March Review
A look at the best reading, watching, and listening this month
It’s time for this month’s review of the best reading, watching, and listening! This is an extra end-of-the-month post for all subscribers. If you enjoy this post, please consider signing up for a free or paid subscription to receive weekly literary discussions straight into your inbox.
March is always a tricky month for me, but the glimmers of sunshine we’ve been getting in the UK have made it far more tolerable 🙂 The lighter evenings and brighter mornings are also making me feel that tingle of springtime anticipation, itching to turn off the heating dial and throw off the coats and woolly socks!
This month, I’ve been blown away by all the new subscribers here (Hi and welcome!) and am loving the chats in the comments of my essays all around some great women’s narratives. The newsletter of late has wandered around activism, feminism, book club-ism (sorry), and I hope readers enjoy a bit of deviation here and there. Although I still love researching twentieth-century texts, some ideas just won’t stay quiet, so I have to follow them! The feedback I’ve had from readers appears positive though, so thank you! 😀
This month I’ve been reading…
Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker, an unusual novel which reminded me of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. The narrator of most of the novel - the Cassandra of the title - has a ring of Esther Greenwood to her, and there are some similar themes explored. In fact, I was inspired to dig deeper into both the novel and the author for a Substack this month!
My Year of Meat by Ruth L Ozeki. I just finished reading this and I’m still processing it…(no pun intended on meat processing). It features two young women and is set in 1991. Jane lives in America and is recounting in first person narrative the year she worked on a documentary sponsored by an American meat-exporting business aimed at convincing Japanese housewives to buy more meat from America. The other protagonist, Akiko, lives in Japan with her domineering husband, who works for the meat company. This is sounding more bizarre as I write it! But the storyline is interesting and complex. It definitely wasn’t what I was expecting, and although it was darkly comic at times, there were serious messages and the plot really went deep into areas that surprised me. I may write an essay about this one in future.
Articles…
A piece about the hit play Prima Facie, which featured Jodie Comer of Killing Eve fame, on the release of the novel version. The one-woman play which tackles the issue of the difficulties in fighting sexual assault cases won an Olivier Award for Australian playwright Suzie Miller; Comer also reads the audiobook.
I enjoyed this fascinating piece on LitHub about the literary friendship between Elizabeth Bowen and Marianne Moore. I love hearing about the real-life friendships of literary women and the ways in which they supported one another in their work.
I also enjoyed reading this piece on Electric Literature, recommending novels about women on a journey of self-discovery.
This month I’ve been watching…
Deadwater Fell starring David Tenant and Cush Jumbo. This originally came out in 2020, but it has recently landed on Netflix and is a chilling four part drama set in a remote Scottish village. When a house fire leaves the small town shrouded in tragedy following an idyllic summer’s day, the friends of the family begin to examine their interactions with the schoolteacher mother and GP father and how the tragedy might have been prevented. A bit on the morose side, but the acting in this is exceptional, particularly from Tenant and Jumbo, and the themes of post-natal depression, mothers, toxic relationships, and the stories we choose to believe are really interesting.
This month I’ve been listening to…
Annika Stranded on BBC sounds. These are short, 10-15 minute ‘stories’ narrated by the fabulous Nicola Walker. I mentioned the BBC TV series of Annika in a previous review some months ago, but hadn’t realised this was the original script written by Nick Walker (no relation, apparently). In these short vignettes, Walker basically gives a one-woman narrative to her investigations as she navigates the waterways of Oslo as a member of the murder squad. The scripts are funny, and the way Walker talks to the audience but allows a glimpse of the other characters (who never speak, except through her responses) is genius. As someone who doesn’t enjoy audio books, I was surprised to really enjoy these, which are more of a tiny play, and perfect for a brisk walk in the spring sunshine 🙂
I also just a couple of days ago discovered the gem that is Backlisted (thank you to the reader who recommended it!) which discusses often unappreciated novels (many of them by women) and through that, to Ourshelves, a podcast run by Virago feminist publishers.
With so many podcasts recommending books though, the TBR pile just continues growing…ah well!
See you Sunday with another literary exploration - if you aren’t yet subscribed, you know what to do.
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Thank you for the recommendations - I've added to my pile!
Deadwater Fell!!!! I’m still thinking about it