I finished this book this morning. The novel proper is quite short and readable, although I don't think I'll ever really enjoy a work where a writer uses a foreign narrator or character from a culture they don't actually know to further their plots or theories. However, the extra critical material does an excellent job of contextualising this 18th best-seller written by a blue-stocking with proto-feminist sensibilities.
illustration from the book
I 1st heard of this book when researching #Peru for #FoodAndLit but it wouldn't do b/c it's all about France. It is an 18th-c. epistolary novel written by a French woman. The narrator is an Inca “virgin of the sun“ snatched by Spanish conquistadores, then taken by French soldiers to France. Her letters to her Inca fiancé describe France & its mores from the point of view of an outsider - a “Noble Savage“ - uncorrupted by European civilisation.
so-so3/5
It's quite a hard book to define. The narrator is from Montreal, and every summer she goes to the Inuit in the North to take care of kids. Through vignettes, we discover the roughness of life there: the violence of nature, but also the violence of men.
Why so-so? The first part is all over the place, the second part has actually a plot. Perhaps too many subjects into one book?
Pic: wildlife in San Antonio while walking
#CharacterCharm Day 29: I have been reading more of the works of #Poet Mary Oliver now that I have quit social media (Facebook, X, Instagram) over the past months. Poetry seems infinitely better for the soul.
pickI thoroughly enjoyed this Golden Age murder mystery. The characters are almost all over-the-top cariacatures, and as such, were hilarious. Gossip and judgment turns to murder and there‘s suspicion all around—and there‘s no shortage of witty dialogue and clever characterization along the way. This was my December #BookSpin (yes, another belated review!).
pickLike with most short story collections, I liked some more than others. So many were heartbreaking. But also full of love of family. Sony‘s Gone might have been my favorite, but The Bones of Louella Brown was also a favorite. #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks
pickThe darkest of dark humour in this story introduces me to the mind of celia dale + early 1960's England as two villainous characters swindle old ladies out of their meagre assets. The seedy nature of their enterprise finds Maisie + Josh Evans taking elderly Flo into their home + quickly manipulating her into a grim life trapped in her bedroom. The image of Josh creating his scrapbook will stay with me for a while. Bleak but bizarrely I loved it.
