Paula Sharp
Auteur de Crows Over a Wheatfield
Œuvres de Paula Sharp
Oeuvres associées
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Sexe
- female
- Nationalité
- USA
- Lieux de résidence
- San Diego, California, USA
Ripon, Wisconsin, USA
New York, USA - Relations
- Sharp, Lesley (sister)
Membres
Critiques
Listes
Prix et récompenses
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Auteurs associés
Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 6
- Aussi par
- 2
- Membres
- 289
- Popularité
- #80,898
- Évaluation
- 3.6
- Critiques
- 6
- ISBN
- 13
Given the novel’s jacket copy and the events of the first section, it isn’t a surprise where things go. Mildred has to run and hide in the face of an unjust custody agreement and it was that whole process that I couldn’t take in. First it was too laden with detail. The judge, the lawyers, the law itself - all of it corrupt and biased against women. I know it is important to show how unjust it was and how much better (for the most part) it is now, but boy did it do my head in. The unfairness and the helplessness was so acute. After a while I just skipped to the next section that took up the action some 15 years after Mildred flees.
Once that was past me, I got caught up again. Melanie is the central character, but we don’t get to know her very well. Instead we get to know the situation she finds herself in and how conflicted she is about the law and how it deals with women, custody, divorce and children’s safety. Which is to say, in this book, it was biased all to the men in the cases no matter what they’d done to their kids or wives. Bruises, broken bones, terror, threats; none of it seemed to count no matter how “hard” the evidence. In some ways, things haven’t changed; women still have to show overwhelming proof they’ve been abused. Their word isn’t enough. It is when a man shows up to a police station saying he was mugged or his car was stolen. Oh sure, they believe him right away, but if a woman says a man did something foul to her she’s automatically suspected of lying.
It’s infuriating and so ingrained in our culture that I don’t know how to overcome it. That said, I enjoyed the book for the most part and thought it ended well albeit a little strangely. I would have liked Melanie’s distaste for her profession to come across a little stronger than it did. Because of that her decision to leave it instead of trying to change things for the better felt wrong. I did like that the women took action themselves though, Melanie and Mildred, and they didn’t have to be rescued by the good guys in the story.… (plus d'informations)