Matrix is one of those books that makes me happy to be in a book club. It’s unlikely I’d have picked it up myself, yet I learned so much about a period in history I knew little about – and about the badass women who populated it!
In Matrix, American author Lauren Groff fills in the huge gaps in what is known of 12th-century poet Marie de France. Groff’s fictionalised account of Marie’s life is based on speculation that she and Mary, Abbess of Shaftesbury, could have been the same person. She paints a picture of a woman who is devasted after being sent away from the English royal court at the age of 17 but emerges as ambitious, innovative and a true leader.
At the start of Matix, Marie has been ejected from her nice life at court by Eleanor of Aquitaine, the wife of England’s King Henry II. Marie is his illegitimate half-sister so maybe Eleanor doesn’t want her around to make a claim on the throne. But Marie adores Eleanor and is distraught to leave both her and Cecily, Marie’s maid and secret lover. The latter has chosen not to go with Marie because her destination is a royal abbey where she is to be a prioress and the nun’s life holds no appeal for Cecily.
But Matrix offers a very different view of what a nun’s life might have been like in Medieval England. When Marie arrives, the sisters at the abbey are half-starved and living in pretty miserable conditions. Once she realises that returning to the royal court isn’t an option, Marie dedicates herself to improving the lot of her community. Over the following decades, the abbey flourishes and grows and the working lives of the women who live there are showcased to great effect.
Every nun has an expertise that adds to the abbey’s success. Goda runs the farm, while others cook and bake in the kitchen. There are weavers too and a beautiful sister, Nest, who runs the infirmary, which is also an apothecary, and sometimes a dental surgery. The older nuns are in her care too including crazy Gytha who spends her days painting scenes in the margins of manuscripts.
Some of these might seem fairly standard roles for women but the abbey is also an early adopter of STEM. There are nuns who are talented engineers as well as nuns and local village women who put in hard graft on Marie’s increasingly ambitious building projects. One of these is the creation of a vast labyrinth which will make the abbey virtually impenetrable.
There are points where you have to question if Marie’s ambition has got the better of her and she is occasionally challenged, not least when she starts hearing her nuns’ confessions. But those who offer challenge invariably back down because they know that her drive for a female utopia ultimately comes from a place of love. And I’d challenge anyone not to love reading Matrix, my book club members definitely did.
I borrowed a copy of Matrix from my local library. Another way to read sustainably is to buy it at your local Oxfam shop or the charity’s online store.
For more book reviews visit the Books section of my blog.