genre: historical fiction
I read the book A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 the year I got married, before I was even considering being a mother. Even then, I felt so moved by that depiction of a midwife living in a different time but with a hard-working heart and a desire to record her story just like I had. When I heard that a new book was based on her life and diary, I knew I wanted to spend time in that world.
While this book is fiction (and at the end of the author does an amazingly thorough job of telling us where she deviates from the historical record) it is based solidly in facts and has a murder mystery threaded throughout that kept the story moving along at a great pace. What it has at its heart, though, is Martha - midwife and witness, mother and friend. She is so human with her faults and so dedicated to her craft. The chapters of this book are sprinkled everywhere with births and new mothers as well as with the fine art of mothering one's grown children, all while in a tiny Puritan town where sexual sins are literally considered public business and everyone has secrets they are trying to keep. For a while I felt like there were far too many babies from unwed mothers until I realized that these poor women not only couldn't own land or vote or really have much say at all about how their life would turn out - but birth control didn't exist.
It is so well written, the relationship between Martha and her husband was so tender and beautiful. All the courthouse scenes were both interesting and so so frustrating, it is HARD to remember how little women's rights have mattered over time. I just wanted to spend all my time listening and I finished it feeling so at peace with the story and so grateful that the knowledge of at least some of the lives of women like Martha's have managed to survive until now so we can know them.
content: a little bit of language, sexual assault, rape
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