Besides drawing on their own lives in creating fiction, they all had the same astrological sign: Sagittarius.
Guess what my sign is?
Coincidence? Did I subconsciously seek out writers with my sign? Or some mystical pull?
When I was ten years old I first read Little Women and was inspired to be a writer, like the heroine Jo. I started writing my own story about four sisters (like the March girls) but set in the present day and without having the Beth character die. I think I wrote about four or five whole pages.
That summer I devoured all three books about the March sisters: Little Women, Little Men and Jo's Boys. It would be many years later that I discovered some of Alcott's other novels. Work, despite its prosaic title, is an absorbing story about a young woman (probably much based on Alcott's own life) and the various careers she pursues in her journey through life. At one low point she almost commits suicide (not what you'd expect from the author of Little Women). This book deserves to be better known -- check it out.
Betty Smith is the one who comes closest to my own life. The heroine of her most famous novel is named Francie! And she lives in Brooklyn and loves to read and daydream. She spends much of her time in the local public library. I first read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn when I was in high school, while sitting in the school library during lunch time. Any wonder why I identified with that story? The other Betty Smith novel I read around the same time was Joy in the Morning which is sort of an unofficial sequel to Tree. The heroine of this novel is named Annie (Ann is my middle name!) and at 18 she elopes with her college student sweetheart. Despite never attending high school, she has a passionate love of literature and audits college classes and wants to be a writer.
If only at least one of Jane Austen's heroines had harbored literary ambitions. That would complete my trifecta! The film Becoming Jane tried to fill that gap, being a story about Jane Austen's thwarted romance and how she wound up pouring herself into her writing. Of course I adore Pride and Prejudice, and as with most people, it is my favorite Austen novel. But the one closest to my heart is Persuasion, the story of a woman of 27, an old-maid (!!!) who apparently lost her one chance at love. An unexpected second chance turns her life around. I think this may have been Austen's personal wish fulfillment fantasy. In the novel, Anne had turned down a proposal when she was 19, on the advice of her concerned aunt, who thought the suitor not prosperous enough and Anne too young to enter a marriage. Anne would regret this decision. Eight years later, her former suitor returns to town, now wealthy and seeking a bride. Still stung by her prior rejection, at first he courts a younger, prettier girl, before finally coming to his senses and turning once more to Anne. That sort of thing doesn't happen that often in real life.
Then there's James Thurber. He doesn't seem to fit in this group, does he? But I loved his stories and they made me laugh uproariously and this in my Blog, so if you don't like it, I'm sorry. You may allow your attention to wander.
No comments:
Post a Comment