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Bezig met laden... The Margaret-Ghostdoor Barbara Novak
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. This rich but ultimately heartbreaking novel tells the story of Angelica Bookbinder, a fictional professor striving for tenure at Harvard, and her research subject, real-life feminist and New England intellectual Margaret Fuller. As Angelica researches Fuller's life, her own life begins to mirror Fuller's romantic struggles. Occasionally, this novel reads like a biography (leading me to wonder why Novak didn't just write one) but at the same time, the academic formality melts well with Novak's staccato narrative. Novak's strength does not come from her characters; often, she relies on thin stereotypes (I find the rapacious lesbian women studies professor to be a tired caricature, which Novak sadly trots out). Angelica is painted sparsely and develops best when ruminating over Fuller's life; it is when Novak forces her to interact with her contemporaries that the story feels a bit over-the-top (some readers, I've read, found Novak's depiction of Angelica's attempts at lesbianism to be homophobic while others found it more satirical). Instead, it is the poem-like prose that grabs the reader. As a geography major and Bostoner, I found Novak's use of place as character to be a satisfying element, but those not from Boston might find her emphasis on street names and Harvard landmarks tiring. In the end, this is a tasty novel about a fascinating and little known historical character. ( ) geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
This fascinating novel by Barbara Novak blends painstaking scholarship and compelling fiction writing as it follows the lives of two women, one the subject of the other's research. Tenure-track professor Angelica Bookbinder is researching a book on the woman Henry James called "the Margaret-Ghost": the brilliant, New England feminist Margaret Fuller (1810-1850), who was a friend and contemporary to Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Horace Greeley, among other nineteenth-century notable figures. Fascinated by Fuller's personal life as much as by her brilliance, Angelica focuses her research on the role that love played in Fuller's life, examining both her heterosexual and homosexual liaisons, while trying to understand her lifelong struggle to balance her intellectual strengths with her emotional needs. Driven by the belief that Fuller's life was dominated by a frustrated quest for love, Angelica passionately pursues her research, all the while aware that in doing so, she is straying from the academic straight and narrow. At the same time, Angelica finds her own romantic dilemmas beginning to echo Fuller's. Moving between nineteenth- and twentieth-century Boston, Angelica follows her research with an almost carnal obsession, bouncing between the advances of a female colleague and a burgeoning relationship with a fellow tenure-track professor. Her new lover, a Harvard scholar studying Herman Melville, appreciates Angelica's intellectwhen it does not challenge hisbut seems to prefer the body of someone Angelica contemptuously calls "the Baywatch girl." Juxtaposing nineteenth-century high culture and contemporary pop references with often-hilarious results, Novak probes the nature of male-female relationships, questioning if certain patterns transcend time. Satirical, erudite, and beautifully written, The Margaret-Ghost investigates relationships, academia, love, and research, creating a captivating parallel across generations between the passionate Margaret Fuller and her equally passionate researcher. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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