I’m Jim McKeown, welcome to Likely Stories, a weekly review of fiction, and poetry.
Katherine J. Chen is the author of Joan: A Novel based on the life of Joan of Arc. She has also published in a number of historical fiction anthologies. She received an MFA from Boston University, where she was a senior teaching fellow and awarded the Florence Engel Randall Fiction Prize.
To begin this amazing story, “In fourteen-twelve, France is mired in a long losing war against England. Its people are starving. Its King is in hiding. From this chaos emerges a teenage girl who will turn the tide of battle and lead the French to victory, becoming an unlikely hero whose name will echo across the centuries. // Her job was picker-upper of stones. Not pebbles but rocks of heft and edges and sharp corners. As the boys gather in the field, Joan is bent-backed over the ground, digging missiles out of the earth with blackened fingernails” (5). These ‘mock battles’ are Joan’s introduction to war.
Time passes, “In August four-teen-twenty-two, Henry the fifth, King of England dies. Two months later, in October, Charles the sixth passes away. Days after his father’s death, the Dauphin, Charles the seventh declares himself King of France. (93). Six years later. St Johns Eve. A bonfire burns. This year there is no wheel, and the fire takes on a ghostly human form, like a sacrifice. // The top of Durand Laxart’s head just reaches Joan’s shoulder. She has grown and grown and grown and now towers over everyone: the women, her brothers, even her father. But this bodes ill for Jacques d’Arc. He can no longer raise a hand to her” (95). Joan has risen to a powerful woman.
Joan ignores the Dauphin’s orders. “The test comes in different forms, most of which feel less like tests in holiness than exercises in patience: How much will she, Joan, take before she goes back to her village? // ‘Is it in the hands of the Archbishop, Le Macon says grimly. // ‘Why? she asks. // ‘They believe I am biased in this matter.’ // ‘And they aren’t?’ // She imagines they will throw her in a river or give her a holy text to read aloud, but they don’t. A boy brings her to the royal stables, respectfully. While she waits for the Dauphin and his councilors to debate on what to do with her, she can make herself useful. (165). Joan continues her attempts at leading the French Army.
Joan, by Katherine J, Chen, has created a skillful story of one of the greatest women of in military history.
Likely Stories is a production of KWBU. I’m Jim McKeown. Join me again next time for Likely Stories, and happy reading!