Curtis Sittenfeld wrote one of my all-time favourite books,
American Wife. I thought it was
absolutely fantastic. There is a woman called Hadley Freeman who works on the
Guardian who thinks it the best novel of the 21st C. Not sure I
would go that far but would be pushed to suggest something better, to be honest.
Unfortunately, I haven’t found time to read any of her
subsequent books. Partly due to time but if I am being honest, her themes aren’t
greatly interesting to me even if they are brilliantly written. She has a new
book out this week called Eligible, an
updating of Austen’s Pride & Prejudice to mobile phones. It has good-ish
reviews on Amazon but quite a few one-star comments from people who love the
original and don’t want it tampered with. It’s a bit of a lose-lose situation
for Curtis Sittenfeld, I think. I see she is being roasted alive by Stephanie
Merritt in the Observer today. Stephanie Merritt is a lady I have a lot of time
for, but her judgement on this seems harsh.
I guess it’s like everything else in life; you are only as
good as your last big order, your last hit film, your last stage performance,
your last whatevuh.
I’ll buy it, I think. And report back.
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