Ruth's review
I went through a long Kosinski phase, reading everything I could get. In grad school, in the late '70s, I had a particularly graphic quotation from The Painted Bird taped to the door of my dorm room. I'm not sure what impression I was trying to give, but it was some of the most powerful writing I'd ever seen.
After being wowed by PB, I too went into a Kosinksi phase, but none of other books made the impression on me that this did. This has inspired me to plan a reread (as soon as I can find a copy--I just moved).
That's almost identical to my experience, Ruth. I loved The Painted Bird (in a moderately painful way, given its content) along with other possibly related works such as Elie Weisel's Night. I then got a pile of his books, but none of them came close.Being There was probably the second best -- I loved the movie, mostly because I adore(d) Peter Sellers and he was an absolutely perfect Chance, but TPB was a unique thing that he never really recaptured.
rgb
Being there was, I think, one of the few times when the film was better than the book. I still try to get rid of things by clicking an imaginary remote at them.
R


