Girls, I am telling you, Toni Morrison would have a stroke! "Steamboat Gothic," by Frances Parkinson Keyes, traffics in the same territory as Margaret Mitchell and Edna Ferber. Only its characters are not as nearly compelling and iconic. But its narrative form is driving!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And I LOVED it! Plantations burned down, lovers go up in flames, others find each other in European grottoes , women miscarry, darkies serve up lavish meals....I felt like I should be on my freshly linen bed, in my pink peignoir, a box of bons bons next to my night table, reading and eating! I certainly felt like I was doing this, every time I opened the book.
I found this treasure in a used book store, in upstate New York, not far from Woodstock. I want to tell you, the author and title intrigued me; I thought the title was a generic reference to the type of story being told. But Steamboat Gothic, I learned, was a particular architectural style, where riverside plantation homes were sometimes designed to resemble the interiors of the more palatial riverboats traveling along the Mississippi! Like Cap'n Andy's Cotton Blossom! Only there is no Julie La Verne here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is the most fun read I have had all Summer. You can bet this is going to be a "keeper," because I plan to scour bookstores, when I can, and start my own collection of Frances Parkinson Keyes paperbacks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Steamboat Gothic" is available on Amazon, and, dolls, I am urging everyone to read it! It is a romantic hoot, and you will have a reading experience of the kind that do not exist anymore, because, while romantic trash is still being written, it was never better written than in the days of writers such as Keyes and Taylor Caldwell! Can we count such talent today???????? Are you kidding????????
But, honestly, darlings, it is a hoot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Toot! Toot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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