I am almost done reading my way through my dispute of the 2023 winner of Women’s Prize for Fiction. 5 books in and I still contend Demon Copperhead is NOT the winner.

Before I dig into number 5, The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell, I’m reminding you of the 3 criteria employed by the Women’s Prize judges: Originality, Accessibility and Excellence. These criteria are vague, but as I read through the shortlist I’m discovering how to breakdown each and apply them to a diverse group of narratives. Oh what an expansive exercise this has been!

So, let’s get to it. The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell is an historical fiction that tells the story of Lucrezia de Medici. Lucrezia also known as “the child bride” is the third daughter of a grand duke who ruled during the 1550s in resided over Florence, Rome and the Papal States. As a member of a powerful and proud royal family, Lucrezia, an oddity is cast into the shadows and lives in the periphery of her family which includes a rigorous Humanities education and etiquette training. Lucrezia is the only Medici child who digests the lessons, but unfortunately misses the ones that lead to her demise..

Lucrezia’s sister, Maria, on the eve of her wedding to to the Duke Alfonso dies unexpectedly. Should the marriage not be made and a male heir not be produced by way of this marriage, huge parcels of Italian land are at stake and so too are the powers of the ruling houses of Medici and Ferrara.

Duke Alfonso of Ferrara witnesses Lucrezia, a young child, and decides that in order to rescue their dynasties, he’ll marry young Lucrezia when she comes of age and begins her menstruation. Eventually Lucrezia’s period is revealed and Lucrezia is married and swept away from her home. Past habits of spying and sneaking about the palazzos at night, Lucrezia learns of her own pending mortality at the Duke and his consigliere’s hand from a visiting artist charged with painting her marriage portrait. Will Lucrezia be cunning and wild enough to source her liberation and impending death? Read and find out.

Let’s take a look at Originality. While I was able to inhabit the emotional state and secretive depths of Lucrezia’s imagination, I found myself looking for something to actually happen and for pieces to come together. The gaps between Lucrezia’s self-discovery and transformative events are large and limited in detail. In a spirit of Originality the prose was granular and immersive and while delivering the artistry, pollution free, natural wildness of years past, the story dragged on for me. I score Originality, 3.5 🖊️🖊️🖊️ because the descriptive prose is gorgeous, but plot wise kind of another story of a woman constrained by patriarchy.

When it comes to Accessibility, Author, Maggie O’Farrell paints and weaves a narrative that is visceral and immersive almost to a fault. Readers can feel the dank, dark, stone and metal underground zoo-like chamber for exotic royal pets. Readers can watch drawings and paintings that Lucrezia layers with images and hidden secrets. The voices are clear and class differences are evident though overall speech feels more English than Italian in places that should feel deeply Italianate. Still though, O’Farrell takes her readers through the changing Italian landscape, light, temperature, flower, fauna, beast and all. O’Farrell completely engages her reader’s senses and I’m all for it 4 🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️.

Excellence… The Marriage Portrait is really an excellent book. It is painstakingly researched, the characters are diverse, complex and while most are static to a fault, the main characters change both for good and bad as their lives intersect more intimately in the spirit of creating a male heir and sustaining patriarchy. The book is engaging, but the gaps are many and resolutions are incomplete. Yes, not a complete tragedy for another historic female, but not a full story either. 3🖊️🖊️🖊️.

Please note that I’m better for reading The Marriage Portrait. Coming out the other side of The Marriage Portrait, I want to look at art from this period. I want to taste and drink what people were consuming as long as it’s not too gamely. I’m intrigued by the fashion of the time and saddened by how fantastically uncomfortable it was. My final impression is: I am glad to be born when I am born and though the rights and equity for women are overall better despite current political conservatives seeking to control women’s body autonomy. This book is kind of empowering, but similar to a fantastic ignited firework fizzling out right before it detonates into a chandelier of colorful light in the evening sky. This book did not do enough to move the candidates off of the shelf. 5 down 1 to go!