Pope Joan

Rating:
Summary: A Very Good Read
Review: When I read historical fiction, I expect a story that will take me to a real time and place, yet infuse it with invention and a bit of fantasy. Pope Joan does just that. It fills in many of the questions about how life might have been for a woman in this exceptional situation. All the while I felt the tale was very believable. While some readers might find aspects of this story to be somewhat sensational, I feel this book balanced the history and education very well with an invented tale of what-might-have-been.

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing
Review: This book was an excellent read! I loved how the author developed the character; how we saw a justification for so many of Johanna's choices, through her mistrust of men, her desire to learn, her anxiety to do right. Johanna was clearly a misfit in her society, yet we were able to sympathize with her. I especially enjoyed her instances of cleverness: the interpretation of the parable of the mustard seed; the episode with the goat and her milk; the test with the maternity urine. Cross also deserves five stars for the medical backdrop that she continues through the novel, from the perspective of the midwife and her herbs and all the healing that Johanna does throughout the novel. An engrossing, delightful read, but a worthwhile one as well.

Rating:
Summary: Our Reading Group's Top Pick
Review: Our Reading Group recently read and discussed Pope Joan. The author, Donna Woolfolk Cross joined us via telephone for our discussion Everyone agreed that it was our "best ever" and Pope Joan our favorite book so far (we've been meeting monthly for over three years and this is the first book that everyone liked.) Some of us walk together in the mornings and we were still discussing it throughout our walk the next morning.
Having Donna join us was so informative - not only about the book and the period of history in which it is set, but also about the process of writing and publishing.
I won't give a synopsis of the book since that is readily available elsewhere but I will share that we found this book gave us a lot to discuss and brought to life a period of history about which we knew little.

Rating:
Summary: The Myth of Pope Joan
Review: Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross

POPE JOAN is part historical fiction, part epic romance. It's a novel that is based on the legend of the woman who, for a few years, became Pope of the Roman Catholic Church back in the 9th century. In this version of the story, Joan is born to a Canon (member of the clergy) and a German heathen who was forced to convert to Catholicism when her village was pillaged and captured by the Roman Catholics. At an early age, against her father's wishes Joan learns to read and write, and is favored by Aesculapius, a travelling bishop of the Greek Church, who encourages Joan's reading abilities and eventually finds a way to continue giving her lessons.

She is taken to a school along with her brother to be further educated. Because she cannot live with the boys in their dormitory, she and her brother are invited to live with a nobleman named Gerrold and his family, and her life becomes intertwined with Gerrold's from that day forward. She is only 13 when she meets him, and he is twenty-five, but Gerrold is attracted to her, to his wife's dismay.

After her brother dies in a Viking attack that kills many others, including Gerrold's wife, Joan runs away and decides to take her brother's place in the monastery where he was to receive an education, and in order to do so she disguises herself as a young boy. From this point, she lives her public life as a boy, and later as a man, because as a woman she would never be able to live the life she had always dreamed about. As a woman, she was expected to be married at the proper age and to bear children for her husband. There were no other options for a woman of her day. But Joan had ambition and knew that the life of a woman was not for her.

Donna Woolfolk Cross tells a wonderful tale in the story of Pope Joan's short life and how she was able to work her way up to the top position of the Church. Her life was extraordinary by any standards and how she was able to fool the public and become Pope is close to a miracle. POPE JOAN is an ambitious novel, telling the fictitious tale of a woman that history has not quite determined whether she exists or not.

Rating:
Summary: poor woman
Review: I thought the idea of a female pope sounds nice and interessting. But for some reason I felt dissapointed. Poor pope joan is allowed to have sex only once and then immediatly suffers the consequences. I definitly disliked the part of the story that tells about her relationship. She seems to be to intelligent to be true but then loses herself totaly to a men, who of course is also better than believable. I would have prefered a different interpretation, after all, its fiction, isnt it?

Rating:
Summary: POPE JOAN - A THOUGHT PROVOKING NOVEL!
Review: Ms. Cross has put together enough history with the right amount of alleged fiction to produce the story, albeit taking place in the 9th century, that has been discussed and passed from generations to generations until here we are today (in the 21st century) still reading about the alleged female Pope who ruled Rome.

I totally digested the book and recommend to anyone reading the book that they pay particular attention to the author's research, notes and comments. I also found the fact that she chose the female pope to write about as a plus for the reader.
Of course the author's background for the book is set within the bounds of the Catholic Church - but why not? That's where Joan reigned (or allegedly reigned). Did I find the book offensive? Of course not, it's historical fiction!

My amazing reading experience is the fact that as a Catholic I opened the book with a chuckle over even the possibility of a female pope and closed the book saying: "Could it be true?" "Why not?" After all, remains of female gladiators have been discovered; Civil War women disguised as men served our country, etc., why not the female pope as portrayed by Ms. Cross?

I thank the author for an intriguing story; for challenging my imagination and stimulating excellent controversial discussions.

Rating:
Summary: Forrest Gump?
Review: The Forrest Gump of her era, Pope Joan could do no wrong and had the Midas touch. The fictional parts of this historical novel are quite fantastic; the historical parts are great so it is definitely worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: A great historical novel
Review: Whether true or not, the book is fascinating, well written with a lot of details about life in the 9th century.

Rating:
Summary: Very good! Read in a day.
Review: I believe it would be ignorant to say the possiblity does not exist that Pope Joan was real. There is just too much historical evidence to the contrary through the 1300's. That being said, this novel was a work of historical fiction, and had some romance thrown in for good measure to explain the stillborn babe. I thoroughly enjoyed Joan's pursuit of academic knowledge and learning, and could definitely empathize with women of the period. I am a religious, 39 yr. old married woman, and my opinion is that men rarely give women of history the credit they deserve in literature.

Rating:
Summary: Anti-Catholic TRASH
Review: If you really think it could even be possible that a woman was consecrated as the Vicar of Christ in the early Middle Ages then you can also believe that pigs fly. This piece of trash, which spewed from the mouth of Satanic feminism, is a lie and dangerous dalliance. The worst element is that the author has culled enough " historical " evidence to claim it to be true.. Remember, the Church had as many enemies then as it does today, sans the civilianship. If you want to read a fantasy novel, try the Wizard of Oz because it is equally as credible.