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VIRGINIA WOOLF IN RICHMOND

Name: VIRGINIA WOOLF IN RICHMOND
Author: Peter Fullagar
ISBN: 978-1-912430-03-1

by Peter Fullagar ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 5, 2019

An informed but flawed work that explores the impact of an English town on Woolf.

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A debut literary/historical study examines the 10 years Virginia Woolf spent in Richmond.

Woolf, the English writer and pioneer of modernism, lived in Richmond, a town southwest of London, between 1914 and 1924. In the summer of 1913, she had suffered a serious breakdown, which led to a failed suicide attempt. The strains of writing her first novel, combined with the pressures of living in busy central London, had taken a serious toll. Woolf’s husband, Leonard, wanted to relocate to somewhere quieter, where his wife could convalesce. The couple moved to lodging in Richmond in October 1914, before falling in love with Hogarth House, which they would acquire a lease for the following year. Drawing on extracts from Woolf’s diaries, the study broadly assesses her time in Richmond, and how the town influenced her—from her walks in the parks and woods to the arrival of the couple’s first printing press. Fullagar also considers key developments in Woolf’s career during this period, notably the founding of the Hogarth Press, which allowed her to publish her own works without having “to suffer the negativity of sending manuscripts to publishers for scrutiny.” He deftly shows readers Richmond through Woolf’s eyes by handpicking pertinent excerpts from her diaries. In one vivid entry, she notes: “We walked in Richmond Park this afternoon; the trees all black, and the sky heavy over London; but there is enough colour to make it even lovelier today than on bright days, I think.” Fullagar is keen to allow Woolf’s writing to take center stage, adding discreet, if occasionally prosaic, commentary: “Even when the weather was not very attractive, Virginia would walk around the Richmond area and still find beauty.” But the book can become repetitive; for instance, Fullagar includes a diary excerpt in chapter one where Woolf expresses a desire to buy a “bulldog called John.” This information resurfaces in the following chapter. Repetitions also arise regarding a typesetting mix-up that confused “the h’s with the n’s.” While Fullagar’s tight focus on Richmond makes this study of Woolf a compelling proposition, the argument lacks order. And his own critical voice is often lost among the many sizable hunks of text carved from Woolf’s diaries.

An informed but flawed work that explores the impact of an English town on Woolf.

Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-912430-03-1

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Aurora Metro Press

Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2019

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

LITERARY FICTION

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WHEN WE WERE VIKINGS

by Andrew David MacDonald ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 28, 2020

An engaging, inclusive debut.

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A young woman with cognitive disabilities finds inspiration in Viking legends and prepares herself to become a hero when her brother gets involved with drug dealers.

Zelda knows she’s different than most people she meets, and she understands that difference is because of something called fetal alcohol syndrome. She has seen the unkind glances and heard the muttered slurs, but really, she just wants what any 21-year-old wants: love, acceptance, and some degree of independence to make decisions about her life. Also? A really good sword would be useful. Zelda is obsessed with Vikings—their legends, their fierce loyalty, their courage in the face of danger. Like the ancient clans, she finds strength in her tribe: her older brother, Gert, and his on-again, off-again girlfriend, AK47, plus her helpful therapist and her friends at the community center, especially her boyfriend, Marxy. He isn’t the best kisser, but he’s willing to try sex, a subject about which Zelda is definitely curious. But when Gert struggles to pay the bills and gets involved with dangerous drug dealers, Zelda knows she has to step in and help him whatever the cost. “The hero in a Viking legend is always smaller than the villain,” she reasons. “That is what makes it a legend.” In this engaging debut novel, MacDonald skillfully balances drama and violence with humor, highlighting how an unorthodox family unit is still a family. He’s never condescending, and his frank examination of the real issues facing cognitively disabled adults—sexuality, employment, independence—is bracing and compassionate. With Zelda, he’s created an unforgettable character, one whose distinctive voice is entertaining and inspiring. Will appeal to fans of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

An engaging, inclusive debut.

Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9821-2676-6

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Scout Press/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019

Categories:

LITERARY FICTION

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THE CRYING OF LOT 49

by Thomas Pynchon ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 27, 1966

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Whether you were with it or not, Pynchon's first novel V. had some prodigally exciting sequences to startle the most phlegmatic imagination. Here, however, his narrative verve has shrivelled into sheer bizarrerie. So much of it is not only unidentifiable but also unintelligible— it's not to be read as much as deciphered. The third chapter opens with "Things then did not delay in turning curious" but it has been prefaced with all kinds of Happenings after Mrs. Oedipa Maas leaves her husband Mucho. He's a disc jockey spooked by his dream of the car lot where he had once worked. She spends a night with a lawyer in a motel, playing Strip Botticelli in front of the tube. And from then on Oedipa's search, in fluid drive up and down the freeways, to the Yoyodyne electronics factory in San Narciso, into a strange society called The Tristero and for the answer to a reappearing symbol— W.A.S.T.E., back to her psychiatrist Dr. Hilarius, and to Mucho who now knows the answer to the "crying" of the lot (it's N.A.D.A.)— oh well, this is all a dizzying exposure to what is presumably a satire of contemporary society and its fluor-essence, Southern California... Pynchon's accessories include names (Driblette; Koteks; Genghis Cohen); props (feeding "eggplant sandwiches to not too bright seagulls"); insets (a long Jacobean play) and in jokes... HELP! Even the Beatles can't and they suggest the singing group called the Paranoids. Somehow it seems as if a genuine talent had reduced itself to automated kookiness. Hip, yes; hooray, no.