. Finny, a shady con man, contacts Lizzie Hayes, he insinuates that there is reason to doubt her own personal history and hints at a possible connection to Jenny. Seeking more specific information via the household of Mrs. Pleasant, a woman, after all, who is privy to many of the city's darkest secrets, Lizzie is further confused, but determined to unravel the mystery that confronts her. A truly stalwart soul, Lizzie is eventually forced to act on her beliefs and consider a life-changing decision.

Sister Noon is peppered with idiosyncratic details at a time when newspaper articles include personal opinion, flowery verbiage and the excessive phrasing of a society far too conscious of its every nuance. Hyperbole is rampant, as well as the exaltation of virtue and condemnation of vice. The unconventional is suspect by its very nature and carefully scrutinized for the taint of immorality. Plainly, the upper classes are righteous busybodies who delight in destroying a reputation over afternoon of tea.

Fowler captures Victorian San Francisco beautifully. Her scenes are richly painted with historical detail and an extraordinary sense of place. The trivia and occasional drama of life in the Brown Ark is revealed in all its shabby refinement, dressed in good intentions, flaws hidden in shadowy rooms like unwelcome guests. This novel is a small jewel, awash with the restrained emotions so familiar in such a socially constricted society. Fowler's Lizzie Hayes rises above her circumstances, fulfilling the promise of a life honorably lived, her goodness sustained throughout in a personal triumph over circumstances.Luan Gaines/2003.

Rating:
Summary: FACT AND FANTASY BLEND IN A BEWITCHING TALE
Review: Hugo Award winning author Karen Joy Fowler ("Sarah Canary", 1991) blends fact and fantasy in her bewitching third novel, "Sister Noon." Imagery, minute historical data, and dazzling prose abound in this story set against San Francisco's Gilded Age.

We meet 40-year-old spinster Lizzie Hayes, volunteer treasurer of the Ladies Relief Home, familiarly called the Brown Ark, a residential facility for homeless children made comfortable with donated furnishings representing "the worst taste of several decades."

Lizzie had been a "passive and biddable" child beneath whose "tractable surface lay romance and rebellion." She was now "hard to dissuade and hard to intimidate." Persistent when it came to raising funds for the Home, Lizzie lived in a dangerous place, a "city propelled in equal parts by drunken abuse and sober recompense," where there were six men to every woman and 700 gambling/watering holes.

Nonetheless, Lizzie is advised by Mary Ellen "Mammy" Pleasant that she can do anything she pleases, "You don't have to be the same person your whole life." This is apt tutelage from one who knows as that may be precisely what Mrs. Pleasant did. An enigmatic woman in life as well as in fiction, sometimes revered, at other times vilified, she has been called the "Mother of Civil Rights in California" and the "Fabulous Negro Madam." Born a Georgia slave, she cleverly amassed a fortune which she dedicated to favored philanthropic causes.

As this author imagines in "Sister Noon," Lizzie's life is changed forever when Mrs. Pleasant appears at the Home and asks for her. Although Lizzie has never spoken with the 70-year-old woman, she knew Mrs. Pleasant worked as a housekeeper although she "was rich as a railroad magnate's widow." It was said the infamous woman "had a small green snake tattooed in a curl around one breast.....she was a voodoo queen.....she would, for a price, make a man die of love."

Mrs. Pleasant has come to deliver 5-year-old orphan Jenny Ijub to the care of the home. Jenny is a mysterious child described as not quite truthful with her claims of once owning a pony, a parrot, and a silver cup. As time passes she is more and more given to restless nights, and her assertions grow more fanciful - her father "had been as rich as a sultan," she had seen fairies, ghosts, angels, and she didn't believe in God. When Jenny creates a ruckus at an outing, she claims that a man in green pants has tried to kidnap her.

Yet it is the little girl who becomes the catalyst for Lizzie's rebellion against the constrictive society in which she was raised.

"Sister Noon" is a superbly realized recreation of an 1850s San Franciso peopled by quirky, smart characters. Ms. Fowler, an author with practiced eye and arresting pen, has constructed a tale that absorbs, amuses, and sometimes skewers the complacent.

Rating:
Summary: FACT AND FANTASY BLEND IN A BEWITCHING TALE
Review: Hugo Award winning author Karen Joy Fowler ("Sarah Canary", 1991) blends fact and fantasy in her bewitching third novel, "Sister Noon." Imagery, minute historical data, and dazzling prose abound in this story set against San Francisco's Gilded Age.

We meet 40-year-old spinster Lizzie Hayes, volunteer treasurer of the Ladies Relief Home, familiarly called the Brown Ark, a residential facility for homeless children made comfortable with donated furnishings representing "the worst taste of several decades."

Lizzie had been a "passive and biddable" child beneath whose "tractable surface lay romance and rebellion." She was now "hard to dissuade and hard to intimidate." Persistent when it came to raising funds for the Home, Lizzie lived in a dangerous place, a "city propelled in equal parts by drunken abuse and sober recompense," where there were six men to every woman and 700 gambling/watering holes.

Nonetheless, Lizzie is advised by Mary Ellen "Mammy" Pleasant that she can do anything she pleases, "You don't have to be the same person your whole life." This is apt tutelage from one who knows as that may be precisely what Mrs. Pleasant did. An enigmatic woman in life as well as in fiction, sometimes revered, at other times vilified, she has been called the "Mother of Civil Rights in California" and the "Fabulous Negro Madam." Born a Georgia slave, she cleverly amassed a fortune which she dedicated to favored philanthropic causes.

As this author imagines in "Sister Noon," Lizzie's life is changed forever when Mrs. Pleasant appears at the Home and asks for her. Although Lizzie has never spoken with the 70-year-old woman, she knew Mrs. Pleasant worked as a housekeeper although she "was rich as a railroad magnate's widow." It was said the infamous woman "had a small green snake tattooed in a curl around one breast.....she was a voodoo queen.....she would, for a price, make a man die of love."

Mrs. Pleasant has come to deliver 5-year-old orphan Jenny Ijub to the care of the home. Jenny is a mysterious child described as not quite truthful with her claims of once owning a pony, a parrot, and a silver cup. As time passes she is more and more given to restless nights, and her assertions grow more fanciful - her father "had been as rich as a sultan," she had seen fairies, ghosts, angels, and she didn't believe in God. When Jenny creates a ruckus at an outing, she claims that a man in green pants has tried to kidnap her.

Yet it is the little girl who becomes the catalyst for Lizzie's rebellion against the constrictive society in which she was raised.

"Sister Noon" is a superbly realized recreation of an 1850s San Franciso peopled by quirky, smart characters. Ms. Fowler, an author with practiced eye and arresting pen, has constructed a tale that absorbs, amuses, and sometimes skewers the complacent.

Rating:
Summary: Maybe it's me, but...
Review: I found this book extremely boring. I forced myself to read the whole thing because I'm a San Franciscan, but I didn't even feel it captured the city well. I kept turning back to remember who characters were, and as far as the plot...uh...did something happen? The cover is the best thing about this book.

Rating:
Summary: Lighthearted, Unconnected
Review: I just finished Sister Noon this morning, and do not know what quite to make of the plot. However, the writing style is superb. Right from the start I enjoyed Fowler's language. But I couldn't grasp the story line. I was never sure which direction we were headed, who the story would center, or even understand Lizzie's motivations. She seemed so wish-washy. I guess what this story boils down to is a spinster's life in 1890 San Francisco who is a treasurer of an orphanage. Life is typical and boring until along comes the city's most mysterious woman to give her an orphaned child. There is mystery regarding the woman, the child, and later her own family. I did not think that these were well connected, although in fact it was. And some things that had an air of mystery were seemingly very straight forward at the end (I don't like giving too much away).

This book was a fine read, however, don't go into it with high expectations.

Rating:
Summary: Lighthearted, Unconnected
Review: I just finished Sister Noon this morning, and do not know what quite to make of the plot. However, the writing style is superb. Right from the start I enjoyed Fowler's language. But I couldn't grasp the story line. I was never sure which direction we were headed, who the story would center, or even understand Lizzie's motivations. She seemed so wish-washy. I guess what this story boils down to is a spinster's life in 1890 San Francisco who is a treasurer of an orphanage. Life is typical and boring until along comes the city's most mysterious woman to give her an orphaned child. There is mystery regarding the woman, the child, and later her own family. I did not think that these were well connected, although in fact it was. And some things that had an air of mystery were seemingly very straight forward at the end (I don't like giving too much away).

This book was a fine read, however, don't go into it with high expectations.

Rating:
Summary: Spellbinding
Review: I knew two things after reading the first paragraph of 'Sister Noon': That I was about to depart upon a strange journey, and that I would enjoy every word. I was correct on both counts.

'Sister Noon' is set in late Nineteenth-century San Francisco. The Civil War has been over for several years, the local population has grown, and the city is just discovering its identity. Whether they know it or not, people are becoming prepared for the new century, hanging on loosely to old ideas and ideals and sometimes resisting new ones.

Lizzie works at a shelter for mostly orphaned children. Lizzie is the classic spinster: only in her early 30's, she is already an old maid in the social circles of San Francisco, with no hopes for permanent male companionship.

A different type of companion arrives in the form of a little girl named Jenny. Jenny is brought to the shelter by a Mrs. Pleasant, a strange, beautiful woman who is rumored to be a witch, a voodoo priestess, or something even more bizarre. The introduction of Jenny and Mrs. Pleasant causes Lizzie to examine her own life in ways she had never before imagined, and call into question beliefs that were formerly firmly planted in her being.

Fowler is a master of the economy of words. She gives us just enough description of the characters and their surroundings without over-doing it. She expertly introduces marvelous characters and situations that draw us deeper and deeper into the story until the final page. Fowler creates a world from the distant past that is both familiar and strange. Perhaps her sparse description makes us hunger for more. Perhaps it's the eerie mood she creates out of everyday events and objects. However you label it, Fowler's writing is magic and addictive. Don't be surprised if you find yourself under Fowler's spell, buying all of her books. And what a great spell to be under. Enjoy.

336 pages

Rating:
Summary: Spellbinding
Review: I knew two things after reading the first paragraph of `Sister Noon': That I was about to depart upon a strange journey, and that I would enjoy every word. I was correct on both counts.

`Sister Noon' is set in late Nineteenth-century San Francisco. The Civil War has been over for several years, the local population has grown, and the city is just discovering its identity. Whether they know it or not, people are becoming prepared for the new century, hanging on loosely to old ideas and ideals and sometimes resisting new ones.

Lizzie works at a shelter for mostly orphaned children. Lizzie is the classic spinster: only in her early 30's, she is already an old maid in the social circles of San Francisco, with no hopes for permanent male companionship.

A different type of companion arrives in the form of a little girl named Jenny. Jenny is brought to the shelter by a Mrs. Pleasant, a strange, beautiful woman who is rumored to be a witch, a voodoo priestess, or something even more bizarre. The introduction of Jenny and Mrs. Pleasant causes Lizzie to examine her own life in ways she had never before imagined, and call into question beliefs that were formerly firmly planted in her being.

Fowler is a master of the economy of words. She gives us just enough description of the characters and their surroundings without over-doing it. She expertly introduces marvelous characters and situations that draw us deeper and deeper into the story until the final page. Fowler creates a world from the distant past that is both familiar and strange. Perhaps her sparse description makes us hunger for more. Perhaps it's the eerie mood she creates out of everyday events and objects. However you label it, Fowler's writing is magic and addictive. Don't be surprised if you find yourself under Fowler's spell, buying all of her books. And what a great spell to be under. Enjoy.

336 pages