2009 Books XLV-XLVIII
XLV: Emma Tennant, Hotel De Dream
A charming ... what? Not quite metafiction - but a meditation on fiction and dreams. A group of people in a hotel - actually more of a boarding house - dream: of a city, of a beach, of the queen's abdication. As a writer moves in and battles for control of her characters, the dram begin to interweave, and some of them relaise they have met before - in dreams or in real life. I guess the sort of book for which the term slipstream was coined for - reminds me of some of the Carter I've read.
XLVI: Emma Tennant, The Crack
Intriguing post-New Wave disaster novel, as a crack opens up along the Thames, and the south of England risks breaking off. In part the adventures of a bunny girl from a Playboy club, but with hints of a woman's paradise being built on the south bank. I don't think Tennant shows up in any of the feminist sf accounts, or even feminist fantasy; I must check if Lucie Armitt gives her a mention.
XLVII: Emma Tennant, Alice Fell
A little bit disappointing as I felt it was promising more than it delivered - a girl is brought up in a strange house, and her mother waits for her to fall/marry. Somewhere along the line it's a Persephone myth, but I bounced off it.
XLVIII: Emma Tennant, Wild Nights
A family (of witches and wizards) await a visit from an aunt, and a change in the weather. Again a variant on Persephone, but more abstractL a narrative about changing seasons. Again I felt I bounced off it.
A charming ... what? Not quite metafiction - but a meditation on fiction and dreams. A group of people in a hotel - actually more of a boarding house - dream: of a city, of a beach, of the queen's abdication. As a writer moves in and battles for control of her characters, the dram begin to interweave, and some of them relaise they have met before - in dreams or in real life. I guess the sort of book for which the term slipstream was coined for - reminds me of some of the Carter I've read.
XLVI: Emma Tennant, The Crack
Intriguing post-New Wave disaster novel, as a crack opens up along the Thames, and the south of England risks breaking off. In part the adventures of a bunny girl from a Playboy club, but with hints of a woman's paradise being built on the south bank. I don't think Tennant shows up in any of the feminist sf accounts, or even feminist fantasy; I must check if Lucie Armitt gives her a mention.
XLVII: Emma Tennant, Alice Fell
A little bit disappointing as I felt it was promising more than it delivered - a girl is brought up in a strange house, and her mother waits for her to fall/marry. Somewhere along the line it's a Persephone myth, but I bounced off it.
XLVIII: Emma Tennant, Wild Nights
A family (of witches and wizards) await a visit from an aunt, and a change in the weather. Again a variant on Persephone, but more abstractL a narrative about changing seasons. Again I felt I bounced off it.