THE BOOK OF GOTHEL by Mary McMyne

The Book of Gothel by Mary McMyne: A Review and Personal Reaction

What a joy it is to see The Book of Gothel grace bookstore shelves this year, and adorned with a sparkling seal of approval by Gregory Maguire! I have been awaiting the publication of this book for almost a decade, and it comes at the perfect time to get cozy with a thick, dark-woodsy tale of mother love and women's spiritual power in an old-school fairy tale world interwoven with threads of medieval history. 

Like Maguire's Wicked, Gothel flips our assumptions about a familiar villain witch (in this case, the one who keeps Rapunzel in the tower) by describing a "real" version of events that has been obscured by a campaign of misinformation. The story recreates a feminine religious tradition barely surviving in secret as the rising dominance of patriarchal Christianity threatens to eradicate it forever.

This theme feels, unfortunately, all too relevant in today's political climate of threat against women's health, safety, and freedom. But it is also a book of warmth, hope, and faith in the power of mothers' love for their daughters, biological and otherwise, though it can be complex and problematic.

For me personally, the book reminds me that social progress isn't linear or consistent; for everything that's going to hell in a handmaiden's basket, somewhere else a breakthrough is transforming human lives for the better. And vice versa. There will never be a time when all the living can rest easy, nor is there ever an excuse to despair. 

Backstory on My Long Anticipation of This Story

Many years ago, far back in the Times of Before, I entered a contest for artists who were also mothers of young children, with prizes of a few thousand bucks to help us kickstart the creation of a work of art. I applied for a chance to travel to Germany to research fairy tales and medieval history for a subversive retelling of Sleeping Beauty + Beauty and the Beast that I hoped to craft into a novel. In college I studied some ancient mythology and history, and after college I got really into tracing variants of folktales from modern times back into antiquity, and I became interested in the idea of retelling familiar fairy tales and myths with their original vibes intact--that is, undoing some of the censorship, value shifting, and editorial standards that arose when the Grimm Brothers figured out how to turn raw, lively, earthy, messy folktales into marketable books for publication and successful sale to the bourgeoisie Victorian-era dads of Western Europe... who wished their fairy tale books to be suitable for the purpose of teaching their extremely specific and remarkable social values to their own young children.

After I sent in my application, I felt some regrets. First, I wasn't sure I could even follow through on my use of any prize money I might win; I did not feel confident that I would be comfortable traveling for a significant amount of time away from my young child at the time. Also, I told myself that it probably sounded like a silly idea, an ambitious but obscure project that nobody else would find interesting. I quickly forgot about winning the contest, assuring myself that I would not win anything and that would be for the best.

I was unsurprised and relieved to learn that I did not win, but I was astonished to see that the winner's application was extremely similar to my idea, to travel to Germany on research for a subversive novel retelling a familiar tale from Grimm! It was the most excited I have ever been to lose a competition, because I felt like my idea won... but that the responsibility of seeing it through had gone to someone more capable of taking it on. I felt so validated about my idea, and I was glad to see another mom writer (and from my home state too!) go forth on the mission that, honestly, I probably wasn't prepared to complete. I began following the winner, Mary McMyne, on social media and privately celebrating and taking heart in each victory along her lengthy and adventurous journey to the publication of her novel. Her perseverance in the work helped me to feel the worth of my own similar passions and to feel less alone on my own long road to releasing my work.

And soon after the contest, blessed Jack Zipes (also an important resource for McMyne's research) released an English translation of the Grimm Brothers' original collection of tales and field notes, so traveling to Germany felt less important to what I was interested in learning anyway. And what an absolute treasure that book is! I had so much fun reading it, and it set my mind and heart and writers' mind on fire for years. 

Back to the Middle Ages

Both Mary McMyne and I ended up writing our fairy tale retelling novels with a medieval setting, similar but different in interesting ways. Haelewise's story in The Book of Gothel takes place in 12th century Germany; my fantasy novel The Grove of Thorismud draws from cultural aspects of continental Europe between the 9th and 11th centuries, and Leirah and the Wild Man (historical fiction influenced by obscure tales that never became Disney movies) takes place on firm historical ground, between the Black Forest and the Black Sea in the early 11th century. 

I wanted to write my stories from a point in time before the Crusades and the advent of romanticism, another great cultural shift that changed how folktales and myths were told and framed. Gothel takes place in the midst of those cultural changes, and though Haelewise "lives" her adventures only a little more than a century after Leirah, their part of the world has changed considerably. The Middle Ages encompasses a long period of time, and from a 21st century perspective it can seem all muddled together, but everyday life was dramatically different, at least in some places, from one century to the next.

Most notably, the Constantinople of Leirah's time, which seems infinitely ancient and comfortably invincible to Leirah, has been gouged off the map by the time Haelewise meets a refugee from the former seat of the Byzantine Empire.

Tensions between East and West are accelerating. Human travel between nations has become more fraught, with more walls built around towns and more barriers to crossing borders. At the same time, a greater diversity of trade goods are flowing more freely into and out of and around Europe than in Leirah's time, improving quality of life for many people and giving rise to a middle class of merchants. 

Economic and political powers are consolidating, protecting some populations while threatening the freedom and survival of others. The Christianization of pagan peoples has advanced, strangling the last vestiges of ancient cultures and belief systems like the nurturing sisterhood reimagined in The Book of Gothel, and on the other hand, the Church has largely put a stop to long-ingrained practices of ancient brutality such as human sacrifice and widespread child trafficking. 

While the Church provides some new opportunities for women, such as the privileges and freedoms possible within the enclosure of convent life as a sometimes welcome alternative to motherhood or sex work, women's wisdom and power remains controversial and shrouded in secrecy, an interesting dynamic explored in Gothel with the historical figure of Hildegard of Bingen making a singular appearance. 

It is refreshing to read about medieval women's differences of opinion and experience on the topics of extramarital sexuality, motherhood, sisterhood, and abortion. There has never been a historical time and place in which everyone shared the same opinions and values on any topics, let alone highly emotional ones, though dominant narratives may create an appearance of simple agreement. And McMyne's vivid scenes of childbirth and midwifery are one of the most excellent ingredients in her warm, spiced drink of a novel. 

More of This, Please

It is wonderful to see a book like this on major bookstore shelves, internationally! And it is wonderful to have a copy of my own. I would love to see more thoughtful retellings of fairy tales and restorations of ancient storytelling traditions. Below are some of my favorites and a couple of recommendations I learned about from following Mary McMyne's interviews. If you shop from my Magic Nutshell Bookshop affiliate storefront, you support my work as well as the survival of real, local bookstores! And if you have a recommendation for a brilliant illumination of medieval women's lives or folk and fairy tales, feel free to let me know in the comments.