tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595702824833504762.post4077389603482289530..comments2024-03-17T19:12:20.596-07:00Comments on FURROWED MIDDLEBROW: RACHEL FERGUSON, A Stroll Before Sunset (1946)Furrowed Middlebrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12065110409019861653noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595702824833504762.post-48483004216105310472015-06-18T06:08:14.941-07:002015-06-18T06:08:14.941-07:00Well, that certainly sounds odd enough, Grant! Tha...Well, that certainly sounds odd enough, Grant! Thank you for the teaser--I'm even more excited that my copy arrived in the mail yesterday, very much beat up and bedraggled, but perfectly readable. And I will have to look more closely at Marie Cher, too. I've not heard of her before.Furrowed Middlebrowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12065110409019861653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595702824833504762.post-61302981679885176592015-06-17T15:45:53.953-07:002015-06-17T15:45:53.953-07:00Hi Scott – I read Widow Twankey last year, before ...Hi Scott – I read Widow Twankey last year, before reading Peacock, I believe. It's definitely odd, a jeu d'esprit and a tour de force rolled into one, about a vicar's wife who teams up with an American psychoanalyst to study inhabitants of an English village, all of whom are stock characters straight out of panto. Ferguson works her genius for pastiche in putting the characters through their paces, endowed with only limited self-knowledge. The oddness serves as defamiliarization to point up the book's big theme, I thought, that we're all basically playing out scripted roles that have been acted many times before. (It reminded me of an older novel, Marie Cher's The Immortal Gymnasts – which however drew on commedia dell'arte rather than pantomime.) WWII goes on in the background of Twankey, popping up mainly in comic songs Ferguson has her people break into at the drop of a hat.<br />- Grant HurlockAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595702824833504762.post-37840537786756994642015-06-15T12:47:16.202-07:002015-06-15T12:47:16.202-07:00This one was also a surprisingly affordable purcha...This one was also a surprisingly affordable purchase, John, after I'd enjoyed A Footman for the Peacock so much. The cover scan above is of my copy.Furrowed Middlebrowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12065110409019861653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595702824833504762.post-40235031604468596562015-06-15T06:49:54.288-07:002015-06-15T06:49:54.288-07:00did u borrow or buy this rarity?
did u borrow or buy this rarity?<br />Johnnoreply@blogger.com