Once Upon a Marriage
This time-travel novel switches between the 21st-century US and 6th-century France/Spain. The narrator, Nicole, happens to be a history professor in the 21st century researching proto-feminism in the context of agency and power women exercised in the Middle Ages. Specifically, she is researching the life of Princess Ingund (from France) who marries Hermenegild, a Visigothic Prince (in today’s Spain). Ingund’s claim to fame is her consistent championing of Catholicism in the face of the alternative (Arianism) version of Christianity. She succeeds in converting her husband as well (within a generation Arianism disappears from the kingdom and her husband is eventually canonized).
Had the author focused on this alone, we would have a novel with different and changing perspectives on the topic across time. However, Nicole is saddled with an indifferent fiancé, a failing engagement, a patriarchal (and misogynistic) work environment, a dying mother and a potentially sick father etc. This stretches the suspension of disbelief beyond the breaking point! And, add to that the notion that someone would take off on time-travel adventures with all of this going on. There are other problematic issues: the other protagonist, Sebastian, is also able to time travel, but doesn’t want to discuss it with Nicole, though the two of them are falling in love with each other and meeting secretly every day in the 6th century. Ingund, after not seeing Nicole for five years, asks her ‘are you okay’, yet later in the book she asks Nicole to explain what okay means! Another edit or two could fix such problems.
The book is at its strongest in the 6th century and does introduce us to a time and place that are unusual for historical fiction. Is this enough to ignore the issues above? Let the reader decide.
