In her most recent work, renowned historical fiction author Valerie Martin gives Romeo and Juliet a contemporary, original and feminist twist.
In 1954, on the fictitious island of Verona, Italy, Lila Gulliver runs a profitable high-end brothel with an impeccable reputation of discretion and privacy. Here prostitution is legal, and Mrs Gulliver takes pride in her business.
“Tourists come because it’s warm, fishing is good, lodging inexpensive , drugs are widely available, and prostitution is legal. San Alfonso is pleasure-loving, and notoriously corrupt, drawing the world’s endless supply of crooks and con men to our shores.”
Lila Gilliver’s personal and professional lives take an unexpected turn when a beautiful blind woman, Carità Bercy, 19, knocks on her door seeking employment. Carità and her sister, Bessie, come from a wealthy family and have been left to fend for themselves after their rich bachelor uncle, who raised them, lost all his money and committed suicide. Before their uncle’s death, the sisters had a tragic history. Their father died in a car accident, as did their mother after Carità’s birth. Before shooting himself, he did give the girls money and two bus tickets to the city, instructing them to pitch at the brothel’s door.
Lila sees the potential in hiring an educated, beautiful blind girl, and Carità quickly proves her worth. Lila, though, misjudges her new employee. Ian Drohan, the handsome son of the richest family on the island, visits the brothel and falls in love with Carità instantly. Lila doubts that it is true love and believes that he only wants to be the saviour who rescues Carità from the modern-day slavery she has been forced into. But the fearless young woman knows exactly what she’s doing. Ian is merely a means to advance her social standing.
Fate intervenes, and the two star-crossed lovers are forced to flee San Alfonso after Ian gets into an argument with gang members and severely injures one of them. Mike Drohan, Ian’s judge father, approaches Lila to assist in finding the couple. Lila feels responsible for Carità, but she also finds herself drawn to Mike, a married man.
This is a story about two lovers, but the strongest characters are the two women: Lila and Carità. Both must prove their worth in difficult circumstances. Although Lila is the narrator and observer in Carità’s story, we gain a good understanding of her own background growing up in a poor village in the mountains. Having succeeded she finds herself in a male dominated “… run by hypocritical men whose passion for controlling women’s bodies knows no limit”. Prostitution is legal, but abortion is not, as it serves male needs. Carità needed to fight to be seen as an equal because she was not only a woman, but also blind in a in a society that discriminated against people who couldn’t see. Her unshakable determination and ability to judge people correctly works in her favour and unlike Juliet, she survives.
In comparison, the men appear weaker. Ian was afraid of failure and had a strained relationship with his father, who treated him with contempt. He sees women as either inferior beings who need to be rescued or villainized, as in the case of Mrs Gulliver. When he discovers Carità is his equal and has her own opinions, he is not pleased.
“Men are expected to succeed, women to fail. Every woman knows the deck is stacked. The world I live in isn’t benign; it’s the world men allow to women. They made it for us. They have all the power, and we work around them.”
In Mrs Gulliver, Martin strikes the ultimate balance between great storytelling and feminism. Without sacrificing the complex and engaging plot, she deftly interweaves these two unabashedly strong women’s stories and sets them against the weaker men. Intelligent, razor-sharp, witty and captivating, Mrs Gulliver is a must-read if you crave a novel with strong and interesting female characters.
Mrs Gulliver is published by Serpent’s Tail and Jonathan Ball, kindly gifted me with a copy of the book for review.
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