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By MetaxaCunningham, Sunday, September 19, 2010, 4 commentsLately, I have been doing a lot of writing. This burst of creativity I am experiencing has gotten me thinking about the kind of writer I want to be, and about the five memoirists and novelists that inspire me right now. This list encompasses some very special women writer’s that I hope you will take the time to discover.
Catherine Gildiner
Catherine Gildiner is a master memoirist. Her childhood memoir Too Close To The Falls is the memoir that made me fall in love with that genre. I had never been much for reading memoirs before I picked up her books. In fact, it was this book that inspired me to start telling my own story. After The Falls, her coming of age memoir, is also a fascinating read. It is the frank, authenticity of her writing that has influenced me, and I love it that she writes with humour and love. In After the Falls, Gildiner explores the deterioration of her father’s health with a touching tenderness. Gildiner is also the author of the novel, Seduction. She is a lady with a lot of moxie and she knows her craft.
Catherine DeVrye
Catherine DeVrye has written several books geared to success in business, but it is her memoir and her incredible determination that makes her a stand out for me. DeVrye is a powerhouse. Her list of accomplishments includes being named Australian Executive Woman of the year, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, being a bestselling author and being the 2010 Australian Keynote Speaker of the Year. Her memoir, Serendipity Road showcases this determination. After DeVrye’s adoptive parents die, when she is 21, she sets out alone and penniless to make her fortune in Australia. Though she becomes a very successful business woman, her adventure truly begins when she tries to find her biological parents. As it turns out, her father is a genuine, Canadian cowboy and a champion on the rodeo circuit. She has a fabulous sense of adventure and records her experiences beautifully.
Donna Morrissey
Donna Morrissey’s books take place in Atlantic Canada. She captures the setting in such detail, that you find yourself reeling in the catch, salting fish and feeling the salt water spray along with the characters in her novels. Morrissey’s characters are living, breathing, full of guilt, remorse and joy. They are very real. She is the author of Downhill Chance, Kit’s Law and Sylvanus Now. Sylvanus Now is a captivating character; he is a simple man with simple ideals; he is a good husband, who is capable of making some life changing decisions. I love that her characters are ordinary people, capable of the extraordinary. They are both enduring and endearing. Morrissey’s latest novel, What They Wanted is currently on my nightstand; it is the second novel in the Sylvanus Now trilogy. The way she brings the characters and the landscape of her novels together is simply poetic. It is little wonder that Donna Morrissey is an award winning author.
Sara Gruen
Sara Gruen is also a master of character development, but her genius truly lies in how she develops the animal characters in her novels. Gruen is the author of Riding Lessons, Flying Changes and the New York Times bestseller, Water For Elephants. Her inspiration for this novel was a circus photo. From this photo and tons of research, Gruen develops the atmosphere of the circus where her story is set. Thus the character of Rosie, the performing elephant emerges, almost as human as her trainer Marlena. This book has complicated relationships, love, murder and performing animals with human emotions, all set in depression era America. I can’t wait to read her newest novel The Ape House (inspired by scientific research at the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines) to see if she has written the sign language using bonobos monkeys as brilliantly as she wrote Rosie the elephant. Giving animals personalities and writing plausible stories in magical settings are things that not many writers can pull off, but Sara Gruen certainly can. No surprise that Gruen promotes helping critters in need.
I also love that when Gruen was laid off from her job as a technical writer, she decided to jump head long into writing novels. It is not easy to take a risk like that, to stretch your comfort zone and try something different.
Anita Rau Badami
Anita Rau Badami is the author of three novels: Tamarind Mem, A Hero’s Walk and Can You Hear The Nightbird Call? Each of Badami’s novels is a work of art. I remember reading Tamarind Mem when it first came out. I was an English major in university at the time and I remember thinking that it was the greatest book that I had ever read. All of her novels are beautifully written, and they explore the subjects of culture and tradition with fine understanding. A Hero’s Walk is currently a book on the high school curriculum list in Alberta. This book made her a prize winning author. I love how she weaves a story that balances the culture and traditions of India with that of North America. A man must come to terms with the death of his daughter after he disowns her for marrying a white man. He must find the courage to take over caring for his young Canadian raised granddaughter in India. When I read Badami’s novels, I always feel that I have one foot in India. She is adept at transporting her readers to new worlds and immersing them in cultural tradition and values.
Can You Hear The Nightbird Call is a complex novel about three women who are connected by the political upheaval during the division of India and Pakistan in the 1940’s and how their lives then change forever. Badami’s writing is so detailed and eloquent; she writes literature that makes me think about it long after I have turned the final page. Her writing has left a lasting impression on me and has helped develop my ideas of what great literature should be.
I aspire to be the kind of writer to be put in a category with these women; inspiring and worth reading. Who are the women writers that inspire you?
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4 Comments
Erma
Hook them, engage them, leave them laughing. Erma Bombeck was a class act in humor, and she definitely left me laughing.
I love her too. I can totally
I love her too. I can totally see from your writing how Erma Bombeck would be an inspiration for you. Your posts leave me laughing.
Great blog post! Thanks for
Great blog post! Thanks for sharing this with us:-) I am grateful to know about the writers that inspire you and it will be nice to be able to look up their work when I have some time again for summer reading.
Since you love memoirs, you might want to check out Richard Hoffman's Half the House. Richard was my memoir professor at Emerson College and he is just brilliant. I think you will really enjoy the read. It's about how he survived child sexual abuse, and then later addiction, and about how he has come out on the other side.
Also, another favorite is After Long Silence by Helen Fremont, also a friend of Richard's whom I met. It is a real page turner, another memoir about how her parents and aunt were Holocust survivors and about how she has recreated their stories based on her research.
I love anything written by Augusten Burroughs--Especially the book Running with Scissors.
And, if you want a really good laugh, you should read Plane Insanity, a book written by a flight attendant about his work, his coworkers and his customers. Very funny.
Thanks for the suggestions. I
Thanks for the suggestions. I will definitely check them out when I have some time.
I have read Augusten Burroughs as well. Great writer.
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