A Certain Slant of Light

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

The combined blandishments of rachelmanija and skygiants made Dorothy Gilman’s A Nun in the Closet impossible to resist, and it is indeed a delightful book. Two nuns (Sister John and Sister Hyacinthe) head to upstate New York to check out a property their impoverished nunnery has unexpectedly received; Sister Hyacinthe is concerned when they find a man bleeding from three bullet wounds in the closet and a suitcase full of money down the well, but Sister John remains blissfully calm: clearly God sent them the money so their order could make good use of it.

Sister John was chosen for the trip because of her all-around competence, thus proving that competence and common sense are not necessarily related.

They also team up with a bunch of hippies who are trying out their back-to-the-land experiment on the grounds of the long-abandoned house the sisters have inherited. Hippies and nuns: two great tastes that taste great together! And in a way it makes sense: both hippies and nuns are countercultural in the sense of rejecting mainstream American cultural values, even if their reasons for it are quite different.

I also finished E. Nesbit’s Five Children and It, which I enjoyed, although I must confess that my favorite part was seeing which bits Edward Eager borrowed for his own books half a century later. There’s a chapter in here where the children wish the baby was grown up that Eager riffs off of twice: once when the girls wish themselves grown up and instantly turn into flappers, and another time when the children wish the baby grown and he becomes grown up in size - but still a baby in thought.

And also Cokie Roberts’ Ladies of Liberty, which was less engrossing than her Capital Dames even though in Ladies of Liberty the British burn down the White House, which one feels ought to be enough excitement for anyone.

What I’m Reading Now

I’ve begun Mary Stewart’s Madam, Will You Talk?. So far it seems quite a classic Mary Stewart, which is impressive given that it’s her first novel - you might expect it to be rougher than her later efforts.

What I Plan to Read Next

Martha Finley’s Elsie at the World’s Fair. As I recall, I tried to read this before (the World’s Fair being an irrepressible draw) but gave up because it had lost all that unintentionally creeptastic Elsie Dinsmore flavor. It’s something like book twenty in the series and I suspect Martha Finley was just grinding them out at that point. But still! It may have useful World’s Fair nuggets.

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps’ The Gates Ajar, a treatise on heaven thinly disguised as a novel that was immensely popular in the second half of the nineteenth century. I can see why this book was so popular: not only is the image of heaven it offers appealing, but the image it replaces, which was commonplace at the time judging by the strenuousness with with Phelps refutes it (standing in choir robes singing for all eternity! No laughter allowed!) is so unappealing that many people must have been positively panting for anything else.

Similarly, I suspect it was balm to the heart to hear ministers blamed for wafting in to the homes of the recently bereaved, instructing them to be resigned, and pondering aloud as to the doubtfulness of the recently deceased making it into heaven. The Puritans have a lot to answer for.

Also Cokie Roberts’ Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington, 1848-1868. (Yes, the Civil War has finally got me. There’s something grimly comforting about the thought that, bad as the times are, the body politic still has not broken down to the point of tens of thousands of American soldiers killing each other in cornfields.)

I really enjoyed this book. It shows not only the characters of many prominent Washingtonian women at the time but the interconnections between them, which is something I always want more of, and also gives you the feeling of the war as its unfolding - the way that the outcome of the conflict hung in the balance with almost every battle, the fact that Peace Democrats continued to agitate for a peaceful settlement (without the emancipation of slavery) almost of the end.

A chronological approach can be dull if it’s badly done, but here it actually serves to increase the excitement: even though we the readers know how it’s going to turn out overall, still you can feel some of the suspense as the Confederate army starts marching on Washington (which they did a number of times: I hadn’t realized how close the Capitol came to being besieged).

I also read Raina Telgemeier’s graphic novel adaptation of Kristy’s Big Idea, the first Babysitters Club book, which I’ve been gazing thoughtfully at for years without ever quite taking the plunge. But I finally read it and it’s a quick, fun read, and also I think it offers a better image of female friendship than currently popular books like the Dork Diaries (maybe the Dork Diaries get better in later installments? I only read the first one) so hopefully the graphic novels will give it more reach.

What I’m Reading Now

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps’ Beyond the Gates, which focuses on different characters but expands on the ideas in The Gates Ajar and is therefore in sequel. In this book, we follow the heroine through a near-death experience and visit heaven.

I’ve also begun Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1868 The Chimney-corner, a collection of essays that Stowe wrote under a male pseudonym, probably so they would be taken more seriously as they are about politics, the Woman Question, the course of Reconstruction, etc. So far, Stowe has argued in favor of women’s voting rights and the importance of thorough training in the domestic sphere, which may seem like odd bedfellows, but I do see her point - although translated to a modern context, one would want boys to learn the same things as well. Why are we all more thoroughly taught about chemistry in the abstract, than the very practical chemistry of cooking?

What I Plan to Read Next

Cokie Roberts’ Founding Mothers, probably. I’ve been toying with the idea of extending the Distaff Line series back to the Revolution (before the Revolution I refuse to go: I don’t know much about the period and I don’t think there’s any great demand for fiction about it), although in the end I think I won’t; but this will be a pleasant read anyway and useful if I do decide to do it after all.

I’m also thinking around diving more deeply into the world of graphic novels, because one of my students really likes them (she actually drew a one page graphic story of her own! Clearly a talent to be encouraged!) and I’d like to be able to offer thoughtful book recommendations. Plus, they’re fun! And such quick reads, too.