Louise Erdrich: A Critical Companion Book

A scholarly, but very accessible look at literature aimed at young girls beginning with Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women" and ending with Nancy Drew. The author, a professor from Belfast, Northern Ireland, traces the "selling of womanhood" through literature as it relates to such sociological issues as gender, race, class, buying power and morality. Very often an author played out on the page her own dichotomy. Is the desire and ability for the acqusition of material goods "bad", or is it "good?" Are riches reserved for the worthy, i.e. those born into a certain class or race? Or can one pull oneself up by the bootsraps i.e. the American Dream? Does a woman need to marry money, or can she make money? And if she does make money can she do so without help and without losing her femininity?

Fascinating, too, are the absolutely draw-dropping excerpts from two series in particular. The first is The Motor Girls which was, even for the day, rife with sexual tension, particularly around a character named Walter, not to mention lax in adult supervision. The other is the mean-spirited, extremely ugly racuism in the books of Gene Stratton Porter.

All told, a very provacative book. I enjoyed it.