Friday, April 25, 2014

Six bad girls from historical fiction

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Dell Villa tagged six historical novels that feature bad girls, including:
Fallen Beauty, by Erika Robuck

Robuck’s fourth and latest novel since the haunting Call Me Zelda is immense and lyrical, constructed of two parallel narratives. It’s 1928 when Laura Kelley, a struggling seamstress, sneaks off with her lover to see the exotic Ziegfeld Follies, an act that sets her singular fate in motion, for it simultaneously invites judgment from her small town and ignites a lifelong passion for costume design. Meanwhile, in a stunning portrait of poetess Edna St. Vincent Millay (“Vincie”), Robuck introduces us to a fascinating woman who, as she attempts to maintain artistic focus while engaged in romantic entanglements and other frivolities, is also existing perilously close to the edge. The two women’s lives eventually converge, resulting in a reaffirming meditation on friendship and the transformative power of art.
Read about another entry on the list.

Writers Read: Erika Robuck (May 2013).

--Marshal Zeringue