16. A Vision of Light

by Margaret Merkle Riley
Rated A+

From the blurb on back of book "An appealing novel about Margaret of Ashbury, a 14th-century Englishwoman, who is inspired in a ``vision of light'' to write her memoirs and tell a woman's story. Unable to write, she hires Brother Gregory to record her memories. He is contemptuous of her ambition, but hungry enough to accept her offer."

Gregory is a clerical scholar, who desparately wants a profound spiritual experience, intellectualizes constantly about it, whereas for Margaret, she simply lives it. He tries to control and force it, while for Margaret it is a gift of the ability to heal.

Margaret stays in hot water with her neighbors, her client's and eventually she attracts the notice of the church. She is saved by an rich and elderly merchant whom she marries. What started out as a marriage of convenience turns into a real love match and it is he who encourages Margaret to tell her story and also to learn to read and write. But when he dies Margaret has to face once again that a women without the protection of a husband during this period is extremely hazardous.

The book alternates between Margaret's and Gregory's clashes in their present and her telling of her past. I loved the medieval setting and where Margaret is describing life as a midwife in London. I really liked Brother Gregory because even from the beginning you knew that Margaret was going to poke holes in all his pet theories on the superiority of men and how inferior the minds of women were.