Rashi’s Daughters Book 2 Miriam by Maggie Anton
It seems Rashi’s daughter Miriam is quite famous - she shows up in other historical fiction books, too, as an inspiration for learned women. She even inspires young women who don’t quite trust in themselves yet, as in “Blue Thread” by
Rashi was a famous Bible scholar in France at the turn of the millennium - the first millennium. He wanted sons who would follow in his footsteps - but he had no sons. Instead, his three daughters studied with him, became scholars, and eventually married scholars as well. Maggie Anton did a lot of research into this time period, and it shows. Clothing, business habits, holiday customs, superstitions about everything from birth to food to death - it’s all there, and it ties together authentically. Incidentally, if your friend is terribly sick, you should visit, you could make her feel better - but if your friend has the same name as you, don’t visit - the angel of death might show up and take the wrong person…
Just like any proper novel, the story opens with Miriam falling in love with her father’s student.
However, Miriam is also an apprentice midwife, and is quite busy among the Jewish women and even among the French women - even the nobility. Somehow, Miriam finds time to trade longing glances with her young scholar. And don’t forget the bandits - a young midwife needs an escort when she’s visiting distant homes. Happily, her betrothed scholar volunteers to take her there quickly - and to take the long way home.
Meanwhile, Miriam spends time with her scholarly, married older sister. Her younger sister develops a flair for trade, and makes her family proud. Miriam studies with her father and sisters, and with her betrothed. Everything is happy. (Gentle reader, you know it’s not going to last, but Miriam doesn’t.)
Then grape season comes, and everyone in the family and the school must help turn the grapes into wine: they put all the grapes into huge vats and tread on them, barefoot. This isn’t quite as fun as it seems - it’s real work, and the grape vines and stems rise up from the depths to brush bare legs and scare people into slipping and falling. The fumes can make a person dizzy, too. Rashi had a rule that no one works alone, ever - because the wine isn’t worth drowning. There is another rule that men work with men in one vat, and women work with women in another vat, because the wine fumes can make a respectable person act foolishly, especially when everyone has their clothing hiked up almost to the waist.
Miriam and her betrothed steal time alone, either picking grapes or treading wine together. Then the young man works in his family’s wine vats - and they don’t have a strict buddy system. By-by, betrothed. Good thing Miriam didn’t get pregnant two weeks before the wedding…
After moping for a while, Miriam must return to semi-normal life. Babies don’t care if the midwife is miserable, they still arrive in middle of the night. Miriam continues studying with her (married) older sister and her (unmarried) younger sister. The study turns to marital relationships, and is remarkably frank about desire, pleasing each other, positions, and even sex during pregnancy. Life goes on.
Then another scholar shows up in Rashi’s school. He’s not Miriam’s true love but he’s kind of nice. They could be friends. Then there’s another plot twist, and the whole story turns upside down.
Another love theme is based on ‘the bleeding disease.’ If someone was a carrier for incurable hemophilia, and all her sons die, who would marry her surviving daughters? Yet another historical scandal - a man takes a young second wife, then leaves his entire fortune to his children from the first wife and leaves absolutely nothing to the second wife. Letters fly back and forth between the scholars to resolve the scandal.
I’m not sure I’m happy with this book. As a novel, it’s absolutely a great read. As historical fiction, I’m a little confused. Book One: Jocheved’s Story, was quite historically accurate. It took place when the children were younger, and had rich detail about Troyes, various professions as practiced around the year 1070, and the relationships between Jews and Gentiles. There seemed to have been a lot of information about Rashi starting his new school, and about his best student , who married Jocheved.
On the other hand, not much is known about Miriam’s husband, so Maggie Anton considered what was possible and made something up. Both love themes are invented! And, considering that the second theme is pretty outrageous, I would wish it had been based on something more substantial than ‘such these can happen’ before it was pinned on an actual historical figure.
Other invented events are pinned on Miriam, based on ‘historically, these things indeed happened and it makes sense that Miriam could have done it.’
Despite these ‘maybe’ events, the book as a whole was enjoyable and had a lot of accurate information. The afterword is very specific about what parts of the story were based on research about the individual and what was based on research about the time period.
Four stars.
Rashi was a famous Bible scholar in France at the turn of the millennium - the first millennium. He wanted sons who would follow in his footsteps - but he had no sons. Instead, his three daughters studied with him, became scholars, and eventually married scholars as well. Maggie Anton did a lot of research into this time period, and it shows. Clothing, business habits, holiday customs, superstitions about everything from birth to food to death - it’s all there, and it ties together authentically. Incidentally, if your friend is terribly sick, you should visit, you could make her feel better - but if your friend has the same name as you, don’t visit - the angel of death might show up and take the wrong person…
Just like any proper novel, the story opens with Miriam falling in love with her father’s student.
However, Miriam is also an apprentice midwife, and is quite busy among the Jewish women and even among the French women - even the nobility. Somehow, Miriam finds time to trade longing glances with her young scholar. And don’t forget the bandits - a young midwife needs an escort when she’s visiting distant homes. Happily, her betrothed scholar volunteers to take her there quickly - and to take the long way home.
Meanwhile, Miriam spends time with her scholarly, married older sister. Her younger sister develops a flair for trade, and makes her family proud. Miriam studies with her father and sisters, and with her betrothed. Everything is happy. (Gentle reader, you know it’s not going to last, but Miriam doesn’t.)
Then grape season comes, and everyone in the family and the school must help turn the grapes into wine: they put all the grapes into huge vats and tread on them, barefoot. This isn’t quite as fun as it seems - it’s real work, and the grape vines and stems rise up from the depths to brush bare legs and scare people into slipping and falling. The fumes can make a person dizzy, too. Rashi had a rule that no one works alone, ever - because the wine isn’t worth drowning. There is another rule that men work with men in one vat, and women work with women in another vat, because the wine fumes can make a respectable person act foolishly, especially when everyone has their clothing hiked up almost to the waist.
Miriam and her betrothed steal time alone, either picking grapes or treading wine together. Then the young man works in his family’s wine vats - and they don’t have a strict buddy system. By-by, betrothed. Good thing Miriam didn’t get pregnant two weeks before the wedding…
After moping for a while, Miriam must return to semi-normal life. Babies don’t care if the midwife is miserable, they still arrive in middle of the night. Miriam continues studying with her (married) older sister and her (unmarried) younger sister. The study turns to marital relationships, and is remarkably frank about desire, pleasing each other, positions, and even sex during pregnancy. Life goes on.
Then another scholar shows up in Rashi’s school. He’s not Miriam’s true love but he’s kind of nice. They could be friends. Then there’s another plot twist, and the whole story turns upside down.
Another love theme is based on ‘the bleeding disease.’ If someone was a carrier for incurable hemophilia, and all her sons die, who would marry her surviving daughters? Yet another historical scandal - a man takes a young second wife, then leaves his entire fortune to his children from the first wife and leaves absolutely nothing to the second wife. Letters fly back and forth between the scholars to resolve the scandal.
I’m not sure I’m happy with this book. As a novel, it’s absolutely a great read. As historical fiction, I’m a little confused. Book One: Jocheved’s Story, was quite historically accurate. It took place when the children were younger, and had rich detail about Troyes, various professions as practiced around the year 1070, and the relationships between Jews and Gentiles. There seemed to have been a lot of information about Rashi starting his new school, and about his best student , who married Jocheved.
On the other hand, not much is known about Miriam’s husband, so Maggie Anton considered what was possible and made something up. Both love themes are invented! And, considering that the second theme is pretty outrageous, I would wish it had been based on something more substantial than ‘such these can happen’ before it was pinned on an actual historical figure.
Other invented events are pinned on Miriam, based on ‘historically, these things indeed happened and it makes sense that Miriam could have done it.’
Despite these ‘maybe’ events, the book as a whole was enjoyable and had a lot of accurate information. The afterword is very specific about what parts of the story were based on research about the individual and what was based on research about the time period.
Four stars.