Writer’s Blogk
by Zia ~ August 5th, 2005. Filed under: Books.That’s what I’ve been having lately. It could be the hot weather. It could be the post-Harry Potter letdown, in which nothing I read really grabs me. I have a huge pile of books that I put on hold a while ago, and I’ve been looking forward to reading. Amitav Ghosh’s latest, Margaret Drabble’s latest, and a whole bunch of others … Chalk it up to summer, HP letdown, or whatever you want, they just seem so serious. So I’m just going to do the few things I have read lately oh-so-briefly.
Charlotte Sometimes - Penelope Farmer
Kiddie lit, written in the late sixties. Charlotte is off to an English boarding school, sleeps in a funny bed with wheels by the window and ends up switching places with Clare, who slept in the same bed during World War I. They alternate every other day. Needless to say, this is very inconvenient–especially when Charlotte gets stuck in the past. Not bad, but not a show stopper.
The Children of Greene Knowe - L.M. Boston
Kiddie lit, written in the mid-fifties. Toseland goes to stay with his great aunt in a funny old castle, where the ghosts of children from three generations before come out to play. Quietly wonderful.
Heavens to Betsy - Beth Pattillo
Chick lit. Reverend Betsy Blessing has decided she’s not cut out for the ministry. Her parishioners hate her, she can’t stand up to them, and they want her out because she’s a woman. Even more inconvenient are the feelings that surface for her friend and fellow seminarian. Pretty good.
Club Sandwich - Lisa Sampson
I don’t even know what category to put this in. Chick lit that’s not about the chick? Crap marauding as serious literature? Christian fiction? I got to page 6, didn’t know if I could make it any further because the writing was so awful. Then the zinger:
…if you’re looking for a story about someone who grew up in extreme conservatism and ended up a liberal or, God help me, a moderate, shut the book now. I am who I am, and if you can’t read about somebody who things different from you, you’re not the liberal you think.
Well. If that’s not throwing down the gauntlet, I don’t know what is; I slogged through to page 50. It was painful.