A review by poisonenvy
Goddess by Kelly Gardiner
3.0
Julie d'Aubigny was a real swordswoman in the late 17th century, a famous opera singer, who'd kiss the girls and duel the boys, and I selected this book for my book club because man, what a badass (and also because we had gushed about her once and so I looked up any historical fictional accounts on her life).
The book, overall, wound up being satisfactory, though it fell a little flat for me. The framing device - Julie confessing her sins on her death bed - was well done and I really quite liked that. The third person prose sections lost something for me in the writing style, whether it was because of the constant POV switches or just because I don't love third-person present tense. The present tense could have been effective in making the scenes seem like a shift to Julia reflecting on her life, a kind of 'life is flashing before my eyes' kind of thing, except for the fact that it was told from so many different POVs that the effect was greatly diminished; it can't be Julia's life flashing before her eyes if I'm getting it from the perspective of some random, nameless dude in a bar, or if she's not in the scenes at all. The apparent emphasis on aesthetic morality (the belief that beauty equates to goodness) also left a bad taste in my mouth.
There were a lot of excellent moments that made me laugh or cheer for Julia, and I'm glad I read this book. There's one particularly beautiful scene where Julia watches La Monja Alferez, a play about Catalina, which I found especially poignant. I'll certainly be checking out some of the non-fiction reads that Gardiner listed at the back of her novel. Would I recommend the book? Probably not, unless Julie d'Aubigny happens to pop up naturally in conversation, however.
The book, overall, wound up being satisfactory, though it fell a little flat for me. The framing device - Julie confessing her sins on her death bed - was well done and I really quite liked that. The third person prose sections lost something for me in the writing style, whether it was because of the constant POV switches or just because I don't love third-person present tense. The present tense could have been effective in making the scenes seem like a shift to Julia reflecting on her life, a kind of 'life is flashing before my eyes' kind of thing, except for the fact that it was told from so many different POVs that the effect was greatly diminished; it can't be Julia's life flashing before her eyes if I'm getting it from the perspective of some random, nameless dude in a bar, or if she's not in the scenes at all. The apparent emphasis on aesthetic morality (the belief that beauty equates to goodness) also left a bad taste in my mouth.
There were a lot of excellent moments that made me laugh or cheer for Julia, and I'm glad I read this book. There's one particularly beautiful scene where Julia watches La Monja Alferez, a play about Catalina, which I found especially poignant. I'll certainly be checking out some of the non-fiction reads that Gardiner listed at the back of her novel. Would I recommend the book? Probably not, unless Julie d'Aubigny happens to pop up naturally in conversation, however.