#ReadWomen2014 began when author and designer
Joanna Walsh created a series of five ‘cartes
des voeux’ to give out as new year presents. The cards featured cartoons of
Walsh’s favourite female writers, including Marguerite Duras and Gertrude Stein,
with a list of 250 more authors she admired on the reverse. Walsh was
encouraged to tweet the names, and other tweeters joined in with their
suggestions. From there, the idea snowballed, with readers, journalists and
bloggers committing to reading more books by women, to try and challenge
traditional imbalances in the way female authors are packaged and reviewed.
While there are more women reading books than men, and there
are about as many women writing as there are men, this isn’t reflected in the
media, as the annual VIDA reports show. This is particularly true of high end
publications, with the London Review of Books being a notable bastion of male
privilege. Women have had a good record at literary awards recently, but even
then authors have had to put up with sexist coverage (‘natural blonde’ Eleanor
Catton at the Booker, for example) and dreadful covers, as any visit to
Waterstone’s will testify. The aim of Read Women 2014 is to make people think
more about their reading habits, making small individual steps towards a level
playing field.
I want to use #readwomen2014 to fill some gaps in
my reading history – a mixture of modern classics and contemporary novels that I
haven’t got round to yet. I’m challenging myself to read one a month, in
addition to the books (by male and female authors) that I normally read and
review. So far, I’ve decided on the following: The Years (Virginia Woolf), Wolf
Hall (Hilary Mantel), Life After Life (Kate Atkinson), White Teeth (Zadie
Smith), The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood), I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou),
Americanah (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) and A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers (Xiaolu Guo). That leaves four spaces – I’d be
grateful for any recommendations / suggestions.
In return, here are a few ideas for anyone else using 2014
to read more female writers – hopefully some of these will be new to you:
Rebecca West is best known for her novels, but her reportage
is also stunning. Abrasive and intelligent, her writing is deeply opinionated,
almost shockingly so, compared to the modern preference for ‘balance’. A Train
of Powder is a fascinating insight into the Nuremberg trials, combined with
reports on lynchings in the American South; The Meaning of Treason explores the
careers of British citizens who collaborated with the Nazis during World War
II. Both are well worth revisiting.
Other non-fiction pics would be Shame, by Jasvinder Sanghera,
an account of forced marriages in Britain which mixes the personal and
polemical to great effect, and Gitta Sereny’s books Cries Unheard and Into That
Darkness, which confront the perpetrators of evil acts, probing to find the
psychological reality behind them. Finally, while Angela Carter’s novels are
widely read, it’s also well worth picking up The Sadean Woman if you haven’t
already, for a fiercely argued essay on sexuality and porn.
If you’re looking for bold, subversive modern novels, I’d
suggest Lightning Rods by Helen Dewitt, The Quiddity of Will Self by Sam Mills,
or Alice the Sausage by Sophie Jabes; I don’t think there’s much chance of any
of them being reissued with a picture of someone looking wistfully out of a
window on the cover. Joanna Walsh’s own collection, Fractals, contains glimpses
into the lives of disaffected and alienated women, with a very continental
feel.
And a couple of older ones. In The Second Year by Storm
Jameson is a powerful and urgent dystopian novel from 1936, imagining Britain
as a Fascist dictatorship; Barbara Pym’s Excellent Women is more subtle, but
the Austen-like prose conceals a subversive message. Mrs Caliban by Rachel
Ingalls, the story of a housewife’s affair with a sea monster named Larry, is
also worth a look.
Happy reading, if you're taking part, and let me know what else I should be looking at.
Read more about ReadWomen2014 on Badaude or on Twitter #readwomen2014
UPDATE
Based on recommendations received, the extra four books on my reading list will be Joy Williams: The Quick and The Dead, Evie Wyld: All The Birds, Singing, Germaine Greer: The Female Eunuch and Jeanette Winterson: Written on the Body
Read more about ReadWomen2014 on Badaude or on Twitter #readwomen2014
UPDATE
Based on recommendations received, the extra four books on my reading list will be Joy Williams: The Quick and The Dead, Evie Wyld: All The Birds, Singing, Germaine Greer: The Female Eunuch and Jeanette Winterson: Written on the Body
I'd suggest Antonia White's novels, 'Frost in May' is the most well known, but 'The Lost Traveller' is also well worth reading. I'd also recommend Jeanette Winterson's novels and biography.
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