Showing posts with label In Too Deep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label In Too Deep. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

A little update on In Too Deep

Great Moments from last night's reading
Book: In Too Deep by Portia Da Costa
Page: 76
Spoiler level: Low

Continuing to hugely enjoy In Too Deep. It isn't going exactly where I thought it would, and I always love when a book does that. (Yesterday I was focusing mostly on the fun of the anonymous dirty letters put in the library suggestion box.)

Not to spoil anything, but I will say this much: that there's this absolutely wonderful dynamic between librarian Gwendolynne and handsome, unassuming Professor Brewster where they have these odd little exchanges about the letters and letter writer (who calls himself Nemesis). Gwendolynne sometimes suspects Brewster is her letter writer, but sometimes she thinks not!

At one point Professor Brewster goes, "We barely know each other, yet we're talking about sex. And somehow we seem to be involved in what amounts to a menage a trois. [with the letter writer!] It's most perplexing."

Perplexing indeed, Professor Brewster.

The fun of the book is that, of course the reader knows it's him, but you totally can't tell if Brewster is this sly operator playing an elaborate erotic game, or a kind of Cyrano character who lets his true sexual deal come out only through the written word, or something else all together.

And of course, now it's not at all creepy or stalkery. It is, however, an entertainingly inventive scenario. Okay, I'm only a third of the way through but I might not report anymore because I know I will want to spoil things!!  Excerpt here.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Portia Da Costa & the fun of anonymous dirty letters

I love books about librarians. I love books with letters in them, and I love excellently smutty books. Needless to say, I was super excited to get In Too Deep, Portia Da Costa's latest, which manages to be all three.

From the back: Librarian Gwendolyne Price begins to find indecent proposals and sexy stories in her suggestion box. [..etc.]

So, I'm only just past the first letter, but it occurred to me that Portia Da Costa really sort of set herself a hard task. (Well, maybe not hard for her, but it seemed so to me). And that is, how do you make anonymous dirty letters not stalkerly or creepy?

Portia Da Costa pulls it off by making them well written, even slyly literary, like you can sense a mind behind them that's intelligent and observant and thoughtful (in addition to being face-reddeningly indecent).  I'm finding it all highly enjoyable.

I'll be interested in how she cranks the letters concept up through the book. I have an idea already of who wrote them. Yay!

Look at the cover - isn't it great? With all the books?

Reading in general, not to mention writing longhand letters, are both sort of bookish, buttoned-up things to do, old-fashioned activities with a slower pace, but then you look at the content and it's another thing altogether. 

This whole thing appeals to me greatly, I don't know why. Maybe it appeals to my own inner prim-on-the-outside librarian.