100 Things - Book #1
{Take the 100 Things challenge!}
100 Books By Women, Courtesy of Gutenberg.org (Why, yes, that is a weirdly semi-specific category, and no, I couldn't find any more concise way of putting it.)
Okay, so I've wanted to take this challenge since some of my flisters first started doing it; it's complete lack of guidelines and time constraints appealed to me. The question was just what could I possibly care enough about to write about 100 times that wouldn't just annoy everyone on my flist.
And then, this idea came to me. Best thing that has happened to me over the past year? The combination of Kindle + Gutenberg, which has enable me to read so many novels I would otherwise never have found. So I decided, I might as well share all these treasures with you.
In a good year, I manage to read about one hundred books in a year. So far, this year, I am behind schedule. Hopefully, this project will help me get back on track. But regardless, every book I read that fits this category (from Gutenberg, written by a woman), I will blog about, whether I loved or hated it, read it fifty times, or for the very first time.
As I am approaching this from the idea that some of you might become interested in these books enough to read them yourselves, I'll try to keep my entries relatively spoiler-free, unless there is just something I absolutely have to talk about, in which case I'll warn of spoilers from the top. I'm not very formal, I tend to ramble, and I have no intention of writing book reports, so I don't know how interesting or even coherent these posts will turn out. Nevertheless, here goes nothing:
1. Dawn O'Hara, the Girl Who Laughed by Edna Ferber
Edna Ferber is an American author, whose work spanned the early and middle 1900s. Her best known works are probably Show Boat and Giant, both of which were developed into motion pictures (Show Boat is a musical as well). Neither of those can be found on Gutenberg, as they were written after 1921 and fall under copyright laws. But several of her early novels and stories can.
Dawn O'Hara is her very first novel and is, obviously, about the titular character, Dawn O'Hara. Dawn is a second-generation Irish immigrant, though most of the book deals with the German immigrant experience. She, like most Ferber heroines I've come across, finds herself disappointed by the man in her life; in Dawn's case, this is her husband, Peter Orme, who, despite being a renowned journalist, is a cruel alcoholic who eventually goes mad and has to be committed. To support herself and her husband, Dawn becomes a newspaperwoman.
What I really enjoy about Ferber's work, especially considering the time she lived in, is how all of her heroines are shown to be competent, intelligent, diligent workers, in whatever field they enter. Whether they love or hate what they do (Dawn falls somewhere in the middle), they do it well, and, by doing so, earn the respect and admiration of their male coworkers.
This is not my favorite Ferber novel (of those I've read, that honor goes to Roast Beef, Medium). I think I might have liked it better without the romance, which felt a bit forced. But I loved all the descriptions of Milwaukee in its early days, as a German-American hub. I also loved some of the supporting characters, like Blackie and Frau Nirlanger.
I think what I enjoy most about Ferber's stories is that they bridge the gap for me, between the early feminism you see in the Brontes' work, and where we are today. Without being openly revolutionary or incendiary, they depict empowered women entering the work force and thriving. I would definitely recommend checking out one of her novels, even if it's not this one.