Saturday, October 1, 2022

Could This Be The Book Of The Year, Darlings??????????? I Cannot Wait To Read This!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


                                                First of all, girls, there is the name Barbara Kingsolver, which means good fiction.  But the real reason I am excited about this novel, which comes out on October 18, is, looking at the clue in the title, this is an updated retelling, in Southern Appalachia, of "David Copperfield," one of my favorite novels of all.  I just re-read it last year, and it is still pretty fresh in my mind.



                                                Funny thing is, for years I have had a similar idea--to retell the story through the eyes of one of the novel's minor but more compelling and disturbing characters, Rosa Dartle, the disfigured housekeeper/companion of Mrs. Steerforth.   I wonder if a Rosa counterpart will appear in this novel.  All I know is that its length is 560 pages, not nearly as long as the Dickens novel, so things will have to be sacrificed.  And what will they turn out to be?



                                                   I have heard that the novel will examine the opioid crisis.  Will the David figure be working in a meth lab, instead of a bottle factory?  And who will be the stand-ins for Clara, his mother, the Murdstones, Aunt Betsy, Pegotty, Dora, Agnes Wickfield, Steerforth, and others?  Will fallen women be examined, as they were in the cases of Little Em'ly and Martha Endell?  Remember, Babs, honey, I know every inch of "David Copperfield," so if this book does not blow me away, you are in BIG trouble.



                                                   So, maybe I should restrain my expectations.



                                                   Knowing Kingsolver's reputation raises the bar higher on this idea, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



                                                     Oh, and don't forget Jip, Dora's dog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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