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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting premise, but somewhat disappointing, August 20, 2002
Being both a fiction writer and historian, Emma Donahue has compiled a book of short stories based on events and people she came across in her research. In many cases all she had to work with were one or two sentences, a name, or a rather fantastic story. So she took it upon herself to create the stories and characters that might be behind these brief bits of information. It's an interesting idea, and the actual writing is flowing and poetic, however, the majority of these stories ultimately disappointed me. Sometimes it's because her stories are a little too obvious, as with the title story. If you are going to write about a woman who is reported to have given birth to rabbits, and you want to give a logical explanation, a scam is about the only explanation you can come up with. THe only room for creativity is in why these folks decided to try it and how they came up with it, both of which I found to lack much depth. The greatest shortcoming, however, was in the length of the stories. When the main purpose is to develop a character behind a bit of news, it requires far more words. THese stories were more on the order of short shorts. Yet because they were based on actual events, the surprise endings and plot turns required to make a short short work, are not here. Therefore the reader is ultimately left unsatisfied and wondering why the story needed to be written in the first place. Oddly enough, the only story that appealed to me was the last one, Looking for Petronella. This story was quite a bit longer than the others and had more depth. The plot was also a lot more creative. It was almost as though the author needed to build her momentum to reach this point. All in all this is not a bad read, but nothing I need to keep on my bookshelf.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rabbit Tales, February 28, 2005
Such an amazing short story collection - Emma Donoghue's historic fiction is gorgeously written. As a historian, Donoghue has stumbled upon brilliant sotries of extraordinary women lost over time. These seventeen vivacious tales take us back through the last few centuries in England and Ireland, fleshing out personal accounts discovered through lost letters and archives.
The first story, "The Last Rabbit" is an excellent build up for the entire collection. Donoghue narrates the experiences of Mary Toft, who in the 1700's tricked her Irish town and half of London into believing that she could give birth to rabbits. While medical experts tried to desperately to disprove the hoax, Mary suffers the indignities of being a medical marvel, suffering embarrasing examinations from an assortment of "birth experts" and speculators. Her own comentary practically relates childbirth to a form of prostitution, which makes sense that in the last scene she discovers that she has been taken to a brothel to give birth to her rabbits. Marriage, childbirth and the historical low status of women take up most of the storylines. In "Acts of Union", a syphallis infected soldier is tricked into marrying an apothecary's spinster-niece. Though the soldier certainly sees himself a victim, his bride seems to have settled for worse, but is left knowing that this is her only opportunity to marry.
There is a certain richness to Donoghue's writing, dealing with religious and social misogyny. Her heroines are strangely tough, vulgar and sometimes shrewd, but there is a undeniable dignity to them. Later characters include a cult leader, a wheel-chair bound woman who leads rescue teams for drowning sailors and a pregnant countess convinced that she'll die during childbirth. One added bonus is that each chapter includes the historic contents of the protagonists, lists the articles and letters that the author used in her research. Not only are the stories based on some reality, but they feel very real. You can not doubt that you have learned something.
THE WOMAN WHO GAVE BIRTH TO RABBITS is an amazing piece of literature. Historical fiction has never been a big interest of mine, but Emma Donoghue has changed that with this one book.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
If you ever wondered..., February 5, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits: Stories (Paperback)
...what the lives of others were like, the others being those figures in history you may have heard or read about, or perhaps just a no-name other, then this is the book for you. Ms. Donoghue finds snippets of information about historical women and crafts a little larger snippet of life for them. The stories are not long, and I feel justifiably so. These are just tastes, just notions of what life might have been like. They are dreams, creations on a whim to explain the life of a woman so very long ago in England. Ms. Donoghue's writing is wonderful. It has a musical quality, shows its humor and tenderness, greed and hesitation. Her imagination is rich and deep, and her research astounding for such small stories. This is a thoroughly enjoyable book that I would easily recommend.
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