Epistolary Novels

[susandennis]

Eons ago - I think I was a teenager - I read a novel titled 84 Charing Cross Road. It was wonderful. To this day, I can remember passages and scenes in it while I cannot remember even the name of the great book I finished last week. The story is told through a series of letters from a woman in America to a bookseller in London. I loved the story and the format.

I love the format. It's so compelling and there is just something so delicious about reading someone else's mail.

The book I'm reading now - Where'd you go, Bernadette is about a MacArther Genius grant winner who married a Microsoftie and transplanted from LA to Seattle and hates it and drives a skewer through every single bit and piece of it - hilariously.

But, while the story, itself is great, it's told mostly through the letters, emails, notes and faxes of the characters which makes this good book great.

I was telling Chef Anita about it and when I explained the format she immediately said "ah, epistolary!"

I had never in my life heard that word but I was thrilled to have it. Hello, Google...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_contemporary_epistolary_novels

This list is great. I had only read a couple. I went through the Google Play bookshop and downloaded the previews of a bunch of them. Now I don't feel quite as tragic about getting to the end of Bernadette.

Comments

[otherdeb.livejournal.com]

I loved 84, Charing Cross Road with a passion so great that I also devoured two of her other books: The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, and Q's Legacy.

hanks for pointing me to the list on Wikipedia. I will have to add the ones I havne't read to my list of books to read.

[sea-weed.livejournal.com]

I've read a few on the list and want to read a few more. Perks of being a Wallflower was good. And I'm really curious about Tarzan's Tonsilitis! :-)

[anita-margarita.livejournal.com]

I loved 84 Charing Cross Road. Did you know there is now a Pizza Hut where that bookstore was? A fucking shame. Loved her other books as well, plus the movie.

Not forgetting The Dionea House. (http://www.dionaea-house.com/)

[stasia]

Do you like books with magic? One of my favorite epistolary novels is The Enchanted Chocolate Pot.

I have read Ella Minnow Pea several times and it never gets old.

I, too, love epistolary novels.

Stasia

[johncomic.livejournal.com]

I find it intriguing that the format of writing appeals to you this much... you've now got me curious about these books!

FWIW, there are some small elements of fun epistolarianism in this book Sharon is currently getting me to read: Heads You Lose (http://headsyoulose.com/)

[susandennis]

thanks! i downloaded a sample of it to check out.

[mixter11nm.livejournal.com]

Whew, when I saw the title of this post I was like WTF? Then as I got partway thru it and realized you never knew that word either I felt relieved.

[susandennis]

ha! it does sound crotch numbing at first glance, doesn't it?!

[machupicchu.livejournal.com]

.
.
Huh. Incidentally, just today I picked up my new library book, and it's called Attachments -- mostly told through work email correspondence between two women friends. (A guy hired to monitor email gets sucked into them and falls in love with one of the women, apparently.) The book was published just last year but does not appear to be on that Wikipedia list.

I only know about it because of Entertainment Weekly, which is where I get probably 90% of my book recommendations. Whoa -- and I'd forgotten this: apparently they work at a newspaper!

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20503442,00.html

(I had forgotten that was also the list that introduced me to Embassytown, the book I enjoyed a lot and which you were so worried about my having overdue for so long -- I returned it just the other day!)
.
.