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Hattie
HATTIE begins with the end—the end of a woman’s life. In a spare and powerful narrative, this soulful novel takes us on an intimate journey through the meaning of Hattie’s life and life in general, delving fearlessly into the complexity of our human relationships, our yearning for the divine, and the ways in which these paths cross throughout our lives. For Hattie, love and loss are so intertwined it is hard to separate the two. By sharing her stories, Hattie reconnects with parts of her lost life and loves and finds the courage to tell the whole truths of her life—in death she discovers her voice. HATTIE is a mystical, spiritual, and very human experience.
HATTIE is an excellent choice for book clubs and includes a CONVERSATION GUIDE with questions for discussion.
HATTIE is an excellent choice for book clubs and includes a CONVERSATION GUIDE with questions for discussion.
334 pages, Paperback
First published September 14, 2012
2 people are currently reading
817 people want to read
About the author
Anna Bozena Bowen
2 books9 followers"The world can be as small as the flesh around you or as large as the winds your voice travels upon." I am a creative, intuitive, spiritual woman and writer who is a mix of many experiences, relationships, encounters, and connections with the universe. I am a believer in miracles and what lies in-between and beyond. When one discovers their voice and their truths the soul shines through.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
December 15, 2012
I finished reading Hattie days ago and I am quiet, still immersed in the waters of her life. It is difficult to describe the experience of reading this finely honed novel. Such an exceptional book! It reminds me a little of the wonderful, Colors of the Mountain, by Da Chen, with its contrast of shocking moments and artful writing.
The stories of Hattie’s life are told in a first person narrative, in words that shimmer with the fullness of sorrow, wonder, evil, and love. Her storytelling style is not as simple as it first seems, nor is her life. Hattie’s voice resonates with the honesty of a child, as she describes the circumstances and vastness of emotions that she has experienced in a lifetime. It does not matter that our experiences may differ from hers; we understand the intensity of her fears, her musings, her longings, and her questions. As fellow travelers in life journeys, we are fascinated by her story and her reflections.
Hattie divides the events of her life into three parts: IN THE MEADOW, BY THE STREAM, and THROUGH THE WOODS. It is as if she begins by tossing a small pebble into the pond of her life---reflecting within the concentric circles of that pebble until the circles disappear into the stillness. She tosses a second pebble into a different area of the pond. It generates a new set of circles. As she reflects about the stories of her life, the pebbles tossed become larger and the wakes deeper, overlapping, and multidimensional as they release their truths, to her and to us.
Readers who have experienced brushes with their own mortality will recognize the circular pattern of her life review. In moments when we believe we may be reaching the end of our lives, our mind goes hunting again and again through its caverns of memories. We yearn for meaning, for the wisdom to be able to see the interlocking circles of our lives more clearly, and we are grateful when a life guide appears to assist us, sometimes so unexpectedly. If we are fortunate enough to see things in new ways and to grasp the meaning, our souls becomes stronger and our hearts more calm.
This is an extraordinary novel. Highly recommended.
The stories of Hattie’s life are told in a first person narrative, in words that shimmer with the fullness of sorrow, wonder, evil, and love. Her storytelling style is not as simple as it first seems, nor is her life. Hattie’s voice resonates with the honesty of a child, as she describes the circumstances and vastness of emotions that she has experienced in a lifetime. It does not matter that our experiences may differ from hers; we understand the intensity of her fears, her musings, her longings, and her questions. As fellow travelers in life journeys, we are fascinated by her story and her reflections.
Hattie divides the events of her life into three parts: IN THE MEADOW, BY THE STREAM, and THROUGH THE WOODS. It is as if she begins by tossing a small pebble into the pond of her life---reflecting within the concentric circles of that pebble until the circles disappear into the stillness. She tosses a second pebble into a different area of the pond. It generates a new set of circles. As she reflects about the stories of her life, the pebbles tossed become larger and the wakes deeper, overlapping, and multidimensional as they release their truths, to her and to us.
Readers who have experienced brushes with their own mortality will recognize the circular pattern of her life review. In moments when we believe we may be reaching the end of our lives, our mind goes hunting again and again through its caverns of memories. We yearn for meaning, for the wisdom to be able to see the interlocking circles of our lives more clearly, and we are grateful when a life guide appears to assist us, sometimes so unexpectedly. If we are fortunate enough to see things in new ways and to grasp the meaning, our souls becomes stronger and our hearts more calm.
This is an extraordinary novel. Highly recommended.
August 10, 2019
Hattie is an unforgettable woman, whose gentle voice and presence is a gift to those who read it. Her ability to sense the feelings and thoughts of others shows a gift she has gotten from the trials of her life. Anna Bozena Bowen creates the realistic voice of a woman suffering the consequences of abuse, and one who is able to find herself in spite of that trauma. The book is beautifully written in a format that makes it amazingly easy to absorb the totality of Hattie's mostly sad life. The first few pages draw you in, and link beautifully with the ending. The overall positive message is one of resilience, finding identity, and peace. I have recommended to friends, including some with a history of abuse, and they have recommended to others. I recommend to you too.
August 8, 2018
I met author, Anna Bozena Bowen this summer at a writers conference. Liked her immediately for the warm and engaging woman she is. I was excited to read her book, and little did I know how much I would love her book. The story of Hattie grabbed me from the beginning. I was intrigued by the story and character and mesmerized by the beautiful and powerful voice of Anna Bozena Bowen. Hattie is every woman. Hattie has the endurance and strength, the magical essence of women everywhere. I like a book with an arc and strong meaningful ending...and this book did not disappoint. Thank you Anna, for writing an amazing book.
June 9, 2015
Hattie's was a life of hardship, tragedy, abandonment, and loneliness. The plot of Hattie had the potential for being a dark and depressing read. It wasn't! Hattie was a woman of quiet strength and perseverance. She remained a woman of character despite many emotionally damaged people in her life. The author, Anna Bozena Bowen, draws the reader into Hattie's life and holds one spellbound with the depth of thought within the character's mind.
"Snippets" between many of the chapters add to our knowledge of Hattie's experiences. Though the reader isn't told exactly when or where this story took place, it really doesn't matter because the truths expresssed are timeless and universal. Please, allow me to share a few snippets that made this story meaningful to me at this time and place in my own life. They may give potential readers a feel for Bowen's style of writing as well as demonstrate why I found Hattie such an amazing read.
"Then, all of a sudden the rest of the words, as if attached by a thread, began to appear. In a strange way, this writing felt like sewing. It was as if the pen became a needle and the ink a thread, both helping me get through this horrible task."(p. 23)
"She always had something to share with me, be it a bit of something she had grown in her garden, or cooked up over the fire-smoke was always streaming out of her chimney-or just a snip of knowledge. Not gossip, mind you. Adelphia never gossiped. Gossip, she once told me, was for those people who had nothing inside their heads and were looking for anything to fill the hole. She said that gossip never fed a person. It just took up space like if someone had swallowed a rock. And, like a rock, it sat there until you got tired of it and spit it out at someone. Knowledge on the other hand, the kind that Adelphia shared with me, filled her being, through and through. It gave her strength as much if not more than the strength one got from eating. And in bits and pieces she fed her knowledge to me." (p. 45)
"Maggie was the kind of woman who collects moments in her head and saves them for conversation. Of course, by the time they are talked about she has added her own flavoring to them. Maggie could make one laugh at a funeral if she wanted to." (p. 71)
"I just liked to sit in the woods, near to where the bees were kept, and listen to the hum of their steady buzzing. I'd find a spot next to a tree and lean up against its trunk. I felt that the sun's light, falling through the tops of the trees, was washing me with its glow. It was like being touched by heaven itself. As the birds were chirping, and the leaves rustling, and the bees humming, I would close my eyes and drift away into their music." (p. 97)
"I sat there and looked at it sticking out of my arm. My eyes fixed on the strand of black thread attached at the eye of the needle. It was like a tightrope. I followed it all the way down to where it held to the limp sock in my lap. I don't know how long I sat there just staring. Not feeling anything. Wondering if it was worth mending a thing that was so used up." (p. 123) Was Hattie's life worth mending?
"Living alone is knowing that you open the door for yourself and there is no need to keep it open after you pass through it. Living alone can be life or death. It all depends on how you are with yourself. And it can be life one day and feel like death the next. But you just keep going. You just keep talking to yourself, knowing that someone hears you even if it's just you and the spirits of others gone before." pp.263-264)
Hattie is the best book I have read this year. I recommend it highly. I am grateful for winning this book in a goodreads giveaway.
"Snippets" between many of the chapters add to our knowledge of Hattie's experiences. Though the reader isn't told exactly when or where this story took place, it really doesn't matter because the truths expresssed are timeless and universal. Please, allow me to share a few snippets that made this story meaningful to me at this time and place in my own life. They may give potential readers a feel for Bowen's style of writing as well as demonstrate why I found Hattie such an amazing read.
"Then, all of a sudden the rest of the words, as if attached by a thread, began to appear. In a strange way, this writing felt like sewing. It was as if the pen became a needle and the ink a thread, both helping me get through this horrible task."(p. 23)
"She always had something to share with me, be it a bit of something she had grown in her garden, or cooked up over the fire-smoke was always streaming out of her chimney-or just a snip of knowledge. Not gossip, mind you. Adelphia never gossiped. Gossip, she once told me, was for those people who had nothing inside their heads and were looking for anything to fill the hole. She said that gossip never fed a person. It just took up space like if someone had swallowed a rock. And, like a rock, it sat there until you got tired of it and spit it out at someone. Knowledge on the other hand, the kind that Adelphia shared with me, filled her being, through and through. It gave her strength as much if not more than the strength one got from eating. And in bits and pieces she fed her knowledge to me." (p. 45)
"Maggie was the kind of woman who collects moments in her head and saves them for conversation. Of course, by the time they are talked about she has added her own flavoring to them. Maggie could make one laugh at a funeral if she wanted to." (p. 71)
"I just liked to sit in the woods, near to where the bees were kept, and listen to the hum of their steady buzzing. I'd find a spot next to a tree and lean up against its trunk. I felt that the sun's light, falling through the tops of the trees, was washing me with its glow. It was like being touched by heaven itself. As the birds were chirping, and the leaves rustling, and the bees humming, I would close my eyes and drift away into their music." (p. 97)
"I sat there and looked at it sticking out of my arm. My eyes fixed on the strand of black thread attached at the eye of the needle. It was like a tightrope. I followed it all the way down to where it held to the limp sock in my lap. I don't know how long I sat there just staring. Not feeling anything. Wondering if it was worth mending a thing that was so used up." (p. 123) Was Hattie's life worth mending?
"Living alone is knowing that you open the door for yourself and there is no need to keep it open after you pass through it. Living alone can be life or death. It all depends on how you are with yourself. And it can be life one day and feel like death the next. But you just keep going. You just keep talking to yourself, knowing that someone hears you even if it's just you and the spirits of others gone before." pp.263-264)
Hattie is the best book I have read this year. I recommend it highly. I am grateful for winning this book in a goodreads giveaway.
March 11, 2013
"Hattie" by Anna Bozena Bowen was recommended to me by a friend and I was not disappointed. It is a beautifully written and amazing, if not somewhat sad, story. The heroine, Hattie, tells in small snippets and episodes of her life as a washer woman, mother and wife, a life full of tragedy, hardship and abuse.
Beaten by her husband, because at the time 'A man can do anything he wants to his wife' and then abandoned by him Hattie has to take care for her children. It is a story of a selfless and pragmatic woman who gets on with her life without questioning her life and without giving up hope despite an abundance of tragedy. When she meets Sam true love comes her way but again circumstances prohibit their Union and he disappears as well.
We also learn about Hattie's own childhood and her parents and how it shaped her into the person she has become.We know from the first page onwards that Hattie dies drowning and the theme of being overrun by waves of tragedy and by external forces runs through her life, yet we rarely get the sense of Hattie being a victim. The story is told in a naive and child-like voice that can be shockingly honest and to the point, sometimes sentimental, sometimes determined and often inspirational.
One of the key snippets in the novel for me was a little story about a dog, who contemplates that it is not its own master. 'What do I have' it asks and there are several thought provoking snippets like this in the book that make this an almost philosophical read. Hattie has limited freedom but some freedom she has. She moves to Philadelphia, starts reading books and decides to look for Sam.
The writing is beautiful and entrancing. The author shows a great skill in making us feel the pain without resorting big or explicit drama. The worst is hinted at and implied, feminist themes are also incorporated with subtlety and we are left to take it in on our own.
I was completely drawn into the book and Hattie stayed with me long after I had finished reading. The book is a great achievement, I read a lot but this certainly stood out for me.
Beaten by her husband, because at the time 'A man can do anything he wants to his wife' and then abandoned by him Hattie has to take care for her children. It is a story of a selfless and pragmatic woman who gets on with her life without questioning her life and without giving up hope despite an abundance of tragedy. When she meets Sam true love comes her way but again circumstances prohibit their Union and he disappears as well.
We also learn about Hattie's own childhood and her parents and how it shaped her into the person she has become.We know from the first page onwards that Hattie dies drowning and the theme of being overrun by waves of tragedy and by external forces runs through her life, yet we rarely get the sense of Hattie being a victim. The story is told in a naive and child-like voice that can be shockingly honest and to the point, sometimes sentimental, sometimes determined and often inspirational.
One of the key snippets in the novel for me was a little story about a dog, who contemplates that it is not its own master. 'What do I have' it asks and there are several thought provoking snippets like this in the book that make this an almost philosophical read. Hattie has limited freedom but some freedom she has. She moves to Philadelphia, starts reading books and decides to look for Sam.
The writing is beautiful and entrancing. The author shows a great skill in making us feel the pain without resorting big or explicit drama. The worst is hinted at and implied, feminist themes are also incorporated with subtlety and we are left to take it in on our own.
I was completely drawn into the book and Hattie stayed with me long after I had finished reading. The book is a great achievement, I read a lot but this certainly stood out for me.
November 22, 2012
HATTIE the novel is a very special story that instantly and consistently draws the reader in. Its power comes not only from Hattie's recollection of thoughts and key life events but from the structure - or anti-structure - the novel follows. Purposefully done, the setting in which Hattie's life takes place is blurred just enough for her words to resonate in the hearts and minds of readers of any age. Evident throughout the novel, Anna Bowen made deliberate choices with syntax, diction, and structure in order to create HATTIE's unique milieu.
Hattie's appeal to emotion is never forced and never gender based, as I found even myself empathizing with each trauma Hattie went through. No matter if the reader is male or female, Hattie's words allow one's self to be easily put into her shoes. These same words pull in the reader as if he/she were right there in the room going through the same emotional and spiritual journey Hattie so boldly went through.
What is guaranteed is that each and every reader will walk away from HATTIE just a little bit changed - the story forever apart of one's life. She brings a wise perspective to life's traumatic and evil side that left me feeling hopeful and confident in my own journey. Does Hattie bring comfort, inquisition, wonder, and even turmoil? Yes, but it is up to each reader to decide what it is that he/she will take away from the experience.
I know I will carry Hattie everywhere I go and will revisit her time and time again.
Hattie's appeal to emotion is never forced and never gender based, as I found even myself empathizing with each trauma Hattie went through. No matter if the reader is male or female, Hattie's words allow one's self to be easily put into her shoes. These same words pull in the reader as if he/she were right there in the room going through the same emotional and spiritual journey Hattie so boldly went through.
What is guaranteed is that each and every reader will walk away from HATTIE just a little bit changed - the story forever apart of one's life. She brings a wise perspective to life's traumatic and evil side that left me feeling hopeful and confident in my own journey. Does Hattie bring comfort, inquisition, wonder, and even turmoil? Yes, but it is up to each reader to decide what it is that he/she will take away from the experience.
I know I will carry Hattie everywhere I go and will revisit her time and time again.
June 10, 2015
I struggle on rating either 3 or 4 stars. Maybe on another day I would choose four but today I'm going a little lower. For me this book was sad, simply sad. After reading about the author at the end it became clear how the story came about. I realize there are those where tragedy and abuse follows them through life as with our "Hattie" and I do admire her strength to carry on only to end in tragedy yet again. Beautifully written and told in shorter stories which might be why I am not absolutely thrilled about this book since I tend to lean more on novels with a more detailed story. Quick read, sad, beautifully written sums it up.
December 17, 2014
Listening to all the recent news of human tragedies, I hear all the ailing, grieving mothers across the globe and think of the novel Hattie, a story about a woman written and understood by Bowen in compelling authentic voice. Don't we all struggle to understand grief and loss and senseless violence? Hattie reminds us of the human struggle to prevail beyond the devastating experiences that shape our lives. A triumph of humanity and soul, Bowen delivers a timeless character; one that lingers in the literary mind. An unforgettable portrait of the tragic lives we can sometimes find ourselves in, Hattie reminds us we are not alone and I think of her often. Highly Recommended.
January 5, 2015
too grim
Just made me feel awful and the unexplained sequences seemed more like hanging ends than symbolism. The fugue of helplessness frustrated this reader, who seeks models of survival. I wanted to love this story but it stirred up unwanted memories and offered little hope. So, yes, a powerful reaction, so three stars for reader involvement and two subtracted for the unrelenting pain.
Just made me feel awful and the unexplained sequences seemed more like hanging ends than symbolism. The fugue of helplessness frustrated this reader, who seeks models of survival. I wanted to love this story but it stirred up unwanted memories and offered little hope. So, yes, a powerful reaction, so three stars for reader involvement and two subtracted for the unrelenting pain.
February 15, 2014
***3.5
This book is written so beautifully yet I had the hardest time getting it finished. When I started this book life got real busy so I think that's why I had trouble really getting invested in the story. I hope I'll come back to it another time when life is a bit more still and I'm able to give Hattie my complete attention.
This book is written so beautifully yet I had the hardest time getting it finished. When I started this book life got real busy so I think that's why I had trouble really getting invested in the story. I hope I'll come back to it another time when life is a bit more still and I'm able to give Hattie my complete attention.
May 26, 2013
Hattie's life story is told in three parts: In the Meadow, By the Stream, and Through the Wood. It is a tale of child abuse, spousal abuse, tragedy, murder, and poverty, which only ends in death. There are few bright or humorous spots in this trauma-filled tale.
The first person narrative is used to draw sympathy in this typical “it's a hard life and even harder for a woman” tale.
The first person narrative is used to draw sympathy in this typical “it's a hard life and even harder for a woman” tale.
December 7, 2014
I was immediately drawn into this story and was intrigued by the main character. However, the more I read the more disappointed I became. There didn't seem to be depth to any of the characters. It had a lot of interesting plot twists but most were only superficially tied into the story.
January 26, 2013
Hattie was brilliant novel. You could really connect and empathize with Hattie.
August 19, 2015
I liked this book, the writing style was beautiful, the descriptions of feelings felt valid and truthful. It was a little slow in spots for me, but definitely worth the reading.
January 31, 2017
I won this book from Goodreads giveaway. It is a story that will remain with the reader.
August 6, 2021
I loved the beautiful and simple prose of this book and the way I discovered Hattie's character over time as I continued through the book. Hattie's life appears in layers as the story weaves through various events in her life. Though her life was difficult in many ways, Hattie's resilience and vulnerability made me root for her and kept me reading. It is a story that continues to come to mind long after I finished reading the book.
May 8, 2024
Absolutely stunning. One of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read.
February 3, 2015
Hattie is an unforgettable novel. Rarely have I read such a perfect book in the way it enveloped me in its world, in Hattie’s hard, harsh and nonetheless transcendent world. Hattie the character is so vividly alive in this book that she becomes like an intimate friend. I did not want the book to end. I became so lost in the character and her world that I completely forgot the book’s beginning, which is the end of Hattie’s life. So when I got to the end, I grieved at her loss. For weeks afterward, Hattie stuck with me. Incredible power! A truly gifted writer! This may be Ms. Bozena Bowen’s debut novel, but I sure hope it’s not her last.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews