[bksvol-discuss] Historical fiction redux
- From: Cindy R <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 16:44:46 -0700 (PDT)
When one mentions historical fiction, as we recently
discussed here, why do we -- I at least -- immediately
and almost exclusively think of novels set in the
earlier centuries of Europe (a rhetorical question --
please don't answer). I was thinking today of other
good historical fiction writers. James Michener, for
example -- such novels as Hawaii, Centennial,
Chespeake et al. I really enjoyed them, and learned a
lot about Hawaii, Colorado and the Chesepeake Bay
history from them, but they do tend, after a while, to
follow the same formula and I got tired after a while.
There is a classic novel from ancient Japan or China
-- can't remember -- called the Dream of the Red
Chamber. It was either from that book or another which
I can't remember the name of that I first learned that
there were Jews living in China (Japan) centuries ago.
I loved the Pearl Buck novels set in China, also, and
learned a lot from them. And the more recent
best-seller, Memoirs of a Geisha, was excellent and
hard to put down -- and I learned a lot about Japan
before the war, during, and during the Occupation.
In America, the James Fennimore Cooper books in the
Leather Stocking series (everyone is familiar with,
but perhaps, like me, haven't read The Last of the
Mohicans. I then read all the rest of the books in the
series) are set in the East during, if I remember
correctly, the French and Indian Wars; Conrad
Richter's novels, are set in that period of time when
the easterners started moving west and clearing land
and settling in places like Ohio. I can't remember the
name of the series that takes a family from cutting
down trees and building their log cabin in a
wilderness where they are the only family to, five
books later, a thriving town. Edna Ferber is another
author whose historical novels set in the U.S.,
including Alaska, I have enjoyed.
I'm sure there are many others. I know, though I
haven't read them, that there are a couple of
well-known Australian and New Zealand authors that
have written historical novels about those countries,
as well as one by an American author that was a best
seller and made into a movie, but I can't think of the
name of it now.
I've rambled on too long -- apologies.
Cindy
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