I've enjoyed other Margaret Drabble novels recently, such as The Millstone and The Witch of Exmoor. The Red Queen is unusual, based on the real-life memoir of an eighteenth-century Korean princess. Drabble writes her own version of the memoir, then puts it in the hands of a contemporary English academic. Barbara, whose life bears some resemblance to the tragic story of the princess, travels to Seoul for a conference, where she becomes obsessed with the memoir. She forms a connection with two very different men while in Korea, and explores the old haunts of the princess. In the final portion, Barbara is back in England, where her personal story loops in more closely with that of the princess through her connection to a baby Chinese girl waiting for adoption.
I enjoyed the story of the Princess but found most of Barbara's tale slow and flat. The two women are meant to serve as counterpoints but somehow I couldn't find resonance in their mutual stories. The brief conclusion, on the other hand, was lovely. I don't want to give too much away, but as Barbara meets the orphan baby Chen Jianyi I felt that I was finally reading the author I had begun to like in her earlier novels. Very psychologically acute - almost enough for tears.
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