Sacred Country [Hardcover]

Tremain (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 12, 1993

Six-year-old Mary realizes that she is really a boy and her destiny in life is to be a man. For the next three decades we watch--amused, saddened, profoundly moved by Mary (who will become Martin) as she pursues this elusive identity. A dazzling new novel of extraordinary beauty, humor, and vision from the highly acclaimed author of The Swimming Pool Season.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

At the age of 6, while standing in a field observing a minute's silence for the death of King George IV, Mary Ward realized she was not a little girl. "That was a mistake," she said to herself. "She was a boy." Where this realization takes Mary is the ostensible subject of Sacred Country, although British writer Rose Tremain (author of The Way I Found Her) so lovingly treats the bleak town of Swaithey, England, where Mary grows up, and the people around her that the novel eddies out to encompass the town and times. With a steady eye, Tremain describes the harsh circumstances of Mary's early life and her disconnection from her body and surroundings. That she can find so much humor and magic in Mary's slow transformation into Martin is remarkable, but the book may be most memorable for its quiet realism and light, exacting prose. Not to be missed. --Regina Marler --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Highly regarded in England, Tremain has yet to win her discriminating audience here, although her seventh work of fiction, Restoration , brought her fine reviews on these shores. Her latest novel, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, is a deceptively simple but intensely imaginative work that explores the issues of sexual identity and the inchoate longings of those who have secret lives. In an epiphanic moment in 1952, when she is six, Mary Ward, the child of a poor farming family in Suffolk, realizes that she was meant to be a boy. Related with insight and compassion, Mary's struggle to change her sex is one component of a moving story that also illuminates her parents' disastrous marriage and the lives of other villagers. Brutalized by her father and emotionally abandoned by her mentally fragile mother, who frequently takes refuge in the local asylum, Mary is given succor by others. Tremain has a remarkable ability to create characters of shining, honest goodness--people capable of extraordinary decency, generosity and love. Mary's benevolent grandfather, a doughty teacher, an elderly widower who marries the mother of Mary's dearest friend--these people are sure of their places in life, and they try to help Mary deal with her transsexualism. If Mary (aka Martin) is not so appealing, if her misery makes her hard and self-centered, Tremain refuses to trivialize her hero(ine)'s ordeal. Other characters--Mary's brother, the village butcher's son who wants to sing country and western music in Nashville--also must find their own way, realizing as Mary does that "we're all something else inside." Seen against the background of three decades of history and social change, this is an affecting and often quite humorous narrative that asks provocative questions and challenges the reader's perceptions about the essence of being. (Apr.) .
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; First edition. edition (April 12, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689121709
• ISBN-13: 978-0689121708
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,917,664 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Being and daring to be different, March 25, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Sacred Country (Paperback)

If you think Rose Tremain's "Sacred Country" is anything like Virginia Woolf's "Orlando", you're wrong because Mary Ward didn't take centuries and successive reincarnations to morph into Martin. She had one mortal life to live and became Martin in that time. In short, Mary was a transexual, a boy trapped in a girl's body, who suffered great torment as a daughter to the brutish farmer, Sonny and his hapless spaced-out wife, Estelle who spends her life shuttling between the funny farm and home. Mary's struggle to come to terms with herself would have been intolerable in provincial Suffolk if not for the support of grandad Cord, schoolmistress Ms McRae and batmaker Edward Harker, all shining examples of humanity in a community constricted by a numbing lack of imagination. There's the goodhearted but dim witted and conventional minded Irene and the ever pragmatic Grace who hasn't the imagination to understand why her son, Walter needs to seek salvation in faraway Nashville as a country & western singer. Just as Mary finds her own support group, Walter relies on his uncle, Peter to inspire him. Even Timmy, Mary's brother, finally escapes to find fulfillment in a vocation that would break his father's heart. "Sacred Country" is a novel about the isolation and loneliness of non-conformists. The ghost-like figure of Livia (Estelle's mother, Cord's wife) symbolises the spirit of adventure and heroism. She hovers silently above the community like a big bird urging everyone to their own destinies. Mary took nearly three decades (from the day King George died in 1952) to become Martin. In that time, the world has changed, but have we ? "Sacred Country" is behind it all an ode to human courage. Tremain is a tremendous writer. She has written a novel that will endure. Highly recommended.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Almost perfect., May 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sacred Country (Paperback)

This is the first book that I've felt compelled to review here. That there are only two other comments is almost a crime, since this is a book any real fan of fiction should read. The writing is beautiful, creating images that remain long after you've stopped reading; the characters are all at once completely unqiue and yet you recognize yourself and those you know in each and every one of them. As the other reviews have mentioned, don't feel put off if you've never had any "gender identity" problems--as in any great novel, the plot itself is merely the skeleton. At the end you realize the book in your hands is a shimmering, living thing.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Captured me in spite of the subject, August 21, 2003

By 

Mary Reinert (Nevada, MO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sacred Country (Paperback)

Normally books about people trying to "find themselves" do not appeal to me. I'm a reader of historical fiction - thus I discovered Rose Tremain through Music & Silence (Excellent) and Restoration (wonderful read). I purchased this book simply because of the author. When I got it and read the covers, I thought "I've been gipped, this isn't what I wanted" - However, after just a few pages, I was pulled in. Mary/Martin's struggle with gender reflects every individual's struggle to become who they think they are meant to be. Gender identity is only a tool here; it is not the focus of the book. The English farm, the repressed family, the country music scene in Nashville are a perfect backdrop for the inner struggles of characters such as Mary and Walter. The author paints such a realistic picture: Struggles are hard and probably never ending. The book also demonstrates the importance of the "one person" in someone's life who can make such a difference -- in small and often unknowing ways. I can't say I loved this book, but I can say that I am so glad I read it. The world is filled with Marys and Walters, and there is a bit of them in each of us as well. The perspective this book brings is right on target. Rose Tremain is truly a great writer.