MobileRead April 2017 Discussion: A Cold Day for Murder by Dana Stabenow (spoilers)

[issybird]

I had noticed earlier that three of the four book club selections so far this year have been mysteries; what I just realized is that all three were written by authors of a different race/ethnicity than their protagonist/hero.

I'm toying with this idea now, wondering why an author chooses to get outside his own skin, so to speak. I don't have an issue with the concept on political grounds. Why not? Imagination and empathy should be part of the artist's arsenal. Does the writer bring some new insight from the perspective of the outsider? Is it the lure of the exotic that appeals?

It's not a decision without risk, though. I found The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency stereotyped and patronizing. On the other hand, I think Aaronovitch and Stabenow pull it off.

[CRussel]

Interesting, I hadn't thought of it that way. I would also note that in both Aaronovitch and Stabenow, the author stayed within gender, but with Smith, did not.

Certainly, in the case of Stabenow, I strongly suspect she made a decision that if you're going to write about Alaska, and especially wilderness Alaska, the story is more compelling from a First Nations perspective. And, I would add, that her stories featuring Liam Campbell are OK, but not up to the Kate Shugak level, IMHO. Though again, that's now crossing gender boundaries.

[issybird]

I thought of McCall Smith and the gender issue and I think the unusual aspect is that it's a man writing for a woman, as the reverse happens all the time. There's the Golden Age and Peter Wimsey, Hercule Poirot, Alan Grant and Roderick Alleyn. P.D. James and Ruth Rendell have male detectives. And so forth, even Liam Campbell. I think that's mostly down to gender issues and having men in the position of power and frankly, what sells best. It's a truism that while little girls might read the Hardy Boys, little boys would almost never read Nancy Drew.

[WT Sharpe]

I didn't think of this as a perfect book, but it was a quite good one, and finished with more heart than I was expecting.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I didn't think of this as a perfect book, but it was a quite good one, and finished with more heart than I was expecting.

Oh, good, I'm glad it won you over. And no, certainly not perfect, but a worthy first book. (Well, if you don't count her two SF books that died without a trace until she re-issued them as eBooks a few years ago.)

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by issybird

I thought of McCall Smith and the gender issue and I think the unusual aspect is that it's a man writing for a woman, as the reverse happens all the time. There's the Golden Age and Peter Wimsey, Hercule Poirot, Alan Grant and Roderick Alleyn. P.D. James and Ruth Rendell have male detectives. And so forth, even Liam Campbell. I think that's mostly down to gender issues and having men in the position of power and frankly, what sells best. It's a truism that while little girls might read the Hardy Boys, little boys would almost never read Nancy Drew.

True, it's more typical for women to write about men. OTOH, I honestly think society makes that both more acceptable and more easily carried off successfully. It's very, very hard for someone who is a priviledged white male to put himself in the position of a black female than it is for a priviledged white female (Dorothy Sayers) to put herself in the position of a privileged white male (Lord Peter Wimsey who was in many ways a caricature.)

I think the reason McCall Smith was condescending was just that issue of crossing not one, but two, significant boundaries, and doing so from a position of privilege. I find his Isabelle Dalhousie books equally 'quaint' but less condescending. But I also don't think he's all that successful at capturing the character of a very privileged woman. It's very much a man's view of what such a woman would be, rather than a woman's. Or that's how it seems to me.

Circling back here to the book in our hands. I really wish we had someone in the group from the Aleut or Athabacan First Nations to help us understand how well or not Ms. Stabenow did. My sense is that she did quite well -- it felt right. But I'm viewing from my own lens, so I always have to doubt.

[WT Sharpe]

Oh, yeah. Ken Dahl. Really? And no Bahr-bha anywhere in the story?

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[BenG]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Oh, yeah. Ken Dahl. Really? And no Bahr-bha anywhere in the story?

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That made me roll my eyes when I saw that too. It took me a while to take the story seriously after that.