Customer Reviews

Slammerkin

5 star:		(72)
4 star:		(60)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Life was hard back in the era Ms. Donoghue is writing about, folks. In fact, it was more than hard -- it was a nightmare ninety-nine percent of the time, especially for women and the poor. If you're expecting a larkish or sexy romp through Jolly Olde England, look elsewhere. This book will slice you to the bone.

This book affected me so deeply that I finished it days ago, yet I am still haunted by it.

Ms. Donoghue has created a tale that is absolutely SOAKED in unflinching truth. Her historical detail is so fascinating and at times, properly horrifying, that you will be shaken to your soul, yet you will not be able to look away.

The many themes skillfully woven throughout the book are powerful: mother-daughter ironies, the issues of slavery and servitude, injustice, the servitude of women, sexual politics, poverty, the haves versus the have-nots, humanity's general cruelty -- each issue is skillfully explored without one hint of judgement or preachiness. In fact, this book is all about the story; nothing more, nothing less.

Mary herself is an enigma. Why did she make the choices she did; what made her so strong that she tried to create a new pattern for her life? Was she insane when she committed her crime? Did her lifetime of gruesome, heart-wrenching experiences cause her to lose her mind?

The final scene of the book is so powerful that I am getting shivers just thinking about it.

I wish I could explain what makes this novel so very compelling; but I don't have the words for it. All I can say is that here is a shimmering treasure of a novel. Pass it up and you'll be missing a rare opportunity to be one of the first readers of what is sure to become a classic for centuries to come.

Set in England in a much different time and place, Slammerkin is a dark read. Emma Donaghue does an excellent job placing us in England in the 18th Century, with all of its societal rules and roles. We meet Mary, a young girl, and follow her, as she begins a descent into the darker side of old London. Based on true personages from this time period, Donaghue captures characters that are true to life, mysterious, and surprising. With each twist and turn, one wonders where the novel will go next. Impulsive, and immature, Mary takes us on a dark adventure through the time period.
Her escapades are never-ending, and her character will stick by you, whether or not you'd like her to be there.
Exploring significant characters often ignored by history books, and those wishing to push certain unmentionable events under the rug, Slammerkin provides for an insightful and intriguing read.
Although a very somber novel, it is very much worthwhile. It sat on my shelf much too long, before being read. Once I finally picked it up, I couldn't stop reading. I was intrigued and at times disgusted, but glued to the book, nonetheless. Enjoy!

I didn't realize until the end of this book that Slammerkin was a fictionalized account of a real woman. Though little was known about Mary Saunders, Donoghue certainly brings her to life in this book.

The story is set in 18th century London where a young girl, Mary, makes one desperate decision that alters her life forever. A simple desire, one red ribbon, leads her down the road of darkness. Mary had a desire for beautiful things in her life but there wasn't much beauty to be found in this story. It is raw with realism and brutal in its descriptions. The author does not glorify the life of a prostitute. It is presented to us in all of its ugliness and is at times uncomfortable to read. This is the sign of remarkable writing. I was taken from my quiet life and placed in a time where horrendous things happened to young women at every turn.

I wanted to despise Mary, but I found myself sympathizing with her. Life was hard back then, and especially so for a young girl left to the street. Her dissatisfaction with her life was her greatest obstacle. To her, being a servant was no better than being a prostitute. In the end, her own impulsiveness caused her downfall.

I had no idea of the ending of this book before I picked it up. I was surprised to say the least. It was a dark read but worth the time. I will highly recommend it to others.

Born in 1748 London to a family that barely scrapes by, fourteen-year-old Mary Saunders possesses nothing that isn't gray or brown. She yearns for something more, though she's not worldly enough to know what the "something" is until a simple red ribbon, suspended in the folds of a peddler's coat, inspires in her a need so great that she allows herself to be raped in payment for it. As a result of the encounter, Mary becomes pregnant and is banished from her home and family for her shame. Further brutalized in a gutter on her first night on her own, Mary is rescued by Doll, a prostitute who lacks morals but not kindness.

Almost inevitably, the unskilled Mary becomes a prostitute under the tutelage of Doll. She's soon seduced by the money she can earn and the colorful clothes that money buys, as well as by her newfound "freedom." Plying "the trade" on the dirty and pitiless streets of London, Mary grows up fast. She develops a knack for reading people and manipulating them; yet, emotionally, she remains a child, tender and disastrously confused.

Eventually, a series of misfortunes sends Mary fleeing from London for her life. She travels to distant Monmouth, where her parents had met before leaving to seek their fortunes in London. Concocting a story about her "dead" mother's last wish, Mary secures a place in the household of her mother's erstwhile best friend, a dressmaker.

For the first time in her life, Mary experiences a nurturing environment, has people who care about her. Although her arrogance wins her no friends amongst the other servants, she feels happy for a time and learns to be an excellent seamstress. But her old demons still haunt her. Her yearning for the fine garments and fine lives of her employer's clients becomes insufferable. She regresses and begins living the kind of double life that can't last in a small town.

Emma Donoghue's richly-hued prose unflinchingly recreates the brutality and degradation of eighteenth-century London's seamy side. Her secondary characters are anything but secondary; many of them could respectably carry their own stories. Not being conversant in the history of this period, I can't speak to historical accuracy, but nothing struck me as shaky or implausible. It was all frighteningly real.

Many of the editorial reviews excerpted on the cover of the trade paper edition contain phrases like "rollicking romp," "swoon of a novel," and "costume drama." Those are terms to be applied to a Regency romance; they are an insult to this dark, tragic story and its deeply conflicted heroine. I don't think the reviewers who made those comments actually read the book. It kept me turning pages and reading far into the night, because I saw the kernel of good in Mary and kept hoping she'd get some sense and do something right just once. Turn her life around. But she consistently botched her opportunities, achingly intent on self-destruction.

Emma Donoghue has written a very engaging piece of historical fiction. The facts available to her were fairly thin, so unlike others who write in this genre, the author was required to create the vast majority of this work. I don't know to what degree book jackets affect the sale of a book, however I came across the book initially without the cover, and had it had a cover I don't think I would have picked it up. I would have been the one to have lost out, for the book is a good if very dark, graphic and unrelentingly grim tale.

The tragic character of this story is Mary Saunders. Her life circumstances in early 18th Century London are extremely grim, Mr. Dickens would read as an optimist by comparison. Mary, unlike other characters is not forced in to her initial act that will see her banished from her home, her family, and will send her through the darkest spots that London has on offer. The persons she will meet with set her firmly in the life of other, "strolling girls". From the very start of her fall she is driven by what appear to be items of little consequence, however they are obsessions to her. It is not hunger or illness that drives her to an act that will begin her tragic path, rather a bit of ribbon, and even for all she sacrifices for this, the color she traded for eludes her.

After a graphic visit to remove the result of her trade for the ribbon, she travels through a series of fits and starts that offer a more traditional life. The author raises great hope as she relocates; however even as she joins her relatives she is unable to complete the trip without reverting to old habits. Slammerkin refers to a certain type of dress and a defined type of woman. This dual meaning is carried throughout the book as a slammerkin is not really worn by its female counterpart. Mary Saunders is also continually attempting to define who she is, yet she always ends by leading two very different lives while simultaneously deceiving those that would help her.

The book states, "Clothes make the woman, and, Clothes are the biggest lie ever told". Her preoccupation with life's finery and the lie she lives to achieve the fiction they represent not only ensure she will never recover herself, but ultimately will bring her own ruin. The book is a good albeit very grim read.

Driven by greed over a simple red ribbon, 14-year-old Mary Saunders agrees to have sex with a London peddlar. A few months later, it's more than evident she's carrying more than a ribbon, and she's tossed out by her mother and stepfather.

Although the family's life within their two-room cellar apartment was dismal and poverty-stricken, Mary realizes she at least had a place to stay and food to eat. She walks the streets, full of fear for her future.

Then Mary meets Doll Higgins, a slightly older, but much more worldly, prostitute. Doll takes Mary in, both physically and emotionally, teaching Mary how to get along in rough London. She also teaches Mary that she's got something every man will pay to get, and if she plays her hand correctly, she'll be living the most wonderful life imaginable.

Although Mary and Doll do have their wonderful times together, Mary learns that nothing comes without its price. Soon, she's alone again, and running for her life. Desperately, Mary recalls her mother's stories about growing up in a tiny village far from London, and decides to flee.

Once in Monmouth, Mary arrives at the home of her mother's childhood friend Jane Jones, now a dressmaker. She feeds the family a sad story about her mother's deathbed desire for the Joneses to take her only child in as an apprentice, and full of pity for the young girl, they do just that.

Life as a humble, underpaid servant, of course, is a far cry from the rich life to which Mary became accustomed with Doll. Still, there is a certain pleasure in the opportunity to recreate one's entire existence from a blank slate, which Mary is presented within the tiny community.

But, as Mary discovers, it's hard to get away from one's old vices...even if they threaten to destroy your entire life.

"Slammerkin" by Emma Donoghue is one of the finest historical novels I have ever had the privilege to read, and one of the best novels in any category I have read in years.

A number of reviewers here have commented that this is dark, difficult and sometimes unpleasant story -- if what you want in a novel is a cute, cheerful story about romance and happy endings, I can direct you to the shelf with the Harlequins.

"Slammerkin" is real, brilliant, authentic and cuts to the bone. This is real history, the history of millions of voiceless women over the centuries, who have lived lives of danger, hunger, fear and oppression. It is a mistake to lump this with "politically correct" fiction which attempts to re-write history in order to make it more acceptable or appealing to our modern day consciousness. On the contrary, "Slammerkin" looks at real life coldly and deliberately and without the slightest accomodation or sanitizing to show us what life was really like -- not pretty, not sweet....no Prince Charming's or Mr. Darcy's to sweep us off our feet and whisk us away to lives of wealth and ease.

At the same time, this is a riveting and spellbinding story....both a horror story and an "anti-romance", telling the tale of a teenage girl, Mary Saunders, who is raped, impregnated and given the clap when she is little more than child, then thrown out on the streets by her own desperately poor mother to fend for herself. Having been "ruined" (by the standards of the day), she is forced into a life of prostitution, a life where she is constant danger from the men she services, near starvation and the ever present possibility of dying from a number of causes, including simply freezing to death from lack of shelter. The only pleasure she has in life are the beautiful clothes she craves so badly, a desire that eventually leads her to commit murder and face execution at the age of 16.

"Slammerkin" is like a bucket of ice cold water thrown in the face of every half-assed, simpering romantic novel that I have ever read, in a long life of reading novels. Despite the frankness of language and sex scenes (utterly deglamorized), I would recommend this for readers even as young as 14, as this kind of important and meaningful book should not be missed by any serious reader.

I'd like to add this is one of the very few books in any genre I have ever read that dealt openly and honestly with the intense love, even addiction that women can feel for beautiful clothing. Is Mary's intense craving for beauty and dresses the least bit different than any woman today who desperately wants things like Prada dresses, Kate Spade handbags or Manolo Blahnik shoes, and who is willing to do anything it takes (go into debt, work two jobs, marry a rich man) in order to obtain these things? I think the answer is clearly "no".

The purpose of literature is not just to pass the time, or be mildly and forgettably "enjoyable" -- the purpose of literature to slap you upside the head, make you think....think about things that perhaps you never even considered before. By that standard, this is an absolutely superb and outstanding achievement. Ms. Donoghue is to be commended, and I hope she receives the kind of literary acclaim that this sort of achievement so richly deserves, especially in an era where idiotic "true life confessionals" based on complete lies are optioned off by movies, promoted by talk show hostesses, and earn undeserved millions.

Slammerkin is a spellbinding novel, there are many twists and turns that leave will leave the reader anxiously turning the pages for more. Donoghue, vividly sets the scene in London, where a young girl, Mary Saunders, was desperate for beauty, this beauty came at a very high cost.

From a ribbon, a rape, and the selling of a body and soul, Slammerkin is more than the story of a prostitute. It is the story of seeking self-freedom and liberty. It is about the choices that we make and their life-long impact.

Mary Saunders, a young girl of fifteen, attempted to leave the trade. She conspired and found a family, one she thought she would not love, she was wrong. Here is where Mary's story begins and the slow destruction that was to follow in Mary's path.

Slammerkin is a novel to savour and share. It is both lively and horrific. I would highly recommend Slammerkin.

Mary Saunders is a young girl who yearns after pretty things. She offers a ribbon vendor a kiss in exchange for a scarlet ribbon, but the vendor takes the kiss further.

Mary is now pregnant. Her mother throws her out when she begins to show, so Mary takes to the streets of 18th century London where she is brutally beaten and gang-raped, then saved by a prostitute who nurses her back to health. With no other options, Mary becomes a prostitute herself.

Mary has her chance at redemption, and you can't help but cheer her on. You also can't help but groan outloud and get angry at some of the choices she makes throughout the story.

While I had to admit the writing was excellent, I had the same sense of recoil while reading Slammerkin that I had while reading Lolita. Descriptions can be graphic, and I couldn't get the picture of a 14-year-old girl out of my mind. So, those with a weak stomach or who are looking for a happy ending should probably avoid this book.

For the rest, enjoy it. The writing is really exceptional.

Slammerkin, a loose gown or in some cases a noun for a loose woman, was the perfect title for this historical fiction about Mary Saunders. Slammerkin is a novel about the dark part of society that haunted the streets and alleys of London during the 1700s which many works of historical fiction fail to mention. The reality of the lives of the characters was at times described in graphic detail and at times I found that I was revolted yet I was riveted by the realism which the details lent to the novel.

Slammerkin is the story of Mary Saunders and illustrates the harshness of life during the eighteenth century. Donoghue takes readers back in time to the streets of London where Mary, only fourteen at the time, finds herself after being thrown out of her house by her own mother. Mary is befriended by a veteran of the streets, Doll, who takes Mary in after finding her on the street without any trace of the few belongings she had left her mother's house with. Doll takes Mary under her wing and tutors her in the life of a street prostitute. Having no other way to eke out a living on the harsh streets of London, Mary becomes a street prostitute as well.

If you enjoy historical fiction the tragic tale of Mary Saunders in one that you will want to read. The details which Donoghue includes make the characters spring to life and I wouldn't let the graphic nature of this book deter you from picking it up. It is one that is hard to put down after beginning.