Favorite, Eileen 1964-

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Favorite, Eileen 1964-

PERSONAL:

Born September 10, 1964; married; children: one daughter. Education: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, B.A., 1986; M.F.A., 1999.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Chicago, IL. Office—School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 27 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago, IL 60603.

CAREER:

School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1998, began as teaching assistant, became faculty member.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Illinois Arts Council Fellowships, 2001, for prose, and 2005, for poetry; four Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency grants; Ragdale fellow.

WRITINGS:

The Heroines (novel), Scribner (New York, NY), 2008.

Contributor of poems, essays, and stories to periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Eileen Favorite earned her master of fine arts degree in writing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and later went on to a teaching position at that school. She has written poetry, stories, and essays that have been published in various periodicals and broadcast on Chicago Public Radio and other outlets. Her first novel, titled The Heroines, was published in 2008. The inspiration for this book came to the author while she was writer-in-residence at the Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, Illinois, which also serves as the setting for the book. Her residency meant that she was to be able to take a break from her everyday life and focus on her writing, but once she arrived there, she had no idea on what subject she should write. In a transcript of a talk with a book group, published on her home page, the author recalled reading Flann O'Brien's book At-Swim-Two-Birds. "I loved his idea of resurrecting characters from other novels and using them to one's own ends. This literary appropriation stems from several ideas. That there's nothing new to write under the sun. That characters should be free to move about and not be restricted by their controlling authors. That one cannot ‘own’ one's characters," she said.

The unusual premise of The Heroines is that of a bed-and-breakfast in Prairie Bluff, Illinois, where the clientele consists of literary heroines. When the plotlines of their own stories become too stressful, they come to this inn to relax and recuperate. The guest list includes, at various times, Daisy Buchanan, Madame Bovary, Scarlett O'Hara, Franny Glass, and the Irish heroine Deidre. Running this special bed-and-breakfast is Anne Marie Entwhistle and her thirteen-year-old daughter, Penny. At the start of the book, Penny shows little patience for the guests and their problems. Instead, she wishes that she could get even a fraction of the attention that her mother gives to the inn's clientele. Leaving the house in a fit of temper one night, Penny goes walking in the woods, where she encounters Conor, a knight who has arrived from Celtic mythology, looking for Deirdre. He demands that Penny help him to find Deirdre, and she agrees, thinking that it will be fun to be caught up in the adventure. Once she becomes entangled in their story, however, she ends up in a mental institution because of it. The staff thinks she is insane and that she is manufacturing her story about the inn as a means of coping with her father's death, which happened years before. Her mother knows the truth but agrees to have Penny committed in order to protect her from dangerous things going on at their home. In the end, the cast of heroines must come to Penny's help.

The idea of a bed-and-breakfast that serves as a "halfway home" for troubled women from literature is "intriguing," in the opinion of Allyssa Lee, a contributor to Entertainment Weekly. Lee felt that the book presented some potentially thought-provoking issues, but felt that they were ultimately sidetracked by the heroines themselves, caught up as they are in a permanently tragic state. Booklist reviewer Kristine Huntley praised the book as a "clever, charming debut … a must-read for literature lovers." "Favorite skillfully handles the many twists in her plot," according to Christina Bauer's review for Library Journal, as well as demonstrating "an intelligent understanding of literature, feminism, and its own female characters." The Heroines was also recommended by a Publishers Weekly reviewer, who concluded: "Favorite offers a fun take on the impact literature can have on our lives."