I’ve been reading two books that seem to be poles apart – but both are about strong women …
The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall is the vein of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and other dystopian tales. Narrator Sister escapes from the regimentation of a life in a factory with a loveless relationship and her fertility controlled by The Authority, to “The Carhullan Army”, a sisterhood of women living off the land and learning to fight. It’s a brutal existence with strong relationships forged. The physicality and psychology in this book make it hard to put down, and harder to forget.
Author Sarah Hall is going to be at the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival, and I am looking forward to hearing her speak now I have read this book (and the interview Why I write in The Guardian):
… romantically, I’d love to work through the dogwatch of night, but my brain shuts off after 7.30pm. There’s nowt doing after Corrie.
Let’s spend the night together : backstage secrets of rock muses and supergroupies by Pamela Des Barres looks at the lives of a whole different set of strong women. I’d heard of legends like Cynthia Plaster Caster and Bebe Buell (mother of Liv Tyler) and their relationships with various rock gods but there are plenty of interesting characters here. Tura Satana was a burlesque dancer, starred in a Russ Meyer’s movie and had a fling with the King. Cherry Vanilla has some great tales about Bowie and Iggy Pop – and the nucleus of The Police played in her group The Cherry Vanilla Band.
I’m fascinated by the rock star names which come up and how the different women talk about them. Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page seems to have got most of them hot under the collar, and I was surprised to see one girl promoting her liaison with Rick Springfield. Pamela Des Barres is a charming raconteur and it is easy to picture her and the women she interviews laughing and gossiping up a storm. That’s how it reads.
