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First Wife's Club
Jezebooks: Sarah Waters

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rumpelshowsskin
06/19/09

In reply to First Wife's Club
I'm interested to read this just because I loathe Hemingway. The way he writes about Africa makes my skin crawl. The entire continent is this backdrop against which the tortured white male can work out his deep philosophical and psychological issues. The animals, the flora, the fauna are all parts of his supporting cast. And the people? Oh! I forgot.... They don't exist! They're part of some native stage setting, some local color. It's all such paternalistic bullshit. It shows how racialised and gendered the entire notion of "access" and "voyage" is, and the way certain kinds of people are hardly ever just allowed to leave and go explore someone else's land.

In conclusion, Hemingway was a dick. His first wife sounds cool. I will buy this book.
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krismry
06/19/09

@rumpelshowsskin: Excellent summation of this gun toting maniac's career. And how dreadful that his work still is on the list of 20th century writers that young people are forced to read in their schools.
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IamnotStarJones
06/21/09

@krismry: i think it's great that people still read hemingway -- besides, how else would rumpleshowsskin know what wasn't appealing about hemingway's perspective on Africa if she never read his work?
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krismry
06/21/09

@IamnotStarJones: Lots of other testosterone fueled white man's burden colonialist oppressors out there in those days, why bother to waste one's precious numbered days boring oneself to tears by reading yet another? xoxo
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IamnotStarJones
06/21/09

@krismry: to see the evolution and to prepare an informed refutation of the aesthetic. smooches!
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krismry
06/21/09

@IamnotStarJones: ha, smooches back atcha~!~ i secretly loved certain hemingway stories but i read them under the covers with a flashlight. the big two hearted river, now there is a title thought up by a real artist. xoxo
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krismry
06/21/09

@krismry: plus he was nice to cats, so, all right then.
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gangey
06/19/09

In reply to First Wife's Club
I played Hadley in our 11th grade video biography project about Hemingway.
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gangey
06/19/09

@gangey: And I meant to add, "where was this book then?"
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NellMood
06/19/09

In reply to First Wife's Club
Oh, I'm excited about this. I'm so fascinated with that whole group of people who were at Villa America and in Paris.
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girlhowdy
05/29/09

In reply to Jezebooks: Sarah Waters
Fingersmith is my favourite of her first four books and can't wait for my copy of Little Stranger to arrive form Waterstone's any day now. Must admit I wasn't crazy about Night Watch--I didn't get the point of the reverse chronology, and I didn't enjoy spending time with the characters as much I did those of the other books. But Waters' b-game is still leagues ahead of most other writers' a-game.

Also, if you like novels of the Victorian underworld, I cannot recommend The Fiend in Human and White Stone Day by John McLaughlin Gray enough.
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emilyanne
05/29/09

@girlhowdy: ooh those two are among my favourites as well. I love me a good drunken journalist story as well as historical fiction.
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randomnessish
05/29/09

In reply to Jezebooks: Sarah Waters
Oh these are so going on my Borders list. And I just cleaned out my bookcase(s)! I have room!
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inchworm
05/29/09

In reply to Jezebooks: Sarah Waters
i have read all of the above, and i loved each of them. so well-written, definitely erotic (sometimes subtly), and always shocking. i can rarely predict her plot twists, which is a bit of a rarity.
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Omitofo
05/29/09

In reply to Jezebooks: Sarah Waters
I highly recommend "The Crimson Petal and the White" for modern day written Victorian historical fiction. It's about a prostitute in those days who is spunky and fun. All the trappings of old school stuff- but with hardcore erotica mixed in (but NOT in a romance novel/cheesy way).
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undomesticgoddess doesn't sleep a wink
05/29/09

@Omitofo: It was good, but a lot of it was really squicky!
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BoatGirl
05/29/09

In reply to Jezebooks: Sarah Waters
Ugh, I hated Fingersmith. Too grim. The reviews of The Little Stranger sound great, but I'm afraid it will be just as depressing. Someone here please read it and let me know if its depressing or not.
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HuckleberryFriend
05/29/09

@BoatGirl: It's a ghost story, so pretty grim at times. Maybe read it in between other cheerier books?
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LAmonkeygirl
05/29/09

In reply to Jezebooks: Sarah Waters
Until I read Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White, I had no idea how much of Fingersmith had been patterned after it. However, as an historical novel writer/reader, I really appreciated the queering of history, since it often goes unnoticed in most historical novels--unless a character is being portrayed as somehow depraved, and subject to "unnatural desires."
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emilyanne
05/29/09

@LAmonkeygirl: have you read Mary Gentle's 1610 - she's more of a fantasy writer but 1610 is a great reimagining of Dumas and Heyer through the lens of a very unconventional sexual relationship.
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LAmonkeygirl
05/29/09

@emilyanne: Haven't read that one. I'll give it a look. Thanks!
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emilyanne
05/29/09

@LAmonkeygirl: I really enjoyed it, oh and another great historical fiction writer is Hillary Mantel, whose A Place of Greater Safety about the French Revolution is just incredible. My favourite historical novelist remains Dorothy Dunnett but i'm always open to recommendations if you have any.
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Mediokra
05/29/09

@LAmonkeygirl: Oh! I'm reading The Woman in White right now and really enjoying it! I'd love to read Fingersmith after this and make some comparisons...
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Plum-Pie
05/29/09

@emilyanne: I LOVE Hilary Mantel's 'A Place of Greater Safety' - the psychological realism is astounding. (Also her 'Beyond Black' is amazing, although not historical.)
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YourScreenplaySucks
05/29/09

In reply to Jezebooks: Sarah Waters
I wish the slang term "tipping the velvet" would make a comeback. It's so evocative. Also, the word "sand" for balls.
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andBegorrah
05/29/09

@Your Screenplay Sucks: I don't want "sand" - lexical or literal - near anyone's genitalia.
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JerseyGrrrl
05/29/09

@Your Screenplay Sucks: Help a naive girl out. What's it slang for? When I google, I just get B movies and references to the book.
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YourScreenplaySucks
05/29/09

@JerseyGrrrl: Cunnilingus

@andBegorrah: I just want a term for courage that doesn't involve male genitalia.
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JerseyGrrrl
05/29/09

@Your Screenplay Sucks: Thanks **blushes**

And I'd settle for a term for pathetic or loserly that doesn't involved female genitalia or their unnecessary cleaning...

"Look at that guy with the popped collar and the all the hair gel. He just squealed when he saw that rat. What a _______."
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SylvanSylph
05/29/09

@JerseyGrrrl: dick
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Cesybabe or Nirvanah Crane
05/29/09

In reply to Jezebooks: Sarah Waters
I adored Tipping the Velvet. It ended as it should, but it wasn't overly sappy, it had enough grittiness that it just sat right.
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emilyanne
05/29/09

In reply to Jezebooks: Sarah Waters
I love Sarah Waters, it's killing me to walk past The Little Stranger every day, sometimes I even sigh at it.

Tipping The Velvet is my favourite for a fun read, Nightwatch is wonderfully evocative, although not as good as the originals it nods to ie authors such as Patrick Hamilton, Jean Rhys and even Norman Collins's London Belongs To Me.
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HuckleberryFriend
05/29/09

In reply to Jezebooks: Sarah Waters
Yay! I love Sarah Waters. I wasn't expecting to, either, I had sort of pigeonholed her as a genre writer in my head. But her writing's amazing. I got to review the manuscript for The Little Stranger and just to warn you all, you won't be to do anything else until you finish the book because you CANNOT PUT IT DOWN.
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beatrice2000
05/29/09

I was really into her books for awhile, up until her WWII-set novel. I just didn't read that one for some reason.

I saw her read in 2006, and thought she was charming and cute.

@HuckleberryFriend: Lucky! I also used to review manuscripts as a literary intern!
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HuckleberryFriend
05/29/09

@beatrice2000: I work for a literary festival in town, mostly for the free books. It is awesome. Until you read an amazing manuscript and then aren't allowed to talk about it with anyone!
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lucystrawberry: Tier 2 is the new black
05/29/09

In reply to Jezebooks: Sarah Waters
Fingersmith is sooooo good. Also liked tipping the velvet. haven't read the other too, bt will!
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lucystrawberry: Tier 2 is the new black
05/29/09

@lucystrawberry has a feeble ladybrain: uh, the other *two*
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emilyanne
05/29/09

@lucystrawberry has a feeble ladybrain: Affinity is very creepy, very influenced by Wilkie Collins. NightWatch is a departure in a way but beautifully written and very sad.
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Plum-Pie
05/29/09

In reply to Jezebooks: Sarah Waters
I LOVE HER!

If you like more realism and less romping with your lesbianism, I recommend The Night Watch.
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