I said the other day that several new Viragos had come through my letterbox in the last few weeks, and this is one of them. Virago Press is of course now under the umbrella of a larger company, Little Brown, but still proclaims itself to be a publisher of books by, for and about women. Loving as I do the old Virago classics, especially if they are in their original green covers, I was curious to see what I'd think of some of their newer publications which set out, as they say on their website, to capture "the new, edgy and provocative spirit of the young".
Sleeping with Mozart is subtitled 'A love story after a fashion'. Yes, indeed. Actually it's a story of unrequited love, or rather of love which has been cut down in its prime. For Dorcas Trevelyan is suffering from a broken heart. Jamie, her older, married, lover has ended their affair and she is trying to come to terms with the pain. Still in love, she deliberately keeps a sense of connection with the man she thought was her friend as well as her lover by telling him, in diary form, all about the events of her life and her attempts to make some kind of recovery. Of course he never sees what she writes, but at least it makes her feel they are still in some way communicating. So, through her unsent letters, we slowly learn about the history of their affair, about the disastrous dates she goes on after she joins a dating agency in the hope of finding a replacement, and about the trials and tensions at the school where she teaches, which is in the throes of preparing for an inspection.
I once had the idea of writing a book called 50 Ways to Mend a Broken Heart. It's a great idea and I'm sure it would be a best seller, but the problem is that I couldn't think of 50 ways. In fact I suspect there are basically only two ways -- 1) time, and/or 2) finding somebody else. Dorcas is trying the second one, but I can't help thinking she'd probably have had more success if she cut herself off completely from Jamie and stopped all the writing. But maybe that's a bit harsh -- of course if you're used to sharing all your thoughts with someone it's hard to just stop in midstream. In any case, Anthea Church has certainly captured the essence of what that extremely painful state of being is like, and many people will be able to empathise with Dorcas as she struggles to put her life back together again. You might end up thinking, as I certainly did, that Jamie was not worth all the agony, but that's a fairly normal reaction for anyone except of course the broken-hearted lover. Dorcas's voice is lively and witty, and some of her adventures very entertaining -- though I was a little worried by her willingness to share stories of her adulterous affair with her class of teenage girls.
So -- basically chick lit but of quite a classy kind. If you think you'd like to read it, Virago kindly sent me two copies so I've got one up for grabs. Names in comments and I'll draw a winner soon.
