10 points - Read a historical fiction book that does not take place in Europe.
I read Serena by Ron Rash. I have been wanting to read this book for almost two years. My initial motivations were the fact that it was being adapted into a movie with J-Law and Bradley Cooper. I mean, how could I go wrong? (PS: No idea when this movie is supposed to be released) And after excepting the Reading Challenge, I was ecstatic that the book fell under the Historical Fiction category.
So first...A quick summary. (PS: I might have borrowed the following summary from Amazon...Because I was struggling with writing a concise summary.)
The year is 1929, and newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton travel from Boston to the North Carolina mountains where they plan to create a timber empire. Although George has already lived in the camp long enough to father an illegitimate child, Serena is new to the mountains--but she soon shows herself to be the equal of any man, overseeing crews, hunting rattle-snakes, even saving her husband's life in the wilderness. Together this lord and lady of the woodlands ruthlessly kill or vanquish all who fall out of favor. Yet when Serena learns that she will never bear a child, she sets out to murder the son George fathered without her. Mother and child begin a struggle for their lives, and when Serena suspects George is protecting his illegitimate family, the Pembertons' intense, passionate marriage starts to unravel as the story moves toward its shocking reckoning.
My exposure to literature about the South is limited to the dream-like backdrops that Nicolas Sparks creates with each new romance he pens and Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind. Sidenote: If you've never read Gone With the Wind, do so as soon as possible! It was one of the most fantastic reads EVER! Yes, it's a long one, but it is still amazing all the same! Prolly one of my most faves ever! That being said, I'd also like to take this time to admit that Scarlett O'Hara is one of my all-time favorite literary characters! (I will prolly make a post of GWTW at a later date because there is just too much to be said about the novel and Miss O'Hara).
As I was reading Serena, I found myself comparing Serena to Scarlett quite often. They possess many of the same qualities and characteristics of a strong female protagonist. They are both ambitious to a fault. Their ambition often blinds them, and they don't allow anything to get in their way. Neither of them allow their husbands too much say in how they carry themselves and what they do. They are both incredibly hands on women. Insisting that they see over all operations. Neither afraid to cut the fat when someone isn't performing at their best. They both fancy themselves to be real ladies, but they don't mind getting their hands dirty to take care of business.
The list of comparisons could really go on and on. And I noted several of them as I was reading and planning out this blog post. But today as I was finishing the novel, I began to hate myself for initially comparing Serena to Scarlett. I won't blow the end of the novel, just in case anyone wants to read it, but Serena kinda goes bat shit crazy. And I mean, CRAZY! And I don't feel that way about Scarlett at all. So I started thinking about other strong female characters in literature. And I think I found the closest comparison yet.
Lady Macbeth.
Boom.
Okay maybe I'm the only one that will see the boom since I've read both works, but I will elaborate for you all.
Lady Macbeth. Ambitious to the extreme. She rocks deception like a vandal (Ice Ice Baby...Okay...done rapping). She flat out convinces her husband to kill the King Duncan so he can earn the title, making her Queen. Like Lady Macbeth, Serena has an unbreakable hold over her husband George. She makes a decision or voices a desire, and her husband bends to her will to make it happen.
Lady Macbeth and Serena both feel a sense of duty to their husbands. They clean up the messes that the men have created. Even the messes that exist within the women's minds. Lady Macbeth has to take care of the daggers that Macbeth uses to stab the King. She plants them accordingly on their scapegoat. Serena (Again trying not to spoil it all here) takes care of what she believes to be her husbands biggest mess, and she uses his Bowie knife.
Fun fact in comparing Macbeth to Serena...The novel even has a character that claims to have visions to predict the future, much like the Weird Sisters in Macbeth.
Favorite scene from Serena...Immediately after, Serena awakens in the hospital. George and her have just lost their baby. "'It's like my body knew all along,' she said. 'And yet...' 'Your blood merged with mine,' Serena said 'That's all we ever hoped for anyway.'" I know that sounds super grotesque, but I found the imagery to be such a vivid representation of their desire to have a child of their own. I found it to be beautiful.
After reading the novel, I sought some background information on the writing of Serena (This was also after I made the Serena vs. Lady Macbeth association), I found this webpage about the author's process of writing Serena. This quoted portion makes me think I was a little on about my character comparison.
A more conscious decision was my desire to have the novel read, at least in part, like an Elizabethan drama. I structured Serena in the manner of a four-act play. I included a chorus to comment on the novel’s main action as well as certain decisions about the rhythms and diction of the characters’ language. I did not want to make this Elizabethan aspect of the novel intrusive but hoped it might instead give a novel steeped in the particulars of depression America a more timeless feel by structurally evoking an older literature, just as thematically I wanted the novel to evoke contemporary concerns.
Overall, I enjoyed reading Serena. Yes it centered primarily on the relationship of the Pembertons, but the novel also offered insight on living in a timber camp during the depression. A sub plotline of the novel is the government trying to buyout timber companies to preserve land for national parks. I feel like that is something that resonates today with so many conservation groups out there trying to preserve what little land there is left. I found the novel to be fascinating and new (to me). The characters were all multi-faceted, which excites me because characters and dialogue are generally the two elements that make or break a novel for me.
On the Reading Challenge Front...I get to chalk up 10 points toward my final 200! Woot woot! I'll keep track as I go.
This next week, I am going to read Inferno by Dan Brown and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn because I have both of those checked out from the eLibrary at the moment.
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