Member-only story
Book Review: Say Anarcha
Thank you, Henry Holt & Company and LibraryThing, for this free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Hallman, J. C. Say Anarcha: A Young Woman, a Devious Surgeon, and the Harrowing Birth of Modern Women’s Health. Henry Holt and Company, NY: June 6, 2023.
TW: slavery, rape, enslaved women treated like baby-making machines, graphic descriptions of medical problems, white male supremacists.
Excellent writing on a disturbing part of U. S. history.
In the introduction, the author describes this book as speculative nonfiction — meaning there is only so much information about Anarcha, so it’s not all absolute certainties. She’s not someone like Oscar Wilde, who left plenty of writing, including letters and manuscripts. With that in mind, it makes sense that this is speculative. Some historians might disapprove, but I like how the author imagines what Anarcha was thinking in certain situations.
A shower of meteors in 1833, when Anarcha was seven years old, helps set the stage. It was a bizarre occurrence that people didn’t understand at the time. The book describes what life was like for slaves in Alabama.
We follow the doctor J. Marion Simms through his childhood and youth. As a student, he — like his buddies — was a mediocre white male. He was also small, unremarkable, and an…