Review: Wideacre by Philippa Gregory

Beatrice Lacey refuses to conform to the constraints of eighteenth century society. Her father sets her on his horse at age four and so begins her love affair with the land her family has held since the Norman Conquest. She’s thorough in her passions and lives heartily and fast, until her scheming catches up with her. For Beatrice is in love with the Squire of Wideacre, whoever it may be, and she will stop at nothing to have Wideacre for her own, no matter who or what her love destroys in her passion to possess it. Rife with history, incest, and passion, Wideacre is a heady, break-neck read, especially for such a long novel (nearly six hundred and fifty pages), with addicting, complex characters and the vibrancy of Wideacre itself pulsating between its pages.

As in the video posted earlier, Philippa Gregory wrote Wideacre for fun, reading 200 eighteenth century novels in the course of her research. She says it was a wonderful experience, though it took nearly four years, because the eighteenth century saw the novel developed as a form and what better way to learn than looking at the template for the modern novel?

I made a list of popular eighteenth century writers and novels in class Monday night =) and here’s a few. Feel free to add to this list or comment on any of the items listed.

• Moll Flanders
• The History of Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
• Voltaire
• Tristram Shandy by Lawrence Sterne
• Rousseau
• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
• Pamela by Richardson (after the first hundred pages you will want to smack her)
• Ann Radcliffe
• Jonathon Swift – Gulliver’s Travels and A Modest Proposal (eat the babies) http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1080

And because Jonathon Swift's humor in A Modest Proposal just cracks me up, you, dear reader, get a video to accompany it.

Book Review: The English Major by Jim Harrison

Let’s start off the week with a little literary fiction, in the form of Jim Harrison, former Michigan resident, and his 2009 Michigan Notable Book and National Bestseller, The English Major.

The English Major. Jim Harrison. Grove Press. 2008. 255 pages. $14 US. ISBN 9780802144140.

Had me from the first line.

“It used to be Cliff and Vivian and now it isn’t.”

Perfect.

The rest of the book is equally enthralling as Cliff’s road trip takes him through all fifty states… well, he doesn’t make it through them all, but the sixty-something year old man does get to California and back to Michigan by way of Montana, the Dakotas, and through a whirlwind affair with a rather annoying former student of his. During the trip he also pursues the mission of renaming all the states from the banal ones given to them by equally banal white men.

The English Major has Harrison’s unique brand of wit and a main character who the author unflinchingly portrays as realistic, frumpy, and thoroughly entertaining. It’s interesting to see an over-middle-aged character starting life over with a positive outlook, or at least a less than dismal one. Los Angeles Times writer Susan Salter Reynolds hits it right on when she says “The English Major is to midlife crisis what The Catcher in the Rye is to adolescence.”

Weekend was good. J and I rode horses around the state land and up Clintonia. Followed by a good meal of homegrown lamb and beef, with sides of potatoes, caramelized onions and mushrooms, and salad, all homegrown except the lettuce (don’t even ask), little tomatoes, and mushrooms. And don’t forget the cake. Gram is famous for her cake. So now it’s back to the desk and the humdrum of real life. Getting grad school app off today.

Book Review: The Well-Fed Writer

The Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency as a Freelance Writer in Six Months or Less. Peter Bowerman. Fanove Publishing. 2000. 282 pages. $19.95. ISBN: 0-9670598-4-4.

Got to give kudos to this writer for sharing all he’s learned about how to make a living as a freelance writer. If you want to write professionally, this is the book to read. Commercial writing as a practical career not fiction which is a much tougher market. Way to augment fiction dreams and actually make money writing. He covers everything the commercial writer needs to know, from lifestyle to successful strategies to clients, writing samples, system to support the structure of the business, how much to charge, and delivers it all in an upbeat, if-I-can-do-it- you-can-do-it style. Lots of professional writers plug this book and for good reason. If there was ever a step-by-step guide to freelance writing, this book is it.

There are more resources at www.wellfedwriter.com. Or check out some web content sites, such as Associated Content, Suite 101, E-lance, ehow, and a ton of others. Willow Sidhe offers helpful information on her website about freelance writing online.