Author Jane Ward calls EAB "Gothic", in the DuMaurier Tradition

This seems to be my week for wonderful, amazing, incredible reviews on blogs written by other authors. This appeared on Jane Ward's Food & Fiction blog today. I recently reviewed her novel The Mosaic Artist so I know what superb taste she has (both literary and culinary). I am especially thrilled by her discussion of the Gothic tradition in writing and, of course, that she mentioned my literary goddess, Daphne DuMaurier. Many, many thanks for this!

EACH ANGEL BURNS by Kathleen Valentine

The classic Gothic novel feeds readers on equal parts thrilling terror and sublime chivalric style romance, sometimes with a smidge of repressed sexuality thrown in for good measure.  Often set in dark, unexplored castles or forbidding abbeys, these stories feature people who suffer at the hand of evil or the supernatural, while heroes try to triumph and divine punishment looms over both man and society.

I cut my teeth on the novels of Charlotte and Emily Bronte and Mary Shelley, perhaps the widest read period Gothic writers.  Think of the dark and brooding Heathcliff, the “secret” kept hidden in Rochester’s attic, Shelley’s misunderstood monster: each novel promised mystery and menace and endings that might offer resolution, but of an older, more jaded kind than the happily ever after of fairy tale.

In the 20^th century, the Gothic torch was re-lit and carried most proudly by Daphne du Maurier.  As she picked up writing in this classic genre, she also modernized the tradition, replacing dank castles and abbeys with partially inhabited manor homes, and a madwoman in the attic with a portrait of a dead wife intended to chasten the ingénue bride.

With her 2009 novel, Each Angel Burns, indie author Kathleen Valentine picks up where du Maurier left off, herself reviving and recreating the genre by incorporating some classic mood elements (a labyrinthine abbey, a hero, an absolute evil villain, and a range of inexplicable disappearances) along with modern twists intended to keep the story current and accessible – a dingily ordinary mill town bar, an assortment of struggling middle-aged Everymen, and their modern and sometimes angst-ridden relationships with women and God. Read the rest here: Jane Ward's Food and Fiction