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Book Review: Rain Dodging
Godwin, Susan J. Rain Dodging: A Scholar’s Romp Through Britain in Search of a Stuart Queen. To be published by She Writes Press on October 17, 2023.
TW: Verbal and physical abuse, attempted rape (in the book, not my review).
Thank you, Susan J. Godwin and She Writes Press, for the ebook galley via Publishers Weekly’s Grab-a-Galley.
This is a fascinating memoir of traveling in the UK while researching for a paper on Queen Mary of Modena and her court of women writers in the seventeenth century, a time when women were discouraged from writing or otherwise acting like… people.
The book features rich details about place — Oxford and the other places she visits for research, the bed & breakfast, local businesses (including restaurants) — architecture and all. The writing style is fun, humorous, and conversational — not dry and academic. Leave that for the actual research paper. But it includes fascinating historical facts. The author sees a gorgeous piece of architecture and mentions a historical event connected to it. I relish moments like this.
The memoir aspects of the book aren’t only about the trip — it includes flashbacks to various events, including traumatic memories of her abusive mother, harassment from POS men, and abusive boyfriends.