Monday, November 10, 2014

The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Fenollera


250-page paperback  --  recently translated from Spanish  --  written 2013  --  on New Book Shelf at the Library.


Aristophanes first wrote about the battle of the sexes 2525 years ago.  That’s a Biblical 101 generations of human evolution; not much on a lab rat chart, we’ve got a long way to go yet. 

In recent times it was those Brits: Willie’s “Taming of the Shrew,” and Shaw’s “Kate,” that led up to, “Guys and Dolls,” the New York edition of “Me-Jane: You-Tarzan.  

More important for those of you who might read this recommendation is that the “Dolls” in this novel are a Librarian and her new-found friends in a town that treasures knowledge (the school teacher) and education (the book store proprietor), albeit not too formally: everyone (the men)  frown on rote.  That’s why I thought it might be of interest.

This will unfortunately, never be a movie, TV show, or have a sequel.  The characters all live happily ever after, and so it’s more of a fairy tale. 

The joy of this read is the challenge, like in a mystery story, of knowing initially, or after researching and finding out, what the references are.  Of honing one’s arguments for and against learning by discovery or rote; of siding with new inspirational blood or wise experiential training.

This book is a text in rhetoric for a Librarian: knowledgeable and sufficiently informed, to present all sides of the truth of a matter.

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