(no subject)

Loretta Chase's novel "Lord of Scoundrels" has thoroughly charmed me (unexpected that) - sort of reminds me a bit of the novel Rebecca with more humor (not to mention sex). Dauphne Du Maurier lacked a sense of humor, that was the problem, too much sturm and drang. Actually this is the problem I had with the Bronte Sisters too, the blasted gals took themselves far too seriously. Wit, people, is a necessary part of life. If only just a tad.

So...if you are looking for good romantic historical fluff...with a touch of sex, and a touch of violence (she shoots him the shoulder rendering his left arm useless as a result), this may be the book for you. Also picked up "The Last Hellion" - which has a six foot tall heroine, yes, shocking I know. Usually they are teeny. But in Loretta Chase's novels they are 5'7 and above. Also above the age of 25, which is rather reassuring. And like to do traditional male things. Loretta Chase shall we say is a bit on the subversive side of the fence. Albeit not completely, her hero is a huge viril male, yet also a bit high-strung and has difficulty handling his emotions.

It's odd, the Marriage Plot, the critically acclaimed Jeffrey Eugenides contemporary lit novel that's apparently on a lot of Best Of Lists...is disappointingly cliche in its characterization and plot structure. The characters feel rather traditional and stock. Madeleine is the popular and pretty WASP, the girl who can get any guy and lusts after the brooding sorts like a later day Kathy from Wuthering Heights mushed up with Jane Eyre. While the poor sods she falls or thinks she falls in love with (honestly these characters are far too self-absorbed to do much more than lust), are Leonard and Mitchell...one is a brooding manic-depressive bohemian, who rarely bathes, and the other is intellectual preppy searching for himself...both feel like they wandered out of a John Updike, Philip Roth, or more likely the Graduate. Reading it did put me in mind of a Woody Allen movie - except Woody Allen did it better - see Annie Hall.

I'm not sure why this is...but the female characters in critically acclaimed male written literary novels are incredibly two-dimensional and unlikable. They tend to be blond and they all sound and act a bit like Betty Draper in Mad Men, we do get a few Peggy's but not many. This one seems to be a combination of the two - the elusive pretty girl who can't make up her mind, Caddy in Sound and the Fury, Molly Bloom in Ulysess, Daisy in Great Gatsby, the list goes on and on. As if women fall neatly in one category and never quite outside of it. It does however explain a few things.

While Loretta Chase's book is a virtual page-turner, filled with wit and astonishingly three-dimensional characters,...vividly described in few words and unpredictable, Eugendies Marriage Plot drags..with achingly long sentences that go on for pages at a time. Eugendies book kept putting me to sleep. But Jeffrey Eugendis tends to do that though...I fell asleep reading the Virgin Suicides as well. Maybe that's why he's so critically acclaimed - he's a cure for insomina?

While I've a general idea of where Loretta Chase is headed and know it will be happy, more or less...I'm not sure how - and continue to be surprised. Eugenides in direct contrast? I'm only a quarter of the way through - and I already know everything that will happen, how it will end (with a sort of depressing melancholy staidness common to these contemporary masterpieces). We know what will happen next. We know where these characters will end up. It's told to us fairly early on - if you've ever read these books before. His book unlike Chase's is not about character or plot, but theme. It's the cross that every English Lit major faces - theme. In English class after English class - they ask what the theme of the book was. Heck that's what they want to know when you send a query letter to a publisher - what's the theme? I loved James Joyce's retort? I have no idea. Does it matter? It gets to the point that the writer focuses solely on theme and nothing else. If I wanted to read a book that was all theme? I'd read philosophy or non-fiction. Contemporary angst after a bit rhymes with whine. We have rich privileged characters endlessly whine about the lack of meaning or emotion in their staid comfortable lives. They are empty and they can't figure out why. They can't find their purpose! Their journey or coming of age...ends...with a sense of existential angst. Sigh. This...THIS is why I prefer science-fiction, fantasy, romance, the pulpy fun entertaining reads - where the focus is on character inter-action or bigger things, then well the endless contemplation of one's own navel.

(no subject)

It's odd, I'm watching the Kennedy Center Honors...they are doing Merly Streep - who has had one of those privileged lives...where everything came more or less easily. She worked hard, but was gifted with amazing talent and beauty...along with a family, love and children and wonderful friends. Plus accolades...numerous accolades. Then, on another channel...the news reports a Christmas Tragedy, perhaps you heard of it? It has made all the papers, all the way down to South Carolina and back.
A woman in Chatham, Conneticut lost her home, her parents, and her children in a fire caused by Christmas Tree lights - or so the news reported. All in one fell swoop.

On one channel - we have a woman who...has everything, and has touched so many people. And on another a woman who has lost..everything, or just about. And I wonder, what flip of the dice or
cast of cards made this so?

Whenever I whined about my fate, my Granny would often bring up such tragedies. She'd tell me to compare myself to the woman who lost everything, not Meryl Streep. To be grateful.
And I am. For I cannot imagine either's world...one is a dream and one a nightmare. But the nightmare is more likely and more imaginable, and yet at the same time...thankfully not. As my mother stated on the way to the airport, as she related the tale..."I'm not sure I'd want to live after losing my parents and my children." How do you go on after that? How?