Oh my dear Virginia! I am writing you to say we must part ways for now. You know I'm one of your biggest fans. I've read To the Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway twice. I rarely re-read books. But I'm sad to say it took me 6 weeks to get through Orlando. I will admit that it was a strange plot...a man turns into a woman and lives 400 years? But I know you were playing with the idea of gender and what could be more satirical then to have this character live through 400 years of English society so you could poke fun at it? Yet the writing was not as intricate and difficult as your other books, but even still, I don't think you wrote this for a mom of a 10 month old baby. I don't know how many times I had to go back 3 or 4 pages to reread. Definitly not a book I could read at breakfast, clean a load of diapers, paint a cabinet and then pick right up at lunchtime. I used to be sad that my favorite authors like you are deceased. Once I finish all of your works, that's it. Nothing to look forward to, no "what's Virginia working on next" interviews or anything like that. But now I don't have to worry about that because I'm going to leave you on the shelf till a different time in my life, which is probably when you meant your works to be read anyways. Don't worry. I'll be writing the same letters to Elliot, Tolstoy, and James.
So I'll see you later, Ginny!
Laura
2 comments:
Ha ha ha ha!! I love, love, love this post! I wish I could say I liked her writing too, but I didn't get into it that much when I had to read it for the dreaded Van Ness. (I do understand being sad when you realize that the writer you love will never write anything else/interview/etc.)
I love how ya'll are on a first name basis with each other (Ginny)! Too funny!
You are such a great writer, Laura! Ever think you'll work on writing a book??
To paraphrase Ginny "on or about July, 2009, human character changed"
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