Ms. Hen reviews Red Clocks

Red Clocks

Leni Zumas

Back Bay Books/ Little, Brown

2018

Ms. Hen read about this novel a while ago, and at first she didn't want to read it, because it's about how difficult it is to be a woman, and Ms. Hen already knows that. It's described as being similar to THE HANDMAID'S TALE, and it is, but it takes place in the very near, realistic future. Ms. Hen thinks it might be almost too realistic.

This novel is about women who live in a small town on the coast of Oregon. A biographer, a mother, a daughter, and a mender enter the novel and it's revealed that the biographer desires a child, but is not married, and is in her early forties, the mother is unhappy in motherhood, the daughter finds herself with an unwanted pregnancy, and the mender tries to heal people, lives in the woods, and shuns comforts and company.

The lives of the four women intertwine, and they want different things. The biographer is resentful of the mother's children, and her life. The daughter wants to have an abortion, but abortion is illegal in the United States. 

In vitro fertilization, and adoption by single people are also illegal. If a woman wants to go to Canada to have an abortion, she is arrested with a possible jail sentence. If a woman has an abortion, she can go to jail, and if someone performs an abortion, that person can also be arrested with possible jail time.

Ms. Hen was entranced by this novel. Not only is the writing exquisite, the characters and their lives were so realistic, Ms. Hen thinks that they are people she could know. She loved all the characters, but was especially interested in the Mender, because she is so strange. Ms. Hen doesn't know anyone like that, but she imagines there are people like her. Hermits, who stay away from people, prefer animals, don't like artificial food or fabrics, and know ways to heal with herbs.

Ms. Hen breezed through this novel. She thinks it might be one of the best books she read this year. She thinks it's important, because it looks at all the stages of being a woman, and how the different characters handle their lives. Reality can be a difficult thing to handle, and most of the time, Ms. Hen does not like to face it. She reads her books and looks at the trees, and the world keeps going on. The birds still sing in the spring, and always have.