LIGHT SUMMER READING - Mystery REVIEW UPDATE

Ms. Magazine has called this one  "... an imaginiative spoof"

My opinion - SHAME ON MS.   

Published by Penguin Books in 1983, this is an unlikely novel of espionage with Virginia Woolf, PI investigator, uncovering an intrigue that may determine the course of World War 1.  Virginia and her Bloomsbury friends, including well known biographical characterizations of time, place, scenes and dialogue, are dubiously reinvented by the authors who disclaim their spoof as historical fact.  

UPDATE  June 1, 2009.

Have just finished re-reading this novel some 25 years later.  I now consider it one of the worst parodies I have ever read,  both of the portrayal of Virginia Woolf,  her life and friends, and of the mystery novel genre itself.   No wonder societies like the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain were founded in 1998, a non-profit organisation, which aims to raise the profile of Virginia Woolf and promote the reading and discussion of her works.  Its quarterly Bulletin  keeps members abreast of the influence Virginia Woolf continues to have in the arts and literature around the world.       

  An Anonymous comment/inquiry has been asked about Stephanie Barron's new novel 'THE WHITE GARDEN: A novel of Virginia Woolf", thought to be published in the fall - actually, September 29.  Barron is the author of the Jane Austen Mystery stories;  it is likely that this, also, may be added to your light summer reading list.     More to come in answer to this inquiry.