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I took the girls to The Artist at the weekend. The cinema was almost empty for a Saturday afternoon showing. We loved it! It is a black and white ‘silent’ movie set in the late 1920s and early 1930s at the point when films are becoming talkies. There is music and there are occasional speech frames.
The subject has been done before, memorably in the pairing of Judy Garland and James Mason in A Star Is Born – but please, not Barbra Streisand and Chris Christopherson! - the rise of new young stars and fall of older ones. It also has shades of Singing in the Rain where a silent film is made over for the new talking era but not all the actors are up to the job. My girls and I have all been brought up on old movies – though sadly they’ve not seen a A Star Is Born – and we were completely spellbound. It is difficult to judge whether you’d love it if you’d never seen an old movie, but I don’t see why you wouldn’t: it was laugh out loud funny but also poignant, beautifully dressed, perfect entertainment. Go see it!
I have just finished reading One Day by David Nicholls. It was a requested gift as I had heard so many good reports. I feel mean saying it was OK, but for me it didn’t live up to the hype. I liked the idea of it, but got annoyed with both characters. I could see the plot coming, though I shall refrain from giving it away. I neither laughed nor cried. Sorry!
But I’m loving P.D.James take on Jane Austen: Death Comes to Pemberley. A fan of both authors I thought I’d better try it. There is a perfect summary of the plot of Pride and Prejudice before she gets down to her own story, and I haven’t finished it so I can’t tell you if it works out in a believable way, but so far I am enjoying the pace, the gentle humour, the characters and the plot.
(The heron was on next door's roof on Christmas Day.)
I’m re-reading Jane Eyre.
The girls and I went to see the new film with Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender last weekend. We had all seen a repeat run of the most recent TV serial with Toby Stephens and Ruth Wilson - both too good looking really. I’ve also watched versions starring Joan Fontaine/Orson Welles, Sorcha Cusack/David Jayston and Samantha Morton/Ciarán Hinds at the very least! Eldest had devoured the book on the promise of the trip to the pictures. I think it was too close together: she seemed bored by a film that Youngest and I thoroughly enjoyed. It was atmospheric, gothic, got the story about right, had outstanding costumes and had appropriate actors. Eldest's chief complaint was that St. John wasn’t a looker, though she thought Jane and Rochester suitably plain – helped by their unattractive hair cuts!
I read the book in English lessons in 1973 according to my reading list. For me that’s damming: if I liked a book I read it in advance of reading in class as I generally found the round the room method put me off completely. I know Youngest feels the same – though she’s been told off for reading ahead! (What do you think of that, Fran?)
Because I know the story I found myself paying great attention to the awfulness of Victorian style, even the pretty women looked faintly ridiculous in their dolly styling. If you saw Young Victoria you will recognise the fashions, though what looked sumptuous and appropriate on Victoria and Albert was less stylish on the ordinary folk – perhaps that’s always true about those of us copying the fashion setters?!
I read somewhere that Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights (which I haven’t read) are best appreciated read pre 14; read later you are liable to find the characters a bit silly… Dear Reader, for me this seems to be true. How about you?
I choose a book to read for all sorts of reasons. Usually a title or an author catches my eye on the library shelves. Sometimes I listen to a recommendation. The one I’m reading presently was in a box I sorted left over from the Church Fête – A Shield of Coolest Air by Marion Molteno. It is unusual, a first novel from 1992, by an unknown (to me) author so I’ve no idea what to expect, but it gripped me from the first sentence so I shall continue – I rarely fail to finish something I start, if only because I record the books I’ve read in an exercise book and hate to feel I’ve wasted my time*. And sometimes I enjoy a TV or radio version so much I am inspired to get hold of the original book.
Such was the case with Lionel Shriver whose novel We Need to Talk About Kevin I first heard on Woman’s Hour. I found this black comedy unputdownable. However uncomfortable the story, I had to know what happened next and was genuinely surprised on several occasions (yes, despite having heard the serialisation). Last week I read So Much For That (also heard on the radio) and it too was brilliant. Very black, and only occasionally laugh out loud funny, but humorous just the same. It doesn’t sound amusing I grant you. It is about the American health system and, to illustrate her point, several of the main characters have medical problems: terminal cancer, a terminal degenerative disease and some elective surgery. Well I said it didn’t sound fun! It was not only funny, but true. If someone you know has had any sort of illness you will find scenarios that have the ring of truth. For instance, how many times do you need to remind yourself to ring a sick friend before you actually do it? And when you’re not comfortable about what you might say, or how they might react, how much more likely are you to put it off? But because it’s always on your mind, and on your to do list, you don’t realise how long it is since you called… I loved the commentary on modern life, the arc of the story, and (should I mention?) the happy ending (you probably need to know!). Even for the characters for whom life ended there was a satisfactory conclusion. I loved this!
If nothing else, if you’re a Brit reader, you will thank God for the NHS!
*I recently stopped reading Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty; I really wasn’t enjoying the sex or the self harm. I am also struggling to get through A Dance to the Music of Time. I loved the TV series and was leant the novels by a neighbour… I have reached book five of twelve but am losing the will to live… Should I strive to complete either task?
I am grateful to Wikipedia for the following information: The connection between 23 April and books was first made in 1923 by booksellers in Spain as a way to honour the author Miguel de Cervantes who died on that day. This became a part of the celebrations of Saint George's Day (also 23 April) in Catalonia, where it has been traditional since the medieval era for men to give roses to their lovers and since 1925 for the woman to give a book in exchange.
In the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, World Book Day is held annually on the first Thursday in March. Although it might be argued that this makes it more a 'UK and Ireland Book Day' than a World Book Day as such, it was decided to avoid the established international 23 April date due to clashes with Easter school holidays. World Book Day UK began in 1998, launched by Prime Minister Tony Blair. In 2011 it will be held on Thursday 3rd March.
I thought I’d look at what I was reading in 1998 (because even I don’t go back as far as 1923).
In 1998 I read 17 books and four of those recorded were read aloud to Eldest (she’d have been four). To myself I read Leslie Thomas, Terry Pratchett, Nick Hornby, Helen Fielding, Arabella Weir, P.D.James, A.A.Milne, Philippa Gregory and Georgette Heyer. Largely light and funny novels, but also Libby Purves’ How Not to Raise a Perfect Child which was both tongue in cheek and helpful! To Eldest I read Dodie Smith (her two delightful Dalmatian stories), P.L.Travers’ Mary Poppins, and an odd little book called The Log of the Ark, a retelling of Noah’s Ark. At this time the girls shared bunk beds and Youngest got a story book of her choice first and then fell asleep while I read a chapter of a ‘proper’ book to her big sister.
Over the years we worked our way through the Puffins lurking on my bookshelf since childhood and added in some more recent authors. J.K.Rowling and Eoin Colfer are family favourites: we’ve read them individually, aloud and listened to them on tape and then CD!
Today I am reading Things I Want My Daughters to Know by Elizabeth Noble, my tenth book of the year. It’s not a competition, but I am amused to see that as the girls have got older, so that I rarely now read to them, I have found more time to read to myself, often while waiting for them to complete a ballet/swimming lesson. The three of us always have a book on the go. Husband also reads, but it’s more likely to be The Economist, military history or a Maths book.
What are you reading?
I love to read. I have an eclectic taste, though I will admit to rarely reading non-fiction. So, may I recommend?
I have just finished Every Last One by Anna Quindlen, an American author of whom I had not heard. I googled her here. The apparently straightforward telling of the story, by mother Mary Beth, reminded me of Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk about Kevin but it all feels much more ordinary.
It begins with a description of family life, and Mary Beth remarks “-every day is like this. Average. Ordinary. More or less.” The prose style is direct and insightful and I loved it!
Of her circle of friends: “Even when we’re honest with one another, we tread carefully; the quickest way to lose a friend is to suggest that she is a bad mother, or to suggest her children have problems, which amounts to the same thing.”
Of her teenage daughter: “she has outside manners and inside manners, company manners and home manners. Or lack of manners. –Only with her father is she always the polite and thoughtful Ruby she presents to the world.”
A lesson to us all: “Here is what I know about dressing like your teenage daughter: She will always look better than you.”
And a warning: “Sometimes I feel as though the entire point of a woman’s life is to fall in love with people who will leave her. The only variation I can see is the ones who fight the love, and the ones who fight the leaving.”
I raced through the book, but with dread! The blurb mentions an ‘unimaginable fate’ and ‘finding the bravery to live as we never dreamed we would have to’. I will not spoil the plot by commenting further; but I am bound to say that we should remember to live in the now and not be too surprised if things don’t work out as we planned: there are so many possible futures.
Anna Quindlen is a columnist but she has written other novels. I shall be looking for them in the library.
Have just finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: I couldn’t put it down. And yes, there was lots of revolting violence.
I always have a book on the go. I love a well plotted thriller. I’ve read everything I could find by P .D. James and have to wait for her next. I’m now onto the other things Henning Mankell has written because I’ve read all the Kurt Wallanders. There was a time when I read everything by James Clavell, Ian Fleming, Robert Ludlum, Alistair MacLean, Wilbur Smith, Len Deighton…. They’re not all strictly crime writers, more adventure storytellers, but they have their share of graphic description of appalling human behaviour.
What I’m getting at, perhaps too heavy handedly, is that crime fiction is full of nasty crime. The first in the Millennium Trilogy is brilliantly plotted, full of interesting characters and largely well translated (I had issues with some odd sentences that didn’t sound quite right).
I love a mystery to solve, but I prefer to read about them: I don’t want to see the bloodbaths and brutality. My imagination is sufficient illustration. So I haven’t watched Luther, or Waking the Dead, Trial and Retribution, Silent Witness and Wire in the Blood which have exercised other people so much, and I doubt I'll go to see the Dragon Tattoo film. It’s not that I’m not prepared to see any violence, or a horrific crime scene, but I like something with an engaging narrative, the possibility that I could solve the clues and that isn’t relentlessly grim. I watched early Waking and Witness episodes and found them unlikely frankly. And I loved Bond and Bourne at the cinema! They were exciting films, although in these more graphic days some of the scenes were very hard to look at – I’d have been behind the sofa at home.
Will need to find out what next is in store for Lisbeth Salander, ‘though I suspect it won’t be any less horrible.
