Why Historical Fiction Writers Need To Cut The Crap, Sinclair Lewis And Other Books

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Now that I'm in my fifties I've found that I've grown rather sanguine about historical fiction. As long as any liberties the writer takes are so obvious that it can't be ignored ("Not tonight Josephine" said Napoleon as he was too busy on his laptop) then I really don't care. It is after all fiction.

The Great King by Christian Cameron has taught me however that the language used by a historical fiction writer can be equally important to a reader.

He had already annoyed me by staring with a glossary at the beginning of the book (OK OK I get it. You did your research). Then he had a "General Notes On Names And Personages"  (What is this a historical novel or a memory test?).

However what threw me was the beginning of episode two when suddenly the word "crap" was used. I'd always thought it was a Victorian word following from the legendary Thomas Crapper. But on checking the internet (yes I was checking the internet for the origins of the word crap. How sad am I?) I found that it originates in medieval times.

The point is that for the times of the war between Persia against Greece (and others) it was a word modern enough to jolt me away from the historical setting of the novel. There were other words as well (the F word and "barrack room lawyer" comes to mind) and given how proud he was over his historical research the way the author seemed free and easy over the language was surprising.

It occurs mainly in the first half of the book and it's a pity...because...

...although the quote on the cover is going too far ("Christian Cameron is one of the finest writers of historical fiction in the world" - Ben Kane) judged as an entertainment I found myself once my brain was back into ancient Greek gear enjoying the novel immensely. I hadn't expected to have liked this book as I did. You are swept along by the breath of the story he's telling and, and I think this is a good test, when I stopped reading for a while didn't realise how much of the work I'd gone through. Arguably in a good way it was the most surprising book I've read this year.

Finished on my Kindle Sinclair Lewis' 1920 novel Main Street. It's about a woman from the city who marries and moves with her husband to his home town and finds her life constricted by some of the people and surroundings around her.

As a story this worked when you assumed it was just going to be cliche. I thought as a reader that this was going one direction only to find it moving another. You really don't know how things will turn out until the end. Obviously female readers will identify with the main character. But for a man I can also read this as the struggles of a person to adapt to surroundings and attitudes that you are not comfortable with. The pressures when it appears you're battling against the odds. The pressures to conform to a perceived norm of how you should live your life and behave. I've got a few more Sinclair Lewis books to read and after Main Street am looking forward to doing so.

The next ebook turned out to be the 1916 tome My Book Of Indoor Games by Clarence Squareman. I thought this was going to be useful. Half term and all that. But the first group turned out to be games requiring a lot of people, the next bit were things like noughts and crosses which for my daughter's internet generation was just a non starter and only now have we come up to card games. Trouble is the pack of cards is in a box in the storage unit so I'll need to get another pack. This book then is being put on the back boiler. When I get a pack and test these games out I'll come back to you.

So the next ebook turns out to be Somebody's Luggage by Charles Dickens. I mean you don't read Dickens for years and then two come along relatively close to each other.

Ah well.

Until the next time

Charles Dickens Can Write. Plus the latest Library Visit

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well it's been a while I know but after a great deal of distractions, including other books to read and, let's face it we're not talking about a slim volume here but anyway David Copperfield has at last been finished.

It is not an easy book to judge. Though I'll start by saying that I did not like it as much as Great Expectations or A Christmas Carol if only because though a novel it seems to be less of a plot and more of a biography. There were moments where we seemed to be led on a wide diversion before going back to the central story.

There are moments, rather as in Great Expectations, when you don't really like David Copperfield the adult,thinking that he's rather stuck up.Then, almost instantly you suddenly become his chief cheerleader in what happens to him ("Give me a D...."). And that's a skill, for the moment when your brain started to wander away from the story Dickens drew you back

So I would say it's a guarded thumbs up. Though I would be surprised if anybody said it was their favourite Dickens.

The next book to reads on the great pile of ebook unread is Main Street by Sinclair Lewis.

Went to the library and got two books. This was the first:

Carole Matthews - The Cake Shop In The Garden

I think it wins the "book cover illustrating what you're going to get award" for this year. Including the praise by Mary Berry.

The other book was:

David Attenborough - Life Stories

Given I've recently praised the sequal I'm expecting great things from this.

Until the next time.

Hooked On Classics (2) and The Great EBook Buying Game (2)

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well I've finished reading The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield and to be honest I was stunned.

These stories are very clever. Nothing much happens, no literary eqvilant of melodramatic music will enter your heads as you read them. The characters appear to live comfortable lives. And yet slowly she reveals people who are walking around in a state of quiet sadness.

You the reader are embroiled in the lives of these people for a brief while, but are affected by it.

It was quite simply the best collection of short stories that I've ever read.

The next ebook . Got for reasons of cheapness (it was free) is With Zola in England by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly. It was Viztelly's (who was apparently a journalist in the old London Evening News) account of the time in exile of Emile Zola in England (in a time when Britain accepted people who fled their country of origin for political reasons) having left France to avoid imprisonment for his actions on the "Dreyfus Affair". So far so good.

As all my paper books are now boxed, crated etc in preparation for the move you may remember that I created what I'm now calling The Great Ebook Buying Game (given now the fashion is to title everything "great". From baking shows to Acts of Parilament that will turn Britain into some right wing wet dream).

Given that I'm not buying anymore paper books until we permantly move house. This temporary monthly game is simply seeing how many ebooks I can buy on Amazon for £5. I'm doing this as I'm writing this post now. So let's see what happens.

I go to the Amazon "Daily Deals" One of them looks Chick Lit stuff, one of them is George Orwell's Animal Farm (have read that) and the remaining one is The Humans by Matt Haig. It seems interesting enough. So it's bought at 99p.

Looked at "Recommended reads" for me by Amazon. Nothing grabs my attention. Then time for the 250 books they're offering for 99p. I stop at Absolute Friends by John Le Carre. You know I haven't read Le Carre in years. Bought.

Amazon then offer more "Recommended Reads" suggested by my purchase of the Le Carre. I stop at a biography of the Italian fascist poet Gabriele D'Annuzio. by Lucy Hughes-Hallett. I think about this one long and hard. Eventually I decide to buy it. There is a rise of the extreme right in Britain, I'm curious to know what turns people that way. Bought for 99p.

Looking further at the Recommended reads following my purchase of the biography leads me for some reason to the novel Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. It's just 75p. Bought. This leads me to yet another Sinclair Lewis book Babbitt at just 49p. Bought.I have 79p left. So I go for another Sinclair Lewis book Free Air at 75p. Today then has become Sinclair Lewis day.

Until the next time.