The Book of V.: A Novel

by Anna Solomon

Hardcover, 2020

Status

purchase pending

Call number

F SOL Boo

Publication

Henry Holt and Co. (2020), 320 pages

Description

Fiction. Literature. HTML: **An Audiofile Earphones Award-winning production** 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. A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member froxgirl
This trio of tales in the manner of The Hours by Michael Cunningham did not resonate with me. The biblical Esther; a politician’s wife, humiliated by her ambitious and sexually abusive husband; and a mother of two without ambition to be more – none were particularly inspiring nor dramatic.
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There’s a surprise twist between two of the stories, some magic and magical realism by Esther, and the appearance of the unknown-to-me Vashti, Esther’s predecessor wife, that add flavor but the meal still feels endless and purposeless. The writing is fluid and enjoyable, but I couldn’t appreciate the protagonists nor the plots.

Quote: “Something has cracked in her, a pocket of fear she didn’t know existed has burst its seams and it turns out to be infinite, an infinitely renewable resource that rages through her like fire; if in one moment it calms to coal, the next a wind comes through, reigniting the flames.”
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LibraryThing member bookwyrmm
I honestly do not know how to feel about this book - I did enjoy reading it, but something just felt incomplete.
LibraryThing member raizel
It got better---tighter writing, more interesting---as it went on: I'm glad I finished it. Many Midrashim about Vashti are referenced near the end of the book. I liked the explanation of why Vashti's version of the book's events will be different from and better than what actually happened.

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2020

Physical description

320 p.; 9.59 inches

ISBN

1250257018 / 9781250257017
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