Sunday, January 13, 2008

Who Have the Power


Today is my friend Mary Sheeran's birthday. Tomorrow she goes into the studio to begin recording her first CD. Besides being a fabulous cabaret singer here in New York, she's also a terrific novelist. Check out Who Have the Power. It's a really involving book, and I would say that even if she weren't my friend. I loved the interweaving themes of feminism, mysticism and the soul of an artist in the story of Elisabeth Barclay, a young musician and suffragist in 1866 whose life is radically changed when she finds out she is part Indian and must leave her privileged life in a New England boarding school to live in the primitive west of that era. I kept thinking what a great movie it would make.

Reviewers have called the book “fascinating,” “poetic,” and “magical” and I agree. I was taken by the character of Elisabeth, touched by the sadness of lost history and ultimately cheered by the persistent power of the imaginative life. This would be a good read for a cold winter night.

Happy Birthday, Mary!

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