Historical novel set around ENGLAND (Birmingham)
Novel set in 17th Century MASSACHUSETTS and modern BARCELONA
20th March 2026
Cautery by Lucía Lijtmaer, novel set in 17th Century Massachusetts and modern Barcelona (and Madrid)
TR: Maureen Shaughnessy
“Funny, cutting and a savage indictment of the cheap consolations of meme-ified faux feminism, misplaced solitary solidarity, and sacrifices for the supposed great good….”
I didn’t get the humour in this novel. The structure – detailing two women’s lives in (mainly) two different time periods – focusses more, to my mind, on the intense competencies of the main female characters, whilst all around them men are trying to fashion and manipulate them, to keep them in their place. They achieve much and then must go back to basics and start their endeavours afresh.
The chapters alternate (with a couple of extra pieces set in Madrid added into the mix) between Massachusetts and Barcelona, and the latter chapters are all titled with a part of the city.
Barbara Moody in the 17th Century (and based on a real person (in fact the first woman to found a colony) was married to a man who took up politics. He was keen that she should play the ‘part’ but he died prematurely. She then set off for the East Coast of America and essentially took on the traditional male mantle, acquiring lands and lending money and proving her incredible competencies, even though she was a woman. She acknowledged the “wickedness of men” and yet ingeniously managed to “peddle alongside them“. She hooked up with Anne Hutchinson and the two of them created a community for women, under the auspices of religious meetings, offering instruction and edification.
In the early 2000s a nameless woman shares her life with the reader. Her boyfriend leaves, her eating disorder is triggered. He was involved in politics, too, so a tenuous connection between then and now is forged. Each of this woman’s chapters is set in a recognisable part of Barcelona and titled “Before”. This offers not only a location pointer but also suggests that something is going to happen. In the chapter Carrer de Verdi (Before) she meets a friend from the past, who, she is convinced, hates her. Over a plate of trinxat (a savoury pancake), she examines her friend in a truly desultory fashion, laments her own singleness and, although short, the chapter left me feeling drained of empathy.
There is a third storyline set in Madrid – “Now” – and one might assume that the Barcelona protagonist is central, but there seems to be more to these sections than meets the eye (I think, anyway).
The places outlined in the Barcelona sections are incredibly descriptive, from the people, shops, restaurants and road layout (even the bus numbers, in one instance, are listed) but overall it felt more like a visual mapping device and, as a reader, I never really felt drawn into the experience. Pure description, in general, is not sufficient to conjure up a relatable sense of place, it needs more.
At the end, the translator – in the Translator’s Note – explains how “readers might have felt left out and confused…” and thus she endeavoured to make some adjustments to contextualise certain elements and to bring the humour in the original to the English speaking reader. For me, although the style of writing is engaging, I still felt I was left standing on the sidelines, struggling to really understand the purpose and aim of this novel. The humour which is supposed to suffuse the narrative? No idea on that front. Maybe overall it is a novel that is trying too hard.
Tina for the TripFiction Team
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