Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian – 400 pages and Audio
ARC from Doubleday and Netgalley for an honest review.
Book Blurb:
Boston, 1662. Mary Deerfield is twenty-four-years-old. Her skin is porcelain, her eyes delft blue, and in England she might have had many suitors. But here in the New World, amid this community of saints, Mary is the second wife of Thomas Deerfield, a man as cruel as he is powerful. When Thomas, prone to drunken rage, drives a three-tined fork into the back of Mary’s hand, she resolves that she must divorce him to save her life. But in a world where every neighbor is watching for signs of the devil, a woman like Mary–a woman who harbors secret desires and finds it difficult to tolerate the brazen hypocrisy of so many men in the colony–soon finds herself the object of suspicion and rumor. When tainted objects are discovered buried in Mary’s garden, when a boy she has treated with herbs and simples dies, and when their servant girl runs screaming in fright from her home, Mary must fight to not only escape her marriage, but also the gallows.
My Review: 4 stars
Hour of the Witch was an engaging historical fiction novel that kept me invested from start to finish. This is one that I read while at home and listened to while driving. The narrator’s voice and cadence stayed with me while reading, which was an added bonus.
What amazed me most about this book was Bohjalian’s grasp of early modern English. It read effortlessly, which can only happen by writing it correctly. The use of thee, thou, thy, etc. took a minute to get used to, but once it did, it felt like nothing short of normal. Of course, the story was good too. I’ve always been fascinated by the witch trials in Salem, but this story takes place years before then, when the Puritans arrived from England.
Mary Deerfield was a character to root for. She was the second wife to an older, handsome man who verbally and physically abused her. The torment was done behind closed doors, so she was left to suffer in silence. When her father imports forks from London, all hell breaks loose (pun not intended) as they were a three-tined utensil, surely a sign of the devil. After her husband stabs her palm repeatedly with the fork, she decided she will divorce him. As you can imagine, in the mid 1600s, divorce was highly unusual and never instigated by a woman.
As we follow Mary’s day to day regarding her upcoming trial, we are also plagued by a mystery regarding someone burying these three-tined forks in her land. She also finds a pestle and later some other devilish markings on her property. Someone is trying to set her up for witchcraft and when we learn who it is, it makes for a satisfying ending.
There was much to compare from the 1660s to current day, that sadly has not changed. Weak men continue to vilify smart women. Women’s voices were curtailed and once married, were often to become nothing more than breeders, thus barrenness, could also be the sign of witchcraft. This book would make for a wonderful book club discussion. Highly recommend.
Quotes I liked:
I have heard it argued that prayer does not change God’s mind; rather, it changes us. The act. Yes, the act. I will ponder that idea.”
“She was sent to the scaffold because she had a sharper tongue and a shrewder mind than her accusers. It is always the case when men hang women.”
“She contemplated a mystery: How is it I am humiliated when I am alone? Does not humiliation demand an audience?”
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