Reading Hillary Jordan’s new masterpiece When She Woke is much like reading Hawthorne’s classic The Scarlet Letter at the same time as The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood…..a great mixture, huh?
When I read Jordan’s first novel Mudbound in 2008, I was mesmerized by her description of the Mississippi Delta during the horrible sharecropping years. She is really, really good with setting and creates specific images which remain in your mind for years to come. I can even remember scenes from Mudbound and how I felt while experiencing the anguish of the character, particularly the female protagonist.
In fact, as I write this, I am thinking about the similarities between the female protagonist in Mudbound compared to the female protagonist in the new When She Woke. The same comparison I would make between the female character in A Handmaid’s Tale with the female protagonist in When She Woke.
Set in some futurist society, probably the mid 21st century (yes, this novel is a dystopia), When She Woke follows the life of Hannah who has had an affair with a super fundamentalist preacher named Reverend Dale, who, of course, is not what his followers think he is: perfect in morals and aspirations and examples of the Godly life. Since I have already compared this novel to A Scarlet Letter, one can already surmise that Hannah is impregnated by Reverend Dale, so she is forced to have an abortion, a HUGE “no-no” in this dystopic world, which in this way, may not be too far ahead in our early years of the 2000s.
Because the prisons have been hugely overcrowded, the current government has decided to “mark” or “color” people for their crimes against society, in order to clear the prison. So, being “red” means a woman had an unlawful abortion in some back room, or being “yellow” means a man committed rape. Hence, all colors of humanity walk the streets of any given city, marking these sinners as wayward, or evil, or despicable, and to be avoided. To say this novel is a comment upon prejudice or inequality or bias is an understatement!
Hannah does not tell anyone, including the father of her baby, Reverend Dale, that she is pregnant. She arranges her own abortion, and when spied upon and caught by spies for the government and indeed sent to prison, she refuses to incriminate, not only the father, partially because her parents and sister worship him, as well as everyone she knows in her Quaker like previous existence, but also the abortionist. Once she serves her time in prison and her skin is infused with “red”, she is released.
Hannah’s new life begins in a dogmatic boarding house where she is forced to make her own “baby doll” representing her lost baby, name it, and care for it as if it were alive. Shivers and repulsion and sympathy, and a myriad of emotions flood the reader at this point! One can see Hillary Jordan’s talent here at its best, in my opinion.
As the reader follows Hannah’s flee from this horrific cult like religious boarding house, through her numerous skirmishes through the underground network of her rescuers, some to be trusted, some not, the reader altruistically experiences the hopes, disappointments, fear, and repulsion of Hannah.
I am not going to tell whether Hannah survives or not, for the reader needs to experience this novel first hand. To say that most of us here at Lemuria, who read this enticing novel, could not “put it down” is another understatement. It is fast paced and mesmerizing. When She Woke will probably be chosen as one of the best novels of the year. I know it is one of mine!
When She Woke by Hillary Jordan (Workman, October 2011)
-Nan
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