The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson

I'll preface this post by saying that I am not a poetry fan, nor am I a fan of Emily Dickinson. But, I loved this novel. Jerome Charyn amazingly inhabits the character of Emily, writing in her voice, and realistically imagining her reactions to the events of her life.

Charyn admits to taking some liberties with her biography -- mainly by adding a few fictional characters -- but those characters serve to add depth and spice to the story, and serve as a foil to showcase Miss Dickinson's inner life. And what a rich inner life she has. For a 19th-century never-married lady, she is portrayed as having an active sexuality (which is possibly entirely imagined by the author).

Yes, she was quirky and eccentric, but she was also smart as a whip and had a wonderful sense of humor. I like that Charyn doesn't include any poems in the novel, because it seems that Emily was rather private about her "scribblings". And now I may pick up a volume of her poems to see if I find a hint of what Charyn imagined in Emily.

The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson: A Novel