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The mother of a friend of mine is about to go into the hospital for surgery which will require a long recovery. My friend is going to buy a bunch of books and DVDs to entertain her while she's stuck in bed for six weeks. She asked me for suggestions.
Her mother is VERY PARTICULAR. Please pay attention to the restrictions before making suggestions.
She DOES NOT LIKE:
Anything that could in any way be considered genre. That means absolutely no fantasy, sf, or mysteries of any kind. It also includes borderline-mainstream genres like magic realism, character-based mysteries (like Dorothy Sayers), myth, etc.
Action, swashbuckling, and adventure of any kind. NO Dorothy Dunnett, NO Patrick O'Brian.
Non-fiction of any kind.
Anything whose appeal is "young," like Banana Yoshimoto.
Anne Tyler. (Not sure why.)
Explicit sex or violence.
She DOES LIKE:
P.G. Wodehouse (but has already read everything he's written).
Indian fiction (she's from India) but has already read all the well-known books that have been popular in the US, like Rohinton Mistry, Arundhati Roy, Death of Vishnu, etc.
Genteel comedies.
Jane Austen (but has already read all of hers, plus seen all the film and TV adaptations.)
Willa Cather (but has already read all of hers.)
I suggested Georgette Heyer, Cold Comfort Farm, and the TV series "Frontier House," and then was completely stumped. ETA: She has already read all of Amy Tan's books, and was lukewarm about them.
Suggestions? They MUST be in print in America.
Her mother is VERY PARTICULAR. Please pay attention to the restrictions before making suggestions.
She DOES NOT LIKE:
Anything that could in any way be considered genre. That means absolutely no fantasy, sf, or mysteries of any kind. It also includes borderline-mainstream genres like magic realism, character-based mysteries (like Dorothy Sayers), myth, etc.
Action, swashbuckling, and adventure of any kind. NO Dorothy Dunnett, NO Patrick O'Brian.
Non-fiction of any kind.
Anything whose appeal is "young," like Banana Yoshimoto.
Anne Tyler. (Not sure why.)
Explicit sex or violence.
She DOES LIKE:
P.G. Wodehouse (but has already read everything he's written).
Indian fiction (she's from India) but has already read all the well-known books that have been popular in the US, like Rohinton Mistry, Arundhati Roy, Death of Vishnu, etc.
Genteel comedies.
Jane Austen (but has already read all of hers, plus seen all the film and TV adaptations.)
Willa Cather (but has already read all of hers.)
I suggested Georgette Heyer, Cold Comfort Farm, and the TV series "Frontier House," and then was completely stumped. ETA: She has already read all of Amy Tan's books, and was lukewarm about them.
Suggestions? They MUST be in print in America.
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Definitely Miss Read, both the Fairacre and Village Green stories.
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Maybe Gillian Bradshaw? She writes Roman historicals centered on the lives of fairly ordinary people, at least the three I've read and liked (Island of Ghosts, Beacon at Alexandria, Sand Reckoner).
Despite my rabid dislike of Slammerkin, Emma Donoghue's Life Mask is a good historical set in early Regency England, though I'm not sure if your friend's mom will be up for the lesbian bits.
She might like Fowler's The Jane Austen Club?
That's all I've got...
Unless maybe Carla Kelly? But that might be too romance and thereby too off-putting.
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This woman will like:
THE FOUNTAIN OVERFLOWS by Rebecca West
Anything by Barbara Pym, Elizabeth Taylor (mid-20th century english novelist), anything by Sylvia Townsend Warner. Perhaps also Muriel Spark, Ellen Gilchrist, Her First American by Lore Segal (can't recommend this highly enough), Shirley Hazzard, Old Filth by Jane Gardam, Edith Wharton.
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Indu Sundarsen's books on Nur Jehan - The Twentieth Wife and Feast of Roses.
Definitely Heyer.
Erma Bombeck
The Kumars at No. 42
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Okay, the Booklist feature lists nine authors who have done sequels/retellings of Austen's books, including Pamela Aidan and Joan Aiken (several titles; the latest one is Lady Catherine's Necklace). Of the others, these are the ones that looked best & are still in print:
*Julia Barrett: Presumption: An Entertainment (a continuation of Pride and Prejudice)
*Julia Barrett: Jane Austen's Charlotte: Her Fragment of a Last Novel (a completion of Austen's last unfinished manuscript, Sanditon)
*Emma Tennant: Pemberley, or, Pride and Prejudice Continued
I haven't read any of these -- in fact, I suspect I have not read more than five books in my life that would fit your friend's mother's reading tastes! -- so can't comment on their quality myself, but all of them were either reviewed favorably in Booklist or mentioned favorably in that article.
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Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters
Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle
Nancy Mitford, maybe? The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate have got to be in print in the U.S.
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Do I know you?!
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Alice Munro? Though these are short stories.
No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod.
Generally, not a lot of humor in the above and quite heavy.
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Angela Thirkell?
How about Trollope? There's lots of scope there. (Is she doesn't like the Barsetshire novels, then nix the Angela Thirkells, which are fanfic, basically.)
If she likes Wodehouse and manners, there's a nifty book by D. E. Stevenson called "Miss Buncle's Book" but it's hard to find except in big libraries. The central conceit is the roman a clef, which usually hits right in the target zone for Austen/Wodehouse reading tastes.
Dodie Smith "I Capture the Castle."
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Definitely Miss Read (I find her work at used books stores everywhere, even if she's not in print).
Maybe some of the ancient Greece Mary Renaults, like The Praise Singer and The Mask of Apollo.
Other big name literary writers -- Kazuo Ishiguro and Ian McEwan come to mind.
Definitely Heyer romances.
I'm not sure how likely you are to find these in the US, but Manju Kapur's two books, "Difficult Daughters" and "A Married Woman" might be good. There is also always Bharati Mukherjee.
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Karen Joy Fowler's books, particularly The Jane Austen Book Club.
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I love Alice Munro, but her later books are quite dark, so I'd stick with relatively early Munro. If Lives of Girls and Women is currently in print, that's probably the best choice.
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Janet Karon has a series of novels about the small town of Mitford, which my mother really likes. They are, however, if I understand correctly, rather Christian in sensibility and text. If that matters.
How about Louise Erdrich? Anne Lamott's fiction? Ann Patchett's Bel Canto? Annie Proulx? Madeleine L'Engle's adult stuff like The Small Rain or The Severed Wasp?
Oh, John Crowley's The Translator, which I thought was marvelous (and it's not genre).
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Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient and The Skin of a Lion. He's a poet and writes poetically; the novel is very different in its focus and impact than the movie.
Stephen Fry has written several funny novels, inc. The Liar and Hippopotamus.
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Sigrid Undset - Kristin Lavransdottir
Three Men in a Boat (awfully short but very funny)
Pigs is Pigs (ditto)
Dance to the Music of Time (12 books! It's got its funny bits)
Barchester and Palliser series (Trollope) (Nice and long)
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And there's the sequel, THREE MEN ON THE BUMMEL.
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Oh also Betty MacDonald "Everybody Can Do Anything", "The Egg and I" and "Onions in the Stew". (fascinating, funny memoir, I think it qualifies as "genteel comedy". My favorite is "Everybody" as Betty describes all the odd jobs she did as a single working girl, with her sister, during the Depression.)
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Paula Morantz Cohen
Jane Austin in Boca Raton.
St Martins.
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Cranford (should be available in paperback)
In the Country of the Pointed Firs (ditto)
I recently picked up and read a volume of three stories by R. K. Narayan, because Graham Greene was instrumental in getting him published. I was curious. It's a paperback if not this volume, then some other similar one is certainly available. The title story is "Swami and Friends," which I felt has not aged well; it does have some bright moments, and is certainly a homage to the many classic boy stories of the late 19c and early 20c (e.g. Stalky and Company). Swami is a child in school, and much of the book is about the dynamics of his clique of friends as they get into kid trouble, start a cricket team, etc. Read with "It's a first sale" firmly in mind (it was) I did think it was very good, but it's not necessarily appealing to modern readers; that said, your mother might like to taste it and skip it if not to her liking, as Narayan is certainly an acknowledged classic now. "The Bachelor of Arts" (second story) was better; the title character is a young university man, aimless and a bit feckless, drifting toward employment and marriage and not caring much about anything until he suddenly is struck by the beauty of a young woman. The third story really paid for the book; "The Vendor of Sweets" was moving and sad and sweet, about a father (title character) trying to understand his slightly too-up-to-date son, who is either scamming or being scammed (reader understands this; Jagan the father does not). On the basis of that one I recommend trying Narayan and will be reading more Narayan myself. I have lent the book to others and told them to read just "Vendor of Sweets".
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers has had glowing reviews and to my shame I have not yet read it, so cannot recommend personally. I have bought it though.
I second the recommendation of Muriel Spark. Short novels, probably available from library, a bonus. These are not always genteel; Spark always puts a sting in the tale. But they're good. Reading The Girls of Slender Means and Hilary Mantel's retake of it, An Experiment in Love, together is food for much thought. Possibly too much. Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel was excellent.
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Marina Lempicka, if available in paperback, is funny and not unkind even to the awfulest characters. Aged father marries Eastern European trophy wife; children dismayed; hijinks ensue.
Someone mentioned Nancy Mitford; Love in a Cold Climate is the best of her novels and the one that has sustained its interest over time. Don't Tell Alfred doesn't work quite as well. We never learn as much as we could about the narrator in the Mitford novels.
I assume she has read A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth. She might not have read his other novels; they would be worth a look, although An Equal Music certainly doesn't have a happy ever after ending.
Anita Brookner's novels will probably agree with her: start with Hotel du Lac. We also have The Misalliance on the shelf and I can't remember a thing about it.
She should sample Robertson Davies.
I just picked up Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky, read one page, and now can't find it. But they say it's excellent... and the history of the book is as good as a novel itself.
Le Divorce by Diane Johnson, who has also published other strangely similar sounding titles, L'Affaire and Le Mariage.
If she tries Trollope, start with The Eustace Diamonds.
For DVD's, flicks my Mom has loved include Waking Ned Devine, which will not pop to the top of any list. If you need other Mom-flick suggestions let me know. By the way,
I suggest getting things from the library or Netflix so she can try out new authors without too big an investment and have a big stack available to make it easier to choose something to suit her mood.
If she likes romance-oid things Barbara Taylor Bradford might suit, also classic sex & shopping novels like Scruples.
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