The Istoriaphile’s Corner

Hang around book-nerds types long enough and you’ll hear them mention the word “subversive.”  Subversive themes, subversive protagonists, subversive…well, you get the picture.  Now, before you decide all English professors and book-club members need to be on some government watch list, what they’re talking about are the aspects of a story that make you rethink your assumptions. Part of this rethinking is part of any mystery or detective story. But some literary detectives succeed because they subvert the assumptions other characters make about them.  Like that lovely old snoop, Miss Jane Marple. Early Detective Subversives In Agatha Christie’s stories, Miss Jane appears to be the quintessential English Spinster.  She gardens, she bakes, she wears nothing but tweed (I think) and she lives in a small, English Village. The kind of lady most people expect is sweet and rather naive.  But beneath those fluffy curls and an abominable hat sits an observant and cynical brain. Not much gets past that shrewd, old dame. And when she comes up with some pithy, insightful observation, she subverts the other characters’ expectations.  See what I mean? But if Miss Jane set the standard of the unexpected detective, she’s had lots of followers since. One of my…

There are lots of books about young women.  And there are lots of books about gorgeous women.  There are books about tall women, women who don’t realize how lovely they are and too damn many books about women who stay thin or physically fit without effort.  Now a lot of these gals aren’t bad characters; heck, some of them are my long-time favorites but it does get tiresome to run into the same type of heroine, day after day.  Thank God for Sue Ann Jaffarian and her creation, Odelia Grey.  They’re the girls that break the cliches. Odelia may be fictional but she’s a girl after my own heart.  She’s not thin, she’s not young and (like me) she works for lawyers.  Not the usual girl on the book cover.  At the start of her first adventure, Too Big to Miss, Odelia’s life is a bit in the dumps.  Her good boss is retiring, the last date needed firing and skinny shop girls want to treat her like dreck.  Odelia knows how to stand up for herself and she gives as good as she gets but it’s sad living that much of life on the defensive and the death of…