Mari

I thought I was savvy Henrietta Stackpole going into this book eyes wide open, but I was actually Pansy, completely innocent and oblivious to the reality right in front of me.

Isabel Archer is such a complex character. She thinks herself free of Society's expectations and wants to see every inch of the world, yet she is somehow still ensnared by those expectations.

The book lags a bit in places but when the last third of the book gets going, it's like a high-speed rail of drama and intrigue toward an ambiguous ending. I almost threw the book aside, but then laughed at the hopeful mystery Henry James left us.

Actively living an engaging life can be tiresome and neverending, but it can also be filled with hope and joy until the final page is turned.

This book is one of the best all-encompassing explainers of how Christian Evangelicalism affects every facet of the United States Government and religious patriarchy's role in shaping modern America.

Evangelicalism is just as underhanded and sinister at silencing balanced discussions about equal rights as it is SA victims. People like Jim Bakker, Pat Robertson, Bill Gothard and Phyllis Sclafly started a cesspool of far right, anti-science, anti-woman rhetoric that's still poisoning the public consciousness today.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand how the traditional, peace-loving, socialist Christian Jesus turned into the gun-toting figure many hyper-religious, meglomaniacal über-conservatives follow today.