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What are we reading? 16th August 2021
I had hoped that once the former US President was banned from the most popular social media sites that life would be just a little calmer. And so it was for a while. It even got pleasantly boring. Then the weather started to act up and leaving Afghanistan got so damned messy.I was getting depressed, so I turned to one of my favorite comic mystery authors for solace. Today, Donald E. Westlake (The Busy Body) and I spent quality time in the yard. There's nothing like a mafia type trying to find a body that isn't where it is supposed to be or isn't anywhere for that matter.
If anyone here ever needs cheering up and who enjoys mysteries, you absolutely cannot go wrong with one of Westlake's books. Of course you may prefer Carl Hiassen or Elmore Leonard, but for sheer fun Westlake is hard to beat.
Hushpuppy wrote: " ... I didn't particularly enjoy the first few chapters"....
Oh no, the first chapter is really promising!
Oh no, the first chapter is really promising!
by Jonathan CoeThis book could easily have been subtitled 'The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter' (I'm not going to clarify that)... as one protagonist is young Greek interpreter Calista, and the other is the famous film writer and director Billy Wilder (Some Like it Hot, Sunset Boulevard, The Apartment etc.).
The narrative switches effortlessly between the present and 1976 onwards, when the Greek/British Calista travels to California, and by chance meets Wilder. Some months later, while Wilder is filming a part of Fedora in Greece, she is taken on as a translator. Later, when the filming moves to other locations, she is employed as an assistant to Wilder's co-writer I.A.L. Diamond. In effect, we are treated to two life stories presented in parallel - Wilder's, as he escapes Nazi Germany via Paris and London to finish in Hollywood, and Calista's, whose life changes direction as a result of the chance meeting and its consequences.
The sections regarding Wilder have been carefully researched - no doubt Coe's standing as a well-known author helped him gain access to Diamond's son and Wilder's collaborators, as well as written and filmed accounts. Information gleaned in these ways has been used judiciously to make this a most convincing and satisfying faction.
As someone who both likes Coe's writing and who is interested in cinema and the process of film-making, I found this book immensely enjoyable. Coe is a witty writer, and often brings a smile or a laugh... and yet, he is able to manage transitions to serious matters - for example, Wilder's speech on the Holocaust (this may be based on a true story - I'm not sure) with the utmost sensitivity. It is also a joyous book - as Calista learns to appreciate the delights of good cheese and wine in the company of the Epicurean Wilder.
I hope that is enough information for you to judge if it's a book you would also enjoy.
A personal tale, to finish - and I hope this is not a repeat... in 1997, we flew to LA to visit a good friend who worked at the Getty, and also (of course) California itself. The hotel was located in Santa Monica, not far from Sunset Boulevard. Its 'elevator' was made of glass and was placed on the outside of the building, overlooking the pool. As we rode up to our floor I noticed a man lying face down with his arms spread, in the same configuration as William Holden's in the opening sequence of Wilder's 'Sunset Boulevard'... of course, I knew this (it's a great film) and so does my wife, so I blurted out: "There's a body in the pool!" Well, my family members are well used to my exclamations and received this with equanimity - you should have seen the horror on the faces of the couple who were sharing the elevator with us, though!
(I know that I posted a version of this true story online recently - I hope it was in another forum and context, as I believe. Apologies if it was here!)
Late to the conversation as usual. Here are some of my favourite opening sentences. Each one immediately dragged me into the story."People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father's blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day."
True Grit - gives you a sense of both the story to come and the very individual voice of the narrator.
"There was a square of cardboard in the window where the glass had been smashed."
Union Street - you know this is not going to be a story of wealth and privilege.
"Vic didn't dance, but not for the reasons that most men who don't dance give to themselves. He didn't dance simply because his wife liked to dance."
Deep Water - looking forward to some very nasty characters.
"I'm sitting in a Transit van in Basingstoke, a battered once-blue Transit van full of drums and amplifiers, in a dirty white concrete car park under a dirty white sky, and I'm thinking: What am I doing here?"
A Cure For Gravity: A Musical Pilgrimage - ah, happy memories of youth.
"When Reginald Iolanthe Perrin set out for work on the Thursday morning, he had no intention of calling his mother-in-law a hippopotamus."
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin - this is going to be humorous.
And two famous ones which need no explanation:
"It was about eleven o’clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills."
The Big Sleep
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."
The Go-Between
AB76 wrote: "Bill wrote: "Sandya wrote: "but Miss Havisham? Where does this weirdness come from?"Thought to be based on an actual Australian woman. (I know this thanks to Peter Maxwell Davies' Miss Donnithorn..."
I think that there were vivid Gothic corners in Dickens' head. Where else could that conversation between Pip and the convict have come from?
Cabbie wrote: "Late to the conversation as usual. Here are some of my favourite opening sentences. Each one immediately dragged me into the story."People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl co..."
Good choices. Portis' accomplishment in True Grit, maintaining that nineteenth-century outlook for the whole book, was remarkable. So was the story.
I’ve finished Martin Chuzzlewit, best known as the early Dickens novel that turns abruptly to the United States for no reason. A series of unfavourable impressions of America follow, such as the following:“When the major rose from his rocking-chair before the stove, and so disturbed the hot air and balmy whiff of soup which fanned their brows, the odour of stale tobacco became so decidedly prevalent as to leave no doubt of its proceeding mainly from that gentleman’s attire. Indeed, as Martin walked behind him to the bar-room, he could not help thinking that the great square major, in his listlessness and langour, looked very much like a stale weed himself; such as might be hoed out of the public garden, with great advantage to the decent growth of that preserve, and tossed on some congenial dunghill.”
The highlight of the book is undoubtedly the funeral of Anthony Chuzzlewit, beginning with rousing the alcoholic midwife and concluding with the horses prancing triumphantly over the human death. It’s just magnificent.
This was the last work of fiction I had to read of the great novelist. There may be some obscure stories I haven’t encountered, but otherwise all that is left is the non-fiction, of which there is a sizable quantity. I feel a sense of terrible sadness about becoming a Dickens completist, yet one positive is that I will have the headspace to read some other doorstoppers. There aren’t many conspicuous omissions in my reading career, but I have Vanity Fair lined up for the not too-distant future.
Lunch with friends at a favourite bistro in the town yesterday..Felt comfortable on a bus (the first time since this all kicked off), masked, of course. Bought Jonathan Coe’s Mr Wilder and Me. Looking forward to reading that, enjoyed What a Carve Up years ago, so altogether nae bad.
Lass wrote: "..Felt comfortable on a bus (the first time since this all kicked off), masked, of course..."I know what you mean. I had to travel to the UK 2 weeks ago, which had just proclaimed "Freedom Day", whereas where I live we have never stopped using masks in shops and buses. I'm not going to go into the farcical measures imposed on non-NHS fully vaccinated, which have now been lifted. But the trip did have the result of easing my anxiety, and like you, I kept my mask on.
I've read two of Coe's books, The Rotters' Club, which I really enjoyed, and The House of Sleep which took a bit more effort, but was very rewarding. There's humour and sadness in both books, and he really manages to capture the period in which his stories are set. Let us know how you get on with Mr Wilder & Me.
I see lots of mentions of Dickens this week. He always reminds me of a good friend of mine who's literary-minded and hates him. Says he's miserable. After the discussion, a few years ago, I came across Horrible Histories' Charles Dickens Song which gives a neat précis of the man's life and works in the style of Morrissey and The Smiths. It's on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/TBK-Qt8edxM
SydneyH wrote: "I’ve finished Martin Chuzzlewit, best known as the early Dickens novel that turns abruptly to the United States for no reason. A series of unfavourable impressions of America follow, such as the fo..."I am glad that I am a re-reader. There is never any sadness when I finish a great book. Rather the opposite.
I remember that I skimmed over the American passage in Martin Chuzzlewit. It distracted from the story and I found it a bit boring then. I still think I didn't miss much by doing that but I might be wrong.
Berkley wrote(100): "Georg wrote: "I noticed that - briefly - and then forgot to think about it :-(. You are right, it is the most interesting part of the comment. I did not think Esther was a "caricature". The questi..."
I only read Vanity Fair. Some years before I read my first Dickens novel. I vaguely remember the Becky Sharp character (unpleasant) and, even more vaguely, her counterpart (conventional, boring). Can't imagine that either one would have been admired by CB. But her admiration of Thackeray might, of course, not have anything to do with that book.
Thinking about Vanity Fair I am quite tempted to re-read it. Intrigued by Betty Sharp.
Machenbach wrote: " Your friend must have only read Hard Times..."You're spot on. This was the book chosen by the teacher for O-Level.
scarletnoir wrote: "As we rode up to our floor I noticed a man lying face down with his arms spread, in the same configuration as William Holden's in the opening sequence of Wilder's 'Sunset Boulevard'"Fully clothed?
Machenbach wrote: "...Buster Keaton from Beckett's Film..."Or Norman Wisdom from BBC2s Going Gently.
Georg wrote: "Berkley wrote(100): "Georg wrote: "Thinking about Vanity Fair I am quite tempted to re-read it. Intrigued by Betty Sharp. "
If you want to try something new, I can recommend two other Thackerays from my own reading experience: Pendennis and The Newcomes - both very popular and highly rated in their day but relatively neglected in ours.
Pendennis was often compared to David Copperfield in Thackeray's and Dickens's time as it is Thackeray's autobiographical novel, with many close parallels to his life and career. It was also cited by many authors of the next generation or two as the book that made them want to become writers - specifically the chapters on Pendennis's early years as a journalist.
The Newcomes is something of a sequel, narrated by Pendennis, who also appears as a supporting character, but telling the story of the extended family of a friend of his, Clive Newcome, an artist. If you like Pendennis, you'll definitely want to read The Newcomes at some point.
Actually, Vanity Fair also takes place in the same fictional "universe", as there are brief references to characters from that novel as well, though not many, as VF is set a generation or so earlier.
I found them both first rate and having read them just a few months ago, find it a little strange that they aren't more acclaimed today. However, there are Penguin and Oxford paperback editions, so perhaps I am overstating the state of their neglect. I'd recommend them strongly to anyone on the hunt for Victorian novels to read.
scarletnoir wrote: "while Wilder is filming a part of Fedora in Greece"On one of the Marlon and Jake podcasts, they make the claim that the last books great writers publish during their lifetimes almost never end up being considered among their best work . Mention of Fedora caused me to reflect that the same might be true of directors and their last films. On my shelves I have, unread of course, Crowned Heads, which contains the novella on which Fedora is based.
Since @Machenbach mentioned Buster Keaton earlier, I note that he has a cameo in Sunset Boulevard.
While I am reading I am also listening to a lot of music to get through these times.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIBkI...
Music of the Day: George Frederick Handel, Overture to "Samson", Menuetto.
This is civilized music from the Age of Enlightenment. What could be more humorous and ironic of Handel, really, than to take the violent, bloody, rather pointless story of Samson and Delilah and add a minuet-a court dance of great elegance where a man and woman dance without touching each other? Handel remains my favorite composer and in a long life of listening to classical music, I always return to it, particularly now as the world appears engulfed in violence, disease, and general madness.
The 18th century, after 3 centuries of stupid religious and dynastic wars, was the first where people in Europe finally had a chance to party and enjoy themselves. You read it everywhere in memoirs of the time-at all levels of society, not just "rich people" as Americans are naïvely all too prone to assert-balls, routs, music, theater, card parties, outdoor diversions, Ranelagh Gardens, excursions to pubs, walking for the sheer pleasure of it, etc etc. Handel wrote many superb oratorios and operas, and even the most tragic stories generally end happily. Agrippina is an example. What could be grimmer than the story of Nero and his Mother? Yet Handel's opera doesn't end that way. His music has never palled.
I remember my dearly beloved Hall Tutor at Leicester University, Joyce Moody, once telling me something similar-that in the end all that remain are Bach, Handel, and Mozart. I am finally old enough to understand her.
Enjoying these week’s first sentences and opening passages very much – they make me want to explore or reread. Great selection and commentary, Cabbie!
My reads proved a mixed bag in recent weeks. There was only one book which I enjoyed reading in one go, the others, for various reasons, needed to be savoured or portioned or re-approached with patience. I also had my second vaccination (yay!) and was not always feeling very well.
Savouring great writing and having to distance myself, from time to time, from immensely intense descriptions of inner states:
Stefan Zweig’s novellas. Gambling addiction (just as impressive as in Dostoevsky), betrayal of a child and how it experiences this, lives changed forever by encounters (be it coup de foudre or non-erotic ones), the temporary saving of a suicidal person, playing chess in your mind as a means not to go mad in a prison cell and later outcomes,… you name it. It is very, very good. Looking forward to discussing these with my reading group, soon. Also enjoyed the many atmospheric references to travelling – on board of ships, in hotels, etc. Due to our holiday location, I read a travelogue by the young Hans Christian Andersen on Germany, especially the Harz region: observant, often witty, sometimes a bit too strenuously witty, but as I read, he managed to overcome a personal crisis during that journey, so that’s o.k. with me. Best to be read not in one stretch, but in smaller sections. (Schattenbilder von einer Reise in den Harz, die Sächsische Schweiz etc. etc. im Sommer 1831)
A wonderful discovery proved “Hercules at the spinning wheel”, concerned with Arachne, the nature of storytelling and teasing out related meanings and connections in various paintings by Rubens, Velázquez, Picasso and many others. Lovely. I wish someone would translate it into English!
With some effort, I finished reading Intrigue à Giverny, a French-language mystery novel featuring Monet and also addressing his paintings with some knowledge, recommended to me in the context of my French classes and also confirmed by gpfr as an o.k. read.
That one was a bit of a disappointment – in myself, though. It was hard work, in parts, as I seemed to be missing quite a bit of vocabulary. The funny thing is that whenever it would refer to historical context etc. I would get it all, but with the more colloquial bits I started to get lost quite often. Ah well, there’s room for improvement. So I read that one in smaller sections, too, and was really proud to be able to finish it. I think it is more about atmosphere than about a thrilling plot, but this is not something that should detract potential readers, especially ones who have visited Giverny and seen and enjoyed Monet’s paintings elsewhere. What did your wife think of it, scarletnoir?
@ Sandya: Thank you for your Händel post. Great observations, and I am glad the music continues giving you solace. If you are interested, and back to Europe at some point, I can recommend the Händelhaus Halle: https://haendelhaus.de/en/hh/homepage
There will also be another big Händel festival in 2022 (or so it is hoped).
What else? New books, as ever!Spent about two hours in a wonderful bookshop in Quedlinburg recently (was thinking of inter/ Justine, who has visited and liked this city…I would so much have liked to post Harz photographs for her again this year.).
They sell new and second-hand books and are pretty spacious. (Not many foreign-language books, though.) Of course there were lots of finds, and really, I would have liked to take many more with me. Am guilty of looking through, but not buying, various photobooks on Berlin (e.g., Andreas Muhs on the early Nineties: https://www.lehmstedt.de/muhs_berlin.htm)
Finds I did acquire:
An anthology of poetry and prose of Jewish migrants in 1920s and 1930s Berlin, some texts written in English. The book is titled “The night swallowed us up” (“Die Nacht hat uns verschluckt“, https://www.wallstein-verlag.de/97838...). @ Georg: Mascha Kaléko is included, too, of course! But also many writers not known to me so far.
Forest dwellers with a difference: A book on the history of robbers and gangs of robbers in Germany. Looking forward to that one!
An autobiography of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a Berlin transgender pioneer who is now contested (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlot...), but it is one of the books I owned earlier (not sure who owns it now... grrr) and I was so happy seeing it again – it is a lovely read.
Ich bin meine eigene Frau. Ein LebenYou might know the documentary “I am my own woman” on her life: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_My...
An exhibition catalogue on Hieronymus Bosch’s heritage: How later artists, such as, amongst many others, Jacques Callot, Pieter Bruegel the older took up his themes and motifs. (
. 30 pages in: Well-written and high quality of illustrations, so far.Regarding Camel advertising (@ Bill), I was referring to what you would call “the exaggerated he-man-ness“ also evident in actors like Steve Reeves or Victor Mature, as Susan Sontag has argued in her brilliant “Notes on ‘Camp’”. So no physical protuberances or analogies, but a performed hyper-masculinity: Lonely cowboys in landscape, rugged faces, etc.
Sontag (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_S...) is a brilliant writer, I read most of her theoretical works, if a long time ago and they have left a strong impression on me. Her fiction, less so, not sure why. Might try again! Any opinions or recommends?
I was referring to Lionel Feininger’s (to me) lovely children cartoons (Wee Willy Winkie – the name is derived from a Scots nursery rhyme) yesterday - somehow, now they seem connected in my mind with the passages from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Great Expectations, MachenBach.
Thanks for your reply, I very much agree that
they definitely 'talk' to one another, not least in their emphasis on the role that language and literature play in forming us.
Wee Willy Winkie, with his anthropomorphising, is not so much focused on language, but he is engaged in making sense of what he encounters, too.
Here’s some examples:
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9unqR_hrIX...
https://pierangelo-boog.blogspot.com/...
https://pierangelo-boog.blogspot.com/...
Oh dear, really long posts today – thanks for reading down to here, if you did!
Sandya wrote: "Handel remains my favorite composer and in a long life of listening to classical music, I always return to it, particularly now as the world appears engulfed in violence, disease, and general madness."Earlier this week, I decided to listen to Messiah for the first time in a number of years. Comfort ye, my people ...
Berkley wrote: "Georg wrote: "Berkley wrote(100): "Georg wrote: "Thinking about Vanity Fair I am quite tempted to re-read it. Intrigued by Betty Sharp. "
If you want to try something new, I can recommend two oth..."
Barry Lyndon is well worth a read, i loved it, one of Thackerays best
I have The History of Henry Esmond on my pile
I may have missed it but have we yet had :"Call me Ishmael."?
We've turned from opening passages to opening sentences. Off the top of my head, I quite like the opening line of Murphy by Samuel Beckett:"The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new".
Come to think of it, the whole opening passage is pretty memorable also.
"Granted: I am an inmate of a mental hospital; my keeper is watching me, he never lets me out of his sight; there’s a peep-hole in the door, and my keeper’s eye is the shade of brown that can never see through a blue-eyed type like me."Any guesses?
@ FrancesBurgundy and Sydney: Like these, too! Do not know Murphy yet, but an intriguing start.
FrancesBurgundy wrote: "I may have missed it but have we yet had :"Call me Ishmael."?"
We had a debate back in the Guardian days about what the first sentences of Moby-Dick and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were. I maintained that they were, respectively
The pale Usher—threadbare in coat, heart, body, and brain; I see him now.and
Scene: The Mississippi Valley Time: Forty to fifty years ago
Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "Do not know Murphy yet."That's the Beckett novel I really like, written in English before he started writing 'without style' in French. I also love the short story "Dante and the Lobster".
Mod
The Tin Drum, Günter Grass.
Decades ago, I was asked to write trivia questions for a Jeopardy-like game at a physician's convention (my late husband was an MD). So far, you all have mentioned five of the lines I chose for that assignment, incl. this one.
Georg wrote: "Berkley wrote(100): "Georg wrote: "I noticed that - briefly - and then forgot to think about it :-(. You are right, it is the most interesting part of the comment. I did not think Esther was a "ca..."
If I recall, Bronte admired Thackeray over Fielding because he was a moralist. What I remember about Vanity Fair, other than the Waterloo sequence, is the relationship between Becky and Rawdon Crawley. Both characters are drawn well.
Bill wrote: "FrancesBurgundy wrote: "I may have missed it but have we yet had :"Call me Ishmael."?"
We had a debate back in the Guardian days about what the first sentences of Moby-Dick and [bo..."
Tsk, tsk. The Usher is a type, and the Sub-Sub Librarian only gives us sentences about whales. It's Ishmael who leads us into sea and adventures. "Who ain't a slave?"
Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "Enjoying these week’s first sentences and opening passages very much – they make me want to explore or reread. Great selection and commentary, Cabbie!
My reads proved a mixed bag in recent weeks...."
Thanks for the Handel recommendation!
I was so depressed today by the situation in Afghanistan that I was driven to take out a book I love, "India" by Michael Wood. It is a very interesting overview of Indian history with a chapter on the Great Mughals.Here is a quote from Akbar the Great, which I have always remembered-it brought me to tears the first time I read it, and more so today. It is accompanied by a superb portrait of Akbar.
"In the past, to our shame, we forced many Hindus to adopt the faith of our ancestors. Now it has become clear to me that in our troubled world, so full of contradictions, it cannot be wisdom to assert the unique truth of one faith over another. The wise person makes justice his guide and learns from all. Perhaps in this way the door may be opened again, whose key has been lost".
If diversity and tolerance were good enough for the Emperor Akbar, they are good enough for the rest of us.
Another opening passage I like. As with several of those cited already, it announces at once the distinctive style of the author:
“In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains. In the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly moving and blue in the channels. Troops went by the house and down the road and the dust they raised powdered the leaves of the trees. The trunks of the trees too were dusty and the leaves fell early that year and we saw the troops marching along the road and the dust rising and leaves, stirred by the breeze, falling and the soldiers marching and afterwards the road bare and white except for the leaves.”
@berkley – I’ve read and really enjoyed quite a lot of Thackeray but not yet The Newcomes, so thanks for that recommendation.
“In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains. In the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly moving and blue in the channels. Troops went by the house and down the road and the dust they raised powdered the leaves of the trees. The trunks of the trees too were dusty and the leaves fell early that year and we saw the troops marching along the road and the dust rising and leaves, stirred by the breeze, falling and the soldiers marching and afterwards the road bare and white except for the leaves.”
@berkley – I’ve read and really enjoyed quite a lot of Thackeray but not yet The Newcomes, so thanks for that recommendation.
Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "Wee Willy Winkie, with his anthropomorphising, is not so much focused on language, but he is engaged in making sense of what he encounters, too."It made me think of this passage from Aegypt
The first time Rosie had seen it, in March wind and rain, she had felt warned away; it was like a hermit's or a wizard's house, lonely on a wooded knoll and the end of a long dirt driveway, almost a causeway, that curled through bare and rocky fields. And it was one of those houses too that, to the right eye on the right evening, seemed to have a face: the hooded eyes of a pair of shuttered windows on wither side of the nose and mouth of a door and its fanlight, chin of curved steps, mustaches of shaggy balsam. Rosie thought of the phrase from the poem, Death's dream kingdom, to which this seemed the gatehouse or keeper's cottage. And beyond it the dark pines gestured, impenetrable, and the hills rose up.
When Pierce first saw it, though, the weather had changed, and it was only a small mock-Tudor cottage, stucco and brick and timber, somehow unconvincing; the eaves were deep, and rounded like thatch, but they were of tarpaper shingle. The rosy-red chimneys and many chimney pots, the mullioned windows and rose trellises, all said 1920 and not 1520. The pines were still dark behind it, though, and the eyes still blind.
"For a long time, I went to bed early." I'm sure other translations are available.
I nay have missed this one, apologies if soHappy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way
Yesterday I began Iris Origo's "The Merchant of Prato: Daily Life in a Medieval Italian City," based on the remarkable archives of Francesco di Marco Datini - 500 ledgers and account books, 140,000 letters (11,000 of them personal correspondence) - and am already enthralled. This speaks to so many of historical interests and the writing is clear and lucid. I would like nothing more than to sit here reading it all day - something I could plausibly claim was working - but alas there are actual work tasks are pressing. Iris Origo was not a trained historian, but fully deserves the title. She led a seemingly fascinating life. Wiki here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_Origo
Bill wrote: "On one of the Marlon and Jake podcasts, they make the claim that the last books great writers publish during their lifetimes almost never end up being considered among their best work . Mention of Fedora caused me to reflect that the same might be true of directors and their last films. On my shelves I have, unread of course, Crowned Heads, which contains the novella on which Fedora is based."Thanks for that... I haven't seen 'Fedora' yet, though I am now sufficiently intrigued to seek it out the next time it shows up on TV. Coe's novel does give many clues to what may be the film's weaknesses - the less than brilliant source material, problems with some actors, the probably unwise over-dubbing of the performances by the two leading ladies... but the book also mentions that 'Fedora' has been re-evaluated in the upward direction since its release. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a score of 71% (critics) and 62% (audience), which probably reflects the critics' greater interest in and understanding of points made about movie-making. This negative review from a critic may well sum up the reservations many have about the film, which certainly also reflects points made in the novel about Wilder's approach:
The deliberate and sometimes dismaying anachronisms are signs of a deep, unshakable commitment to a personal aesthetic -- a commitment that is sometimes more moving than anything in the film itself.
(I was not aware that Buster Keaton had a role - it isn't mentioned in the book.)
As for whether later works are weaker... I think this often happens when writers and other artists run out of things to say - or maybe, of new ways to say the same things - but it is by no means inevitable. I would have paid good money to read a sequel to The Brothers Karamazov... Dostoyevsky died before he could write it. Indeed - I have just this moment found a reference to the intended story arc which astonished me: it seems that the 'saintly Alesha' (or Alyosha as he was referred to in the version I read) - by some way the most boring character - was in line to commit an assassination and be executed:
In a private conversation with his close friend Suvorin (February 20, 1880), when Book Ten of the serialized novel was still in progress, Dostoevsky unequivocally spelled out the destiny of Alesha Karamazov: "He would commit a political crime. He would be executed."
(from Rice, "Dostoevsky's Endgame: The Projected Sequel to The Brothers Karamazov," Russian HistorylHistoire Russe, 33, no. 1 (2006): 45-62.)
I know you are very interested in music - I doubt anyone would say that Beethoven 'declined' musically, when the 9th Symphony is one of his later works (I know there were others after that). Remarkably, of course, he was totally deaf by this time...
Visual artists, too, can be affected by physical problems - Monet's eyesight was greatly affected by a cataract which, due to its discolouration, changed his perception... as a result, he used a more subdued palette than he actually intended. Following an operation, he revisited a number of canvases to brighten them up!
https://www.zeiss.com/vision-care/us/...
So - to answer your point - I'd say that decline is not infrequent, but certainly not inevitable. It may be linked to a failure to move forward (probably, we all become more 'conservative with a small c' with age), but there are often physical issues too - illness and fatigue.
Bill wrote: "Fully clothed?"Haha! No - the guy had his cozzie on, but the position was identical. I have no idea what he was trying to do. Perhaps he, too, was an admirer of Sunset Boulevard, and was replaying the scene!
Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "...immensely intense descriptions of inner states: Stefan Zweig Stefan Zweig’s novellas...."Ah, you reminded me of The Post-Office Girl that I read a few years ago. Do you have any other Stefan Zweig recommendations?
Lass wrote: "Lunch with friends at a favourite bistro in the town yesterday..Felt comfortable on a bus (the first time since this all kicked off), masked, of course. Bought Jonathan Coe’s Mr Wilder and Me."I hope you enjoy the Coe as much as I did.
A bus? What's that? (I haven't been on public transport of any type or eaten out since March 2020, and only into one small shop - twice - since then!)
Sandya wrote: "I was so depressed today by the situation in Afghanistan that I was driven to take out a book I love, "India" by Michael Wood. ..."Many years ago Michael Wood did a lovely TV series on India. I've never forgotten how he could speak 'Indian English'. His accent was pitch perfect but he also used English words the Indian way. Lost in a city he asked "Where is numbering of houses?".
It's all very well being fluent in a foreign language but lapsing like that into a non-standard version of his own was impressive!
Berkley wrote(130): "Georg wrote: "Berkley wrote(100): "Georg wrote: "Thinking about Vanity Fair I am quite tempted to re-read it. Intrigued by Betty Sharp. "
If you want to try something new, I can recommend two oth..."
Thanks for the recommendation, Berkley, much appreciated.
“They shoot the white girl first. With the rest they can take their time. No need to hurry out here. They are 17 miles from a town which has 90 miles between it and any other. Hiding places will be plentiful in the Convent, but there is time and the day has just begun.They are nine, over twice the number of the women they are obliged to stampede or kill and they have the paraphernalia for either requirement: rope, a palm leaf cross, handcuffs, Mace and sunglasses, along with clean, handsome guns.”
Cabbie wrote: "Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "...immensely intense descriptions of inner states: Stefan Zweig Stefan Zweig’s novellas...."Ah, you reminded me of The Post-Office Girl that I read ..."
Beware of Pity is an excellent novel set around WW1, its a brilliant study of the Austro-Hungarian empire and its traditions
Right, will be offline-ish till Monday evening...enjoy your books guys and gals....its uncling timeAm taking the Thea Astley novel A Kindness Cup with me but am not sure i will get much time to read it!
AB76 wrote: "Right, will be offline-ish till Monday evening...enjoy your books guys and gals....its uncling timeAm taking the Thea Astley novel A Kindness Cup with me but am not sure i will get much time to ..."
As a book-clinger a period of enforced unclinging might do you good ;-)
Georg wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Right, will be offline-ish till Monday evening...enjoy your books guys and gals....its uncling timeAm taking the Thea Astley novel A Kindness Cup with me but am not sure i will get m..."
haha yes, it used to happen a lot before covid as i dont tend to read much on local family trips or travel(which might suprise people)
Georg wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Right, will be offline-ish till Monday evening...enjoy your books guys and gals....its uncling timeAm taking the Thea Astley novel A Kindness Cup with me but am not sure i will get m..."
lost in translation though....Uncling meant "being on uncle duty" but as its a nonsense word, i like what you made of it Georg!
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Books mentioned in this topic
Night Boat to Tangier (other topics)The Long Arm of the Law: Classic Police Stories (other topics)
Drowned Lives (other topics)
The Invention of Morel (other topics)
The Artificial Silk Girl (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Carlos María Domínguez (other topics)Carlos María Domínguez (other topics)
Janwillem van de Wetering (other topics)
Angela Carter (other topics)
Lion Feuchtwanger (other topics)
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That's really below the ribbon MsC.
Anyway, funnily enough, even if I like that opening sentence of Persuasion, I didn't particularly enjoy the first few chapters (see previous comment on why here). So here is another point of contention between us about Persuasion: for me it gets better and better as it develops!