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ClareR (5879 KP) rated Learwife in Books

Nov 30, 2021  
Learwife
Learwife
J R Thorp | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Learwife was so much more than I expected it to be. I’ll be honest: I haven’t read King Lear, and I thought I’d struggle to understand this, and the fact that I’ve recently read The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton (and really enjoyed it) I thought would confuse me more (the Queen isn’t sent to a nunnery in TQoIL). I needn’t have worried though.

This book is narrated by the former queen, whilst she’s living in the convent, reflecting on her time as a queen two times, as the wife of Lear, and a mother to her three daughters. Even though she has been exiled from her former life and forbidden from seeing her daughters for a very long time, when she hears of their deaths she’s devastated. She imagines that she can see their ghosts. She comes close to madness herself. This is a very human woman, not just a queen. In fact, most of the other women living in the convent, don’t know that she was once their queen. They do know that she was a woman of status, and they defer to her - not least because of her steely demeanour. She’s a formidable woman.

This did take me longer than usual to read, but there were several factors involved in this: taking in the gorgeous prose, and the fact that I desperately needed reading glasses (which I now thankfully have! 🤭). It really is beautifully written, and I think that it’s going to be one of those rare books that I’ll read again.