Book Blurb: by george

by George: A Novel
by Wesley Stace
(c) 2007
Back Bay Books
400p (trade paperback)

Two years ago, singer-songwriter Wesley Stace blew onto the literary scene with his bold and free-wheeling Dickensian comedy Misfortune. Now, he is back with another wonderfully entertaining and inventive novel. By George is the twisting story of four generations of the curious Fisher family, as told by two boys named George Fisher: one, a schoolboy in the 1970s; the other, a ventriloquist's dummy in the second World War. It's a story of love, loss and family ties, and of two boys separated by years but driven by the same desires: to find a voice, and to be loved.

Read an excerpt

I am especially excited about this book. I had never heard of Wesley Statce before encountering this title on the list that Hachette offered me for review. Once I learned that he was compared to Charles Dickens I was eager to get my hands on either by George or his previous, Misfortune. I was intrigued enough that I went looking for more info. And then I discovered that by George, besides being a well-woven story, was an exploration of the acquisition of voice--both personal and artistic.

Now anyone whose read my blog for long will know that is one of my core issues. Not only does my discipline as a writer give me a natural interest in the artistic voice but I've been in a dedicated search for a sense of empowerment for my personal voice because the fundamenatlist sect I wss raised in not only dictated what was and wasn't correct to think about it essentially shamed me into silience on the grounds of my femaleness being intrinsically untrustworthy. So I am quite interested in how Stace develops this particular theme.

As announced in this post, this is the fifth of twelve Book Blurbs I plan to do for the review copies I received from Hachette books this month. There will also be more substantial book reviews for each of them as either Ed or I read them.