bi-bi

A brilliant literary biographer takes on a second-rate novelist determined to raise her standing from that of a frozen-blooded bluestocking to a full-fledged major author. Quite a feat to undertake. And, Lee almost achieves it … except that Wharton's works remain stubbornly ice-bound, no matter how modern-oriented Lee attempts to make Wharton seem. Ruined in her early years, Wharton never recovered to full adult-hood and, indeed, hated men all her life. Such a basis is not the platform from which to write truly transcendent novels. That is not Lee's failing. In insisting to wish to make Wharton what she was not, Lee does however, show a failing. To the tune of 912 pages, I might add. A biographer cannot rewrite a life…unfortunately.

2022-12-16 16:27