In Which We Discuss The Tenth Circle

Warning; This Post Contains Spoilers for The Tenth Circle.

Daniel Stone is a perfectly nice, normal, suburban man. His wife is a college professor, so, as a comic book artist, he works from home and takes care of their daughter, Trixie, who is fourteen years old, and madly in love with her first boyfriend, Jason.

Or so her parents believe. Like most teenagers, Trixie needs her space, and her privacy, and to this end, has begun giving her parents information on a need-to-know basis. What they don't need to know is that she and Jason broke up. And Trixie will do anything to get him back.

So, she attends a party at her friend Zephyr's house, with the sole intention of flirting with everyone possible in order to make Jason jealous. This is one of those teenage parties where the soul objective is to 'hook up' with anyone or everyone. It's the kind of party where games like Rainbow are played. In Rainbow, each girl wears a different coloured lipstick, and gives oral sex to random guys. To put it crudely, the boy with the most decorated cock at the end of the evening wins.

Trixie isn't entirely comfortable with this, and drinks a little more than she intended to. By the end of the evening, she, Zephyr, Moss – Jason's friend, and Zephyr's love interest – and Jason end up playing strip poker. After a few awkward scenes, Zephyr and Moss end up upstairs, and Trixie is crying in Jason's arms in the living room. And that's when it happens. That's when he rapes her.

The news that Jason Underhill has been charged with rape sweeps through the small town. Jason is the golden boy, the star hockey player, the one with the bright and shining future, and a hockey scholarship just waiting for him.

Daniel Stone, Trixie's father, is furious. For years, since he met Trixie's mother, Laura, he's been trying to control his temper, and hide his past. Trixie has no idea that the gentle father she knows was once a dangerous rebel, that her mother was attracted to him solely because of the danger. Daniel's fear of becoming someone he doesn't want to be, of his daughter not recognising that person, comes through in his artwork, some of which is shown at the start of every chapter.

Daniel is currently working on a comic book called The Tenth Circle, loosely based on Dante's Inferno, which his wife has always been interested in. Dante's Inferno describes the nine levels of Hell, and similarly, Daniel's comic shows his main character, Duncan, traversing those nine circles of Hell in order to rescue his daughter ('Tracey'). When afraid or in danger, Duncan will turn into some kind of animal, in order to escape or defend himself. He has no control over this, and he knows that each time it happens he becomes a little less human. His one fear, like Daniel's, is that he will become someone his daughter will no longer recognise.

The theme of what Dante considers to be a sin is also something that is focused on in the plot. The first circle of hell, according to Dante, is reserved for those who did not believe in or worship their god. The second circle is reserved for adulterers and those who were overcome by lust, the third is for gluttons, the fourth is for the avaricious and the miserly who hoarded possessions, and the prodigal, who squandered them. The fifth circle is reserved for the wrathful, and sullen or slothful. In Picoult's interpretation, then, the first five circles are for those whose own desires were foremost to them, who only harmed or betrayed others as a side effect, not as their main intention. The sixth circle is for the heretics, while the seventh is for the violent, those who committed suicide, the profligate, and those who were violent against god, nature or art. Those two are for people who harmed other people or themselves intentionally through indulging their own desires. The eighth circle is for those who deliberately and knowingly committed evil; corrupt politicians and church officials, false prophets, seducers, thieves, and various falsifiers. The ninth circle is reserved for those who committed the worst crimes – the traitors. Cain, Antenor, Ptolemy, Judas, and Lucifer himself, the ultimate traitor.

Daniel somewhat agrees with Dante's classification of sins, with giving in to your own desires but intending harm as the least, and betraying a loved one the worst. But it's what he, and his character, find in the tenth circle of hell, something Dante never wrote about, which serves as the culmination of this theme. Laura considers this, too. Who worse to betray than a loved one?

Laura Stone, is wracked with guilt over what happened to Trixie. She has been conducting an extra-marital affair, which is why she wasn't at home or answering her phone that night. She was breaking it off, but that doesn't make her feel any better for being with him when she should have been with her daughter, especially when she discovers that Daniel knew, or rather suspected, before she told him, anyway.

Trixie Stone has taken to inflicting physical pain on herself in order to forget her mental and emotional pain. She's also become more interested in Daniel's past. He grew up in Alaska, in an Inuit village. Picoult takes this opportunity to examine the culture of the Eskimo people, in much the same way as she did the Amish in Plain Truth, although not to such an extent.

The book is written completely in third person. Picoult uses a similar style to Terry Pratchett to zoom-in on a certain characters thoughts, which leads to something interesting. Jason is convinced that Trixie is just trying to take revenge on him. Because he didn't rape her. They had sex, but he honestly believes that it was, in no way, rape. But Trixie believes that it was. And these characters can't talk to each other for all sorts of medical and legal reasons. They each assume that the other is lying, although the reader can see that the truth is far more complicated than that.

Still, as the trial gets closer, things start to heat up. Trixie is victimized by her classmates, who either believes that she's making it up, or assume that being raped makes her a 'whore'. One girl tells her "I wish Jason Underhill would rape me".

Things aren't going so easy for Jason, either. Although most of the class on his side, he's confined to his home for legal reasons. Trixie's father is after him. And he loses his hockey scholarship. Jason becomes more and more depressed, which leads to a somewhat surprising turn of events.

The Tenth Circle is both gripping and absorbing. I read it in one night, unable to put it down. Since it's in third person, it's impossible to get as close to the characters as in, for instance, My Sister's Keeper, which was told entirely in the first person. Still, the characters are far more dramatic, and the inclusion of the Inuit culture makes it a lot more interesting. The comic book, which is shown between chapters, a device used similarly in Sheri S. Tepper's Gate To Woman's Country (although that was a play, not a comic book), is pretty good quality, although fairly short for a comic book. As an extra, letters are hidden within the pages of the artwork, revealing a quote, which Picoult feels, sums up the novel.

In Which We Discuss The Gate to Women's Country

The Gate to Women's Country is set in the future of our own world, as many of Tepper's books are. The world as we know it has been destroyed - in this case, judging by hints in the book, by nuclear power - and the resulting civilizations that form from the small pocketed remnants of humanity are usually vastly different although not entirely separated from the world we know. The alternative is that humanity eventually meets with other worlds, enabling different societies to be shown and contrasted in that way.

Anyway, the book begins with the main character, Stavia. She is heading for a meeting with her fifteen year old son, David, who has spent the last ten years living outside the city walls as a warrior, as all boys do. No man is tested in battle till the age of twenty-five; between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five he must make a choice; to return through the gate to women's country, renouncing the warriors, and living his life as a servitor, studying rather than fighting, or to renounce his mother and live outside as a warrior, returning only once a year for Carnival (the only time women and warriors meet in an intimate manner, although they may talk over the wall at other times). The servitors are looked down on by the warriors, and some are even attacked by their century as they return through the gate. It is rumoured among the warriors that the returning servitors are castrated. It is, at least, known that the servitors never father children, since every son is brought to his warrior father (a daughter's parentage is not discussed unless she seems to be becoming involved with a close relative). There are many cities in women's country (Stavia's home, and therefore the main setting of the book being Marthatown), the cities branching off when they reach the point where they are unable to support themselves on the land nearby.

While the women spend their lives learning, rediscovering the knowledge that was lost, and growing food, the warriors spend their time in ceremonies, games (with sports similar to our football/soccer), and, of course, in battles with other garrisons. Warriors are not allowed to study; the founders of women's country decided that wars must be fought in hand to hand combat. They refused to allow warriors to learn techniques that will enable them to attack cities, to kill many people at a distance, and so on. A warrior must see the face of the man he kills. Therefore, when a garrison goes to war, to protect its city, no women or children are killed. Only men who have chosen to fight do so.

However, some women, (often blinded with love for a certain warrior) feel that the ordinances are silly and pointless. A few women run away to live as whores outside the city, some because a warrior has convinced them that he will run away with them, and others simply because they prefer it. Others, including Stavia, break or bend the ordinances in other ways, often not fully realising the point of the ordinances and the effects of their actions.

Some of the warriors also feel that the ordinances are pointless. Some of them make a game of seducing women out of the city walls, while others have more ambitious and sinister plans. Some of the warriors feel that, even if they take over the cities, the women will continue growing food for, and supporting them, while they both have their cake and eat it. They believe that the women have some secret, some weapon or such, and they feel that they deserve to share in it. Several warriors believe that if the women do have such a weapon they would be fully justified in taking it, women being too weak to handle such power.

The rest of the story is told in flashbacks from Stavia's meeting with Dawid, most of the book focusing on Stavia's romance with Chernon, a young warrior. As Stavia struggles with her feelings for Chernon and her respect for the ordinances, which forbid much of what he asks her to do. As certain events come to pass, Stavia finally learns why women's country is the way it is.

The twist, when it finally comes, is amazing, and completely unexpected, despite the many hints and foreshadowing's in the book. I bullied my boyfriend into reading this, and I had to try so hard to stop myself from blurting it out before he got to it.

The characters are amazing, and have a great amount of depth. The servitor who lives with Stavia's family, Joshua, although presented as merely background for most of the book, is, in fact, one of the most important characters. The amount of depth and emotion given to him is incredible, and allows the reader to empathize with him perfectly.

Although this book is as old as I am, it doesn't seem at all dated to me. Despite being one of Tepper's shorter books, at just over three hundred pages, it still has a great amount of depth and plot for you to mull over.

The contrast of societies is also fascinating. Halfway through the book, another society, separate from women's country is introduced. This is more patriarchal, and practices bigamy, despite a shortage of females (due to a practice of female infanticide a decade or so before). The differences and similarities between this society, women's country, and our own world give you a lot to think about. No society is perfect of course, but the thought of something completely different is interesting.

This is a feminist book, so, naturally, many of the villains of the piece are male while many of the heroes are, in fact, heroines. Some characters, such as Joshua provide balance, but the book is essentially about the difference between stereotypical male and female values.

In summary, this book is amazing. I love Sheri S. Tepper's work, and although this isn't my favourite, it does have a certain charm all its own.