It’s sort of funny how people can become pre-occupied with what they truly believe someone from the past must have been like. People speculate about great artists, writers, political and historical figures all the time. I’m not quite sure why they do, but it’s surely interesting to see not only what is motivating people to speculate about these dead greats, but to see what they come up with.

I’m no stranger to this. When I wrote my first novel about Shakespeare as an androgen, I gave him a voice, a heart and mind—a soul. I made him a penitent on his death bed, recalling the various life-changing or life-challenging events in his historical past. I gave a voice to the Billy Shakes that I thought could have had, if only in my imagination. There’s something inherently wrong and all the while fascinating doing this sort of thing. Wrong because I could be (probably am) completely off base and am doing some sort of injustice to the bard. But it’s fascinating too because it’s art and it’s interpretive. If Shakespeare is anything in this world, it is that his life and works are open for interpretation and discussion and critique.

This same thing is happening now with Emily Dickinson. “The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson” by Jerome Charyn is hitting book stands this week and admittedly I have to read this book. First, I want to see how a man interprets this first feminist heroine writer who still stirs debate, 120 years after her death. 

More importantly, I want to see how the novel explores her sexuality, her vivid lustful thoughts and her poetic process as a result.

The author takes on the voice of Emily in the first person and re-imagines and sexualizes the authoress in order to show how relevant she is in today’s time. Charyn has said that this 19^th century powerhouse would fit in quite well in the 21^st century. In the novel, Emily rebels against traditional notions of marriage and the woman’s role. She is surrounded by several real-life characters but is also confronted with fictional men, part of her active and vibrant fantasizing mind.

Should be a good read, if not only to show me how this sort of re-interpretation process could be dangerous and unsuccessful.