So, after spending many months with this:
And writing a paper that made me temporarily insane, I felt the time was right for some slightly lighter reading. Upon arriving at work, I had Coworker 142 tell me about a book she’d read over the weekend. It sounded like exactly the kind of fantasy slumming my mind needed, so I took it home that very night. This was the book:
This “Melodrama of Manners” as Ms. Kushner calls her work, is indeed a very entertaining read. I don’t know if I can categorise it as ‘good’- it feels to me rather like very competently acted Shakespeare- everything is right, but nothing is transcendent. It also affords some of the comedy of tragedy you get out of some of the more ridiculous history plays (the Henry VIs spring to mind). Being as I love those plays (the Henry VIs especially, but I’ve also got a soft spot for Henry VIII– but enough on that), I had a excellent time in the company of Richard, the somewhat automaton-like swordsman, Alec the self-destructive ex-scholar with the mysterious past (they fight crime! Actually, they do. Kind of.), and the company of posh and vicious twits up on the Hill. This book is actually much more up Roommate N’s alley than mine, so I’ve recommended it to her, and trust she’ll have a more genre-appropriate response. Nevertheless, I’ve had an excellent time discussing it with Coworker 142 during lulls in the sometimes-frenetic pace of life here at the store, and I’d recommend it to anyone who needs a break from reading Serious Academic Things and is inclined towards the fantastic and the ridiculous.
That’s all for now. I suppose, since this was Post 1, I should have made some sort of comment about that. Oh well.
literaryshoptalk 