In addition, vets account for roughly 20% of all suicides in the US. I don’t know. The Mere Wife is a sly satire of suburbia, wittily detailed and narratively bold. Headley suspects the word really means "formidable" or "awe-inspiring" — and that's the picture she hopes to paint in The Mere Wife, a modern retelling of … Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Calling Headley’s work a retelling does it short shrift. She knows she is a member of the marines. Gren is a boy struggling to understand the world around him, despite that the world wasn’t meant to contain him. That town no longer exists. Plot. It is a reminder that stories survive through the centuries because – however antiquated they seem on the surface – … 4.2 out of 5 stars. The Mere Wife, Maria Dahvana Headley; Susan Bennett, narrator (Macmillan Audio 978-1-42729783-9, $44.99, CD, 9 hr., unabridged [also available as a digital download]) July 2018.. Maria Dahvana Headley transforms Beowulf into a modern, vicious, and lyrical story about racial, class, and gender divides, and the messy legacy of gentrification. Headley elevates the quiet calm of suburbia by her use of language. Everything is as it should be. 5 star 65% 4 star 10% 3 star 11% 2 star 7% 1 star 7% The Mere Wife: A Novel. Téa Obreht, author of The Tiger's Wife "There’s not a false note in this retelling, which does the Beowulf poet and his spear-Danes proud." Over 800 years later, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein gave us a monster with not just pathos but psychology; Headley’s story owes as much to the Romantic era as the Anglo-Saxon. All are wounded, all are selfish, all are human – and it makes this story even more relevant. It’s a difficult question, not just because of memory loss: “One answer means I’m a victim, and the other means I’m a collaborator, and I don’t know, so I don’t answer.” Shipped back home, she slips out of custody, and makes her way to the mountain near the town where she grew up. Or consensual?” demands an interrogator after she’s picked up by her comrades. ―Kirkus Reviews, starred review "Headley (Magonia) applies the broad contours of the Beowulf story to her tale but skillfully seeds her novel with reflections on anxieties and neuroses that speak to the concerns of modern parenting." Engraved on the Eye by Saladin Ahmed REVIEW, Review: A Collection of Obsessions by Michael R. Fletcher. She awoke one day and found Gren. She is interrogated and ends up in … How she loves him, how she fears for him: “His eyes are black gold. I’ve been in it,” concludes Dana, darkly. A list of “selected translations” at the start of the novel gives Headley’s definitions of three words: the masculine noun aglæca means “fighter, warrior, hero”; the feminine counterpart aglæca-wif means “wretch, monster, hell-bride, hag”. If everyone is an animal, why do some get classified as monsters? He was an accident, a surprise spark in the dark, and one that will not go quietly. Headley's The Mere Wife is both a celebration of motherly love and an exploration of the disruptive tension between coexisting opposites. The excess of Herot Hall is brought out in the prose to an almost satirical degree, especially when compared to the scrounging that Dana and Gren must do to survive. If it means “only”, then perhaps it’s an ironic reference to Willa, who is a desperate and dangerous woman under the homemaker surface. The Mere Wife: A Novel › Customer reviews; Customer reviews. To borrow from the blurb on Amazon: New York Times bestselling author Maria Dahvana Headley presents a modern retelling of the literary classic Beowulf , set in American suburbia as two mothers—a housewife and a battle-hardened veteran—fight to protect those they love in The Mere Wife . For Willa, he’s the intruder who threatens her family; for Dana, he’s someone whose otherness makes him vulnerable. by Maria Dahvana Headley ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 17, 2018. Maria Dahvana Headley's work is always strong with a beautiful point of view of the… Kidnapped from a desert battlefield and apparently beheaded on camera, Dana somehow survives – less one eye, but with PTSD, amnesia and an unexplained pregnancy. To me, he looks like my son. From the catalog copy: From the catalog copy: From the perspective of those who live in Herot Hall, the suburb is a paradise. Made in 2D cut out animation made from elephant dung paper this quaint tale follows the story of a young mahout and his elephant, through to his marriage to a beautiful, but jealous Karen girl. Few stories published today feel as mythical as Maria Dahvana Headley’s The Mere Wife. It’s a modern question to ask of an ancient story. She is a post 9/11 war veteran, one that has lost her entire team and an eye from conflict. Summaries. This slice of suburban life is named Herot Hall, and it is the archetype of American living. 140 global ratings. How are ratings calculated? A boy with brown skin?” The echo here is not centuries old, but six years: Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teenager shot dead in a gated community by a neighbourhood watch patroller. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99. While Dana’s sections are first-person, the Herot chapters are told in the third person and centred on Willa, with waspish humour at the expense of her Waspy life. Alicia Sometimes and Raf Epstein both praise Maria Dahvana Headley's modern retelling of Beowulf in Drive's monthly book club. The Mere Wife shows war from a mother’s perspective; the tragedy of all-encompassing love in a world that inevitably destroys. To everyone else? The Beowulf analogue here is police officer Ben Woolf, but he’s certainly not the hero: the roaming consciousness of the novel spends barely more time resting with him than it does, delightfully, with a pack of dogs (“We travel on perfume lines, drink them out of the air like you listen to the radio”). Buy this book from hive.co.uk to support The Reading Agency and local bookshops at no additional cost to you. Movie Reviews TV Reviews Roundtables Podcasts 'My Rembrandt': Film Review ... of a husband and wife, on either side of the bed. He is a 2010 graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he studied English and History. Maria Dahvana Headley’s The Mere Wife has finally been loosed upon the world. The Mere Wife is not a retelling of that great old tale, but rather a playful reconsideration, an invitation to look at its characters from a different perspective. The pair is for all intents and purposes the monsters of the original, but here they are cast for more than sympathy. But “The Mere Wife” brings the story into the 21st century in a curious way. The novelist and essayist Lively hates the term “hobby,” preferring “consuming interest” to describe her passion for gardening. The Mere Wife is clever and often funny, finding ingenious ways to update the Beowulf story, in a way that produces wry social commentary. In this way it is a story of mothers and sons, the equal intensity and distance of that bond. Headley has written a novel that does everything a book should, but does the extra work with creating a brand new translation of an old story. The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley My rating: 4 of 5 stars In this poignant retelling of Beowulf through the eyes of women, Headley pulls off an incredible feat (heroic, one might say). (Penguin, $16.) Neighbors gossip and everyone is judged by who wears what at what function. A danger? In the Old English original, Grendel is simple malignancy, a grotesque “other” who stalks Heorot Hall and savages its inhabitants; when Beowulf kills him, his mother returns for vengeance. It is Willa, Dana and the matriarchs of Herot Hall who make the story what it is. She anticipates patriarchal requirements so perfectly that, as with Dana, it’s hard to tell whether she’s victim or accomplice. What is heroism in a man becomes horrifying in a woman. Not only does it tell an intimate tale of mothers struggling against one another and their sons, but it is a tale brought out from the fecund ground of one of the oldest tales in the world, Beowulf . You can send news, tips, and suggestions to [email protected]. Not only does it tell an intimate tale of mothers struggling against one another and their sons, but it is a tale brought out from the fecund ground of one of the oldest tales in the world, Beowulf. An adaptation of a traditional Karen Hill tribe folk tale about the love triangle between the elephant, the mahout and the wife. Going against all of this, he visits Herot Hall and befriends Dylan. She modernized the tale of Beowulf into the US in the decades following 9/11. Above all, Headley’s novel, with its roots in ancient legend, proves especially relevant in this time of heightened … “Any of those things will make him a target. and fantasy, steps into the adult world with this spot-on reimagining of a classic of Old English literature. What Gren wants – a place by the hearth, the touch of a friend, love – makes him perfectly human. Studies indicate that 20% of Iraq and Afghanistan vets suffer from PTSD. And now comes Maria Dahvana Headley’s The Mere Wife, which turns to Beowulf for inspiration and structure and import. “Rape? Their conflicts and their actions are what shapes the story. It stands up as a lyrical adventure through the ladies who hold up the Beowulf myth, with beautiful writing taking centre stage. LIFE IN THE GARDEN, by Penelope Lively. White picket fences, impeccably manicured lawns, the works. So, in many ways this translation is a natural successor to that work. The Mere Wife publishes July 18th with Farrar, Straus & Giroux. It is also a tale of haves and have-nots, of families and outsiders, of loss and love. Yet, somehow, she survives, waking up pregnant in She plans dinner parties and pours cocktails, but she also sees that a balaclava looks like “a sucked dry head, skull and eyes missing, only skin left”. Take a second to support Three Crows on Patreon! (Willa, we learn, has only feared once that her husband might betray her: a time when he “began to pour himself scotch and sob at the dining table, using words like existential and guitar”.). Get our latest news, giveaways, free subscriptions and more. 4.2 out of 5. They are instead transformed into outsiders, aliens, strangers. Both could be wrong, though. Find your local library. Headley hits the beats of the original story while shifting the focus entirely. Headley, unlike the Beowulf poet, only shows us Gren as others see him, and neither Willa nor Dana has perfect vision. Herot has no place for Dana and Gren, her miraculous child, born fatherless and with teeth. Review by Alexander Pyles Few stories published today feel as mythical as Maria Dahvana Headley’s The Mere Wife . A wonder? It's time to let them go. The Mere Wife author told Raf how she brought the perspectives of women and people of colour to the fore, and how she prioritised communicating her character's feelings and experience, over physical appearance. Headley, a writer of juvenile fiction ( Aerie, 2016, etc.) Where it stood, there is now a gated community of mini-mansions named Herot, and the grandest of these is Herot Hall, occupied by the founder’s son Roger Herot, his wife Willa and their son Dylan. Like Beowulf, The Mere Wife is a story of invasion. Certainly, reading Headley’s introductory remarks, it was born out of Q&A sessions at festivals following The Mere Wife’s promotion. But Gren is not willing to give up a world he’s never known. Even inside Herot, she knows that “You can’t fight nature … You can’t make it human. It is this intersection that neither woman’s world will be the same. The novel does share the legacy of Beowulf; none of these women are perfect. The Mere Wife is a tour de force that blends bits of magical realism and thriller-esque elements bound with literary flair to create a mythic masterpiece. To order a copy for £11.43 (RRP £12.99) go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. The Mere Wife is a unique mythological re-telling, in the vast cacophony of re-tellings out there right now. Diary of an MP's Wife by Sasha Swire review – candid account of a Tory clique. Dana is a US marine, and her military background makes her a convincing threat as well as enabling a sharp comment on literary traditions of sexism. She still manages to write in a way that makes the most basic activity, like getting ready for a party, seem like a call for banners. A mountain looms over Herot Hall and our second mother, Dana Mills, looks on. A gated community … no place for Dana and Gren. Maria Dahvana Headley: a feminist reading. It is a reminder that stories survive through the centuries because – however antiquated they seem on the surface – they hold meaning that never dims. It is this real wrinkle in the narrative that makes the modernization so believable, making this much more than only a rehashing of the original tale. • The Mere Wife is published by Scribe. He’s all bones and angles. Both Dana and Willa recognise something fearful in Gren. If you see problems or bugs on the site, please let us know and include the URL and also which browser you are using. The Mere Wife is clever and often funny, finding ingenious ways to update the Beowulf story, in a way that produces wry social commentary. ―Publishers Weekly "The Mere Wife [is] an intense, visceral reading You can’t even make yourself human. Headley is not only at the height of her talent but clearly shows that there can be more done with old ideas than any of us could dare hope. Both of them are mere women, yet by story’s end, both have wreaked havoc upon so many people. Willa, whose husband is the heir to Herot Hall, enjoys everything life has to offer. She has no one, and she does not need anyone, except for her son. I say finally because I think the world needs this book. The developers of Herot Hall refuse to acknowledge the stories and lives of those who lived on Herot’s land before their arrival. I know the world. Book of the day Fiction The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley review – a modern Beowulf The Old English epic becomes an ambitious American … Think “mere” as sea, as in the Old English, and not just as some dismissive term. Write a review. Fantasy and realism mix in an ambiguous, audacious genre-bender. (The third word is the indispensable, untranslatable Old English call to attention hwæt: Headley gives a whole list of possibilities, which later turn up as section headings.). It is a reimagining of the classic poem into a modern lens. Instead, either Dana or Willa could be the title character, depending on how you read “mere”. Dana is a forgotten, broken woman who cannot make sense of the world’s past sins against her. Her diction and prose are written in a way to evoke the Old English story, even using a few words from the old dialect. He was hers, and she was his, as simple as that. Dana never thought to be a mother. Her 2018 novel, The Mere Wife, was a novelist adaptation of the poem. The content does not shy away from modern problems or the current events that continue to rock society from day in and day out. THE MERE WIFE. Free UK p&p over £15, online orders only. The Mere Wife is a book by Maria Dahvana Headley that is a retelling of Beowulf set in 21st-century America. The story’s setting is in a microcosm of civilization: suburbia. She goes from dinners to cocktail hours to school events with her son, Dylan, close at her heels. Her use of the word “mere” not only serves to describe one of the framing devices of the novel but defines her two main characters: Willa and Dana. New York Times bestselling author Maria Dahvana Headley’s fierce, feminist retelling of … In The Mere Wife, the residents of Herot are invaders. Maria Dahvana Headley’s muscular, bloodthirsty novel is a contemporary retelling of Beowulf from the perspective of Grendel’s mother: nameless in the poem, here she’s called Dana Mills, and her son is Gren. The Old English epic becomes an ambitious American fable, in this bloodthirsty novel told from the point of view of the monster’s mother. As seen: By Maria Headley avg rating . 0 reviews. The Mere Wife is an exquisitely told, brutal revisioning of Beowulf, set in modern, Stepford-like suburbia. If it’s a geographical feature, then it’s Dana: her mountain camp is by the lake. The problem is that Gren is unaware of the invisible and unspoke barriers that are between him and the rest of the world. The Mere Wife is a bold, stunning riptide of a book." In Beowulf, Grendel invades Herot Hall and dines on Danes. But what does the monster want? ...Headley imbues The Mere Wife with the trappings of myth, from a deadly sword to a disembodied arm, from a dragon to a pack of formidable mothers. She and her son, Gren, live together in the caves that honeycomb the mountain and house the mere, that also feeds Herot Hall. In essence, The Mere Wife follows the stories of two women and their sons: Dana, a former soldier who was supposed to be killed on camera but somehow survived and believes she gave birth to a monster, and Willa, a suburban wife seemingly living a perfect life in her gilded cage of a gated community. Maria Dahvana Headley’s The Mere Wife tells the story of Dana Mills, an American POW beheaded on YouTube for the world to watch. Women drive this novel from start to finish. Even Dana Mills, as a soldier landing on foreign shores to fight against people who live there, is an invader. Dana Mills wakes up unsure of what has happened to her or why she is pregnant. John Gardner, of course, famously recast that poem in his novel Grendel, re-centering the epic around the monster, and plumbing its ancient setting with modern psychological depth.Headley is after something else entirely. The Mere Wife is not a retelling of that great old tale, but rather a playful reconsideration, an invitation to look at its characters from a different perspective. A reader of literary works or urban fantasy would enjoy this, especially if they are a fan of novels that deal with hard issues head-on. Fans of Beowulf should be encouraged to take a step into this reinterpretation and revel in the new forms the old characters take. Jake Meador is the editor-in-chief of Mere Orthodoxy and author of "In Search of the Common Good: Christian Fidelity in a Fractured World." He’s almost as tall as I am and he’s only seven. Her command of prose and point of view is impressive by any measure, and makes a story that is utterly readable and impactful. For those who forgot the poem immediately after high school, … He lives in Lincoln, NE with his wife Joie, their daughter Davy Joy, and sons Wendell, Austin, and Ambrose. by Maria Dahvana Headley. ... let it go for a mere $185,000.) He is drawn to Herot Hall; drawn to Dylan, who finds in Gren an unlikely playmate; drawn to a terrible blood feud between his and Dylan’s families. It’s unforgettable that the women, not the titular hero of the original story, are the focus of The Mere Wife . The Mere Wife. "The Mere Wife" (MCD and Farrar, Straus and Giroux), by Maria Dahvana Headley Maria Dahvana Headley's new novel, "The Mere Wife," is much more than a simple recasting of the ancient epic poem "Beowulf" in the suburbs. 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