Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Rebecca has been many things to many people.  To the reading public, it is a gothic romance and ferocious tale of jealousy, betrayal, and suspense.  To academics it is ripe with Freudian subtext – the younger second wife (daughter) longing for the affections of her husband (father), but envious of and intimidated by the first [...]

---

By Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept by Elizabeth Smart

In August 1937 writer Elizabeth Smart walked into a London bookshop, opened a collection of poems by George Barker and fell in love.  By the time they met and began an affair three years later – resulting in the birth of four children, although he never left his wife – she was already so utterly [...]

---

The Assumption of the Rogues & Rascals by Elizabeth Smart

In 1940, Elizabeth Smart began an affair with the poet, George Barker, which she eternalized in its many agonies and seemingly far fewer ecstasies in By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept.  Though Barker stayed with his wife, they had four children who Smart supported through journalism and advertising work in London before [...]

---

Here to get My Baby out of Jail by Louise Shivers

Every once in a while, a book comes along in which the pacing is so precise, the pitch so perfect, the language so measured, and the cast so beguiling that I am mesmerized and awed. Louise Shivers’ first novel, Here to get My Baby out of Jail appeared over twenty years ago and, when I [...]

---

Save Me The Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald

There isn’t a whole heap left to say about Zelda Fitzgerald.  Common consensus states she was a drunk, a Southern Belle, a madwoman, one half of the 20’s most garrulous couple, the definitive Flapper, and a writer, painter, and dancer frustrated at every turn by some wider desire for conformity and the professional jealousy of [...]

---

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »