The Book of Mrs Noah

by Michèle Roberts

A woman visiting Venice fantasises that she is Mrs Noah. Her Ark, a vast, form shifting construct of the imagination, is a water-bourne library moored somewhere in the Lagoon, repository not only of creat-ures but of the entire knowledge of the human race. Travelling with her on her journey of self-exploration and survival are five story-telling Sybils, each representing a different aspect of woman's experience down the centuries. Listening to these dark, funny, beautifully narrated tales - often of oppression - is the Gaffer, a rakish old man with much to learn.

Genres: Fiction, Feminism, 20th Century

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Michèle Brigitte Roberts is the author of fifteen novels, including Ignorance which was nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction and Daughters of the House which won the W.H. Smith Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her memoir Paper Houses was BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week in June 2007. She has also published poetry and short stories, most recently collected in Mud: Stories of Sex and Love. Half-English and half-French, Roberts lives in London and in the Mayenne, France. She is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.

Reviews

[Lillerina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book treads similar ground to The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter, which I read for the same class. It's about gender and reappropriation of masculine myths, but in a much more reparative (h/t Kosofsky Sedgwick) way. Where New Eve was about the destruction of self and integrity through forced gender roles, Mrs Noah is about affirming woman's ability and entitlement to produce and reproduce art. I found the Sybils fascinating. This is definitely a book I can't wait to reread.

[Yi Li · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun piece of fiction that captures the complexity of feminist debates. Also contains some of the best short stories I’ve read.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

An almost plotless feminist phantasmagoria. Ms Roberts shows the problems and pain of being born female, but also describes the delights. Not an easy read but very interesting, especially on returning to it after more than thirty years. Very little has changed, unfortunately.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never read anything like this before. Roberts reclaims the ark as a feminist space, relegating Noah to the edges of the text and placing his wife in the centre. She fills her ark with other women and their stories, which range across historical periods and places, from rewriting biblical tales to imagining new dystopias. This text is like an experiment in mixing forms, and I think it works. I also think it's probably a book which benefits from being re-read.

[Mab · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unexpected treat. This book deserves to be far less forgotten than it is - it's sharp, erudite, entertaining, thoughtful and extremely weird. I was constantly struck by expressions and ideas, and intrigued by how little our conversations about women, and women writers, and motherhood, have moved on in forty years. Really recommend.

[Merryn Summersgill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed reading this as I liked having the little stories every chapter in different eras following all sorts of people. I liked all the biblical referencing think I will write my final English essay on this book

[julianna♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

very upset to find out the text is out-of-print, as it is on par with Atwood's handmaid's tale. it is a beautiful testament to the struggling category of womanhood, confined somewhat to 80s feminism but still very relevant; it's a conversation we've never stopped having. i love the clutch of catholicism on Roberts' writing, and the correspondance with Genesis. this is a book that has made me, more so than ever, want to write. i also had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Roberts and she is a fantastic individual!! i have to read more of her!!

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

somewhat amorphous plotless 80s feminist novel where our marriage problem having protagonist imagines herself on noah's ark, now a huge floating library containing women writers and their works from throughout history. a bunch of different women from a variety of backgrounds, called sibyls, hang out with each other and tell each other stories encompassing a variety of feminine perspectives from various times and places, ranging from the middle ages to a nightmarish near future britain.

[Tom Bennett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very well written, but didn't work for me. I persevered to the end, but really wasn't engaged enough to care about how the ending was brought together.