I bought this book, thinking it was a biography. Disappointed when I saw that it was fiction, it languished on my shelf, unread, for 6 months. Once I began reading it, however, I found it an easy and entertaining read.

The myth of a female pope has existed for a thousand years. Donna Woolfolk Cross has written an entertaining novel based on this premise, and allows the reader to step into the 9th century.

The Joan of this novel is born of a poor, pious but mean-spirited cleric and his Saxon wife. Joan has a thrist for learning, which is contrary to the teachings of the church at this time. Her thrist leads her into conflict with her father, leaving home to attend school, disguising herself as a man [taking on her brother's identity at his death] and joining a benedictine monaster, going to Rome and serving as the pope's doctor, ultimately becoming a cardinal and then pope.

Cross has done an excellent job of background research. The reader accepts being inthe 9th century, as s/he is soaked in the appropriate atmosphere: we learn of the medical practices, the hierarchy of the church, daily life, the "zeitgeist" of the age.

However, I found the character of Joan too perfect. Joan was portrayed as more intelligent than men, more honest than men, more caring than men. She was so perfect that there was no opportunity for her character to develop. I felt that Cross' underlying purpose was to promote a feminist viewpoint, not to honestly examine the historical evidence of whether or not Joan indeed existed. This bias of our time undermined what could have been a great novel.

I thought this was a great book. I enjoy historical fiction, especially tales of women, ordinary and extra-ordinary, during the dark or middle ages. I actually read this book a year or two ago, and today I saw a documentary about Pope Joan. I was astounded at how much I had actually learned (and retained) from this novel. The historic evidence reviewed by the team of scholars was obviously known to the author of Pope Joan. I can hardly wait for two things: 1. The Pope Joan film (pleasepleaseplease do the novel proud!); and 2. The next novel from Donna Woolfolk Cross.

"Pope Joan" is truly a page-turning epic that will keep you reading until your done. Extremely well researched and detailed! Albiet, it's not a tale for the faint-hearted, as it deals (often in gruesome detail) with the attrocities which occurred in ignorance during the Dark Age. The victims of such ignorance, were usually women, who were treated as less than human. However, it is a book which most history-buffs and avid readers alike will be interested in, as it is intertwined with real life settings - and an unforgettable legend of a determined woman's triumph.