3 books tell tales of women not conforming to society

Mary Sharratt’s masterful new historical fiction is set in the 15th century, a time when there was a papal schism, lessening of the Black Plague and the beginnings of the Hundred Years War — a time when the majority of people could not read and women certainly did not write books.

Margery Kempe had visions after her first child was born, seeing demons all around her. Seeking spiritual help, Margery turned to Julian of Norwich, a walled-in anchoress, mystic and teacher who had a series of 16 visions in 1373. She wrote about those visions in “Revelations of Divine Love,” thought to be the earliest surviving book written in English by a woman. Julian stretched out her arms through the small window of her cell and welcomed the tired and confused mother. The women bonded, and Julian confessed she had written a book. When she learned Margery was taking a trip to the Holy Land as a pilgrim, she asked her new friend to smuggle her book’s manuscript out of the country hidden inside her pilgrim’s staff.

So begins the adventures of Margery, who narrates “Revelations.” Breaking just about every rule of being a “good wife,” she leaves her five living children, including an infant, dons a white gown and sets out for Jerusalem. After her journey, Margery cared for her sick husband and eventually wrote “The Book of Margery Kempe,” the first autobiography in the English language.

Besides bringing to life the sounds, smells and colors of medieval times, as seen through Margery’s eyes, Sharratt is at her best when she’s imagining the vivid visions of Dame Julian and Margery, both of whom see God as much a mother as a father.

Sharratt is the author of seven novels including “Summit Avenue.”

“Waterfall” takes place in 1922, after women have won the right to vote, and focuses on privileged, 21-year-old Trinity Baird. Although Trinity is a talented painter who’s been accepted to the Sorbonne in Paris, she has pushed the boundaries of what her stern mother considers proper behavior, and her parents sent her away to Oak Hills Asylum. After two years at a place where she has no freedom, Trinity returns to her family’s island summer home with shattered self-confidence and still no freedom.

Under the unnerving eyes of her mother, Trinity is desperate to get off the beautiful island she loves. But even though she is surrounded by luxury, she has no personal money to take her to Paris.

When Trinity’s mother speaks sharply to the staff and family, Trinity sees the woman with new eyes and realizes her mom is addicted to laudanum, a narcotic in medication many women took for their nerves. That’s the beginning of Trinity’s unraveling of family secrets. Why is her mother so uptight? Why did her dad name his big yacht after her when she has two sisters? How could her father send a young colleague away just because he’s Jewish. Most of all, why did her parents send her to the asylum?

As in Casanova’s previous Rainy Lake novels, the characters are all based on real people, with names changed, except for Sinclair Lewis, who wrote for a time in a bizarre teepee built by a woman on another island.

Casanova has written 39 books.

(Minnesota Historical Society Press, $18.95)

On Dec. 31, 1960, Kim Heikkila’s mother, Sharon, entered the Salvation Army’s Booth Memorial Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota. A tall young woman, so attractive she was in beauty contests, she became a “Booth girl” who would give up for adoption the daughter she gave birth to on Jan. 6, 1961.

Kim Heikkila, a historian, knew about her mother’s other daughter, but she had lots of questions that weren’t answered when her mother died.

Her book weaves together her mom’s prolific writing, interviews with former Booth girls and her research into the 75-year history of Booth Memorial. She tells a double story of her mother’s pregnancy and her own struggles to get pregnant. After unsuccessful treatments, she and her husband adopted son Tu from Vietnam.

The shame surrounding unwed mothers in the 1950s and early ’60s (“what will people say”) enveloped Sharon, who spent five months hidden away in the upstairs bedroom of her parents’ home before she went to Booth.

Heikkila’s research into Booth Memorial is especially interesting because it shows the change in attitudes toward unwed mothers.

Heikkila, an independent scholar and president of Spotlight Oral History, seamlessly moves between her mother’s story and her own, and those of the young women at Booth who played cards, mopped floors, made brief friendships, entered the hospital room with no preparation for labor or delivery, and usually left within weeks of giving up their babies.

Their talk sometimes turned to anger at the double standard that sent them into hiding while the fathers went about their lives unscathed.