Title - The Lost Sisterhood
Author - Anne Fortier
Summary - (SPOILERS)
"..Thank you, Dr. Morgan. I am gratified to discover that I am no longer the most antiquated scholar at Oxford. For your sake I hope the academy will one day come to need feminism again; the rest of us, I am relieved to say, have long since moved along and buried the old battle-ax..."
Diana Morgan has an obsession. A belief ingrained in her by countless tales told to her by her grandmother. A faith that the Amazons of legend did exist and not only did they exist, but that she will find archaeological proof of such an existence. Unfortunately she is also very alone among her colleagues in such a belief and finds her career stalled often for it.
Until one afternoon after a lecture she has given, she is propositioned by a strange man. Propositioned to fly across the world to decipher a text; in a language she has seen only once before. In a tattered old notebook written in by her grandmother. The very grandmother who has disappeared but left in Diana, the tales of the Amazons.
Parallel to the tale of Diana is the tale of Myrina. A young girl who along with her younger sister finds herself outcast from her village. A disease has attacked the village and Myrina's mother, whose faith in herbs and potions finds herself the scapegoat in the villagers fears. Myrina takes her sister to the city of the Goddess to seek refuge and there joins with the Sisterhood of the Goddess.
But such safety does not last as the Temple is sacked and the Sisterhood is taken into slavery or killed. The attackers, Greek pirates led by the son of King Agamemnon have taken Myrina's sister captive.
"..If there exists a land without men," replied Myrina, glancing at her sisters, "we above all should like to know where it is. As you can surely see, we have suffered much, and expect to suffer more, for this world of ships and journeys has not been kind to us." She bent her head as images of the temple raiders passed before her eyes. "Happiness has long since run its course in us. We are now to choose between danger and regret, neither of which can ever restore the lives we have lost..."
"..To the Greeks," Paris went on. "women are little more than livestock, and foreigners are considered more brutish still. This is why Agamemnon's pirates think nothing of attacking a foreign temple and laying hands on a priestess, and why I urge you to forget this quest of yours. If your friends are not already dead, they will be soon. Why add more bodies to the pyre?"
Myrina was shocked by his words that her growing respect for Prince Paris almost lost its footing. "If I were a man," she said, straightening, "you would not have spoken to me thus. Because I am a woman, you assume my aim in life is comfort, and that my honor lies in my chastity alone. I can't blame you, for you are merely saying what you think I am hoping to hear. But you are wrong..."
Myrina finds an ally in the young Prince of Troy, Paris, and together they set forth to free the captive Sisterhood. Thus setting the stage for the great War of Troy.
Diana finds clues to the existence of Myrina, the last known queen of the Amazons and of the battle of Troy. But in doing so she finds something else. Did the Sisterhood truly die defending the city of Troy against the Greeks, or do they still live today?
Review -
Anne Fortier has done it again. Her first English novel, Juliet, told the story of Shakespeare's Juliet in historical terms and how it relates to a modern day Juliet. In The Lost Sisterhood, she brings the strength of and power of the legend of the Amazons to life but in terms that are realistic and true to their time.
Myrina and her Sisterhood find themselves becoming warriors not by choice but by necessity. And it is their great loss that leads them to seek a sanctuary without men. Where they can provide for themselves and build a life without the limitations pressed upon them by the cultural expectations of their time.
In telling Diana's story, Fortier shows with deftness and grace, that little has changed as Diana fights for the respect and equality that her male counterparts receive in the academic world.
Do not get me wrong. This novel is not a flag waving, bra burning condemnation of the male species. Perhaps this is what Fortier has done so very well in this tale. She makes her point without alienating the male reader.
More than that alone, it is a suspenseful and wonderfully researched novel of the fall of Troy and the legends of the Amazons that defended it. She does not mimic the story we have heard before but writes one of her own. There is little mention of Achilles and none of Paris' older brother Hector. Helen is here of course but not quite in the fashion we are use to.
The Lost Sisterhood is an ode to strong independent women and insightful to the sacrifice and gain that comes with such independence.
But best of all, it is a really good story.
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