I have a body! For a sweater, of course. The sleeves are started, and I am in a rush! However, the pattern is written, another pattern is written, and I am working with my tech editor, who is remarkably patient and kind with me. These are turning out as I envisioned them, however, and that is all a designer or knitter could ask.

I'm still reading in Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages and Hot Thai Kitchen (both of which I am loving). What I have been learning about food in both of these books is really astounding, and I love Pailin's approach to authenticity, which I think I mentioned last time.

I read another quick, happy little murder, and it was a Janeite book, too. However, it was sorely disappointing in some key ways. The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray is actually quite well written, and the mystery is truly a mystery until nearly the end of the book. The author is a good writer who is clearly quite familiar with Jane Austen's books. Her new characters are delightful and, really, besides the satisfying death of Mr. Wickham, the best part of the book. She does take the effort to present each Austen couple in an age to match the timelines of either the books (as in Persuasion) or the years they were published and the given ages of the characters in the books. Therefore, the Darcys are the eldest (excepting Colonel Brandon), and Marianne is the youngest, with Emma and the Bertrams in between (Mr. Knightly is a contemporary of Darcy). The Tilneys are represented in absentia. So much for the good.

First of all, I really resent authors who exploit other authors' writing and abuse it to promote their own work. Gray's book (series, actually) features almost all the major characters from Jane Austen’s books and the author steam rolls them so she can impose her own modernist views and lectures on and through them, while thoroughly mischaracterizing them. If she seemed not to understand the stories, this might be more forgivable. However, she is clearly familiar with all the books and stories, and yet presents characters who could not be recognizable, in many ways, as being faithful representations.

She makes Captain Wentworth an angry man, Fanny Bertram someone who thinks her husband is pining after Miss Crawford, and is supposed to be somehow unfamiliar with variant sexual activity, when it is from her household that the whole joke about rears and vices originates, Marianne and Colonel Brandon uncertain of each other’s love for the other, Elizabeth and Darcy unable to speak openly to each other and holding grudges, and Mr. Knightley keeping secrets from Emma. Among other disparities with their well developed characters.

They each express views that are totally out of character for the period. In fact, even dissenters of the day did not dissent in the way that she shows these people doing so, and so uniformly and completely, as though everyone hated the way things were way back when. We have the writings and descriptions of the actions of the contemporary dissenters, libertines, and so-called progressives. They don't speak or express their thoughts the way she has her characters do. The author uses words and phrases and sentence structure both in the narration and in dialogue that are 200 years past the regency era; she is clearly using Jane Austen as a vehicle for her lecture, and does not even try to disguise that; she shows a great deal of disrespect for the readers, who themselves are more likely to be familiar with these characters and stories. Either she is banking on her readers being socially progressive in the same ways she is and ignoring her impositions and discrepancies, or she is truly oblivious to the abuse she has done to the characters and stories. This is what I hate about these "message" books, shows, movies, songs, etc. They simply do not trust that their audience is intelligent or quick enough to catch their messages, so they dictate them and hammer them in, it shows a weakness in storytelling ability.

Besides that, she has zero understanding of the Christian faith, or how Christians understand that faith, and thinks she is being some sort of revolutionary by showing its “inconsistencies.” In reality, she uses facile arguments and cheap gotchas that are so easily refuted that it is risible. (I have peeked at the second book in the series, in the hopes that there might be some improvement, and her "knowledge" of Christianity - let alone the Christianity of the Regency England era - is abysmally displayed).

The only characters who are really likable are the made up characters, Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney, the children of their famous parents, and even they are made to be mouthpieces for her political and social commentary. However, as I said, the story is engaging and interesting, and I did not know whodunnit until it was revealed, though I did have a little bit of a suspicion as it approached the dénouement. Had this been written with entirely different characters, and without the heavy-handed grandstanding, it would have been an excellent book. The writing is actually quite good, which is part of what makes this so disappointing. She cannot seem to help herself from imposing 21st century progressive values on the early 19th century. Perhaps she is not willing or able to understand how people might think otherwise. It made me literally, physically, roll my eyes numerous times as I read.

Again, the author is a good writer, so her behavior in this book is even more offensive. She had multiple options on how to handle her obvious disapproval of the moral teaching and norms of the day. She could have written a modern story, which could have presented the morally questionable issues in a modern view. She could have avoided those moral questions entirely in her historical fiction (none of them were necessary to the plot). Instead, she chose to exploit Jane Austen's stories, characters, and her readers. Badly done, Claudia.

Linking to Unraveled Wednesday.

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Labels: Books, Design, Homemaking, Knitting, WIP, Yarn Along

// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 12:49 PM