“Exquisitely written and richly detailed, My Notorious Life is a marvel. Kate Manning’s rags-to-riches Dickensian saga brings to vivid life the world of nineteenth-century New York City, in all its pitiful squalor and glittering opulence. I loved this novel.” —Christina Baker Kline, New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train A brilliant rendering of a scandalous historical figure, Kate … scandalous historical figure, Kate Manning’s My Notorious Life is an ambitious, thrilling novel introducing Axie Muldoon, a fiery heroine for the ages. Axie’s story begins on the streets of 1860s New York. The impoverished child of Irish immigrants, she grows up to become one of the wealthiest and most controversial women of her day.
In vivid prose, Axie recounts how she is forcibly separated from her mother and siblings, apprenticed to a doctor, and how she and her husband parlay the sale of a few bottles of “Lunar Tablets for Female Complaint” into a thriving midwifery business. Flouting convention and defying the law in the name of women’s reproductive rights, Axie rises from grim tenement rooms to the splendor of a mansion on Fifth Avenue, amassing wealth while learning over and over never to trust a man who says “trust me.”
When her services attract outraged headlines, Axie finds herself on a collision course with a crusading official—Anthony Comstock, founder of the Society for the Suppression of Vice. It will take all of Axie’s cunning and power to outwit him in the fight to preserve her freedom and everything she holds dear.
Inspired by the true history of an infamous female physician who was once called “the Wickedest Woman in New York,” My Notorious Life is a mystery, a family saga, a love story, and an exquisitely detailed portrait of nineteenth-century America. Axie Muldoon’s inimitable voice brings the past alive, and her story haunts and enlightens the present.
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This fictional account of the life of Axie, born into poverty, orphaned, and separated from her siblings. This survivor found herself as a housemaid to a midwife where she learned her trade in an era where the laws were blurred and religious zealots damned anyone who might interfere with conception. This story embraces the age-old argument of a woman’s right to choose. I loved the main character and her strength!
I must confess: I read closely for 300 pages, then skimmed about 100 before reading the last 30-40 closely again. I don’t feel like I missed anything. I liked Kate Manning’s My Notorious Life, but it was simply too long. More than once I had to flip back through hundreds of pages to refresh myself on some person or event – and it’s not like it took me six months to read!
My Notorious Life opens with a suicide – whose and for what reasons will not be revealed until the closing pages of this drama. In between, we are treated to the life and times of Axie Muldoon aka Mrs. Ann Jones aka Madame DeBeausacq aka Madame X. Axie-Ann-Madame is the orphan daughter of Irish immigrants. The defining events of her early life are riding the orphan train west from New York City to Rockford, Illinois, where she alone among her siblings is not adopted, and watching her mother die in childbirth. Both will mark her, of course, and set her on the path to becoming Madame X, the city’s most sought midwife who delivers her patients safely of their babies, though often “prematurely.”
Madame is on a collision course with Anthony Comstock, he of the famous Comstock laws, though and it is this battle that leads to the events of the opening pages – and the closing ones.
Written in the style of a memoir, Manning does a nice job of capturing the voice of a poor immigrant girl in nineteenth century. The language is pitch-perfect, non only Axie-Ann-Madame’s, but especially that of her German friend, Greta, whose own history is so intertwined with that of the protagonist.
Returning to my opening comments, the (undue) length is the only knock I have against My Notorious Life. Certainly there were times I wanted to reach through the pages and shake one or more of the characters, but that is the hallmark of good writing. The twists and turns are mostly unpredictable, the language rich, and the work of the midwife deftly handled.
(This review was originally published at http://www.thisyearinbooks.com/2014/04/my-notorious-life.html)
Not memorable
Really interesting story.
Loved it.
What an amazing protagonist! I loved going along on the wild ride of Annie’s life through the pages of this book. From the mean, poverty stricken streets of her childhood in New York City, to the Orphan Trains to the Midwest and back to new York and the struggle for love and hope to move up the ladder into “New Money.” This story illuminated the dark ages of Women’s health issues and the ugly fight some took on for change. Will open your eyes. A worthwhile read.
Excellent read.
A page-turner – couldn’t put it down.
Wonderful period novel
Historical fiction that brings to light the reproductive plight of women in the late 1800s.
Interesting historical review of women’s lack of reproductive rights and what it took to go against the norm of the day. I thought the writing was a bit plodding and skimmed a bit but overall enjoyed it.
Perspective-altering is the highest praise that I can give a book. It’s my goal in every everything I write. My Notorious Life altered my perspective as much as any book I’ve ever read–better yet because it took a while for my brain to swallow.
Courteous, decent, compassionate people strive to understand the turmoils that others experience. My Notorious Life depicts the turmoils of half the human population. Many in that half can’t see through the veil of cultural norms that hides the reality, the subliminal paradoxes of the ethics imposed on women. The other half, like me, need to read this book to have a chance of understanding how deviously the cards are stacked against women.
I read My Notorious Life four years ago. In my secret, arcane scoring system, I gave it ***+ (on a scale of 5 *s) which means I read it, thought it was okay-good, no problem finishing it, but didn’t blow me away. And then, in the coming weeks, months, and, you better believe it, years, the stories, the plights of the characters, the vindictiveness of the villains who had no idea of their villainy but whose assumptions made them as rotten as rotten gets fermented in me and made me a better person.
My Notorious Life is the reason that we think of literature as “art” rather than mere “entertainment.” Experiencing that life through the page, that well-meaning but damned life, that helpful but targeted, decent and caring but criminal, that supremely pragmatic but absurd life, showed me how half of humanity can be caught in a web that leads directly to their own destruction, with no recourse, by caring for another.
As a novelist, I study the art of the moral quandary, spend hours pondering situations where a character is truly damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t. It took a few months, but I came to understand that female humans are born into a moral quandary that can be diverted, but never escaped, by strict adherence to a code of ethics that holds them in no regard.
I like the writing style. It was very believable!
I love historical books that are based on real issues. This was one!
Too slow. I get it! She’s a product of her horrible conditions.
Good read
Very realistic historical fiction of men wielding power over women’s right to have midwives, prevent pregnancy and have early term abortions.
Although adherence to vernacular and syntax were sometimes difficult to wade through, Axie’s story was powerful. It is well worth reading!
I loved this book. The story is so well-written and the characters so well-developed. Even though this story took place over 150 years ago, many of the issues are still relevant to this day. I was equally enraged and inspired as I read this book. Highly recommended.
I could not wait to read this book once I started. the author has a great command of the English language. Kate has a gift. thanks for writing NICE (<: