The Real Minerva

by Mary Sharratt

Book Overview

Minerva, Minnesota, in 1923 is the picture of Willa Cather-like gentility: the Northern Pacific Railway runs through a town center dominated by church steeples and the Hamilton Creamery and Pop Factory. But Minerva is also a small town of limited opportunity, a place where the status quo is firmly entrenched and rigidly enforced. Against this tableau of midwestern placidity and calm, three Minerva women assert their dignity and independence against...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618618880
• ISBN13: 9780618618880
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A Real Book, for Real Readers

The Real Minerva is just that--a real book. Not pretentious, not attempting to ride the trends, not obsessed with overblown language solely for the glory of its author. Not an unreadable creation for people who want to impress their peers by waving around a copy of the latest, hot-for-no-good-reason literary novel. It is, instead, a story as unforgettable as any fairy tale we heard as children, peopled with characters who not only come immediately to life--they come to live with you. It is a lovely, satisfying story which reminds us that suspense--wanting to know what happens next and being unable to put down the book--doesn't depend upon noisy, gimics. Mary Sharratt's voice is uniquely her own, yet her work resonates with the marvelously old-fashioned quality of good storytelling. There is not a wasted word here, and you'll find yourself rereading passages, not because you didn't understand, but because the language is so lovely, in such an understated way--like a perfect little black dress. Don't miss this one!

An absorbing story

Having read Mary Sharratt's first book, Summit Avenue, I expected strong female characters--what amazed me was how different, how individual the heroines of The Real Minerva were. How unique this second novel is--it shows new aspects of life as a woman in the beginning of the 20th century, the hardships they face, the decisions they make. Cora, Penelope and Barbara are brave, complex characters, surrounded by a cast of well drawn secondary characters; Irene, Mr Hamilton, the town gossips, Dr Lovell, all are real, breathing people. The Real Minerva has a rich, compelling plot that keeps you reading. Sharratt has managed to write suspense on every page, with careful word choice and precise use of metaphor. She depicts so many fascinating characters, scenes and events without using one word more than necessary, something few authors manage to do. And she has fun with subtle literary allusions and entertaining coincidences. Overall an excellent book, heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time, and great fun to read. I can't wait for Sharratt's next novel.

I could go on

One day I'd like to drink wine from acorn cups with Mary Sharratt. I absolutely love this novel. The storyline was compelling, with just the right balance of suspense and lyricism. The characters were marvelously well-drawn, full and deep. And what I admire is that she manages to include so many people, bringing them all to life. Even minor characters like the Mexicans, Mrs. Hamilton, Irene's sisters, Mrs. Ellison, Dr. Lovell, and on and on. It's a full cast. The language was spot on for the place and time, very rich with imagery, food, aromas, and associative (and thematically persistent) literary/artistic references (Emerson, The Odyssey, Great Expectations...) I appreciate that she maintains what is becoming a sort of signature style for her, with the myths and legends and wive's tales and oral narratives and ballads woven throughout. Plus, what I really admire, is that she introduces a new element to it as well with the piano and singing (I love Mexican corridos and cancions) and music, whereas in "Summit Avenue," her previous novel, it was mainly books. Her metaphors are as gorgeous and telling as ever - the sweat dripping down their faces like snail tracks in the powder and rouge, the obedient little wind-up dolls, dutiful soldier, the iron pump that brayed like a donkey - to name just a few that stuck with me. She really handles backstory (Cora's, Barbara's) well. The themes were interesting and thought-provoking. It moved along but kept me thinking on another plane at all times. It plays with the issue of identity and gender roles in so many different ways, reminding me in a good way of Louise Erdrich's last novel. SPOILIER THAN THOU ALERT ----------- And there were so many wonderful parallels and circles: Mrs. La Plant and Mrs. Deal in the beginning in Renfew's operating like a Greek chorus with their gossip, and then again at the end; Penny's shapeshifting after the murder a la Cora's shapeshifting; Father Bughola's homilies - and then he ends up knocking that woman up in the end (HA!); the way Penny is begging for her mother to come back just as her mother was begging for her to come back earlier, the way she got her first menstrual period at the same time she kills Cora's husband, the way the 13-year-old Phoebe in Mexico is faced with the same dillema with Penny as Penny was faced with in front of the cabin when Jacob and Cora's husband showed up out of nowhere... ------------------ END OF SPOILIER THAN THOU ALERT (Oh, and she just had to get a cow in there, didn't she?) Other fondlynoteds: The Houdini tie-in was crafty. I like Dr Lovell. I'm glad she included a fairly decent man, even though he is not entirely without fault either. She was very realistic with him. He is a product of that time and place, but seems to be kindlier than just about everyone else in Minerva. That 'Gallery of Love' scene. Hee. The little wooden flying bird milagro. The nine geese dream. "Father's wedding ring glinted in the weak sunlig

A beautifully written, quietly suspenseful novel

Life in 1920's Minerva, Minnesota--the fictional town in which the action of Mary Sharratt's The Real Minerva unfolds--is hard on those who are not fortune's favorites. Teen-aged girls mooning over matinee idols turn quickly into hardened farm wives with work-ravaged hands and too many children. But more onerous than the simple demands of survival in a difficult environment are the constraints imposed by the small town's repressive society, whose members abhor and squelch diversity and police behavior with vicious gossip and shaming. The three women on whom Sharratt's quietly suspenseful novel focuses are each eager to be free of the confinements imposed on them from without, to shed their identities and become reborn, to have possibilities open before them. Of the three, former Chicago society matron Cora Egan has largely succeeded in shedding her past by the time the novel begins. Having fled, pregnant, from her abusive husband, Cora settled on her grandfather's farm, which she now operates by herself, doing men's work while dressed in men's clothing. Since she has elected to live outside the roles prescribed by society for women, Cora is despised and feared in Minerva--a situation which has the potential to make her life not only lonely but dangerous. Cora is joined on the farm eventually by fifteen-year-old Penny Niebeck, who is herself fleeing the shameful behavior of her mother--an affair with a married man--which threatens to render them both outcasts. Together Cora and Penny raise Cora's infant daughter, working hard but happily--an idyllic period that readers will constantly sense is threatened by the potential re-appearance of the baby's abusive father. Mary Sharratt's novel is about repression and rebirth and heroism, about the difficulty of simple living in early 20th-century, rural America, about the relationship between parents and children and the nearly insuperable obstacles that can rise up between people incapable of communicating. And it is about how a life's course can be altered irrevocably by a handful of choices. Despite the weight of the book's subject matter and the casual cruelty and violence it depicts (but does not wallow in), the story Sharratt tells is ultimately uplifting. Her heroines persevere and finally survive, scarred but strengthened by adversity, adopting in their different ways the strategies exemplified by the characters of Athena (whose Roman counterpart, Minerva, lends her name to the characters' home town) and Penelope in Homer's Odyssey. (Throughout much of The Real Minerva Penny is in the course of reading the epic, and Sharratt weaves the stories of Athena and Penelope lightly into her narrative. My one complaint about Sharratt's novel is that her Odyssean references sometimes struck me as forced.) The Real Minerva is a rich, beautifully written novel, and it is highly recommended. Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece

Superb novel in the finest-kind category

I read this novel in a single afternoon, utterly paralyzed by the consuming story. It's a wonderfully satisfying novel, descriptively rich but spare of conventional sentiment whilst achieving a holistic view. If you liked Kent Haruf's "Plainsong," then you are certain to be mesmerized by Sharratt's "The Real Minerva." And, if you hated the Haruf, you still should read the Sharratt. Life in small-town in Minnesota was, of course, surfeit with gossip, hidden drama and repressed sensibilities. Sharratt's novel captures all of this but rather more in their grandure than their conventional tawdriness. Minerva is the most alive small town I know -- fictional or otherwise. The protagonists in this book will win your heart but not through cheap sentiment.