All the Ms: Mackey to Mackintosh

Mary Mackey: The Year The Horses Came, a Stone Age to Bronze Age novel, is not devoid of interest. But I find “wonderful goddess societies overwhelmed by evil patriarchal societies” rather tedious and unbelievable. Literally unbelievable. Studying history makes absolutely clear that although some systems are better than others, every society has its autocrats, its bureaucrats, its legalists, its spiritualists. The loving goddess religion of no-war and embracing inclusiveness is a myth–and not in the positive sense. As a woman, I find it less than humane. 

Jeanne Mackin: The Sweet By and By is about a woman researching Margaret Fox while trying to get over her lover’s death. The chapters skip back and forth from present to past. 

It’s a neat concept. But I don’t really get it. I feel about these type of books the same way I feel about dysfunctional marriage plots: either the couple learn to get along or they don’t; either the person dealing with death gets over it or doesn’t. 

I don’t mind the concept as a 90-minute movie. Truly, Madly, Deeply is a decent film. But I think it is notable that C.S. Lewis, on the death of his wife, only allowed himself a specific number of exam books to write A Grief Observed. Wonderful book. But there’s a point where the grief needs to be about the dead, not the self-absorption of the living, and Lewis knew that. 

Will Mackin: Bring out the Dog is a series of short stories all about military operations. I read “The Fire Truck.” At first, I felt somewhat dismissive. This story, at least, doesn’t have a plot (short stories are quite difficult to write well). But the images stayed with me, which was impressive. So I would designate the collection “slice of life” rather than “literary meanderings.” 

Anneliese Mackintosh: Bright and Dangerous Objects is another Mars novel. My Myths Endure On Mars novels take place after colonization has already commenced, about 50-100 years into the project. The two novels I’ve encountered so far are about the first colonists and why a person would go. I think something about the topic provokes the question, “Why would people go? What are they going for or fleeing from?” 

Clare Mackintosh: The Last Party. The genre is crime novel with tough, liberated woman. I’ve come to the entirely presumptuous conclusion that Welsh, Scottish, and Northern English crime novels are terribly Swedish or something. All dark corners and Kojak-type characters. Well-written (better written than the American equivalent in many ways) but…not my style. 

Sophie Mackintosh: The Water Cure is a dystopia novel told by several voices after a father dies on an island. And nobody seems happy–or appears to have a sense of humor. Not my type of thing at all.