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I’m really happy that my face-to-face book club chose to read Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross this past month otherwise I’m sure I would have read it later rather than sooner and it’s a book that I’m thrilled to add to my list of great historical fiction reads.

There are so many different plot points of Pope Joan as it covers a period of at least forty years so I won’t go into too much detail, otherwise I could go on forever.  While we were explaining the plot to a couple of people in our book club, it took us like twenty minutes to go through the entire time line and not leave out anything important.  Not that it’s a confusing book because by all means it’s not.  I highly enjoyed it and found myself always wanting to pick it up to read and thinking about it when I wasn’t able to.

I’m not Catholic nor am I familiar with Catholic history but Pope Joan is about the rise and stardom of a female Pope during the ninth century, which I imagine is a topic of hot debate among historians, so I appreciated the author’s note “Was There a Pope Joan?”  I fully admit that I haven’t researched further into the subject as it’s part of history that completely intimidates me, but Pope Joan is an excellent book to breach the subject and act as a springing board if one wants to further explore or discover this part of history.  I fully appreciated the details in the book about how people lived during the ninth century, especially how women were treated.  Besides the fact that a female was able to rise to Pope under the guise of a man, I probably found this the most fascinating aspect of the book.

Joan was never at peace because born a female in the ninth century meant that she was viewed as inferior to men and was never allowed full access to education.  She was smart and eager to learn and begged her older brother to teach her how to read and write in secret.  A kind priest recognizes her talent and against the wishes of everybody around her, particularly her father, insists on educating her.  This is unheard of.

After her older brother dies and her younger brother is later killed in a horrible viking attack, Joan assumes his identity and enters a monastery as John Anglicus.  Under this deception, she becomes one of the most talented and wise priests and learns the art of healing.  She eventually makes her way to Rome where she becomes entwined with the politics of the papal seat and in time rises to its very throne.

Joan fears that her secret will be found out at any moment and I loved the tension that this underlying current created.  If discovered, there would understandably be an uproar among the people and death for herself.  There is a fantastic love story as well.  Hmm . . . I just tried to explain it but it comes out all jumbled and funny.  Let it suffice to say that I thought the love story was . . . well, fantastic!

Pope Joan is a novel that at it’s theme is the empowerment of women.  How they were viewed as less than human, built to be incapable of even thinking or acting like a man.  Almost as cattle simply to give birth.  They were undervalued and underappreciated.  It is this huge prejudice that Joan fights against her whole life and even as John must endure the men’s way of thinking as she has immersed herself into their world.  As Pope she tries to change this but comes up against much prejudice.  But yet, what is so sad is that 1200 years later and this way of thinking in many parts of the world has not changed.  It felt so barbaric in the ninth century but yet one could see so many parallels between then and today.

The best part about reading Pope Joan was having the author Donna Woolfolk Cross call in to our book club and chat with us for over an hour! I really wish I had transcribed everything that we discussed but I was too busy enjoying myself (and going in and out of the room because of course that’s the one time I have to bring my two kids with me!).   The hot topic of discussion was research and what was based on fact and what was fictional.  What characters were real and which ones had no counterpart in history.  My favorite part of the call was talking about how cruel and savage this time period was in the treatment of women and how in some cases we have gained so much but yet so little.

We also discussed the movie.  Because, yes, there will be a movie!!  Donna even gave us a “secret” link (sorry folks, wish I could share) to the movie trailer and it looks SO good.  I can’t wait to watch it.  But you want to know the best part?

*Donna has a fabulous promotion going on right now and YOU have the chance to be flown out to the US movie premiere and walk the red carpet!*

How do you ask?

All the details and exactly how to enter is on the author’s website where she says:

Simply buy a new, Three Rivers Press/Crown Publishing paperback edition of Pope Joan by August 9 and send me the original receipt. In August, I’ll pick randomly from the pile of receipts to select someone and their guest to join me at the U.S. movie premiere in the fall (exact date still to be determined).

Includes two tickets to the movie premiere, plus round trip airfare for two from any location in the continental United States or Canada,
and one night hotel accommodation for you to share with your guest.

To tell you the truth, your odds right now are pretty good and after visiting with Donna I would love to win and hang out with her, so not only is Pope Joan worthy to add to my library anyways but this extra incentive has me returning my library copy and buying a new copy in a heartbeat.

Check out these movie stills:

(Image copyright:  Summit Entertainment)

I hope the movie just as good as it looks, but it looks great!

So seriously, go buy the book.  You’ll want to read (and watch) this one!

Links of interest:  Pope Joan website and promotion details.  Details on how you can have Donna at your book club! Trish at Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’? is giving away a copy of the book (which you’re buying anways, right?).
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Publisher:  Three Rivers Press, June 9, 2009.  (Original hardcover published by Crown September 1996)
Paperback, 432 pages.  ISBN:  0307452360
Pope Joan is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.