dunnett
All the Writers You Love Probably Love Dorothy Dunnett, Alaya Dawn Johnson's recent essay for NPR on Dunnett and The Lymond Chronicles, which I am posting here by way of pointing repeatedly and saying, "Look! See! She's one of the Greats!"
I am already halfway through The Disorderly Knights, despite starting it on Saturday night, which is really saying something since these books demand my full attention in order to understand anything. (For real. Check out the excerpt NPR offers, poorly-formatted as it is.) I know most of the subtleties are going over my head, but that's okay with me, here. It's not a frustrating reading experience so much as a stretching one.
Here's a passage from the essay I like a lot, if you don't want to read the whole thing (though you should!):
"As I came to realize that the world of people who Knew About Lymond included a whole host literary idols, I felt at once ecstatic and curious. What was it about these melodramatic, dense, swashbuckling historical novels that had so held the attention of so many writers in so many genres? I began to feel that her greatest impact came in areas we often dismiss as pulp - maybe because writers in those genres are better able to understand the genius of her occasionally melodramatic excesses.
"...what I particularly love about Dunnett is how she earns her excesses. She leads us to the final act with such skill and intelligence that I'm entirely invested in scenarios that would make me roll my eyes in a lesser novel, with lesser characters."
This exactly. These are not spare books, there is no Hemingway-esque tips of the iceberg here, there are whole hulking mountains and foothills and valleys and forests and mists and roe deer leaping from thickets. The picture is enormous, but it's complete, and I believe in it wholeheartedly.
Anyway with that said, back to reading!
I am already halfway through The Disorderly Knights, despite starting it on Saturday night, which is really saying something since these books demand my full attention in order to understand anything. (For real. Check out the excerpt NPR offers, poorly-formatted as it is.) I know most of the subtleties are going over my head, but that's okay with me, here. It's not a frustrating reading experience so much as a stretching one.
Here's a passage from the essay I like a lot, if you don't want to read the whole thing (though you should!):
"As I came to realize that the world of people who Knew About Lymond included a whole host literary idols, I felt at once ecstatic and curious. What was it about these melodramatic, dense, swashbuckling historical novels that had so held the attention of so many writers in so many genres? I began to feel that her greatest impact came in areas we often dismiss as pulp - maybe because writers in those genres are better able to understand the genius of her occasionally melodramatic excesses.
"...what I particularly love about Dunnett is how she earns her excesses. She leads us to the final act with such skill and intelligence that I'm entirely invested in scenarios that would make me roll my eyes in a lesser novel, with lesser characters."
This exactly. These are not spare books, there is no Hemingway-esque tips of the iceberg here, there are whole hulking mountains and foothills and valleys and forests and mists and roe deer leaping from thickets. The picture is enormous, but it's complete, and I believe in it wholeheartedly.
Anyway with that said, back to reading!