Good American Writers

[malignd at aol.com]

I agree.  She's very good.  LIked Memoirs of Hadrian; don't know The Abyss



-----Original Message-----
From: Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Mon, May 6, 2013 8:57 pm
Subject: Re: Good American Writers


One American woman (but French really -)  who doesn't get a lot of mention is 
Marguerite Yourcenar.   Her most famous novel was "Memoirs of Hadrian" but "The 
Abyss" was also quite good.     

"Yourcenar was elected as the first female member of the Académie française, in 
1980. An anecdote tells of how the bathroom labels were then changed in this 
male-dominated institution: (Messieurs (Men) and Yourcenar). "One of the 
respected writers in French language, she published many novels, essays, and 
poems, as well as three volumes of memoirs."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marguerite_Yourcenar

Bekah

On May 6, 2013, at 11:42 AM, Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> And I'd like to add Cynthia Ozick (Foreign Bodies) and Jhumpa Lahiri (The 
Namesake).  
> 
> Elaine Showalter's list of top women authors in the US: 
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/may/09/female-novelists-usa
> 
> 
> 
> Life is much easier for serious women authors  in the UK where the likes of 
Atwood and Munro and Mantel and Hazard and Smith and Barker and Byatt and 
Rowling and Gordimer and Dineson and Bainbridge and Taylor and  Lessing and 
Murdoch and Woolf and many others back to the days of Austen get noticed - get 
reviewed - get encouraged by publishers and critics.   In the US it seems that 
most publishers want their authors to make mo' $$$ by whatever lowest common 
denominator will do it (chick-lit and crime books usually).    And the critics 
tend to recognize the new male authors.   
> https://www.smalldemons.com/users/lists/smdmns_731362_2794/British_Female_Authors_of_the_20th_Century
> 
> Tambien: 
> http://www.thebookescape.com/Feminista.html  (world-wide) 
> 
> This is the site of a personal friend - a bit irritated by the dearth of women 
authors on that Random House list - sheesh!  
> http://whisperinggums.com/2011/04/08/nine-just-9-books-by-female-authors-at-the-top-of-a-20th-century-list/
> 
> Bekah
> 
> 
> On May 6, 2013, at 2:19 AM, Matthew Cissell <macissell at yahoo.es> wrote:
> 
>> My problem with The Great American Novel is its defining article. Do the 
French obsess like this? And don't get me started with the adjective.
>> 
>> All great books, those that have been mentioned. I know: Inclusio unius est 
exclusio alterius. sure. But let me throw out two names that haven't been 
mentioned.
>> 
>> Faulkner, Kerouac and our TP all read Thomas Wolfe, maybe his novels are not 
Great (but the prose?) but they deserve study.
>> 
>> And a couple for the gals. Again, perhaps not Great but certainly good: Kate 
Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
>> 
>> ciao
>> mc
> 


 
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