Slammerkin

Rating:
Summary: Maybe tries a little too hard
Review: Emma Donoghue is a very good writer, but perhaps she's bitten off too bit a bite with Slammerkin. I liked it much better than Crimson Petal and the White, but still, it felt as though she was struggling to deal with as many issues and historical situations as possible: prostitution, the brutal class system, the plight of women, urban and rural differences, gender issues, the 'hospitals' of the reformers, slavery, prisons, poverty...
It's the story of a young teenager, Mary Saunders, born poor but also born with an eye for the finer things. Her quest for a bit of color in her life (a ribbon) leads to her rape and pregnancy, which immediately damn her to a short life of prostitution. Based on the slim known facts of a true murder, the story follows Mary's life, when doesn't end happily.
It's a good story, but with a narrower scope, I feel it could have been even better.

Rating:
Summary: love that loose woman
Review: In Slammerkin, by Emma Donoghue, there were several things that I enjoyed because it was such a great book. I liked that the book was written from Mary's point of view. I've never read anything from the perspective of a harlot, or anything about harlots ever. It was very new to me. I also loved how Emma Donoghue "showed" what was going on, her imagery was great. I felt as though I was actually there, in the cold winter, in 1700's London. There's a quote in the book which shows Mary's true person: "And girls, always two or three at each seven sharp corners of the Dials, their cheeks bleached, their mouths dark as cherries. Mary was no fool; she knew them for harlots. They looked right through her, and she expected no more." (p.8)

It took me some time thinking about what the theme could possibly be. Its just a story of an 18th century prostitute that helps give insight on the many things harlots in that period had to deal with. I guess the theme could be the typical one of survival of the fittest, or fight for your self to survive. I totally agree with this theme especially in the competitive field of harlotry, where getting a customer or getting money meant life or death. And when I say death, I mean the worst possible death ever. Like freezing to death, being beaten and robbed, being murdered, or dying of hunger. The theme of survival of the fittest does directly link to my life because I have to compete over all these other kids trying to get into good schools, to get the good jobs and make lots of money, and basically survive on my own. I have to fight for my own survival now, but it's not quite the same realistic brutality as the one Mary was put through.

My recommendation to others is, read it. You have never read anything as brutally honest and insightful on the life of prostitutes. Or maybe you have, but 18th century harlots? I enjoyed this book thoroughly from beginning to end; I could not put it down. Pick it up for a read if you're tired of the same stuff you've been reading for ages, or if you need an exciting book to spark a mental roll.

Rating:
Summary: A vivid story of cruel conditions
Review: Mary Saunders is introduced to us in somewhat cruel conditions which quickly become worse. This book is an honest look at street prostitution and how the lifes of the women used in this "trade" are quickly consumed until they are gone - if the horses were cars, it could be set today. Mary's tragic story is an engaging read - one that made me sick with the details (but I appreciated the realistic edge they provided). My heart broke for Mary again and again, and I raged at the men who thoughtlessly took advantage of her vulnerabilities (which transform through the story, but remain vulnerabilities none the less), and her helplessness, and their willful blindness to her humanity. Emma Donoghue has done a wonderful job at illustrating just that - women in prostitution are humans, with feelings, needs, and desires no different from anyone else. She accurately paints the snowballing effects/issues that accompany people used in prostitution: addiction, distrust, violence, self loathing, crime & deceit, fleeting glimmers of hope, shame, and lonliness. Bravo, Ms. Donoghue!

Rating:
Summary: Twisty easy read
Review: Simply ate this book up. Zippy and compelling, full of historical detail that rings true. The writing is deceptively simple, even a bit cheesy, with cerain stock characters and phrases that are almost Harlequin Romance-y. It's also a little disorienting, because as other reviewers here have pointed out, what begins a single point-of-of view book gradually opens up to include several points of view. What you discover by the end, of course, is that the author has pulled off an interesting feat: She has subtly and successfully shifted the reader's symptathies from Mary, the putative heroine to Mrs. Jones, the seamstress. The additional points of view are not sloppiness, as some here suggest, but a way to let the reader slowly gain a more objective understanding of Mary Saunders.

By the end, she's like a former friend who has gone irretrievably bad, a friend to whom you must say goodbye, albeit bittersweetly, for your own self-preservation.

Rating:
Summary: Skip this book and pick up Austen or Burney instead.
Review: Quite simply, one of the worse books I have read this year, (...).

Many of the reviews already posted comment at some length on the graphic nature of the sex, violence, and other ho-hum yada-yada. Truly, that's not what is wrong, or for that matter right, with the book. The terrible sin of the book, the nasty splinter of PC wood that lodges itself under your fingernail and torments you all day long until you can get home and dig it out with a knife, is that each character fills a cliche role of what life must, or may, have been like for people in the second half of the eighteenth century as seen from our "enlightened" position straddling the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We have a young girl unsatisfied with her "station" in the strictly ordered society of London who goes on to make a "wrong" choice, and, like the worst of slippery slope fallacies, that choice ultimately causes her downfall. We have a self-righteous nanny who quotes Bible verses at the same time as she imagines violent Jeremiads upon those "sinners" and "hypocrites" who surround her. We have the hooker with the heart of gold; the self-read lad who waxes philosophic about the ills of the Enclosure Acts; the African slave woman scarred and haunted who eventually runs away with the help of the Society of Friends?; the truly hypocritical Reverend Cadwalydyr who preaches on Sunday and pimps our heroine the rest of the week (and just when will that tired stereotype die anyway); and the list could go on.

In short, the book has a too transparent social agenda and each character cannot escape his or her own stock flatness to flesh out into a real, complex, compelling, round, human character. On every page I felt, not like I was reading historical fiction or even a costume drama, but more like I was receiving a social studies lesson from a former feminist theory professor.

(...)

Rating:
Summary: Gripping, compelling and dark
Review: Beautifully written, disturbing. This novel will haunt you for weeks after reading it. Donoghue evokes the squalor and filth of 18th century England so vividly, you can almost smell it. Mary Saunders is a tragic, fascinating character. Highly recommended!
Be warned: if you're a prude who likes their historical fiction clean and lilac-scented, this book is not for you. There are extremely graphic depictions of rape, prostitution and violence.
Conversely, if you're looking for a sexy soft-porn romp you'll be extremely disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling read
Review: Masterful writing, storytelling at its best. Mary Saunders, the primary character, is not to be forgotten. A great read, one that I couldn't put down. 18th Century England is brought to life. Wow, to write like Donoghue!

Rating:
Summary: Troublesome
Review: I found this book to be quite difficult to read. It wasn't the way it was written or the way it was presented, it was the content. For something that was based on true events, this story pulls at the humanity that resides in all of us. I do have to credit Ms. Donoghue for being able to handle the story of this young girl's life in such an accurate and professional manner, yet, just the content of the book was enough for me to put the book down once in a while for a breather. It is a story of the way society affects everyone's life in ways that we aren't able to change, and this is what makes it so difficult to read. The book is exceptionally written and will have people running for their dictionaries to look up words no longer used in today's vocabulary, but it is not a book for people who believe that life is fair, for it will surely shake up everyone's outlook on society.

Rating:
Summary: slammerkin
Review: I found this book to be dark and disturbing. The graphic sex scenes throughout the story turned my stomach. I found it hard to believe that a young girl would sell herself for the sake of a ribbon. I would have liked it more if she had triumphed from her early misfortune. It was hard for me to like or relate to this character in any way.
I recently read Girl with a Pearl Earing and the Secret Life of Bee's which were both much better in my opinion.

Rating:
Summary: It Doesn't Go Where you Don't Want it to Go
Review: This book is so easy to read that I read it in two seatings in a rental car whilst driving across the country (well, not driving so much as riding). Normally I cannot even stand to read in cars. I would decide that I wanted to stop reading for a while (ostensibly to absorb some scenery), tuck it into my lap, and then pick it up unconsciously and start devouring again within two or three minutes; in other words, it's a fairly compelling read.

It kept threatening to follow trite pathways: hardened city girl finds country values, is redeemed; a family pained by constant hardship finally finds happiness--but no! Donoghue avoids beaching this novel on the splintery rocks of cliche several times over.

This does not mean you should expect epic passages; Slammerkin is, in fact, straightforward in style, though its descriptions are inviting and sumptuous, if not lofty. Donoghue's concentration on characters and direct action is a relief from the long-winded tedium that encumbers some period fiction.

Overall the book is easy to grasp, easy to read, easy to enjoy--easy. Its subject matter is dark at times (and racy), but not oppressive, and it left me feeling satisfied, as if I'd just had a basket of (bright red) strawberries.