But in any case, a while ago I read
Cereus Blooms at Night, by Shani Mootoo; enjoyed the story & characters quite a bit (imaginative and unique, but believably familiar at the same time, if that makes sense. The dialogue irritated me, though - literally, almost, in so far as it didn't make me angry as much as it sort of chafed at my brain and mental ear... Mootoo, who I think is from Trinidad (already returned the book, and am too lazy to look it up) & sets the story in a imaginary West Indian place, attempts to replicate a...general West Indian patois? I have no idea if it's even authentic or not, but it comes and goes willy-nilly, and when it comes, it feels forces. Perhaps if it had been more consistent it wouldn't have bugged me so much, but it just didn't seem like it fit. The post-colonial and gender/sexual identity issues, on the other hand, were handled lightly and gracefully, and were an absolute delight. I see now that she has some other books, and I think I would definitely read one or more of them...
I would also maybe read more by Claire Harman, author of
Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World - a bit on the light side, to be sure, but interesting. Harman traces Austen's early writing and publishing attempts, and how her cult was slowly (well, in fits and starts, some very, very fast) grown over the years. Very chatty tone; I think I would have preferred something a bit more scholarly, but it worked well for pre-bed reading. Another small complaint would be that she references a lot of images not all of which are reproduced in the book, so some of them are kind of hard to picture, but I suppose there may have been prohibitive costs associated with some of the images. My fingers are too cold to type more about it, but it was fun, in any case - and gratifying to know how many super smart people think she's nifty...
Additionally, I finally learned more about the most deliciously "cheeky experiment" (thank you,
Guardian, that wouldn't get said in an American paper), in which someone tried to get only barely-disguised versions of Austen's books published, and was rather soundly rejected:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/jul/19/books.booksnews. I HAVE to think that a lot of the rejections were because the books were so obviously Austen's classics, even if the letters didn't say so - one imagines the manuscript was picked up, a page or two was read, and it was immediately dumped in the "no way in Hell pile" where it was later picked up by another person entirely, who wrote a bland rejection letter without reading the mss. At least, I hope that's what happened!
Also fun (for me, anyhow), but MUCH more scholarly was Susan Hardman Moore's
Pilgrims: New World Settlers and the Call of Home, which I've been wanting to read for a while, and then had to read for work, so that worked out. Really interesting book about the Puritans (and others) who went to Massachusetts / New England in the 1630s and 40s and then ended up going back to England. The strength of the book definitely lies in her case studies, where she follows the lives of individuals who came over and then returned. She's weaker on the math: there aren't all that many
numbers, and the ones she has start to fall apart a little when you get into how she arrived at them. Still, excellent work for what it is, if not what it aims to be.
, Nick Bunker, 2010. Really enjoyed this one; had been meaning to read it for a while, and then had to read it for work when we got to the chapter on the Pilgrims. Good stuff. A lot of wandering around in the hedges & stopping to smell the flowers (literally - Bunker loves to set a scene by getting down into the weeds, and giving detailed descriptions of the local flora & fauna), but very informative, and I kind of liked that it was pretty wide-ranging and not super focused. A LOT of information, but not at all scholarly or academic, in a good way - I think it's very accessible for non-historians, although it could be a bit dry, I guess...I didn't think so, but I know I am not the normal non-academic audience either. More English history than American, by far; this is very much about the background in England (and Leiden) of the Pilgrims, and really has nothing much to say about what went on over on this side of the pond. Lots to say about English politics, religious disputes, and social life, though. I'd assign it in an undergrad English history class, only an advanced or grad class on the Pilgrims specifically, if the imaginary class were operating out of an American history department.
