Posted by alan truelove on April 15, 2004 at 22:47:58 from 66.239.159.18 user atruelove.
In Reply to: Re: Drabble on AR posted by Robert Hill on March 26, 2004 at 00:14:20:
If I may ramble further--
much as a surprising number of English, Colonials, Japanese (& Indians of the public school variety who got AR rammed down them ) take AR as a role mode, or ideal, of all things English and desirable, (hence TARS) so quite a few people around the world (of the same ilk I presume) take Drabble (esp the novels Summer Bird Cage, Jerusalem the Golden, the Millstone) as absolute gospel and a life-manual. (And of course a lot more satisfying, since adult). Hence the Drabble discussion group - tiny but articulate - and the enormous quantity of lit. crit. on her.
Re these 3 early novels, you could make a somewhat forced comparison - only a single (female) protagonist, true, but she overcomes obstacles, self-doubts, and disapproving people (including close relatives) to achieve modest goals, & everything comes out all right in the end.
See you all in Edinburgh !!