My mom recommended the book to me and I put it off for a while because it’s a mammoth and outside my preferred genres, but alas I recently started it.
Im about 70 pages in, and to be honest I am shocked that there hasn’t been more conversation related to the child marriage.
I understand the book is historical fiction, and child marriage was very common during that period, and I have no qualms with the story depicting the marriage. But my problem is how heavily it was romanticized.
This 12 year old girl gets married off to a 45 year old man who is depicted as being this outstandingly kind guy. He patiently waited until she turned 16 to lead her to his room for their consummation. Mind you this man has been raising her from the age of 12. The author goes into some detail of the event and how she feels during it. I cringed.
The girl in the book has nothing but love and admiration for this guy. She talks about how handsome he is and how attracted she is to him. The dude is 50 by this time. Again, she’s 16 and couldn’t be more excited to be his wife and dispatch her wifely duties.
I’m just… really put off by how it’s being represented as this great successful thing. It seems like a revisionist history. The whole thing made me side eye the author a bit, who is a male also up there in age. But it seems I’m alone in this feeling. The reviews were raving and my mom said “at least he was a nice guy”
by LivingGrab9298