Tuesday, November 16, 2010

I love me an epistolary novel

I do. It's true. They amaze me. I'm reading one now (Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn) and while I'm wondering if it's a little too clever, I'm still really enjoying it.

How about A.S. Byatt's Possession? It wasn't totally epistolary, but I loved the old letters they found and how all the romances and relationships and everything intertwined. And how about Roxanne St. Claire's Hit Reply? My mother didn't even know what an IM was and she still loved it. It was that good.

So what is it about these novels I love? I think it's that they're all about words. There's no stage direction. You can't experience any of the action first-hand. It all has to be told to you at some remove. It's all words, words, words and I do love words.

I slid a little of my love for them into Un-Bridaled. My heroine found a box of old letters from World War II. The letters were based off a box of old World War II letters that we found in my garage. My late husband's father had written them to his sister. I have no idea how we ended up with them and anyone who might possible know was already dead. My kids and I pored over them. They're fascinating.

How about you? Do you love all things epistolary? Do you have a favorite? Do you hate them?


8 comments:

Kwana said...

Bridget Jones Diary is my favorite book so I think I do.

Molly O'Keefe said...

I absolutely adored The Guernsey Literary and Sweet Potato Pie Society book from a few years ago - all letters. Adored it.

I'm also totaly riveted to the History Channel these days with all of the World War 2 programming. So much of it is letters home and it breaks my heart every night.

Stephanie Doyle said...

Well first I had to look up epistolary... then I thought nah, I'm not really a big fan.

Then I read Kwana's post.

I loved Bridget Jones too.

I don't know what this makes me...

Maureen McGowan said...

Dang, Firefox crashed and I lost my comment...

Ahem... Maybe I won't admit this time that I had to look up epistolary before reading this. Wait. I just did...

I thought of the Griffin & Sabine books by Nick Bantock. Did anyone else read these? Maybe they were just out in Canada... But I'm pretty sure they were in the US, too. Beautiful epistolary novels (Maureen learned a new word) where you can actually take the letters out of envelopes to read them.

I have a writer-friend Kristina McMorris (fellow 07 GH finalist) whose debut, Letters from Home, I think is at least partly told this way. I just realized I missed her release. Bad me. We'll have to have her stop buy for a visit to tell us about it.

Maureen McGowan said...

Oh, I didn't miss the release. Phew. Kristina's book comes out March 2011. I thought this book sounded awesome from the second I heard of it when we met as fellow finalists in the "strong romantic elements" category.

Maureen McGowan said...

Oh, and Molly, Letters from Home is a WWII book. :)

(Clearly trying to get a record for consecutive posts today.)

Eileen said...

I forgot The Guernsey, etc., etc. That was a lovely book. I really liked it. The Griffin and Sabine books, too, although that was also an art experience.

Maureen McGowan said...

Yes, Nick Bantock had been known as an illustrator before that, I think.

And thanks for reminding me of Rocki's Hit Reply. I loved that book, too. So much deeper than you expect at the start.

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