About halfway through this book, the Red Queen of the title narrates one of the most horrifying death scenes I've read for a while. I put this down for a day until I felt removed enough from it to continue.
The Red Queen is a fictionalised look at the life of the Queen of Korea in the eighteenth century, and the royal family that surrounds her. The story is based on the memoirs of the Queen, and is therefore based quite strongly, I think, in fact. It begins with the Queen as a young child longing intensely for a red silk skirt, and this memory continues to reappear throughout the book. I must say, reading it has invoked a strong desire for red things. I'm very fond of red, generally, but I don't usually gravitate towards such prosaic items as red pens, murmuring "Aaaah! So pretty!"
Perhaps I've been gently taken over by the spirit of the Red Queen. This story did affect me quite strongly, and certainly not simply because of the death I've mentioned. I enjoyed the writing, which isn't a surprise, as I like Drabble. But the characters seemed particularly vibrant, perhaps because they were based on fact. I was quite drawn in by the idea of this iron-willed woman living hundreds of years ago, riding through the Korean countryside in a covered carriage. An excellent book, for all sorts of reasons - highly recommended.
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