http://theconversation.com/the-stella-count-is-in-women-authors-dont-get-fair-treatment-31357
And it got me thinking. Outside the realm of sparkly vampires, teenagers fighting to the death, what I'm sure is dreadful sado-masochistic romance (can someone explain the appeal of the 50 Shades series to me? Actually don't...I'm pretty sure I can figure it out and it horrifies me), and teenage wizards (I'm really sorry to lump J. K.Rowling with these folks as Harry and co deserve better but the sad fact remains that these are the only female authors who get anywhere near Rowling's sales), do we read books by women? If they aren't getting reviewed, then the main stream public surely isn't- sure literary types will read Hilary Mantell, A. S. Byatt or Margaret Atwood; crime lovers Patricia Cornwall, P. D. James and Agatha Christie (because there is always more Agatha Christie to read); classics lovers Austen, Brontes and Eliot...but aside from the above list of works by popular female novelists (the Twilight, Hunger Games, 50 Shades and Harry Potter books) when was the last time you saw masses of people reading a book written by woman on public transport? And one that was written for adults (so not Harry Potter, Twilight or The Hunger Games) and had literary merit of some kind (so not a 50 Shades book or Twilight...yep come at me fans of those novels...I've already laid into Hunger Games on this blog in the past so I'll give it a break from insult by me, especially as I do enjoy the movies) at that?
So this has inspired a mission for me...the mission is to read more books by women...granted I already read quite a few as I used to work on 19th century female authors for my erstwhile PhD so another caveat from the 20th century and another not Agatha Christie (OK maybe some Agatha...because seriously she was awesome and her output somewhat ridiculously prolific) and as many genres/types as possible. And I will blog what I think so you can be inspired to go out and do likewise...though maybe you might like to include the 19th century or earlier as maybe you haven't read as much of the ladies of that era as I have.
The books I've planned on reading/ have already read thus far are (blogs to come on those):
- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (already read...some words on it below)
- The Protected by Claire Zorn (already read...some words on it below)
- All That I Am by Anna Funder (already read)
- Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (already read)
- Emerald City by Jennifer Egan (already read) (Egan is one of my favourite authors and if you haven't read anything by her, I strongly recommend you do...in particular that you read her Pulitzer Prize winning, A Visit From the Goon Squad)
- Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (already read) (an actual graphic novel by a woman! SO rare!)
- The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer (already read)
- The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
- Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
- Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
- The Harp in the South by Ruth Park
- Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
- Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
- Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt (currently half way through)
- All of the works of Nancy Mitford
- The Keep by Jennifer Egan
- Three Lives by Gertrude Stein (at the insistance of my friend who posted the original article- she is currently reading her thesis in part on Stein)
- The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (shockingly I have never read it)
- The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
- Just Kids by Patti Smith
- The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers
So getting down to business with a bit of a post about two books I technically read before I started this mission but which fit the parameters...Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (the one book by a woman in recent years that might pass my public transport test) and The Protected by Claire Zorn. Crime in one camp and YA in the other!
I had never been particularly compelled to read Gone Girl until I saw the trailers for the film and being a David Fincher fan who has a belief that Ben Affleck does have some solid acting muscles (you are welcome to disagree but I think he has increasingly proven himself, including in Gone Girl), I decided I should read it before I saw the film. I didn't even realise it was by a woman until I bought it- horrible I know BUT I don't read the paper except online so I rarely read book reviews (maybe I'm part of the problem) and I also tend to actively rebel against books that are read by lots of people on public transport (you can call me a snob, you are probably right, but rarely has a book that got broad bus readership been something I've enjoyed- the Harry Potter series was a rare exception). It is also a crime novel and they have to be outstandingly unpredictable (or by Agatha Christie or a little bit 1920/30s noir) or they struggle to hold my attention.Therefore I approached Gone Girl with caution.
The odd thing was I was also intrigued as I kept seeing things that said that they couldn't tell you practically any of the plot or it would be ruined, and increasingly people whose taste in books I trust enough I let them recommend things to me started saying it was amazing (to those in the know, yes that pun was completely intended).
So I picked it up and I read it in about a day (maybe two I can't remember but needless to say I read it quickly). Not assuming that all of you have read the book and/or seen the movie, I will limit what I say as others were right when they said that you share anything and you potentially ruin everything.
Basic plot summary, a woman, Amy Dunne, goes missing and suspicion leans towards her husband, Nick, and the book is split between his first person narrated account of events from the day she disappears onwards and her diary entries from their first meeting up until she goes missing. It is much more fascinating than that makes it seem and that is part of why I can't tell you much more. It is intriguing and compelling and since reading it, I have been madly recommending it to people (I even got my Dad to read it which is a rarity and he loved it). This is not just the suspense of the novel as a crime thriller but the broader implications, Flynn neatly weaves into the action of the novel. The novel has a lot to say about the media (the film latched onto that aspect of the novel and amplified it a tad, but not in a way that changed the message, not surprising considering Flynn wrote the script), community response to tragedy in the modern age of the two second attention span, the dynamics of relationships and the role of power in different relationships, constructed versus real identities especially as both of the main characters are writers, societal norms and expectations on men and women, and construction of gendered world views and prejudices. It has an immensely rich pool of subject matter floating just beneath what could be dismissed on face value as just another crime thriller. The characters are complex,flawed, and not particularly likeable- for those who have seen the film but not read the book, film Nick is more affable than book Nick, not because of Affleck (he is perfect casting) but because the less likeable aspects of Nick were lost with the loss of his internal monologue- and that just adds to the suspense. Actually just to contradict myself for a minute, personally I found Go (Nick's twin sister) and Detective Boney (the lead detective on the case) likeable but as they are strong, no nonsense women in traditionally male jobs who speak their minds with abandon and to varying degrees actively reject the power that the men in their lives try to overwhelm them with (particularly in their interactions with Nick), I feel that sadly many readers will miss how likeable they are which further hits home some of the points Flynn is to be making about gender construction and about the interplay of power and gender, taking them beyond the novel and into the mind and hearts of her reader challenging their assumptions of how female characters in a book should behave (something they surely need to grapple with first before they reinvent their view of real women in society). Of the recently written books that I have read in the last year or so, this is possible the one (for adults) that I would most strongly recommend because it has a richness to it that draws you in and a toughness in its tackling of large ideas that really packs a punch. And don't forget I don't really like crime novels for the most part so that is strong endorsement. Even if you have seen the film, I would recommend the book as there is more to be found. Also if you read the book but not seen the film, I would also recommend the film- it is quite good and Rosamund Pike is truly amazing (yep I went there again) as Amy.
From adult crime to teen emotion...
I have to declare a bias here as I know the author. In fact I have memories of reading some early drafts of what would become some of the first chapters of The Protected many years ago when she and I were in a book club together. That said, she is getting a lot of traction with the teen community (if the teens I know are anything to go by, my nieces and nephew were super excited that I gave one of the them The Protected for Christmas, as they had LOVED Claire's first book...and my copy has been out on loan to teens from my church for several months) and has been nominated for awards (her first novel, The Sky So Heavy, was not only short listed but went so far as to be named as a honour book in the YA category of CBC Book of Year awards, and The Protected has been shortlisted for 2015 Victorian Premier's Literary Award (winner soon to be announced...wishing Claire so much luck with that)) so this isn't just the rantings of a friend.
Thankfully in the case of The Protected I don't have to be so guarded with discussions of the plot as it is not a crime thriller. It is the story of a 15 year old girl called Hannah who had viciously bullied by her classmates until her elder sister, Katie, dies in a car accident, and immediately their response switches to completely ignoring her whilst she is simultaneously trying to cope with a home life that is falling apart. Hannah is a delightful bundle of teen emotion and vulnerability, and the boy who jumps across to chasm around Hannah to befriend her, Josh, is just a delightful young man (I suspect many teen girls who read this book will get quite the crush on Josh). I think in some ways, The Protected could be taken as a good counterpoint to John Green's The Fault in our Stars- if Claire will excuse the comparison (I don't think it would bother her as she likes Green's work and I like to think if he read hers, there would be some mutual appreciation going on there). Just as The Fault in our Stars is engaged with making death a reality for teens before the fact, The Protected is about the grieving process and processing death after the fact through the eyes of a teen. That is where I stop the comparison as that is probably all that there is as a linkage (one is very American, the other is very Australian; one is written by a man, the other by a woman; one deals with cancer, the other with bullying and relationships between sisters) but I just think they would be interestingly paired as one walks towards an understanding of death and the other wades through the aftermath...OK one more common elements, they both made me cry. The Protected is at times quite a harrowing depiction of grief especially in the passages that deal with Hannah's parents as her mother withdraws and her father weighs himself down with guilt (he was driving the car when Katie died) and both of them neglect Hannah, but it is not so drenched in misery to be unreadable by a long way, hitting a quite good mix of tone as it moves for family grief to Hannah's isolation in the times before Katie's death (told in flashback) to the more lighthearted moments of her growing friendship with Josh. Dealing with bullying and grief in an honest way, it is not without hope and humour. It also nicely walks that line that reads a YA novel readable and enjoyable for adults.
If you want to buy a copy of Gone Girl, you can get one pretty much everywhere that sells books.
If you want to buy a copy of The Protected, it depends on the shop- it is becoming more available in Australia but overseas people will struggle. Best bet to be certain of finding it is to go straight to the publisher, UQP, where you can easily buy it- http://www.uqp.uq.edu.au/Book.aspx/1300/The%20Protected
See you next time, people of the internet.
Thankfully in the case of The Protected I don't have to be so guarded with discussions of the plot as it is not a crime thriller. It is the story of a 15 year old girl called Hannah who had viciously bullied by her classmates until her elder sister, Katie, dies in a car accident, and immediately their response switches to completely ignoring her whilst she is simultaneously trying to cope with a home life that is falling apart. Hannah is a delightful bundle of teen emotion and vulnerability, and the boy who jumps across to chasm around Hannah to befriend her, Josh, is just a delightful young man (I suspect many teen girls who read this book will get quite the crush on Josh). I think in some ways, The Protected could be taken as a good counterpoint to John Green's The Fault in our Stars- if Claire will excuse the comparison (I don't think it would bother her as she likes Green's work and I like to think if he read hers, there would be some mutual appreciation going on there). Just as The Fault in our Stars is engaged with making death a reality for teens before the fact, The Protected is about the grieving process and processing death after the fact through the eyes of a teen. That is where I stop the comparison as that is probably all that there is as a linkage (one is very American, the other is very Australian; one is written by a man, the other by a woman; one deals with cancer, the other with bullying and relationships between sisters) but I just think they would be interestingly paired as one walks towards an understanding of death and the other wades through the aftermath...OK one more common elements, they both made me cry. The Protected is at times quite a harrowing depiction of grief especially in the passages that deal with Hannah's parents as her mother withdraws and her father weighs himself down with guilt (he was driving the car when Katie died) and both of them neglect Hannah, but it is not so drenched in misery to be unreadable by a long way, hitting a quite good mix of tone as it moves for family grief to Hannah's isolation in the times before Katie's death (told in flashback) to the more lighthearted moments of her growing friendship with Josh. Dealing with bullying and grief in an honest way, it is not without hope and humour. It also nicely walks that line that reads a YA novel readable and enjoyable for adults.
If you want to buy a copy of Gone Girl, you can get one pretty much everywhere that sells books.
If you want to buy a copy of The Protected, it depends on the shop- it is becoming more available in Australia but overseas people will struggle. Best bet to be certain of finding it is to go straight to the publisher, UQP, where you can easily buy it- http://www.uqp.uq.edu.au/Book.aspx/1300/The%20Protected
See you next time, people of the internet.
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