I’m not done with this one yet, but it’s fantastic. The title comes from Margaret Cavendish’s introduction to her work of utopic fiction The Blazing World.Â
I am as ambitious as ever any of my sex was, is, or can be; which makes, that though I cannot be Henry the Fifth, or Charles the Second, yet I endeavour to be Margaret the First...Â
Dutton’s writing reminds me of Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion. A mix of historical fiction with the fantastic.Â
I’ve read a lot of books lately that I haven’t posted about here. These were: Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by  Xiaolu Guo, The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers, Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera, Yesterday by Maria Dermout, The Blunderer by Patricia Highsmith, and Under the Harrow by Flynn Berry.Â
I found Highsmith’s The Blunderer to be the best of those. It was her third book and one which did not tie up all its loose ends. Under the Harrow is a new book of crime fiction--Flynn Berry’s debut--and it’s gripping, but does deliver its resolution in a box with a bow on top. I would guess the Highsmith’s ways would produce more enduring work. Although I’m sure the latter way sells more in the short term.Â
Yuri Herrera’s book won the Best Translated Book Prize this year, but I found it forgettable. It beat out Elena Ferrante and Clarice Lispector??? Male mediocrity wins again.Â
We had pizza in the countryside last night. It was delicious. Go if you’re in Wisconsin! But go early--we waited 2-3 hours to get some. Eek. And I spent the day in the hospital with my wife and son a few days back so he could get tubes in his ears. What else--oh, the world’s crazy, huh.Thank goodness for books. I found one called Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead thanks to @othernotebooksareavailable ‘s twitter feed (well, she tweeted about its author Barbara Comyns, at least). It’s on hold at the library now. Let’s go pick it up. ^_^