Struck by lightning

With all the storms we've been having this summer, this may be the right time to mention: TodaysFrase comes from a long line of women who have been hit by lightning.  Okay, it's a short line - just my mother and grandmother - but that's just a little too long for me.  During thunder and lightning storms, I always stay away from running water, telephones, electrical appliances, and golf courses (true, I don't play golf, except the occasional round of miniature golf, but I am especially happy that I don't play non-miniature golf whenever there's a T&L storm in the weather forecast).

This brings me to Alice Hoffman, a novelist whose novels I almost always enjoy.  The only exception is The Ice Queen, which was a little too painfully close to home since a number of characters in the book were indeed hit by lightning (this kept adding to my list of activities and appliances to avoid doing during adverse weather conditions).   

On a happier note, my favorite of Hoffman's books is Here and Now, which is a completely irresistible retelling of Wuthering Heights.  I read it in one day and night and scarcely remember taking time off for meals.

Along these lines, another truly great take on one of the classics is Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea.  Written in a hypnotic, elegant, very spare style, it's the story of the first Mrs. Rochester (as in, the crazy lady in the attic in Jane Eyre).  This is Rhys's best book by a mile.  After WSS, I read all the others, despite my growing sense they all move in the general direction of a bog-down in some type of depressing, usually sodden, incredibly tedious love affair.

I can't endorse the re-tell genre, as a whole, because so many of these books are just plain trashy.  But I'm wondering if any TF-ers have books like these that they'd recommend?