January 22, 2006

Queenly

I had $5 leftover on my book voucher, so after dinner last night with my Mom and Sis, Stu and I ducked into Bad Blue Bookstore and I purchased The Sea House by Esther Freud out of the bargain bin. So that was exciting. Also, now reading The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood. The classics (Classics?) don’t normally interest me, which I will admit is one of my greatest flaws, but I thought the contemporary language might have the story appeal to me. And so far it’s working. In fact The Penelopiad has a great deal in common with Drabble’s The Red Queen, both written in modern voices by long dead women, famous for their husbands. I look forward to reading how the similarities diverge or continue.

A brilliant article here on Angela Carter, Japan, a Toronto Authors’ festival, and the expatriate writer, the writer as an outsider. Which of course is right up my alley.