“I read this book in a college class called “World Literature By And About Women” in college. Kind of an arduous title for a class. I’m pretty sure we didn’t read any books by dudes that were about women, so we could’ve shortened it to “World Literature by Women” I suppose. But most times in that class, I wasn’t really in a suggesting mood. There were three dudes in the class at one point, including me. One NEVER came, one RARELY came, and I ALWAYS came. And read.
We read some good stuff. When Heaven and Earth Changed Places was pretty good. Like Water for Chocolate was easily the lightest and best. Burger’s Daughter, which had nothing to do with Louise from Bob’s Burger taking over her father’s empire. House of the Spirits. I read Wide Sargasso Sea before reading Jane Eyre, so it made no fucking sense whatsoever. Wild Swans was good, but it was SO long and I was pretty hung over when I read most of it. But, you know, that 21 year-old hangover, which doesn’t really count as anything other than the first glimpse of your day-to-day experience as an adult.
This one I remember as being really difficult to follow. It wasn’t my bag. In the years since, this seems to be a book that academic types really, really love. People who have to teach books seem to like this one a lot. People who read books, mostly by choice, don’t seem quite as enamored.
It’s too bad that this divide exists. I know that this is true of things I’ve written, like Ghost Dick, which is about a paranormal detective. Academics love it. It’s taught in classrooms across the nation. But I wish I could connect with the common man. “