Title: Hannah Fowler
Author: Janice Holt Giles
File Under: Historical Fiction, True Love, Spirited Woman
Age Group: Adolescent girls and up.
Sometimes I venture into the treacherous waters of marriage advice, but not often. As some other bloggy friends have noted, it does seem like as soon as you make a pronouncement, that's when you get into a fight with your husband! Not worth it! Whereas I have no three-year olds around to disasterize when I airily state a disciplinary principle.
I prefer to go about the whole question either abstractly or obliquely. The problem with the abstract approach is that a person brings her own context to the discussion. Lately I've been realizing that the very women who most want to scrutinize the ins and outs of relationships in a marriage, equality, leadership, and all that — are the spirited women! So by definition we agonize over how to express precisely what we mean, without letting go of what we see as the main feature of our character, and indeed probably the very thing our husbands admired in us in the first place.
After all, a person who is compliant by temperament probably needs a dose of get-up-and-go, not an endless parsing of what submission really means, mutual or otherwise.
No, it's the spirited woman who struggles with the whole concept.
So here I offer an oblique discussion: A book! I love this book. First, the author has an interesting story of her own, well worth reading. She also wrote 40 Acres and No Mule, about her life in the Appalachians with her husband, an introspective and strong man. Janice Holt Giles is one of those wonderful novelists of our country's pre-contemporary period (not acknowledged by later feminists and indeed unjustly ignored) — an educated, articulate, insightful woman who contributed to our literature and historical record.
In Hannah Fowler, Giles achieves a difficult task: making a simple (that is, non-intellectual and virtually silent) woman appealing and life-like. The book is one in her historical fiction series about Kentucky, but it definitely stands alone. It has a lot in it to satisfy all sorts of requirements in a story, including a kidnapping by Indians! But what I love is Hannah's independent spiritedness that she puts at the service of a strong and tender love. She is a paragon of what it means to submit to a manly man without losing one iota of your essential spark — in fact, finding fulfillment that you otherwise would know nothing about!
I think that this book, so valuable from so many perspectives, has its greatest value in its depiction of admirable married life. There are few stories that really satisfy in this regard. Most of them (Austen included) bring us right up to the gate but never let us see the race. I give this book to my daughters as they head off for marriage.
See what you think.
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For a good and complete list of children’s books, buy my friend Theresa’sA Mother’s List of Books.
For “The Thousand Good Books” see John Senior’s list, embedded in this excellent essay.
Christy Brown says
We are interested in having Leila Lawler or David Clayton speak at our Family Life Conference here in Columbia South Carolina , September 19-20, 2014. We realized it is last minute but we were wondering whom we should contact if it is a possibility. Thanks so much for what you do and your reply.
Katie P says
I have precisely that book, sans jacket and all, tucked on a shelf ! It’s inscribed from my husband’s great-grandmother to his grandmother (i.e. mother to daughter) and dated from a year when the latter would have been halfway through her child-rearing. The book came our way last year when my baby daughter was born; she is named for said (great-)great-grandmother. How nice to find our copy joining up with a parallel LMLD tradition. I started reading it while nursing, but alas, it fell aside in favor of another novel with pages that were less faded and easier to read by lamplight. =) You convince me it’s worth another shot. I’ve added it back in to my mental to-read list.
EC says
I own and have reread The Enduring Hills, Miss Willie, and Tara’s Healing many times, but I’ve not read any other books by Janice Holt Giles. I’ll have to check out Hannah Fowler at the library. I should also reread The Enduring Hills, since I’ve been reading WWII books this summer.
Kristin H. says
I just put a hold on this gem at our local library and was notified that the librarians will have to pull it out of storage. They’ve done this for us many other times. Oddly, these “book holds” trigger a sudden placement in the perpetual book sale a few weeks after we return it. Fine by us, of course! Thank for the recommendation!
Kathy@9peas says
I’m putting this on my library list. Thank you Leila!
Nancy says
Also putting this book on my list. Thank you!
Elizabeth W says
Dear Leila, thanks for this! In the category of books that “let us see the race,” have you ever read Georgette Heyer’s “A Civil Contract”? It’s set in the Napoleonic era, about a young nobleman who is forced by circumstance to break it off with his sweetheart and make a marriage of convenience with a bourgeois heiress. It is a profound meditation on the sacrament of marriage. A bit heartbreaking. Incredible historical detail.
Jill W says
I ordered a copy at your recommendation and loved it thoroughly! I love books about strong women who love and serve their families! I also found another favorite, Mama’s Bank Account, through a reference you made in another post- I loved it too. Can you think offhand of any other books that you have enjoyed that you might recommend about strong loving women?
Thanks for everything, and blessings for Sukie!
Jill W
Lauren says
I also ordered a copy of this at your recommendation and loved it! It was so encouraging right now especially as I have been feeling overwhelmed with some challenging circumstances along with homemaking, raising my four little ones, and planning for next year’s homeschool (Kindergarten and 1st grade! AHH!). The book was such a breath of fresh air and inspiration for me. Along with Jill, I was wondering if you had any other recommendations for books with women like this? I have read and loved “Mama’s Bank Account” and “Mother Carey’s Chickens” as well. Perhaps I should go re-read those!
You always encourage me! Thank you!
Sara says
I also checked it out from the Central Library of Atlanta (where are the good, old books are still collecting dust), and it was fabulous! I thoroughly enjoyed the story and found much to admire in the depiction of a marriage based, not on love, but on compatibility. Thanks for the review!
Sunny-Gem says
I really liked this post on Finer Feminity about Marriage is a Career. http://finerfem.wordpress.com/2014/06/24/marriage-is-a-career/
Nadine says
This was an awesome book. My teen girls and I loved it. What a great depiction of a strong woman/strong man combination.
My 16 year old commented on how the book was so much more tastefully written than what is done today. Much of the emotion was shown through the circumstances, and not laid out blow by blow to drag us through. We clearly feel her joy and her anguish, but we aren’t made to roll in it.
Leila says
Nadine, I so agree. As I was reading, I was thinking about how much a married woman could read into it, yet how innocent it is. A very earthy and realistic book, yet with no gory details!
Jeanne says
Almost finished with 40 Acres and No Mule………….what a great read! Thank you LMLD!
Teri Pittman says
Just found your blog so pardon the comment on an old thread! I love Janis Holt Giles. Hannah Fowler is one of my favorite books of all time. And The Believers sparked a life long interest in the Shakers (with another strong lead in Hannah’s daughter). Road to Santa Fe is good too. (And maybe Hannah Fowler is why I took up spinning and have a great wheel in the living room!) Edna Ferber is another good author that doesn’t get mentioned these days.
Forty Acres and No Mule has this chilling story about a young girl dying needlessly and the neighbors brushing the bed bugs off the body. There’s a review on Amazon by a 13 year old that read the book and called it the worst book she’d even read. How could a 13 year old have any notion of the lives the people in Appalachia led?
Jennifer says
Another book I’d put in this category is Joy in the Morning, by Betty Smith.
Christina A says
I just put Hannah Fowler on my goodreads shelf, and noticed it said “Kentuckians #2” next to the title. Do you know if any of the other books in the series are worth reading as well?
Leila says
I think I have read one other of the Kentucky novels. Giles is a good writer! The novels are set in different time periods from each other, as they are meant to span all of Kentucky’s history, so I think I wasn’t motivated by an overall story line to continue. But I may go back to it!
Christina A says
Thank you!
Samantha Webb says
I just finished reading Hannah Fowler. What a great book! Thank you for recommending it. I’ve added it to my list of books I’d like to own someday.