Jane Austen's EMMA: A Few Reactions

EMMA by Jane Austen

By C.M. Mayo www.cmmayo.com

I have just finished reading Jane Austen's masterpiece, Emma. A few reactions:

The Ur-soap opera. Esque. Deceptively simple-- it's a symphony of complexity. A sophisticated and cement-sturdy narrative structure. Our master of suspense fiction!

Emma is understandably popular for so many readers, and yet understandably unappealing for so many others. Have you read it, and did you like it?-- a litmus test for so many things... that correlate with other things...

Above all, and astonishingly, Emma manages to be poetic and vivid with only the barest of barebones descriptions. Flaubert's Madame Bovary it is not.

Austen treats both her characters, even the deeply foolish ones, and her readers with charm and diginity-- a dignity rarely seen in fiction (and especially these days). Austen has the sight of a goddess, and a heart as big as England-- England of the early 19th century, that is.

I appreciated Emma as I did Pride and Prejudice. The latter I read in highschool. For years I could not fathom why I had been obliged to read all that nattering about who was going to marry whom. When I read P & P in my thirties, however, I saw it with different eyes. Call me an Austenite.

PS USD 32,500 will get you a 1816 first edition. There were 2,000 copies paid for, ahem, by the author.

> Your comments are always welcome. Write to me here.

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I Love LOVE, ALBA

This exquisitely written novel by Sophy Burnham is one that I was especially honored and delighted to blurb. Here's what I said:

"An audacious literary achievement in the tradition of Watership Down and Timbuktu, Sophy Burnham's Love, Alba takes a Washingtonian cat's eye view of love, betrayal, high society, and art theft that is at once charming and deeply wise." 

Here's the catalog copy for Love, Alba:

Love! Romance! High society! Art Theft-all told by the wise and witty, little cat Alba, who has her own feline affairs. Lorna, now over 60, has just fallen horribly, head-over heels in love-with a younger man; and worse, he's involved with her best friend, Nikki, and now Nikki, an art conservator, is caught up in international art theft, prison, and other events of everyday life in Washington, D. C. Underneath this light-hearted romp lie serious issues of aging, sexual desire, friendship, sacrifice, and glimpses into the spiritual realm for which Sophy Burnham, the visionary behind the angels phenomenon, is best known. As with her other bestsellers, just reading this inspiring book leaves you happy. 

SOPHY BURNHAM, awarded "Daughter of Mark Twain," is the author of fourteen books, award-winning plays, radio plays, children's books, investigative reporting and short stories. She is best known for her spiritual writing, including A Book of Angels and The Treasure of Montségur. Her works are translated into twenty-six languages. An engaging speaker, she appeared on Oprah (twice), on Larry King Live, Good Morning America, CBS Morning News, and scores of other TV and radio programs. She has spoken at venues as varied as the IMF, St. Louis Art Museum, churches, conferences, bookstores and National Storytellers Association. 

< But my writing assistant, Washi,
is not sure about any novels featuring cats >

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Guest-Blogger Short Story Maestro Clifford Garstang on 5 Favorite Novels About a Dangerous World

Clifford Garstang is the author of In an Uncharted Country and What the Zhang Boys Know (Winner of the 2013 Library of Virginia Award for Fiction) and Editor of Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet, an anthology of 20 stories set in 20 countries by 20 well-travelled writers. Here's the description:

"Assembled from over six hundred submissions, this collection reminds us that our world is dangerous: a man disappears in Argentina, despair reigns in post-Katrina New Orleans, teen bandits attack in Costa Rica, wild boars swarm in a German forest, biker gangs battle in New Zealand, security guards overreact in Beijing, rogue militias run wild in Africa, and more. These are not ordinary travel stories by or about tourists; the contributors are award-winning authors who know their way around—former Peace Corps Volunteers, international aid workers, expatriates—and dig deep beneath the surface. "

>>CONTINUE READING THIS POST AT WWW.MADAM-MAYO.COM

FIVE FAVORITE NOVELS ABOUT A DANGEROUS WORLD
by Clifford Garstang

Some of my favorite American writers create dark stories set abroad. That’s what I like to read and it inevitably informs my own writing and my selections for the book. Here are 5 of the best:

1. Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder: I also liked Patchett’s earlier novel set in South America, Bel Canto, but this book, set in Brazil, really grabbed me—it has mystery, a heroic structure, and explores fascinating, credible science. One researcher has gone missing and another goes searching for him in the heart of darkness—classic. 

2. Russell Banks’s The Darling: Set in Liberia, Banks’s novel (which is said to be based loosely on The Tempest) explores failures of both American and Liberian governments. A former member of the Weather Underground faces exposure back home, but also faces a near-constant civil war in her adopted home.

3. Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna: Kingsolver’s agenda-driven fiction isn’t for everyone, but I was drawn to this novel, set mostly in Mexico. Having grown close to Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera in Mexico City, the protagonist settles in the U.S. and attracts the scrutiny of the Joseph McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committees.

4. Robert Stone’s Damascus Gate: This is a sprawling book that explores the history of Israel and the forces that would destroy it. The book is a fascinating look at one of the Middle East’s most dangerous flashpoints.

5. Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried . Like O’Brien’s fantastic Going After Cacciato, which won the National Book Award, The Things They Carried explores the horror of the Vietnam War and the intense personal toll it takes on all. 

--- Clifford Garstang

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Recent Madam Mayo guest-blogs include:

> Nature Writer Gin Getz on 5 Best Ways to Slow Down

> Novelist Joanna Smith Rakoff on 5 Favorite Books of New York Stories

> Archive of all Madam Mayo guest-blogs

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SURF ON over at the home page, www.cmmayo.com

>  Listen in to the podcast interview with the brilliantly original novelist Solveig Eggerz

>  September exercises from "Giant Golden Buddha & 364 More Free 5 Minute Writing Exercises"

>  My one day only workshop on Literary Travel Writing, Saturday, October 11, 2014 at the Bethesda MD Writer's Center