Women’s Voices

I like stories with strong female protagonists because they appeal to my feminist nature. Like many women over the last few years, I’m appalled and disheartened by the rise in social acceptance of misogyny. Women of my generation hoped we’d made progress over the last few decades, but apparently not as much as we thought.

At any rate, a mentor in my MFA program recommended that I read The Power. I picked it up the same week that Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified at the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The story was cathartic. I cheered for the female characters who recognized their power and were strategic in how they used it.

Lord Acton said “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely. An observation that a person’s sense of morality lessens as his or her power increases.” The ending is a sobering reminder of that axiom.