The Confession of Jack Straw

by Simone Zelitch

Ursula LeGuin said about this "In most novels about the Middle Ages, the deck is all face cards. Jack Straw is rare and admirable in its uncompromising, unpatronizing identification with a peasant―an intelligent, vulnerable man caught up in the dream of equality that flared into the Peasant Revolt. The novel lets the reader stand at that crossroads of politics and mysticism and see 1776, 1848, 1917, Tiananment Square―the same dream, the same betrayal. A very moving, honest book." Kirkus "A fast-paced, intriguing account of the failed Peasant Revolt in 14th Century First-novelist Zelitch provides a rendering that is evocative and plausible as well as convincing in its historical sweep...Zelitch offers a satisfying variety of incident, with enough texture and historical detail―costume, festivity, songs―to evoke the medieval milieu. The Middle Ages are rendered not on silver plattersor thrones but on the dusty roads and straw beds of peasants, who are given center stage here, not limited to comic relief." The Confession of Jack Straw won the Hopwood Award for Major Fiction.

Genres: Historical Fiction

260 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1991

Reviews

[Shomeret · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading Judenstaat, I was curious about what else Zelitch had written and came across this book dealing with the English Peasant Revolt in the 14th century. I'd never read any historical fiction dealing with this event, and I've always been interested in it.

My own readings in history have shown me that every well intentioned revolution or revolt has been corrupted or co-opted for far less high-minded purposes. It neither surprised nor disappointed me that the same thing happened to the Peasants' Revolt, but reading about it was a depressing experience.

I did like Jack Straw's role as a storyteller. A couple of the stories he told were enjoyable, and I considered them high points in The Confession of Jack Straw.

For my complete review see http://shomeretmasked.blogspot.com/20...

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great historical novel from 1990, ostensibly the confession of Jack Straw, one of the participants in the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. Straw’s story is invented, with his life in Gravesend, his crippled sister, Jenny, and his time as a companion to the real heretical preacher, John Ball. An unjust imprisonment leads him reluctantly to join with Wat Tyler and the known consequences. No anachronisms and a superb rendition of the time, with the effects of plague and social change central but some compensations for harsh lives.

[Rick Goff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Straw is a name associated by historians with the English Peasant Revolt of 1381. It’s not agreed who owned that name. One historian, Walsingham, either quoted or invented a confession. This novel is an alternate confession.

What appeals to me about this novel is that it views this episode from the perspective of a peasant. I get a sense of the conditions of these folks, their grievances and their hopes. I might call it A People’s Novel Of The English Peasant Revolt.

[Miriam Seidel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Straw, a legendary leader of the English Peasant Revolt of 1381, speaks his own story as he transforms from a naïve villager to someone who questions, and then attacks, the received order of his time. I felt embedded in another world here—struggling along with Jack Straw (his nom de guerre) to follow events larger than he is, and at the same time fully awake to the sensory reality of his world, given a dreamlike vividness through Zelitch’s language. It’s a powerful read, laying out Zelitch’s continuing interest in the ways history is written: in this case, evoking the story that might have been told by the losers.

[Phyllis · Rating 4 out of 5]

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