Kate Manning

Well, THAT was quite a ride! I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. Manning has taken the bare bones outline of the life of Ann Trow, a Victorian midwife/abortionist, and created the fascinating story of Axie Muldoon, Irish immigrants' daughter who rose from the slums of New York to living in a Fifth Avenue mansion. Along the way, Axie gets shipped west on an orphan train with her younger brother and sister, is shipped back for her recalcitrant behavior, then finds a job as a show more maid to a local "ladies doctor" who takes her on as an assistant. Through pluck and enterprise, Axie--known as Madame Debeausacq--and her husband Charlie survive and then thrive on her remedies for "female obstructions. Apparently the law turned a blind eye to such doings until Anthony Comstock and his Society for the Suppression of Vice (which included everything from prostitution and abortion to contraceptive pamphlets and anatomy texbooks) got involved.

Manning's strategy for giving this story something new is to create Axie as a sympathetic character who is neither a crusader nor the monster that Comstock insists she is. We see her as someone with a conscience whose personal history prompts her compassion for the women--many of them in dire circumstances--who come to her for help. The novel's subplots and lesser characters are equally engaging. It left me wanting to know more about Ann Trow, her life, and her struggles. show less

I listened to this book in my car for the last 2 months and became very attached to Axie Muldoon, the orphan child who made a huge name for herself as an adult by providing abortions and birth control for women of all social classes in the late 1800s. Based loosely on a true story, Axie was separated from her beloved siblings as they were all sent by orphan train to the midwest. Considered unadoptable, she returned to New York, apprenticed with a midwife, and eventually took over her show more practice. She was dedicated to serving women in need but paid a high price for doing so.

The story line continued to interest me throughout the months that I listened and the plotline took many surprising twists throughout. I was moved by this character who was ambitious yet always compassionate, smart and clever, and I could easily see her as a leader of the pro-choice movement today. She worked tirelessly for reproductive rights during a time when that was shamed and hidden. May we never return to a time of illegal abortions. The mere thought of that is horrifying. show less

Based on real-life New York midwife Ann Trow Lohman, this first-person account in the form of a ‘newly discovered diary’ tells the life story of Annie ‘Axie’ Muldoon, a poor Irish immigrant child growing up in New York during the latter half of the 19th century. Sent away from her mother by a well-meaning Christian children’s charity when she’s twelve years old along with her two younger siblings, she fails to be adopted and returns to New York, only to witness her mother dying show more in childbirth. These events scar Axie for life and set her on the path to becoming a successful midwife and a notorious abortionist and supplier of female pills, the Madame X of the title.

Right from the start we can tell that Axie is a fighter, and I warmed to her immediately. Her voice is a spirited one, and she describes the hardships, deprivations, squalor and the personal heartaches and tragedies that she experiences unflinchingly and quite matter-of-factly at times, but her account is poignant and heartbreaking nonetheless. You get a real sense of what it was like living in New York during this period, especially as a child or a woman, and there are some graphic descriptions of giving birth and other female afflictions that are not suitable for the squeamish, but the prose throughout the book is wonderfully descriptive and imaginative, and Axie’s colourful turns of phrase often made me smile. But at the heart of this historical novel sits an issue that will still ruffle feathers today: that of contraception and abortion. Axie as the author’s mouthpiece makes a strong case for contraception and abortion (until the child is “quick”, i.e. can be felt kicking), and one would have to possess a heart of stone not to be moved by the stories of some of the women that she helps. Exposing the duplicity and hypocrisy of a large proportion of the male population at the time, Axie pursues feminist issues that bring her into direct conflict with the church, press, police and the judiciary; disguised as historical fiction, Kate Manning is able to address issues that are still pertinent and controversial in the present, such as the “population question” and standing up for the rights of women where their bodies are concerned, that will still have certain religious groups and institutions and pro-life campaigners up in arms. There are a few small inaccuracies in the timeline, but as this is an advance reading copy, these may well have been resolved in the final printed version of the book. The reason I can’t quite give this five stars is that I felt the middle section drag slightly, where the author spends a little too much time going into colourful, but in the end unnecessary, detail, that did nothing to propel the story along. A 19th-century American version of “Call the midwife”, this makes for thought-provoking reading.

(This review was originally written as part of Amazon's Vine programme.) show less

Sinking into My Notorious Life requires some effort. For one, the narrative is told in dialect. Readers must weed through the uneducated speech of a self-made woman and must also decipher the slang of the era. It makes the story more personable, as if Axie is sitting across from the reader telling her story, but it does take some time to adjust to the differences in speech patterns and word usage. Another point to note is that while narrating, Axie assumes that the reader knows and show more understands the historical contexts of her story. Orphan trains, such as the one that tears her apart from her sister and brother, warrant no explanation. Midwifery efforts are similarly clouded by an assumed familiarity with the topic. The lack of background details is not enough to cause major issues in following the story, but it might make the story initially more difficult.

Once a reader overcomes those initial obstacles, the rest of the story is a highly enjoyable, informative narrative about a charismatic and unstoppable woman. Axie is an absolute riot, with her no-nonsense attitude and fierce independence. Her unwavering loyalty and strong beliefs in women’s reproductive rights make her an excellent role model too. Yet she is not without an element of tragedy. Her longing for her family, her initial ignorance regarding reproduction and women’s health in general, and the knockdowns she keeps experiencing make her a tragic figure worthy of sympathy. Ms. Manning balances the heartbreak with Axie’s strong personality to make a very entertaining figure.

My Notorious Life is a regular rags-to-riches tale albeit one with moral implications. Axie Muldoon’s fortitude allows her to overcome every obstacle put in her path. While the constant battles for survival may wear down one’s moral code, Axie remains firm in her convictions, setting the stage for the battles that plague her professionally in the later years. The timeliness of the novel cannot be ignored either, since 150 years after the setting of the novel, women’s reproductive rights are still up for debate by mostly white older men. My Notorious Life is a fascinating glimpse at how desperate things used to be for women and also inspiring for the fight that continues. show less