Friday, April 9, 2010

Gabriele Wilson: The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson


Startingly spare, beautifully executed. I chuckled when I saw it in the bookstore. Looking at the silhouette of the inner Emily Dickinson, I wonder...are we seeing what women wore under their dresses in the 1800s? It looks really modern, but at the same time, those boots look both rocker-chic and Masterpiece-Theater-y. Here's the description: "What if the old maid of Amherst wasn’t an old maid at all? Her older brother, Austin, spoke of Emily as his “wild sister.” Jerome Charyn, continuing his exploration of American history through fiction, has written a startling novel about Emily Dickinson in her own voice, with all its characteristic modulations that he learned from her letters and poems." Out in February from WW Norton.