Adele Geras writes a nice article (Guardian Unlimited: Arts blog - books: Happy Portico and the Chamber of Secrets) about a teenagers' question time at a private library (a private library! never heard of that before) in Manchester. An excerpt:
"Then Melvin read from Sara's Face, his chilling novel about celebrity, beauty and surgery, I read a piece from Ithaka and then it was time for our questions.
Someone wanted to know what the inspiration was for Melvin's The Baby And Fly Pie, and he told the boys about the Death Squads in Bolivia who used to shoot kids as though they were vermin, to stop them stealing from shops. You could almost feel the communal indrawn breath.
I was asked about why I wrote Troy, and explained my view that women had been somewhat overlooked by Homer and that I'd felt the balance had to be redressed."
I like that "somewhat overlooked". Adele Geras' books Troy, Ithaka and Secret Snow, Silent Snow are among Cathy's favourites. She's written many others, as you can see at the link. However, I had never thought any more about her apart from the fact that Cathy likes her books. The other day, in the midst of the Observer vs litbloggers brouhaha, I discovered the sanest post by a Norman Geras (as did several others, I've seen quite a few references to Norman's post in this context). After reading Norman's pertinent words about the litbloggers, and wondering about the surname, I scrolled around his blog and discovered a link to an article by Adele, who turns out to be his wife. Adele's website reveals that she was at the same college as Petrona. (Not at the same time, though.)
It is a small and interconnected world we live in. As for Norman, he's off watching the cricket. He's OK though (unlike my poor sister and the other Norm (alis Uriah Robinson) --- Norman G. is an Aussie.
There is a masterful short story by Conrad Aiken called "Silent Snow, Secret Snow." Is there any connection between it an the Geras book?
Posted by: Frank Wilson | 02 December 2006 at 02:55