Rebellious Women

BOOKS WATCH-I love to read, particularly non-fiction, but when I take a foray into fiction, I prefer historical fiction.  Hence, when I was introduced to William Klaber’s novel, The Rebellion of Lucy Ann Lobdell,which delves into the real life of a female pioneer of the nineteenth century, I was excited to be part of her adventure.  

Lucy (or Joseph), the real-life protagonist, is more than an adventurer into the West (as far as Minnesota from her beginnings in New York).  She was the epitome of the independent, self-willed, self-reliant woman—an educated person, a free thinker, a teacher, a musician (expert on the violin through which she often was able to support herself). 

Rebellion is an easy read although the dialogue comes across on occasion as being somewhat inauthentic—sometimes ringing not quite true.  Nevertheless, there are no passages of gratuitous violence or sex.  This book might have been suitable for middle and high school readers except that there are scenes that might make some parents go ballistic over portions that allow the reader to peek over the precipice of eroticism.  As a teacher by profession, I can just hear parents and community members hitting the ceiling over anything that might suggest “mature” content. 

On the other hand, Klaber’s utilization of vivid metaphor is striking—not every writer can achieve such visual poetry.  He is able to accomplish what Joseph Conrad professed to be the job  of the good writer:  to make the reader hear, feel, see, taste, and touch.  Klaber, without question, performed that task to a tee. 

The book is beautifully written with awesome metaphorical images.  One finds oneself, not a reader looking in, but immediately a part of the story--sharing thoughts and feelings with the protagonist. 

The first-person narrative is compelling.  After each page, one is eager (or anxious—as the case may be) for the next page to slide through one’s fingers. 

Some examples of these metaphors are as follows:

 “Her face, stern and still beautiful seemed like a doorway to a dark room” and “He had the look of left-over parts—his ears didn’t match and his nose was a dumpling.  And if you were a settler and his face a landscape, you might not homestead there because of its crooked places.  But . . . looking for somewhere to explore, . . . you might look forward to its glens and thickets and be sad if they were any other way.” 

Our history is replete with examples of not only racism but sexism and a multitude of other

–isms.  For a woman to dress like a man could place her behind bars.  To preach equality between the genders or to speak of wage equality and the inhuman living conditions for workers, to question the existence of God and her purpose and that he might not even exist, to suggest building a community where the inhabitants take care of each other (a god-forbidden socialist concept)--among so many others--could place the questioner in the insane asylum, to have personal property demolished and burned, to be cast out of a community and even tarred and feathered for so-called offenses to the morés of the time. 

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Rebellion contains countless examples of recurrent historical incidents, reminders of which just  might bring spasms of revulsion to the reader.  Klaber covers a number of thought-provoking themes throughout. 

There are numerous references to the consequences of anyone’s being accused of or actually suffering from mental illness.  However, for me, not enough of the narrative was devoted to covering this difficult issue. 

Lucy’s daughter, Helen, was “abused” (the preferred word at the time) by four young men who got away with it—little concern over the welfare and “natural” rights (as Jefferson might say) of girls and women.  Helen had been “beaten, stripped naked, abused, and then thrown into the Delaware River.  She’d been found the next morning, barely alive.”  Yet she got her personal, inner strength from her mother and was able to reconstruct her life and rise above what happened to her and eventually married and had children of her own, descendants of whom still live in Lucy’s early home in Basket Creek in upstate New York. 

Children were often adopted for unpaid labor and when other workers were paid, the salaries were almost always far too low.  Many, as well, were victims of unpaid labor where only meager shelter and pitiful food were provided. 

There was talk of women’s suffrage and the events at Saratoga Springs.  

There were also descriptions that can easily remind us of the McCarthyism that occurred almost a hundred years later.  It was during these nineteenth century decades that neighbor testified against neighbor to keep from being accused themselves of “dastardly” crimes—also a reminder of the earlier, infamous Salem Witchcraft testimonies.  The horrors of ignorance under the guise of adhering to religious mandates and imperatives produced cruel, callous, cold-blooded, heartless, sadistic, and appalling outcomes (have I used enough descriptives to get the idea across?). 

Klaber even makes reference to environmental mismanagement—a genuine precursor to so much that we are witnessing today.  “. . . The hillsides were stripped and covered with skinned logs.  The bark with its acid had value. . . .  It wasn’t worth the effort to haul them to the depot.  So there they lay and would lie till they rotted, which made it seem like murder.” 

Lucy (or Joseph—his preferred name for a long portion of her life) eventually found a genuine love in Marie Perry who stood by Lucy always.  They were able to marry when the judge thought they were man and woman.  

It had been a very long and torturous road for Lucy to arrive at the point when she could live (hopefully in peace) with her wife.  Prior to that, she faced constant traumatic challenges when she was propositioned by a man who thought she was a man; and at another time, propositioned by a woman who thought she was a man; and by a man who proposed, knowing that she was a woman and “no longer” a man, until, finally, finding a woman who truly loved her for who she genuinely was—woman to woman.  

That road was so fraught with obstacles for her (which would have been almost impossible even today for any—at least most--of us to overcome) that her very survival depended on her determination to live and to make a life for herself on her terms. 

Lucy and her wife were great readers and were inspired by the book written by Margaret Fuller entitled Woman in the Nineteenth Century [during a time when more women were beginning to get published (at first under a male name and finally under their own—think of George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) and Charlotte Brontë)]. 

 I was impressed by the following quote from Fuller: 

“Male and female represent the two sides of the great dualism.  But, in fact, they are perpetually passing into one another.  Fluid hardens to solid, sold rushes to fluid.  There is no wholly masculine man, no purely feminine woman.” 

The author offers a nice touch at the end of the book when he presents historical context and an interesting insight into Lucy’s genealogy, taking us from the real Lucy’s tragic life to that of her present-day descendants--with quite a serendipitous connection (more like kismet) between Mr. Klaber and the woman about whom he so sensitively and compassionately wrote.  

It is no accident or coincidence that William Klaber wrote this book.  It was “clearly” the intention of the real Lucy to have him do so, and what a wonderful job he did!   He did indeed right by her. 

I hope she knows what a legacy she has left for us and how grateful we should be for her having the strength and fortitude to face prejudice, hostility, outrageous physical and psychological abuse while laying a path for what is now a very relevant and pertinent issue.  She would be proud to know not only that her progeny survives but that she and others like her led the way to allowing men and women to be themselves and express who they are under the protection afforded to all of us by today’s and tomorrow’s laws. 

Hurray for the Lucys in our lives!! 

(Rosemary Jenkins is a Democratic activist and chair of the Northeast Valley Green Alliance. Jenkins has written A Quick-and-Easy Reference to Correct Grammar and Composition, Leticia in Her Wedding Dress and Other Poems, and Vignettes for Understanding Literary and Related Concepts.) 

-cw

 

 

CityWatch

Vol 13 Issue 40

Pub: May 15, 2015