Carrying On by Kali Desautels; She is Woman, Hear Her Roar and See Her Write

 

Carrying On by Kali Desautels; She is Woman, Hear Her Roar and See Her Write 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Spoilers:In this day and age when women’s rights are being challenged and some like, reproductive choice and the ability to vote under married names, are being removed, it is important to remember how women in the past lived. How they struggled to make their voices heard and fought for those rights. These accounts remind us of what we didn’t have, what we won, and what we could lose. Carrying On by Kali Desautels is the type of novel that does just that

Carrying On is a sharp and brilliant character driven Historical Fiction novel about Peggy Brennan, a woman embarking on a journalism career in the mid-1960’s. Peggy is different from her more traditional mother and sisters. They have all been married and expect Peggy to do the same, but she has other ideas. The journalism career that they believe is only a hold over until marriage is Peggy’s ticket for living a professional self-actualized life. If a woman has to choose marriage or a career, she is going for the latter while the other women in her family went for the former. 

The book explores the changes that women encountered during the volatile 60’s. The traditional roles of a house, husband, and children no longer applied and were not looked upon as the sole aspirations for women. Books like Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex and Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique and noted events like the release of the Pill are referenced. They are also shown in how this time affected people personally.

One of Peggy’s sisters leaves her closeted husband and moves to San Francisco. Another holds to her values, but also has serious questions about her life. Peggy also asks her mother if she is satisfied with her life and how things turned out. This is a conversation that would never have occurred to her if she wasn’t surrounded by these questions and the decisions that many women of her generation took to answer them.

Peggy herself is surrounded by these changes in her own way. Her roommates struggle with their jobs, relationships, and expectations. At work, she is dismissed for writing important news articles and is worried that she is only going to write the so-called “women’s articles” about fashion, cooking, and childcare. Her contributions are disregarded because the men don’t take her seriously and the women think that she’s acting above her station. Her progressive views are demeaned and dismissed. 

Her new editor, John Grant however is one of the few men that are actually receptive to the idea of change. When he wants to create a woman's section, he doesn't want it to be the fluffy soft news that readers and advertisers expect. He puts Peggy in charge of it because he wants to focus on real news that affects women. News like politics, war, laws, education, work, the various movements, and changes. 

 This egalitarian view interests Peggy as much as John’s genuine interest in her work and opinions. Even though Peggy questions the division between marriage and career, she weighs whether it's possible for a woman to have both. Can she truly have it all with a man who is accepting of that possibility? 

This is a relationship of mutual respect and friendship. It's interesting that I am reading this book at the same time as The Girl From Melodia which also deals with a romance between two people in a similar field. However, The Girl From Melodia explores the concept of the Artist’s Muse and how the Artist is so self-involved in their own art and voice that they deprive the Muse of theirs. Carrying On is the opposite. Someone who is not threatened by their intended’s voice and actively encourages it making their relationship an equal partnership. 

As Peggy conducts interviews and leads focus groups, she sees women of different ages, statuses, political views, goals, and outlooks. They do have one thing in common. They are glad that someone is taking their voices and opinions seriously and they are being shared on a wider scale.

That is what the various feminist movements do. Take seriously the current concerns of women and work to improve them. Whether it's the right to vote, having educational opportunities, to have control over their own bodies, to earn the same amount as men, to stop being assaulted and harassed, or to do away with the patriarchal assumptions of men and women. 

Sure the names change, the specific causes might vary, and the means of sharing information and rebelling fit the era but they all boil down to one obvious function. Anyone who identifies as female fighting for the freedom of agency and choice over their own lives and futures.

Weekly Reader: Servitude by Costi Gurgu; Grim and Suspenseful Science Fiction Thriller Set in a World of Legal Human Trafficking

 

Weekly Reader: Servitude by Costi Gurgu; Grim and Suspenseful Science Fiction Thriller Set in a World of Legal Human Trafficking

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Servitude by Costi Gurgu is another one of those Science Fiction novels that can be labeled under the file marked, "Current Times Taken to Extreme Levels." It depicts a world in which people are taken from the streets for minor offenses and forced into Servitude, in other words taken forcibly and sold into slavery in a process that is perfectly legal and sanctioned by the government.

In this book, frighteningly set in the near future of 2046, Blake Frye, a police detective and his TV producer wife, Isa decide to take a random vacation to London. Unfortunately, this is not a pleasurable holiday. As they see the sights, they are caught in various riots protesting the Servitude program. (The Servitude program is extremely active in Britain and is only being considered in the United States, so far). They see people being taken away such as the parents of two small children, who are arrested for being in debt. 

It's enough to disgust the emotional and newly pregnant Isa. Blake however has ulterior means to make this trip. Isa got into some trouble with a documentary that she made which discussed potential trafficking in the U.S. and called some elite billionaires to task for benefiting from it. Blake has to meet an informant to learn whether his wife is in trouble and what could be done to protect her. Unfortunately, all of Blake and Isa's worst fears are confirmed when they return to the U.S. and come face to face with some mysterious people that take Isa away. While Isa tries to survive her captivity and Blake is driven to rescue her, we are given flashbacks to the issues that Isa explored in her documentary and the elites' fury at being caught in taking part and controlling this deplorable institution.

Servitude is a very intense book on how people reinterpret guilt, innocence, and punishment to fit their needs. Gurgu captures what happens when the 1% seize that power and control over the people under them. Well, I mean more so than now.

 In Servitude, the multibillionaire who controls the Servitude program in the U.S. is William Wilmot, a tech mogul who uses Servitude to silence his enemies. When Isa's documentary about human trafficking names Wilmot specifically as a beneficiary to this secret organization, Wilmot and his equally conniving daughter, Gabriella definitely have her and her colleagues on their list.

There are a few real-life obvious inspirations for Wilmot, many moguls who use their money and connections to get away with the worst crimes and still have people that will defend them. They are the types who will control a media outlet under the guise of fighting for free speech and then use ruthless hypocritical tactics to silence those who oppose them.

 We've seen them all and we know them all. In the United States, nothing speaks louder than money and in Servitude, money controls other people's freedom.

Blake and Isa are the honest courageous people who would speak out against such horrors. The opening chapters show this. Even though it's set in London, the tension and ramifications are pretty clear. This is happening out in the open what is being done in the United States in secret and it's only a matter of time before it's in public in the U.S. It gives the Reader a sense that soon there will be nowhere to hide.

We also peer into Blake and Isa's characters as well. Isa is anguished and protective of the children. It's easy to see why with her pregnancy and documentary. After studying cases of families left in this situation and worrying about bringing another child into a world that allows such things to happen, her maternal instincts are in full overdrive. She would do anything to protect those that she cares about: her husband, two parentless children, and in a later chapter, her colleagues. 

Blake too reveals much about himself in this early vacation. Even though he knows what he and Isa might see, they go anyway. He is someone who works hard to get the right information to protect and later find his wife. He also knows how to find that information by asking certain people and researching what is needed. He will sacrifice his own freedom to protect people like Isa.

Besides the story about Isa's captivity and Blake's rescue attempts, we are treated to flashbacks in alternating chapters. They serve to provide much needed explanation for the documentary, the Fryes, and the people for and against them.

The flashbacks are pretty clever in that they reveal some interesting information about the main plot. One character appears to work for one side. Then in the flashbacks, one line reveals that they are a different character from another side and had their name changed and appearance altered.

 This is a pretty impressive feat because in the main plot, he's a cypher and lover to one character. Then in the flashbacks, this character appears to be an unlikeable coward who would throw anybody under the bus. Instead that is a front, until it is revealed how deeply involved they really are to the situation at hand, what their true personality is, and where their loyalties lie.

Servitude is one of those terrifying Science Fiction books. Terrifying because we are standing on the edge of what could happen, so we can keep it from happening.