Virago 50th Anniversary Reading Project 2023 - July

2023 sees us celebrating 50 years of our favourite publisher, Virago!

We have set up a reading project to choose books from a section of the VMC catalogue in sequential order, and after some discussion on other threads, have decided to go for equal sections rather than trying to divide up the 50 years and fit books into this by publication date!

To aid us, we will be using our Virago Collection Tracker which can be found in the Group Wiki.

In July, our fifth month, we can choose from books numbered 351-420. These run from The Rock Cried Out by Ellen Douglas to You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town by Zoe Wicomb. There are some excellent books in this section so it will be lovely to see what people choose!

This should be a fun way to explore our collections, reconnect with our Viragos and help celebrate the 50 years! We'll look forward to hearing what you choose to read, enjoy and share with us in the monthly threads! :D

Having had a quick look at the list, this for me is an interesting section - it's a mixture of books and authors I've read and many others which are completely new to me.

Currently tempted by a re-read of Colette or perhaps actually making a start on Brigid Brophy who I've still to read...

>2 kaggsy: I loved The king of a rainy country when I read it last year! The hearing trumpet is another favourite from this batch.

I'm choosing between The golden spur, All the dogs of my life and Several perceptions.

My most likely selection will be Christopher and Columbus by Elizabeth von Arnim. If time permits, there are a few Edith Wharton titles in this group that I may read (or re-read).

>3 Sakerfalcon: I do want to read that soon! And I loved The Hearing Trumpettoo - if only I could build in a re-read!

>4 kac522: Oh yes - you can't go wrong with her can you? :D

>4 kac522: I really liked Christopher and Columbus and I hope that you'll enjoy it also.

My first read will be Walking Naked by Nina Bawden. It's been a long while since I have read any of her works.

I'm planning to read Crewe Train.

I started early and am thoroughly enjoying The golden spur.

>9 NinieB: I remember enjoying Crewe Train a long time ago. Maybe it's time for a reread.

I forgot to report back on The golden spur! I really enjoyed this story of life in NYC in the 1950s. Jonathan comes to the big city to try and find his father. All he has to go on are his mother's diaries from her brief sojourn in the city in the 1920s. She mentions a bar called The golden spur, and this becomes the centre of Jonathan's quest. The rather innocent young man meets sexually liberated young women, academics in search of an audience, a faded lady novelist, and various other eccentric types, all of whom are humourously drawn and form a vivid backdrop to Jonathan's search. I will be looking out for more of Powell's books based on how much I liked this one.

I'm now fitting in All the dogs of my life before the month ends.

I did read Crewe Train and I enjoyed it very much. Denham Dobie has to find her way in the unfamiliar world of London society when she would rather be, say, exploring along the Cornwall coast in a rowboat. Further complicating matters is that she has fallen in love with a young publisher who quite likes London literary society.

Macaulay's writing style is witty and satiric. I would very happily read more by her (and fortunately I have a copy of The Towers of Trebizond waiting on the shelf).

>13 NinieB: I really liked Crewe train when I read it a few years ago. I really felt for poor Denham being forced into society against her will.

All the dogs of my life was a good read, albeit sad in places because not all the dogs have happy endings. But Von Arnim's wit and humour counterbalance the sadness and guilt, and it's a good read for anyone who likes her novels.

I finished von Arnim's Christopher and Columbus (1919) (#395), with mixed feelings. It's the story of orphaned twin teen-aged sisters in 1916, half English and half German, who have been shuffled off to America by their English relations. The story is told in a light and fable-like fashion on the surface, but I feel like von Arnim doesn't deal with the very issues it raises about war-time prejudice. I'll have to think about this for a while, especially since von Arnim's own children must have been caught in this very same predicament (half English/half German) during WWI.

>15 kac522: This was not one of my favourite by Von Arnim. I too thought it was too light and frivolous a treatment of the issues it raised.

>16 Sakerfalcon: I understand this was set during the war & published right after, so it is a product of its unique time. The twins (who consider themselves German by accident only) are repeatedly shunned and this was probably not far from the truth at the time. We are presented with the absurdity of shunning such innocents (the girls can't be responsible for who their parents are), and those who do are made out to be unreasonable and unfair. Yet the actual German people the twins meet in America are portrayed as boorish and unpleasant. But what bothered me most was that the ending completely veers away from the real issues and ends in an unbelievable Cinderella fashion.

>16 Sakerfalcon:
>17 kac522: I recently read it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I felt that the combination of the personal and political was deftly done. I live in the US and I vaguely remember hearing about the war time prejudice toward Germans and German Americans. However the subject was not mentioned in any American history classes that I had.

>18 kayclifton: I enjoyed most of the book, but by the end I wanted at least one positive (or at least not negative) portrayal of a German. The girls' father is portrayed as distant when he was alive, everyone they meet wants to get rid of them because they are half-German, and even the Germans who come to the cafe are portrayed negatively. And the only "solution" is to marry them off so that there's no hint of Germanness.

Of course, it's a book of the time period, but just as those girls were "innocent" so there must have been thousands of other Germans in the U. S. and in England that had nothing to do with the war (or even more importantly, fought as members of the US or British forces.) I wish she had portrayed just one.