LINES OF THE DAY

". . . But the past does not exist independently from the present. Indeed, the past is only past because there is a present, just as I can point to something over there only because I am here. But nothing is inherently over there or here. In that sense, the past has no content. The past -- or more accurately, pastness -- is a position. Thus, in no way can we identify the past as past." p. 15

". . . But we may want to keep in mind that deeds and words are not as distinguishable as often we presume. History does not belong only to its narrators, professional or amateur. While some of us debate what history is or was, others take it into their own hands." p. 153

Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (1995) by Michel-Rolph Trouillot

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

A Book! A NOVEL! Not for Research!

I am going to read it, for fun.  It's been months since I did that.

It's an historical fiction, naturally -- but finding one of those I can read isn't easy these days, when what is called historical fiction is mostly historical Romance, a genre that I cannot read whether historical or not.  Also, whether historical romance or even Historical Fiction, so much is written to formula now there's nothing exciting in the book: poor, unappreciated, lost, orphaned, exiled, enslaved young female -- finds an unusual for anyone and particularly for a young woman profession in which to be trained by sympathetic older person(s), meets one or more interesting young man, men, against a background of a big historical era or event(s), she succeeds becomes married, a wealthy mother running her own business blahblahblah.  It's so predictable a/k/a boring.  Oh, yes, she also has unexpected attributes of beauty.

Wench (2010) by Dolen Perkins-Valdez  doesn't contain any of these blahblahblahs.  I devoured the first 60 pp. last night after putting down the study of Benjamin Franklin and his thinking as well as profit-making from slaves and indentured labor, and before putting out the lights.  Also it's beautifully written.

What kind of novel Wench is can be seen here.

I've also received the new Heartstone by English author, C.J. Sansom, himself a lawyer, the tale of a lawyer in the later parts of the reign of Henry VIII, and the dissolution of the Roman Church and its properties.  This Shardlake series has been among the few new finds of recent years.  They are published usually 10 - 12 months earlier in England than here.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

It is hard to find good historical fiction out there. You are right - it is usually rampant with romantic scenes and plots. Besides All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren, a newer book that is more accessible is The Scorpion's Bite by Aileen G. Baron. It deals with WW II and an archeologist discovering a secret oil production center in the Trans-Jordan Desert, and what that entails politically from that discovery.

Foxessa said...

For me to classify a novel as an historical one, it has to be set in a time that the author her/himself didn't live in.

Thyus I don't classify All the King's Men as an historical novel. It was published in 1946, fictionalizing people and events of the 1930's, that Robert Penn Warren witnessed himself.

By this mode of classifiction, the publishing industry already tagged novels set in WWII as 'historical fiction' back in the 1980's!

Alan Furst's novels of the lead-up to WWII are historical novels, for instance, and very good ones too, mostly.

Love, C.

K. said...

Hmm...I've read a great deal of good historic fiction lately: Human Traces and Birdsong (Faulks); The Siege of Isfahan and The Abyssinian (Rufin); The Book of Kings Thackaray; Star of the Sea and Redemption Falls, O'Connor; The Lacuna (Kingsolver); and the The Secret Scripture (Barry) all come to mind.

Foxessa said...

I've been reading a lot of history and in primary sources lately!

Unless . . . . I suppose me classifying Woodrow Wilson's A History of the American People as historical fiction wouldn't be accepted among many groups?

Love, C.

Foxessa said...

What is "The Book of Kings Thackaray?" It doesn't come up when one googles that string.

I read -- or rather, tried to read The Abyssian quite some time ago. No go.

Love, c.

Foxessa said...

I am watching as much historical fiction television and / or movies as I can though.

While I run away! run away! run away! from any novel with Tudors in it, I just finished watching the last season of The Tudors. Despite all that is wrong with it factually in terms of history, the politics and the milieu are superb. The opulence though -- while I'm certain Henry VIII's court was filled with sumptuousness and luxury, could it possibly have been as perfect and filled with such perfect looking human beings as the television series portrays? Why, no, of course not!

Love, C,