David Patneaude's Blog: Different Worlds - Posts Tagged "terry-pratchett"
Disproportionate
I've read some recent articles questioning the disproportionate attention (from bloggers, reviewers, librarians, teachers, conference organizers, anybody with a keyboard, fingertip, mouth, etc) given to male writers of young adult fiction. So I expected to arrive at my local Barnes and Noble and be overwhelmed by the excessive number of new books authored by male writers. Surprisingly, not the case. I tallied the books on the "New Fiction for Teens" shelves and came up with 13 by male writers (mostly with male protagonists) and 58 by female writers (all with female protagonists). Huh. And this fine book, Dodger, wasn't even among them. So how do you get on these shelves? I dunno, but if the criterion was quality of storytelling, I would've found it there. Luckily, I managed to find it elsewhere and was rewarded with a good read if there ever was one.
I don't know how I've managed to miss Terry Pratchett over the years, but I have, so now I've got some catching up to do. In Dodger, he tells a marvelous 19th century Dickensian story of a young London sewer explorer and miner (tosher) named Dodger, who becomes an overnight hero and the inspiration for the writings of the real Charlie Dickens. Mr. Pratchett does a masterful job of creating fictional characters and language and setting, and weaving real-life characters into his story. We meet Benjamin Disraeli, Henry Mayhew, Sir Robert Peel, Angela Burdett-Courts, Joseph Bazalgette, and of course Dickens himself. Cleverness is everywhere, as when Dodger makes a statement about an unfortunate man destined to be put into a "bleak house" and Dickens is there to jot the phrase into his ever-present notebook. Intrigue is also everywhere, and derring-do, and mystery, and surprises, and violence, and mayhem, and fights, and chases, and death, and drunkenness, and poverty, and a sprinkling of bawdiness, and even romance. In other words, a perfect boy book. Now if there was only a more proportionate number of boy books on those book store shelves...
I don't know how I've managed to miss Terry Pratchett over the years, but I have, so now I've got some catching up to do. In Dodger, he tells a marvelous 19th century Dickensian story of a young London sewer explorer and miner (tosher) named Dodger, who becomes an overnight hero and the inspiration for the writings of the real Charlie Dickens. Mr. Pratchett does a masterful job of creating fictional characters and language and setting, and weaving real-life characters into his story. We meet Benjamin Disraeli, Henry Mayhew, Sir Robert Peel, Angela Burdett-Courts, Joseph Bazalgette, and of course Dickens himself. Cleverness is everywhere, as when Dodger makes a statement about an unfortunate man destined to be put into a "bleak house" and Dickens is there to jot the phrase into his ever-present notebook. Intrigue is also everywhere, and derring-do, and mystery, and surprises, and violence, and mayhem, and fights, and chases, and death, and drunkenness, and poverty, and a sprinkling of bawdiness, and even romance. In other words, a perfect boy book. Now if there was only a more proportionate number of boy books on those book store shelves...
