During the Reign of the Queen of Persia

During the Reign of the Queen of Persia is the first novel by American author Joan Chase. On its publication in 1983 it won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award.[1]

The story is told from the perspective of the four granddaughters of the "Queen of Persia", an Ohio farmwife, during the 1950s. The narration takes place in the first person plural, an effect that Margaret Atwood believed evoked the collective female unconscious.[2] The plot casts backwards and forwards through time, being divided into three main sections: the first has the narrating sisters in their teens, the second regresses back to their childhood, and the third see the sale of the family farm and the dispersal of the family.[3]

The book drew comparisons to the works of Anne Tyler, Marilynne Robinson, Douglas Unger and Susan Engberg.[4][2]

References

  1. ↑ Marquard, Bryan. "Joan Chase, at 81; her first novel illuminated the lives of four girls on a rural farm". Boston Globe Obituaries. Boston Globe. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  2. 1 2 Atwood, Margaret. "Romantic Idealism, Barnyard Realism". New York Times. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  3. ↑ "During the Reign of the Queen of Persia". Kirkus Review of Books. Kirkus. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  4. ↑ Jacobson, Joanne (1986). "Review of "During the Reign of the Queen of Persia" by Joanne Jacobson". The Iowa Review. 16 (2). Retrieved 26 April 2018.
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