Little-Known Favorites: Minot, West, Atwood
September 3, 2007
By Alison Andrews
Recently I ran across a literary meme on someone’s blog and decided to answer the questions myself. No, I’m not going to inflict them all on you, but one of them became this column. So if you don’t like it, don’t blame me, blame the blogger who inspired me (hee hee).
Here’s the challenge:
Name three-to-seven books that you rarely see on people’s favorite book lists, that are high on your own. This was pretty easy to answer, although I don’t have access to many other people’s favorite book lists. Here are mine; maybe you’ll find something to like that you haven’t read before.
Evening Falls
First, I named Evening by Susan Minot. It’s one of my favorites, and I think it’s Minot’s best work. On her deathbed, 65-year-old cancer patient Ann Lord re-experiences her life’s highlights, especially the summer she met Dr. Harris Arden at her best friend’s wedding. Ann and Harris have a short-lived but passionate romance that (without giving too much away) doesn’t end in a wedding for the two of them. Ann’s other memories reveal that she marries (three times!), has children, experiences success and tragedy—yet none of her experiences seem to touch her core self the way that falling in love with Harris did, which is why she returns at the end of her life to the girl she once was.
I know this book sounds depressing—but I didn’t find it so. Sad, yes: but with writing so beautiful, I couldn’t help but feel exhilarated. A movie version has just been released. I haven’t seen it, so I can’t comment on how it compares to the book, but as always, you’re better off reading the book first.
A Family Worth Knowing
I don’t know how I stumbled on to Rebecca West’s novel The Fountain Overflows; I’ve never seen it on any must-read lists. All I know is that once I read it, I had to read the sequels, This Real Night and Cousin Rosamund (which is, unfortunately, unfinished), just to know what happens to the characters.
Every time I reread the books, I am right back in the world of pre-World-War London with the Aubrey family: the father, handsome Piers Aubrey, a gifted writer who gambles away his salary on the stock market; the mother, Clare, who once was a famous pianist; twins Rose and Mary, who are talented young pianists themselves; the eldest daughter Cordelia, who tortures the family with her misguided musical ambitions; and the adored baby brother, Richard Quin. I don’t know how to explain it, but early on in the first book, I felt that I knew these people and the Dickensian characters they encounter. It may seem that a small girl who plays the violin badly may not be the crisis that the narrator, Rose, portrays, but West’s skill at depicting the world of the true artist helped me understand as nothing else has the discipline that art requires. West based the characters on her own family, and her keen observations and supple prose style hold up today.
Robbery
Of all Margaret Atwood’s books, I’ve reread The Robber Bride the most times. It’s not the one she’ll be remembered for (that would be The Handmaid’s Tale) or the oddest book she’s written (what in heaven’s name was Oryx and Crake?) but I think it’s the funniest. (My other favorite is The Blind Assassin, but that’s not funny at all.)
One of the other questions on the meme was “Who is your favorite literary villain?” and I had to answer, “Xenia”—the robber bride of the title. Like the folktale of the robber bridegroom, Xenia steals what she wants—and what she wants is other women’s men. The book asks the question, “Why are women so mean to each other?” and although Atwood explores the question, she—or her characters—never find a definitive answer to Xenia’s cruelty. What does happen is that three very different women become friends because of their connection to Xenia. I love that these women—an academic, an aging hippie, and a hard-driving businesswoman—could easily have become stereotypes in the hands of a lesser writer, but Atwood understands them and their history so well that they are fully developed characters.
My only complaint (and it’s one that I have about every Atwood novel) is that the male characters are so unlikable and/or spineless. Yes, we get it, you’re a feminist, Margaret: now please put your considerable talent toward writing a man worthy of companionship with one of your female protagonists.
And Now, Enjoy
So there you have it: a few books that aren’t “classics” but that have provided me with enjoyment every time I’ve read them. And really, what more could you ask for in a book?
ninetyandnine.com
© 2007, Alison Andrews
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Alison Andrews lives near Ft. Worth, Texas, with her husband and two young children. Her dream is to own a house with a whole room devoted to books.