Prairie Fox Reads

  Madame Restell : Who Gets to Control Women’s Health? Some historical figures survive in the record as people; others survive as warnings. Madame Restell was made into a warning—a name invoked to represent female criminality, sexual disorder, medical danger, and the supposed consequences of allowing women too much independence. In Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York’s Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist , Jennifer Wright asks readers to look behind that manufactured infamy. What emerges is not a saint, nor quite the unblemished heroine suggested by the book’s exuberant subtitle, but a formidable and complicated woman operating in a society that needed her services while publicly condemning her for providing them. This is a biography, but it is also an argument about power: who possesses it, how institutions protect it, and whose knowledge is recognized as legitimate. Wright presents Ann Trow Lohman—better known as Madame Restell—as a sel...

  Kirsten Miller William Morrow, 2022 (Hardcover edition) 470 pages Disclosure: This review is based on a close reading of the text and publicly available bibliographic information. It evaluates narrative structure, characterization of midlife women, interplay of genre elements (mystery, magical realism, thriller), thematic treatment of aging and empowerment, and pacing.   Overview Kirsten Miller’s The Change is a genre‑blending novel that places middle‑aged women at the center of a supernatural mystery and a social reckoning. Set in the Long Island oceanfront community of Mattauk, the book follows Nessa, Harriett, and Jo—three women navigating the upheavals of midlife—who each develop uncanny abilities tied to menopause, grief, and long‑repressed rage. When a teenage girl’s abandoned body is discovered, the trio refuses the official dismissal of the death, forcing them into an investigation that uncovers further violence and entrenched privilege. The novel uses elements of m...

  Jessica George St. Martin’s Press, 2023 (Hardcover edition) 320 pages ISBN: (Hardcover edition published January 31, 2023) Disclosure: This review is based on a close reading of the text and public bibliographic information. No review copy was provided. The appraisal aims to be impartial and focused on craft, themes, and cultural resonance.   Overview Jessica George’s debut novel Maame follows Maddie, a British-Ghanaian woman navigating caregiving duties, workplace microaggressions, and the risky business of starting a life for herself. When her mother returns to Ghana, Maddie seizes a window of autonomy: she moves into a flatshare, experiments with dating, presses for advancement at work, and attempts to claim pleasure and independence after years of parental responsibility. George blends sharp humor with emotional gravity to explore duty, diaspora identity, grief, and the cost—and necessity—of self-invention. The novel’s strengths lie in its empathetic lead, crisp comic t...

  Paulo Coelho; translated by Margaret Jull Costa Harper Perennial, 2008 (Paperback edition) 261 pages Disclosure: This review is based on a close reading of the text and publicly available bibliographic information. It assesses narrative structure and voice, thematic engagement with spirituality and identity, characterization, cultural framing, and the novel’s place within Coelho’s oeuvre and contemporary spiritual fiction.   Overview Paulo Coelho’s The Witch of Portobello is an interlinked, polyphonic novel that explores the life and legacy of Athena—born Aldo, later known as Sherine, and ultimately called Athena—a woman whose spirituality, charisma, and unorthodox practices polarize those around her. Told through the testimonies of friends, lovers, colleagues, and strangers, the book asks how one becomes true to an inner calling in a world of competing expectations and how society interprets and reacts to a woman who defies categorization. Coelho mixes elements of autobiogr...