Comments on: interesting review blog on New Yorker site

By: Sarah Dunant

Sarah Dunant — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 11:21:32 +0000

What an interesting message! I spend so much time in talks making people try to understand how the beauty of the renaissance was balanced by its brutality. How that level of seismic energy in a culture has a dark side as well as a light one. And how important physical pain was within personality and within religion ( especially Christ on the cross in agony for us). This is something that Sacred Hearts goes closer to addressing than the other two so I will be fascinated to know how you find it. Let’s stay in contact. I am staying in Italy for the next one, though it is such a mewling puking little idea right now that I dare not even speak its name for fear that it will go away. Now tell me something about yourself. Those manuals for instance?

By: Alexandra Korey

Alexandra Korey — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 20:41:21 +0000

The body is indeed a fascinating theme in this period. To me this seems self-evident… but then again I’ve spent a decade obsessed with 16th-century midwife manuals. There is more grit, are more hygiene issues in the Renaissance than anyone wants to read in a bedtime novel; we forget that the Renaissance was just a small step beyond the “Middle Ages” (previously known as “Dark”).
And as for authors replying to reviews, I’d say (1) it’s very social media of you, good job, and (2) in reality, they always have. Even in the Renaissance. Just that it was slower.

By: harriett

harriett — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 23:37:39 +0000

I read Mapping the Edge, three or four years ago, which was actually recommended by a student. I loved it; so clever and unusual — such an original chronology —

I heard your discussion on NPR and loved hearing your voice and your talk about how difficult writing is …. as you said “fallow years.”

Since you discussed this trilogy, I picked up The Bride of Venus, and I look forward to reading all three books.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:33:55 +0000

Thank you for providing the most intellectually stimulating conversation I have had the opportunity to listen to in a very long time. I am a working new mom. My background is in biology and I am a practicing pathologist. Life is hectic trying to be everything as I am sure you know. I am a new listener to talk radio as I find it a bit more calming than a screaming baby plus music. I was listening to one of your interviews about Sacred Hearts on my way into work last sunday morning. It was the best commute I have had since before my daughter was born! Discussions on science and religion are always interesting. You said something in the interview about a revelation that you had when you stopped trying to place your modern sensibilities on the choice, or lack there of, of entering convent life. You realized that there may actually be gains for the young women of the Renaissance. I had a similar experience while reading Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel many years ago. I do not participate in any specific religion and would have further balked at the confines of a convent. Yet as a woman who’s hunger for ideas, knowledge and challenge is never satisfied, it was enlightening for me to realize that the convent provided Galileo’s daughter with the opportunity to get an education, to read and to write. Her alternative was to become a young wife with a prescribed daily life and little intellectual freedom. I am eager to begin reading your books. Where should I start?

By: Lizabeth

Lizabeth — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:48:55 +0000

Just wanted to say how absolutely wonderful it was to hear you speak at Barnes & Noble in New York. I am reading the book now, but very slowly. I want to enjoy the plot of course, but I am also interested in how you use language. If I begin to go too fast, as is my habit, I then go back a page or so and reread. There are already wonderful moments. I can close my eyes, you know, and actually be present in the place and time you have so beautifully created. Thank you.