Following on from previous blog post about Fay Weldon, I received an email from a reader with a link to a blog that lists 20 novels by women that is essential reading. Among them are already a few of my favourite books: Cat's eye by Margaret Atwood, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Fear of Flying by Erica Jong.
HAVE A LOOK AT THE LIST HERE
Which books are your favourite books by women? Which books would you add to the list?
A male friend recently sent me a list of 40 novels he'd recommend. Of those 40 novels only 3 were written by women ... (I don't blame you Brian, if I was to send you a list I'd probably recommend 37 women and 3 men ...)
Any other thoughts on this? Do women prefer to read books written by women and do men prefer to read books written by men? It's more common that women read books by both male and female authors whilst some men wouldn't touch a book written by a woman ... Why is that? Sometimes I wish all writers would just use their initials like M.J. Hyland and A.L. Kennedy, and that no information about them was available on the book jacket.
I think about 75% of the books I read are written by women, maybe because I find it easier to identify myself with female writers and their experience. I'm still in the stage of life when I'm trying to find out who the hell I am and then it helps reading books written by women about women. Especially young and confused ones... On the other hand lots of female writers use a male protagonist and vice versa.
In November there's a festival in Brighton called Storyville - Women Writers Festival. Why do we still need these divisions? Do these festivals highlight women or do they make it more visible that female writing is a minority? How many men will attend the festival?
I reckon I probably read more male authors than female ones. I was trying to work out why this is though - and I reckon the thing that tips the balance the male direction for me is the lack of very many female authors at all until about, say, 1950. And a lot of the books I read were written between 1875 and 1945, as far as I can work out. Obviously there's some notable exceptions - from that period, Elizabeth Bowen and Virginia Woolf are the two who immediately leap out.
ReplyDeletePoetry, on the other hand, I'd say I almost certainly read about 50/50 male to female - which again could be because I'm more into contemporary poetry, and there are a lot of incredible contemporary female poets.
Not that I'm sure there weren't hundreds of incredible female writers from years past - and I'm sure I'm missing out some fantastic ones. But I guess in the past, women were much less likely to get through the literary establishment and have their work published. Mary Shelley was famously renegade (and the daughter of the original feminist, Mary Wollstonecraft), but even then, she had to get her husband to edit Frankenstein before it became the version it is today.
I don't like Jane Austen, but then I don't like Thomas Hardy either...
Here are 12 books by women writers that come at or near the top of my list...
ReplyDeleteMARA & DANN – DORIS LESSING
JONATHAN STRANGE & MR NORRELL – SUSANNA CLARKE
THE HISTORIAN – ELIZABETH KOSTOVA
KRISTIN LAVRANSDATTER – SIGRID UNDSET
MIDDLEMARCH – GEORGE ELIOT
CASSANDRA – CHRISTA WOLF
THE RAPTURE – LIZ JENSEN
BRASS – HELEN WALSH
THE TIME TRAVELLER’S WIFE – AUDREY NIFFENEGGER
THE AUTOGRAPH MAN – ZADIE SMITH
THE FORTY RULES OF LOVE – ELIF SHAFAK
TESTAMENT OF YOUTH – VERA BRITTAIN
I agree largely with what Chris posted - for better or worse, men have had a greater presence in all areas of society for so long, it's hard to get away from them! 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die makes rather depressing reading if you're looking to champion women - and modern literature is actually one of the better areas in that respect...maybe because women tend to lean towards the personal rather than the political, their work is underrated... (by men!) x
p.s. Knowing how you prefer contemporary stuff, if I had to recommend one from the above list, it would be The Rapture. Oh, or Brass, for a troubled female lead...I can lend you that one!
I thought it strange that the same names would crop up repeatedly... there must be a greater pool to choose from. Off the top of my head, 'Bee Season' by Myla Goldberg and 'The House of the Spirits' by Isabel Allende deserve a mention.
ReplyDelete