Her Glass Was Full, Like That of a Child of Privilege at a Sorority Mixer
Posted by: Keir
I haven’t read Jenna Bush’s Ana’s Story: A Journey of Hope (HarperCollins), but I was intrigued by Ben McGrath’s description in the New Yorker (”First Book“):
The book has a spare, verging-on-hardboiled prose style ("’How did your parents die?’ Ana asked. ‘They were sick," Berto said. ‘Mine, too.’"), and suggests that Jenna may yet have a future following Margaret Truman and Susan Ford into the mystery-novel genre. She has a weakness for dubious ethnic analogies: "His eyes were wild, like those of the pumas that lived in the jungles," and "A nurse wrapped Beatriz in a blanket - like a burrito."
I also appreciated–after reading so much about about how serious she is, and how she did write it herself, and isn’t it the kind of book a liberal would write?–learning about Bush’s opening remarks at the book’s launch party:
"If you don’t have a glass of wine and you want one, you should get one, because it’s a party," she said, drawing a laugh. "No, really, go back to the bar and get one."
In her defense, crime writers are notorious drinkers.
October 10th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
You know, her prose style reminds me Ernest Hemingway. And the nurse reference? That’s totally an homage to A Farewell to Arms.
[insert your own Big Read/Big Game/Big Drink joke here]
October 11th, 2007 at 10:55 am
And you know who liked a drink, too? Ernest Hemingway.