WWW.
WEDNESDAY asks three questions to prompt you to speak bookishly. To
participate, and to see how other book lovers responded, click here.
PS I no longer participate in WWW.WEDNESDAY via that link because her blog won't accept Blogger comments. I mention this only to save you the frustration I experienced trying to link up.
1. What are you currently reading? Zelda Fitzgerald: Her Voice in Paradise by Sally Cline. I recently caught the end of 1974's The Great Gatsby and it got me thinking about ol' F. Scott. Then I recalled that, back in the day, I thought Zelda was the more interesting of the two. Maybe it's time to take a new look at her.
I chose the Cline book over the more famous Nancy Milford bio because it's 30 years newer. Our views on feminism, motherhood and mental healthcare evolved over those decades, and we can't look at Zelda without considering how attitudes toward women's roles and mental health affected her.
2. What did you recently finish reading? Margin of Error by Edna Buchanan. This is #5 in a series about Britt Montero, a thirty-something crime reporter for a major Miami daily. These books were originally written in the 1990s and they are very much a product of their time and place. Edna Buchanan is a good writer, a former journalist herself, and clearly loves Miami. When I'm reading these books, I can imagine the sunsets and smell the surf and see that particularly verdant South Florida foliage.
I originally read Books 1-3 more than a decade ago and liked them. For reasons I can't recall, I dropped the series before 4 and 5. I finished Act of Betrayal (#4) in June and enjoyed it. I found our heroine tough, uncompromising, dedicated and relatable. But in this book, I didn't like her at all.
First, she chooses to go to bed with someone and there is a definite imbalance of power. I felt she exploited him and I was offended. I'm not prudish about sex on the page, but I was disappointed that even a fictional someone I had come to respect behaved this way. Then there was Britt's reaction when covering a story of a woman who was under credible threat from her ex. The authorities put the victim in a safe house, a mansion that had been repossessed from a drug lord. Looking around her surroundings, Britt actually says, "Do you believe this? If we were homeless, Jimmy Carter would build us houses; if we had husbands trying to kill us, the government would put us up in luxury. But no, we're just working stiffs." So now Britt begrudges aid to the homeless and victims of domestic abuse. She's suddenly become someone I don't want in my life.
There are five more books in the series. Maybe I'll be back. The ending of this book gave me a glimmer of hope when Britt decides to consult a therapist. Could it be Edna Buchanan had Britt behaving like an ass intentionally, to illustrate how the character was coping with trauma? Perhaps. Buchanan was a very good writer.
But the world is filled with so many books and I think Britt and I could use some time apart.
3. What will you read next? I don't know.
