They Do It With Mirrors - SPOILER Thread

[Gina]

I can't agree that Christie is brilliant at characterization. I think she's terrible at it. She can't weave it into the story and let you figure it out for yourself; she has to tell you up front, with emphasis. This Woman Is an Italian Named Gina, So, As You Would Expect, She Is Hot-Blooded and Passionate and Careless.

It doesn't help, of course, that I'm an Italian-American named Gina. :-) But it's not just this case; she does this sort of thing all. The. Time. This Girl Is a Bright Young Thing; You May Expect Both Shallowness and Restlessness. This Man Is a Proper Old-Fashioned Britisher, a Bit Gruff and Stuffy with a Heart of Gold. She lays it all out as if you couldn't possibly be trusted to figure out this TOTALLY earth-shattering stuff by yourself.

I really just read Christie for the plots, and even the plots are starting to wear a little thin for me. She does do them very well, but this time the solution to the mystery was quite obvious to me. You don't have to come up with an elaborate metaphor about stages to guess that the guy just slipped out the back window to do the murder.

Sorry I'm so grumpy. :-) Subpar Christie does that to me. I do like some of hers, characterization problems notwithstanding, but not this one.

[Judy]

I also thought this one was rather weak overall, Gina, and the school setting wasn't convincing to me. My least favourite out of the Miss Marple books so far. I haven't read many Christie books apart from the Miss Marples, and I've found those rather uneven - some of them I love (Murder at the Vicarage is a lovely read) but others aren't so good.

I think the characterisation is also stronger in some of her books than in others, but I agree about Gina and Wally both being somewhat stereotyped in this one.

Sayers is probably my favourite GA writer for characterisation, but you do get quite a few stereotypes in her books too.

[Tara]

I don't want to do any stereotyping of my own, but I wonder how much mixing of different ethnic groups really happened during that time. We take it for granted nowadays, but in AC's time, people tended to associate mostly with their own ethnic or racial groups. Perhaps that is just what her perspective was, or what she assumed the perspective of her readers was.

[Lady Clementina]

Gina wrote: "I can't agree that Christie is brilliant at characterization. I think she's terrible at it. She can't weave it into the story and let you figure it out for yourself; she has to tell you up front, w..."

This one perhaps is not that great- and yes, there is stereotyping in some perhaps, but I still cannot agree with you. Have you read The Hollow, for instance? Anyway, each to their own opinion I guess.

[Susan]

I think a lot of GA authors tend to rely on stereotypes. However, I also think that Christie writes good characters, alongside the stock, side characters.

[Lady Clementina]

Susan wrote: "I think a lot of GA authors tend to rely on stereotypes. However, I also think that Christie writes good characters, alongside the stock, side characters."

A product of the times, probably- there are things which aren't exactly PC either.