“It took her a few moments to get used to the smoke, but when she finally managed to open her eyes and looked quickly around, she saw . . . them.” - Kira Yarmysh
Though far from a hardened criminal, Anya has found herself arrested in Putin's Russia. Her crime is organizing an unsanctioned political protest. She is soon sentenced to ten days in a detention facility, but she is not alone. Five other women share women's cell number 3. Natasha is the oldest and looks down on the other ladies from her top bunk perch, chastising them when their squabbling becomes too annoying. The most antagonistic of the group, Katya, is rarely at a loss for words. She spars most often with Maya, the vain youngster who boasts about all the "work" she has had done to enhance her physical appearance. Derided by her cellmates who see her as a shallow creature getting by on her looks, Maya takes pride in how the men in her life make sure she has everything she needs in exchange for the pleasure of her company. Diana and Ira, the last two occupants of Cell 3 lack the flirtatiousness of Maya and the exasperation of Natasha and Katya, but feel more than the others the pressures of their brief incarceration and count off the hours until their release. Life in Cell 3 is very boring, interrupted by occasional shower privileges, visits to the exercise yard, and permitted use of their phones and social media. Most of the time, the women just talk. Through flashbacks, we learn about Anya’s past relationships, particularly the contentious one with her estranged father. We also learn that something is happening to the women of Cell 3, at least Anya believes so. Terrible things that cannot be mere coincidence are happening to those who come into contact with herself and the other women and Anya senses it will happen to her before her 10 day detention is over.
The book is reminiscent of the play Twelve Angry Men, the story of a dozen men trapped in a jury room until they can arrive at a unanimous verdict on the innocence or guilt of a young man accused of murder. Similar to the women of Cell Number 3, their personal prejudices and life experiences create the conflicts that always arise when you put people with conflicting personalities in tight spaces. The book is similar to the Bechdel Test, a standard developed in 1985 by cartoonist Alison Bechdel. The requirement for passing the Bechdel Test is for two female characters in the book or film to have a conversation and for that conversation to not be about a male. Anya and her acquaintances surely meet this standard in the matriarchal environment of the cell. As press secretary and assistant of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navaln, Yarmysh was jailed for 9 days for the same offense as Anya, the heroine of her debut novel and descriptions in Incredible Events in Women’s Cell Number 3 is loosely based on that detention.
For other books with strong female characters that meet the Bechdel Test standard, try these classic and contemporary titles.
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child, not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power, the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus. But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians.
In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women, black and white, mothers and daughters, view one another.
This is the book that started it all! The basis for the smash hit Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, Gregory Maguire's breathtaking New York Times bestseller Wicked views the land of Oz, its inhabitants, its Wizard, and the Emerald City, through a darker and greener (not rosier) lens. Brilliantly inventive, Wicked offers us a radical new evaluation of one of the most feared and hated characters in all of literature: the much maligned Wicked Witch of the West who, as Maguire tells us, wasn't nearly as Wicked as we imagined.
In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She's also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. When Charlie's parents banish her to Europe to have her "little problem" taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister.
For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. In late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life, until the unthinkable happens
The story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly un-human needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion; she is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted, and still wants, to destroy her and those she cares for, and how she can save herself.
The novel follows the lives of the four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, from childhood into maturity. The journey is not an easy one, and each is humbled and ultimately uplifted by her encounters with love, society and death. The work is based loosely on Alcott's experiences growing up with three sisters.
