MCU's Southern Gothic

The special Golden Man Booker, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the prize, has gone to Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient. We read in The Irish Times:

In the case of The English Patient, a poet’s novel written with devastating imagery and a complex narrative structure, the widest possible range of readers have engaged with an intense literary novel which makes a bow to Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights as well as Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria quartet and the great Paul Scott. Publishers should take heed, never underestimate the general reading public. (...)
The movie it must be said belongs more to Katherine, whose relationship with Almasy, the English patient, although more alluded to than explored in the novel, proves every bit as destructive as that shared by Heathcliff and his Catherine. Whatever about the structural changes, both novel and movie share an atmosphere of memory, loss and regret. (Eileen Battersby)

The Guardian talks about the TV series Sharp Objects:

In the early 80s, long before the current boom in young adult fiction, teenage girls learned about life, love and everything in between from two books: Judy Blume’s Forever, and Flowers in the Attic. Where Blume was every girl’s cool aunt – her realistic, smartly written stories allowing us to feel less worried about everything from first periods to first sex – [Jennifer] Andrews was memorably described as “the Emily Brontë of the MTV generation”, and her floridly written books, with their illicit subject matter – murder, incest, amputation, rape – were treated like contraband, passed down by older girls with covert whispers about the secrets within. (Sarah Hughes)

The series is discussed on Romper:

Wind Gap is an invented city, but it may feel like an amalgamation of familiar Southern locations. Many aspects of the story play into the Southern Gothic genre, where mystery and ambiance abound. Southern Gothic shares a lot with 19th century Gothic literature like Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, though it situates those often-European works in the American south to investigate the qualities unique to that setting. (Megan Walsh)

We have a wtf moment in this culinary article in the New York Times:

Now, it’s nothing remotely to do with Moulard ducks or copper-cored stainless steel sauté pans, but are you going to see “Ant Man and the Wasp” this afternoon? No? Well, have you ever read “Wuthering Heights”? Be truthful. Whichever, you could do one or the other real soon. (Sam Sifton)

The Stage interviews theatre director Sally Cookson:

When she directed Jane Eyre, “which is often spoken of as people’s favourite novel”, there was a huge weight of responsibility. “But we are telling our version of it, turning it into a piece of theatre, so it becomes unique”, she says. “People are very quick to compare, but they’ve got to leave that at the door and experience it for what it is.” (Mark Shenton)

Saltinaria (Italy) reviews Una Ragazza Inglese by Beatrice Mariani:

E’ stata definita una storia d’amore quale tributo a Jane Eyre di Charlotte Brönte (sic) ed è in questo suo romanticismo non tradizionale, in quello che l’amore ha di assoluto e proprio per questo per il suo lato anticonformista, con il gusto tutto al femminile dell’innamorarsi dell’amore e saper fare i conti con la realtà, con la capacità di darsi senza condizioni che il romanzo della scrittrice esordiente, manifesta la sua inattualità e in questo originalità. Il coraggio, pur ambientando la storia ai giorni nostri, nei grovigli della società romana malata e corrotta, di usare un profilo che è autentica narrazione. (Ilaria Guidantoni) (Translation)

Atlanta in Town discusses the local Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever next July 14. El Sol de Tampico (México) presents a local youth workshop:

En esta edición 2018, el taller rinde homenaje al escritor uruguayo Horacio Quiroga, autor de los “Cuentos de la Selva” y, Emily Brontë, escritora británica autora de “Cumbres Borrascosas”. (Antonio Sosa) (Translation)

Literature-se (Brazil) vlogs again about Jane Eyre among other things; Paein briefly posts about the novel. Charmedky knižní regál (in Czech) reviews it. AnneBronte.org explores connections of the Brontës and the sea.

Finally, an alert for tomorrow at the British Library:

How to Disappear: Reading and the Art of Vanishing
Tue 10 Jul 2018, 12:30 - 13:30
Eccles British Library Writer's Award winner 2018 Stuart Evers discusses the role of disappearance in fiction – and how reading itself is an act of vanishing. From Homer to Toni Morrison, from Emily Brontë to Jon McGregor, Evers will show the novelistic attraction to the missing, as well as discussing the research for his forthcoming novel, The Disappearances, which draws upon notorious ‘disappearances’ in American history.