Etta is the first book written by Gerald Kolpan, a long-time features reporter for a television station in Philadelphia. This novel is a fictionalized account of Etta Place, who is best known as the paramour of the Sundance Kid, and portrayed by Katharine Ross in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. You need not have seen the 1969 movie to appreciate the fine storytelling in Etta.
Kolpan took a few bits of what is actually known of Etta Place, combined it with extensive historical research, and created one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. This novel weaves together numerous documents (all fictional) into a coherent and fascinating story. These “documents” include the journal of Lorinda Jameson, the “real” Etta Place; letters from Sundance to his father; and internal memoranda from the notorious Pinkerton Detective Agency.
Throughout this novel, Lorinda/Etta becomes an outlaw, a philanthropist, a close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, and a patron of the arts. She rides horses and shoots well enough to substitute for Annie Oakley in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show, and save the life of President Teddy Rossevelt from an assassin. It is all unlikely, of course, but Kolpan makes character so real that disbelief is totally, and willingly, suspended.
I received this book as part of the Library Thing Early Reviewer program. It will not be available until March. I suggest reserving a copy now.
Thanks Library Thing!
In USA:
To be published in hardcover-Random House 2009
Etta: A Novel
The Friday Night Knitting Club is the first novel from Kate Jacobs (a sequel, called Knit Two, has just been published). It tells the story of Georgia Walker, a single mother in Manhattan who supports herself and her twelve year old daughter by operating a yarn store, and taking commissions for knitwear.
Through her years of running the store, Georgia has met other knitters. Her relationships with them have evolved into the eponymous Friday Night Knitting Club, which meets at her store. Georgia’s daughter, Dakota, is an accomplished baker who provides treats for the group. The group consists of regulars, as well as women who drop in occasionally.
While The Friday Night Knitting Club is the best book I’ve read in a while, it is not that great. Georgia expends a great deal of energy being angry and resentful of people who have betrayed her. The other characters are not really well developed. I continually had trouble figuring out who was whom. A number of the books I’ve read lately involve women who quilt, and now this! Enough already-not every woman in America is busy handcrafting baby blankets.
On the brighter side, I have just started reading two books which seem much more promising. I hope to finish at least one of them soon.
In USA:
Published in hardcover-Putnam Adult 2007
Softcover edition-Berkley 2008
The Friday Night Knitting Club
This is the first book in the trilogy Rashi’s Daughters, by Maggie Anton. The second book is Miriam, and the third, Rachel, is yet to be published. Rashi was an 11th Century French Talmud scholar. He wrote the first Talmud commentary, and is still studied and quoted today. Having no sons, he taught Talmud to his daughters. This was then, and in some circles now, considered a revolutionary idea.
Joheved was the eldest of three daughters of Rashi (an acronym for his real name, Rabbi Salomon ben Isaac) and his wife Rivka. They lived in Troyes, France. With the help of the Jewish community of Troyes, Rashi established a yeshiva in Troyes. Students, all boys, came from towns near and far to study with Rashi. Meir ben Samuel is the son of a local, wealthy landowner. He is a student at the same yeshiva in Mayence at which Rashi had studied. He and Joheved become betrothed, and Meir comes to study at Rashi’s yeshiva.
The place and the time where these events happen are thoroughly researched. It is interesting to read about Jewish life in medieval France. However, the story itself lacks any real interest for me. There is no real conflict or surprise here. The characters are dull and lack dimension.
I had higher hopes for Joheved. And I’m still looking for a great book to read!
In USA:
Softcover edition-Banot Press 2005
Rashi’s Daughters, Book 1: Joheved
