An Amazon Canada Best Book of the Year, the American debut of an award-winning Irish writer that brings to life Emily Dickinson and will enthrall fans of Longbourn and Mrs. Poe and the film A Quiet Passion, starring Cynthia Nixon as Emily Dickinson.
Nuala O’Connor’s enchanting American debut novel, Miss Emily, reimagines the private life of Emily Dickinson, one of America’s most beloved poets, through her own voice and through the eyes of her family’s Irish maid.
Eighteen-year-old Ada Concannon has just been hired by the respected but eccentric Dickinson family of Amherst, Massachusetts. Despite their difference in age and the upstairs-downstairs divide, Ada strikes up a deep friendship with Miss Emily, the gifted elder daughter living a spinster’s life at home. But Emily’s passion for words begins to dominate her life. She will wear only white and avoids the world outside the Dickinson homestead. When Ada’s safety and reputation are threatened, however, Emily must face down her own demons in order to help her friend, with shocking consequences.
i read so many great reviews of this book and the concept sounded so intriguing that i’m surprised i found it so horrible. emily dickinson sounded completely fake and not at all how i’ve always imagined the great ED. (that is the risk, though, of writing a fictionalized account of a writer.) ada, her maid, reads as trite and unrealistic, probably not helped by o’connor’s disjointed writing. all of it just was so unrealistic and irritating that i’m surprised i got through it at all, though i did skim from 30% onwards. so many people loved this, which is great, but this is one “reimagination” that i cannot in good conscience recommend.
