Agatha Christie: The Woman and Her Mysteries by Gillian Gill
(The amazon.com page is wrong, the author is “Gillian Gill”.)
This is an examination of Christie that tries to reach some conclusions based on what she puts in her writings. There are some terribly long winded passages deconstructing some of her novels which really should either be shortened up or reworked in some way. I’ve read less than 25% of Christies works, and even though I’ve read a fair few of what Gill deconstructs, it’s was still pretty tough slogging.
That said, there is some good material here, mostly having to do with Christie being a “modern woman” interested in equality and having a career of her own. This isn’t really surprising to anyone who’s read her stuff. But I’m not sure that you can infer her character from her novels, especially considering she’s had over 80 volumes published. A great deal of time is spent analyzing the Westmacott novels, especially Unfinished Portrait which was supposed to be semi-autobiographical.
The obligatory chronology of her life is presented, but the analyzed by what she was writing at the time. Even so, there is no new revelation regarding her 1926 disappearance and claimed amnesia. The presentation is academic in style, and not a particularly easy or fun read. Informative in several ways, but I don’t think I know Agatha Christie any better than before.
