The Red Queen

The Red Queen by Margaret Drabble was published by the first company I worked for. I had already moved on to my current job, but when I went back to visit, a former co-worker just raved about it and gave me a copy. Well, I don't share her raves. Split into two halves, the first half is narrated by the Korean Crown Princess in the 18th century. Based on a true story, she tells of her life at the palace and how her husband went mad and was executed in a most horrific fashion. It would be a captivating story, but it is narrated by the dead crown princess in modern times. So, while telling her 18th century tale, she talks about later events and philosophies, such as Freud and modern psychology. It was a bit off-putting, and almost seemed like a lazy way for Drabble to be able to include her own modern knowledge. On the other hand, I suppose it could also be considered a creative way to reinterpret a classic text. But it was still off-putting.

The second half is about a scholar who reads the crown princess's memoir on her way to a conference in Seoul. The story moves her, and she visits to some of the palaces and such where the crown princess would have lived, but that's about all the interaction she has with the text. She's a scholar of medicine, so it's not like the memoir is part of her research, just a fun plane read. While the two parts don't seem to fit, the book does finally pick up about 75 pages from the end when the scholar has an illicit affair at the conference.

I think the best part of this book was the epitaph at the beginning:

"The dead weep with joy when their books are reprinted."--The Russian Ark, Alexander Sokurov, 2003

I couldn't help but thinking, so do the living . . .