The Widow's war

Locations
Call Number: Fiction
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction	4-week checkout	On Shelf

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Well researched with great setting and characters submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on July 21, 2018, 4:02pm 3.5/5 stars. Strong historical fiction about 1761 in a Cape Cod village in MA, _The Widow’s War_ is about a woman who defies local law and custom to claim her own freedom when her husband dies.

The book was certainly well written, with interesting and well-developed characters who felt three dimensional. The time and place are fleshed out, and I felt like I could see and hear Satucket. I liked that the premise is based on real New England colonial history and real law at the time (especially that a widow owned 1/3 of her deceased husband’s property, though the whole story is clearly well researched). (There was an afterword that explicates what is known.) I think the rub for me is that this feels like 21st century feminism laid on top of 17th century life. While every decision is presented with background and reason, I still find the whole thing hard to believe in context, and there wasn’t anything in the afterword that lead me to believe that this really happened somewhere.

So, a well-written book with excellent characters that in the end just didn’t quite hit the right notes for me. But then, historical fiction isn’t my favorite genre, so you should definitely take my review with a grain of salt!