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May the May Authorial Force Be With You

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Daphne du Maurier (Hans Wild/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images).

It’s May 31, so I think I’ll belatedly focus on fiction writers who were born this month!

Given that I read or reread three Daphne du Maurier novels (Rebecca, Jamaica Inn, and Frenchman’s Creek) during the past 31 days, I’ll start with that author. She was born on May 13, and lived from 1907 to 1989.

Now I’ll go chronologically by May birth date, listing only writers I’ve read at least something by:

May 1: Joseph Heller (1923-1999), who of course wrote the famous satirical antiwar novel Catch-22.

May 7: Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), the renowned poet, novelist, playwright, painter, composer, etc.

May 8: Thomas Pynchon (1937-), the reclusive author of some pretty challenging postmodern fiction.

May 8: Peter Benchley (1940-2006). Jaws!

May 9: J.M. Barrie (1860-1937). Peter Pan!

May 9: Richard Adams (1920-2016). Watership Down!

May 11: Sheila Burnford (1918-1984). Author of the absorbing animal adventure The Incredible Journey.

May 11: Stanley Elkin (1930-1995). Author of satirical novels such as The Rabbi of Lud.

May 15: L. Frank Baum (1856-1919). The Wonderful Wizard of Oz!

May 15: Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940). Author of the fantastical The Master and Margarita.

May 17: Peter Hoeg (1957-). Smilla’s Sense of Snow, etc.

May 19: Nora Ephron (1941-2012). I haven’t read any of her books, but did watch several of the movies she wrote and/or directed — including When Harry Met Sally…

May 19: Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965). The acclaimed A Raisin in the Sun playwright.

May 20: Honore de Balzac (1799-1850). The prolific author of compelling novels such as Old Goriot and Eugenie Grandet.

May 22: Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). Sherlock Holmes!

May 23: Margaret Wise Brown (1910-1952). Writer of the Goodnight Moon classic many parents have read to their children.

May 24: Michael Chabon (1963-). The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, etc.

May 25: W.P. Kinsella (1935-2016), whose books include the Shoeless Joe novel made into the movie Field of Dreams.

May 25: Jamaica Kincaid (1949-). Annie John, etc.

May 27: Herman Wouk (1915-2019). Wrote the riveting The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance, and the memorable Marjorie Morningstar.

May 27: Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961). Author of The Maltese Falcon novel starring iconic private eye Sam Spade.

May 27: Tony Hillerman (1925-2008). Best known for his mysteries featuring Native-American characters.

May 27: John Cheever (1912-1982). His “The Swimmer” short story remains amazing.

May 28: Walker Percy (1916-1990). Best known for his novel The Moviegoer and for helping John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces novel get published posthumously.

May 30: Colm Toibin (1955-). Author of the novels Brooklyn, The Master (a fictionalized take on Henry James), etc.

May 31: Walt Whitman (1819-1892). The highly influential poet.

Other May-born writers I didn’t mention? Any thoughts on the ones I did mention?

Misty the cat says: “I’d be taller than this tree if I puffed out my fur.”

My comedic 2024 book — the part-factual/part-fictional/not-a-children’s-work Misty the Cat…Unleashed — is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )

This 90-second promo video for the book features a talking cat: 🙂

I’m also the author of a 2017 literary-trivia book…

…and a 2012 memoir that focuses on cartooning and more, including many encounters with celebrities.

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — which criticizes the ending of Stephen Colbert’s late-night show (he lives in my town) — is here.

Reimagination Actualization

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Four years ago, I blogged about fiction that uses previous fiction as a jumping-off point — and perhaps reimagines well-known characters. This post is sort of a sequel to that post, taking a somewhat different angle and including several novels I’ve read since 2021.

In general, I’m not a huge fan of fiction that’s heavily inspired by a famous work; I’d rather writers be more original than that. Still, there have been some excellent novels that offer insights into the previous work and might be great in their own right.

My latest encounter with this reimagining phenomenon was Queen Macbeth, Val McDermid’s 2024 novella that takes a fascinating approach to characters in Shakespeare’s iconic Macbeth play. The book is excellent, giving Lady Macbeth a more positive (and more historically accurate) persona as a compelling plot unfolds in two different timelines.

McDermid’s book reminded me a bit of Margaret Atwood’s 2005 novella The Penelopiad (mentioned in my 2021 post) that gives Penelope a bigger and more feminist role than she had in Homer’s ancient Odyssey poem.

There’s also Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver’s 2022 tour de force that gives Charles Dickens’ 1850 classic David Copperfield a modern spin in America’s Appalachian region during the opioid epidemic.

Kristin Hannah’s gripping 2021 novel The Four Winds was obviously inspired by John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (1939), but it’s still plenty original and differs in featuring a female protagonist. (The title character in Demon Copperhead is male.)

Zadie Smith has described the structure/focus of her novel On Beauty (2005) as an homage to E.M. Forster’s Howards End (1910).

In her also-published-in-2005 novel March, Geraldine Brooks takes the father from Louisa May Alcott’s 1868-released Little Women and gives him his own story.

I haven’t read it yet, but Percival Everett’s acclaimed James (2024) reimagines Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) from the perspective of the escaped slave Jim.

In my 2021 post, I mentioned the 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea, in which Jean Rhys gives three-dimensionality to the “madwoman in the attic” of Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre; Rhys’ creation is in effect a prequel to Bronte’s 1847 book. I also discussed the novel (by Gregory Maguire) and the play Wicked, which sympathetically portray the Wicked Witch from L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz novel (1900) and The Wizard of Oz movie (1939).

Mentioned as well in that post were Isabel Allende’s 2005 novel Zorro, Jasper Fforde’s 2001 novel The Eyre Affair, and Seth Grahame-Smith’s 2009 Jane Austen parody Pride and Prejudice and Zombies — the last of which I haven’t felt the “Persuasion” to read.

Comments about, and examples of, this theme?

Misty the cat says: “My right turn has nothing to do with politics.”

My comedic 2024 book — the part-factual/part-fictional/not-a-children’s-work Misty the Cat…Unleashed — is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And Misty says Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )

This 90-second promo video for the book features a talking cat: 🙂

I’m also the author of a 2017 literary-trivia book…

…and a 2012 memoir that focuses on cartooning and more.

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — about a badly maintained lower-income apartment building, a change in venue for a senior center, and more — is here.