Crazy Woman

by Kate Horsley

Sara Franklin of Roanoke, Virginia, has been threatened with incarceration in a mental institution by both her father and her husband. But when she is captured by Apaches in eighteenth-century New Mexico and called “Crazy Woman,” Sara begins to see her so-called insanity as power.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

239 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1992

About the author

Born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1952, Kate Horsley Parker, the youngest of five children, loved to read. Her mother, Alice Horsley Parker, inspired that love, which is part of the reason that she chose to write under her mother’s maiden name. In her mother’s world, young women were to be educated and refined and passionate. While in a private girl’s school in Virginia during the sixties, Horsley protested against the Vietnam War and worked in the Civil Rights movement. And then she went off to college and off to Paris for summer school. Every event in life was marked by a book, an almost prophetic glimpse into what would become a passion. After reading a book by Alan Watts, Horsley’s flirtation with Zen Buddhism became a lifelong fling. Flying to Paris, she read Black Elk Speaks, one of several works on or by Native Americans that inspired her to move to the West. It was her Masters Thesis work on Laguna Pueblo writer Leslie Silko that propelled her to travel to New Mexico where she has lived since 1977. She got a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of New Mexico. The research she did on women in the American West inspired her to make novels out of the dimly known but awesome lives of ordinary people in extraordinary times. Horsley has been teaching college English in New Mexico for over twenty years and is involved in hospice work.

Horsley dedicated her first published novel to her mother, and the other five to her son Aaron, who died at the age of eighteen in 2000.

Reviews

[Lataun · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I was a Crazy Woman to stick with this book! I hate when the cover of the book looks so promising but then you read the book and you find out that the book was only what the cover said and nothing more. I could have read the cover and been as satisfied as I was after reading all 239 pages, in fact, more satisfied.


Another recommendation from Julia Roberts...I think I'm 4 for 4 on recommendations from famous people. (as in, I didn't really like any of their tastes)

[Dawnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book on Julia Roberts recommendation. Funny, huh? It tells the story of a very religious (but not churchy) dreamer that marries a minister and travels west. She is kidnapped by Indians and lives in their tribe and much of them think she is some sort of witch. It was an interesting story and while I didn't love it, I was happy to have spent a few hours enjoying it.

[Mark Ehlen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully written story of Sara, a troubled East Coast child, whose Protestant upbringing, abject poverty, and alcohol-accelerated 'medieval' fathering push her forward into a seemingly never ending reliance on disillusioned men and self-serving institutional narratives. Very quickly you come to know Sara and also fear her: she is decisive, not impetuous; she will hold the hand of someone she likes and crush with a rock the hand of one she doesn't. She does this not out of fear but out of empowerment.

The book is set in the early 1800s, when almost every man she encounters casts judgment on her beliefs and ambitions without knowing what they are or who she is; she is mostly defined by what she isn’t. Sara seeks to find her self, find true friends, find a husband, find a meaningful life, and regardless, survive an highly distrustful and judgement-filled world. Just another story about the human condition? Well, maybe, but maybe instead just of the female condition in 1800s Roanoke, Virginia. (1800s men had other subjugations, including from the church, at the expense of the women.)

So Sara heads to New Mexico, part of the folly of 'westward ho!' that sent thousands to their early deaths. This is when Sara takes matters into her own hands, writes her own calculus, and finds her carnal mate, without leveraging any of the institutional norms.

So what is the book really about? For me, it's not about the East, or the Southwest, or Catholicism, or Protestantism. It's about the narratives that are in deep conflict to if not false when compared to one's own growing truth. Being schooled in false narratives is as old as the idea of narratives. What one does about these conflicts is how humanity advances. I believe it's about how any human, like our Sara, beaten down by subjugation, can become 'crazy’: how they become subject to the imperatives of their intuitions, which themselves are attempting to help the spirit survive what can be existential conditions. A spirit that deserves to flourish will create the narratives that keep it alive. All set in the 1800s, when such ‘crazy’ ideas would result in being committed to a sanitarium for the rest of your life.

To this extent, modern humanity starts to look progressive?

P.S. This book was the first for La Alameda Press. Its nice to know that a book was so good that they built a publisher around it. Reminds me of Rudolfo Anaya's first work, Bless Me Ultima, which also pitted the indigenous against the Spaniards and from-East colonists.

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was interested in this book because I grew up in Southwest Virginia, near Roanoke, and generally enjoy stories set in this area. Some of the descriptions and attitudes described in this area rang true for the time period, although a few situations and characters strayed into stereotypes. I'd be intrigued to know why the author chose to make her characters Presbyterian, as the religious attitudes and fanaticism of some of the characters might have felt more authentic to me if another sect had been used. I liked the main character despite her mental issues but some of the Western scenes also seemed a bit stereotypical. Frankly, I could have guessed everything that happened and there really wasn't anything fresh about the story to me. An OK read, probably historically accurate as far as it went but I think it could have been more interesting.

[Virginia Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will remember this book for a long time, and it's main character Sara Franklin Willoughby. I don't think I've ever been so worried about a fictional person! Even at the end of the book, I wasn't sure if it was safe to stop caring about what happened next! Read the book and you'll understand why I was so worried for her.

[Sean Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written historical fiction.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started super strong for me, but it started to lull in the middle. I skimmed the last bit of this book because it began to feel unbalanced and lost me completely.

[Rebecca Gregory · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an exceptional book. Written by a New Mexico author. She took me deep into the life of a woman in the mid 1800's. Mystical and magical.

[Teri Holford Talpe · Rating 3 out of 5]

More plot driven than her later writing (which I prefer) but it's always a pleasure to read Kate Horsley.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author couldn't have picked a better title. What a strange book.

[Christine Carbone · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good read.

[Moe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book at the library discard sale for 50 cents. It wasn't the best book in the world, but it did manage to hold my interest. It was corny and wierd (in some parts), as well as romantic and sad.

[Nathalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a sad book but fascinating. I was surprised at its power to carry me along, except for the long sections about the Apache Tribe. Every time Sara was in the story, I was mesmerized.

[Karen]

Julia Roberts recommendation