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Book Reviewed by:For fans of The Hours and Fates and Furies, a bold, kaleidoscopic novel intertwining the lives of three women across three centuries as their stories of sex, power, and desire finally converge in the present day.
Lily is a mother and a daughter. And a second wife. And a writer, maybe? Or she was going to be, before she had children. Now, in her rented Brooklyn apartment she's grappling with her sexual and intellectual desires, while also trying to manage her roles as a mother and a wife in 2016.
Vivian Barr seems to be the perfect political wife, dedicated to helping her charismatic and ambitious husband find success in Watergate-era Washington D.C. But one night he demands a humiliating favor, and her refusal to obey changes the course of her life―along with the lives of others.
Esther is a fiercely independent young woman in ancient Persia, where she and her uncle's tribe live a tenuous existence outside the palace walls. When an innocent mistake results in devastating consequences for her people, she is offered up as a sacrifice to please the King, in the hopes that she will save them all.
In Anna Solomon's The Book of V., these three characters' riveting stories overlap and ultimately collide, illuminating how women's lives have and have not changed over thousands of years.
This is very much a character-driven book with a strong focus on the personal growth and conflicts of Esther, Vee and Lily. Solomon chooses to focus the struggles of all three women around marriage, albeit in very different ways. At their heart, all three stories are about female autonomy—or lack thereof, in Esther's case—and carefully examine how a woman's place and role has changed but in some respects remained the same over the centuries. Featuring three women from societies with different views on feminism creates different endings to the narratives, but the stories still intertwine in unexpected and satisfying ways...continued
Full Review
(670 words)
(Reviewed by Jordan Lynch).
In The Book of V., Lily is a wife and mother living in modern-day Brooklyn and struggling to find her purpose in life. As she works to manage her relational roles, she is also working to understand her Jewish heritage and particularly the story of Esther, a young Jewish woman in ancient Persia who became queen and used her influence to save her people from being killed. Although Lily finds fault in the overt patriarchy of the story, her two daughters see the young woman as a heroine and demand to hear about her repeatedly as the festival of Purim approaches. Purim, which celebrates Esther's actions, is one of the most important Jewish holidays and includes a number of long-held traditions.
Also known as the festival of lots, Purim is...
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Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Dear Edward
The Book of V. is brainy and sexy and roots us so completely in these three women's bodies and lives, that I couldn't put it down. The writing is so brilliant some passages took my breath away, and when I thought I knew where the novel was headed, I was wrong. This novel is a gift, and I highly recommend you read it.
