Mary Edwards Walker:
I'm going to quit on this one, at about page 46. Or maybe I'll try just a little bit more. It's just seeming awfully dry to me. I think the author was so determined to keep his opinions out of the narrative that he squeezed out all the heart and left only bare facts. Seriously--it reads like an encyclopedia article.
Sorry to be so judgmental--the research seems excellent and the book is very well-written. So I won't say it's a fault of the writing--more likely, a fault in my reading because I'm just not finding Mrs.Walker all that interesting. She certainly seems a bit oddball, at least in the part I've read up until now. Her dislike of womanly wear seems extreme to the point of mania. Yeah, I see why one might hate hoops, corsets, tight-lacing and layers of skirts that weigh you down and prevent free motion. The author writes,
Her most zealous topics tended to be about women's rights. Mary did not see eye-to-eye with many mainstream suffragists. These suffragists solely focused on granting women the right to vote and were willing to compromise on other issues, such as dress reform and amending the ways women could file for a divorce, in order to attain their goal. However, Mary was unwilling to compromise any of her ideals on women's rights. For her, every aspect of women's equality was as important as the rest.
Okay, but get some perspective. Go for the vote and the rest will naturally follow. I guess. Or maybe not. We've been voting for a hundred years and there are still a lot of issues unresolved. Drat.
But never the mind--me not warming up to the subject of the biography is no reason to fault the biography or the biographer. But it is a reason why I'm giving up reading the book. Sorry, and remember my thoughts are purely my own and have no authority to judge this book for others. So I will not give it a rating.
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