I Wish I Could Write Like Tolstoy

Tolstoy

Stories are really only a string of words, most of which we all know, that are put together to describe and explain.  But, it is the way that you string them together that makes the difference between an okay writer and an incredible one.

W. Somerset Maugham has always rated very highly with me for the way that he is so comfortable to settle down with.  He draws you into the story, like you are a familiar friend; and he makes it look so easy.  Yet another writer strings his words together and it’s just a bunch of characters and a setting which feels like ‘just a story’.  There’s nothing familiar about it or believable.  You are not ‘drawn in’.

Now, after reading many chapters of Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, he’s rating way up there with Maugham in the way that he is making me feel.  The settings and dialogue are so natural, it all flows magnificently.  He isn’t overly descriptive yet I can picture the scenes and the characters effortlessly.  So much so that I’m going to ditch the audio version (which by the way is excellent) because I want to curl up with the ‘real deal’ and immerse myself within actual pages.  That is the joy of reading, and I haven’t felt like this for some time.

I used to love curling up with Stephen King many moons ago, okay so it’s horror which is not believable in the least, but it was King’s characterisations that I used to love so much.  However, I have been reading his ‘kindle single’ Mile 81 and I’m getting the feeling that he’s committed a ‘Meat Loaf at the AFL’ offence by not calling it quits.  It’s quite badly written, and appears to be a re-hash of old themes, though I haven’t finished it yet so I could be wrong (but I don’t think I am).  I’ve pre-committed to his new novel 11.22.63 (a date which is horribly close to my ex-husband’s birthday of 11.22.61!) on Amazon but feel it’s just going to be an addition to my King collection rather than a ‘must read’ once I get it.

On my other reading front I’ve nearly finished the audio version of Mill on the Floss, narrated by Nadia May, and I have really enjoyed spending time with Maggie Tulliver, although it hasn’t been an uplifting novel.  But, it’s another classic to put under my belt as I slowly plough through them.

Scare me Please!

I’m still looking for that ultimate horror.  I have been asking for recommendations but nothing seems to be forthcoming from you guys out there.  Please let me know what book or even short story has frightened you by way of a comment.  I’ve just ordered some Robert Aickman collections – one of them is Cold Hand in Mine which I’m really looking forward to reading and I’ve just enjoyed Pollock and the Porroh Man by H G Wells which was a nice and creepy short story and would have really scared readers back in Victorian England I’m sure.

So, I’m about to curl up with Tolstoy now, with my nightly latte, and marvel at how he can string together these words so wonderfully, and I can’t!

Happy reading and don’t forget those recommendations.

Maxine

The Novel vs The Movie

Ater recently reading Ben-Hur for the ‘Book That Inspired the Oscar Winning Movie” theme for my book club, and finding time to sit down and watch the first half of the ‘oscar winning’ movie, I’m feeling rather annoyed.  Apart from the usual changes in characters, and general mucking around with the storyline and plot, I find it hard to believe that a studio would cast the gorgeous Ben-Hur of the novel with an actor who had a receding hairline and a forced smile.  I know I’m 52 years too late to protest this obvious miscasting but there it is.  Weren’t there any good looking Hollywood actors available in 1959 or maybe Charlton Heston is just not my ‘type’?

So, I’ve been thinking about other movie faux pas when it comes to casting against the novels character type.  Gwyneth Paltrow playing Marge Sherwood in The Talented Mr Ripley is one that springs to mind.  Marge, in the novel by Patricia Highsmith, is a robust girl with a healthy appetite who is not altogether very attractive.  It is for this reason that Tom Ripley dislikes her, she actually disgusts him.  He is repelled by the fact that Dicky is attracted to her.  This is important.  Now, who can be repelled by Gwyneth Paltrow?  I ask you……!

One of the very worst casting faux pas was Mickey Rooney as Mr Yunioshi in that truly awful adaptation of Capote’s not (in my opinion) particularly good novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s.  It must be the most embarrassing movie role to watch and I can’t even comment on it without cringing.

Another blunder movie makers make is cutting out a character altogether.  Who makes this decision?  Have they ever read the book?  East of Eden is a beloved novel of mine, and for me the main character was the Chinese servant Lee.  He was an integral part of the story, but was nowhere to be seen in the movie.  Instead we had to put up with a mediocre screen-play and James Dean hanging off window sills and tree branches.  What the?

And, while we’re at it why mess with the storyline?  If it was such a great novel that it just had to be made into a movie then why change it?  In some cases the novel should stay a novel, no movie required.  Case in point is Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha. It did not translate into a movie very well at all.  Where were the images of the beautiful kimono designs that were described so beautifully and lovingly in the novel?  And more to the point why the hell does Nobu have both arms?  He only has one in the novel, and for this reason his back story and looks are important to his character and those who know him. 

But, I have to concede that some movies just can’t go wrong with the novel’s material and, for me these would be To Kill a Mockingbird,  Lord of the Rings (even though characters were cut and blended, and lines meddled with, it is a very exciting adaptation of Frodo’s quest).  Lastly, I can’t go past the Australian mini-series production of Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet.  I never would have thought that the ambience and characters of this novel could be captured so perfectly on screen.

I guess, in the end if you really love a novel then avoid the movie as nine times out of ten you will be very disappointed.

Well, that’s my gripe for the day J

Happy reading!

Maxine

An Exuberant Misunderstood Child

Aaahhhh, poor Maggie, what an exuberant misunderstood child.  Cutting your hair off after a teasing is one thing, but forgetting to feed your brother’s rabbits whilst he is away at school is something else.

I’ve only just starting reading The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot, but the brother and sister ‘run-ins’ with Maggie and Tom Tulliver have had me laughing and remembering some of the things I used to get up to with my siblings.  Thankfully none of them resulted in the death of a pet, unlike poor Tom’s rabbits.

The worse thing my sister and I did, when we were around 7 and 9 respectively, was plot to kidnap her love interest Peter who lived just down the street.  We decided to write the ransom note and deliver it to his poor unsuspecting mother before the kidnap attempt.  We demanded one pound for his return.  Unfortunately having only scrambled our names at the bottom of the letter it wasn’t long before Peter’s mum had us discovered and after a few words with our mum the kidnap plot was thwarted amongst many tears. 

Getting back to Maggie, she doesn’t mean to behave ill, but she does have a tendency towards dramatics and acts impulsively without thinking; when the deed is done she tortures herself knowing that she can’t take it back and should have behaved differently.  Maggie’s latest escapade involves making her cousin cry to get back at Tom who has been showing the cousin favouritism.  She pushes the child into the mud as they make their way to a pond (which incidentally was out of bounds to the naughty children).  When Maggie realises what she has done, and the possible consequences of her action, she decides that life probably won’t be worth living and it would be better to run away and join the Gypsies!  She does in fact make it as far as the Gypsy tent, feeling very sure she would be welcomed with open arms and made the Gypsy Queen.  After some uncomfortable moments when her pockets are picked and the contents examined, along with the dismal offering of some cold bacon and hard bread for tea, she decides that perhaps Gypsies are thieves and scoundrels as Tom had once told her. Finally Maggie is convinced that they are actually murderers and that she will never see her home again………. this child has the overwrought and vivid imagination that I had as a youngster, and I can totally identify with her!

I'll post more about this novel once I've read some more. So, happy reading all!

Maxine

A Reading Restrospective

Whilst browsing at the library this week I came across a copy of John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids and remembered that I really enjoyed it as a teenager.  Actually, it did have a bit of an effect on me due to its content.  You see, I didn’t (and still don’t) have flat toenails!  Did that make me a mutant in the eyes of the characters in The Chrysalids?  Apparently so, and it certainly made me feel like one for a very long time J  I was young and impressionable, but now I don’t obsess over it so much, plus I keep my toenails nice and short so it’s no longer an issue!  However, picking this novel up to read again got me thinking about what my favourite novels had been as a youngster.

Absolutely top of the list, though it is not a novel, has to be Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses illustrated by Hilda Boswell.  I adored this book.  The poems could be read over and over, and still I discovered more meaning within them.  My younger self often wondered ‘why did Auntie's skirts rustle so?’ and ‘what was a counterpane?’  I often thought about that boy and his shadow and also the bucket full of stars.  The poem that I loved the most was The Land of Nod, not so much for the poem itself but for the illustrations that somehow thrilled me but frightened me with equal measure.

Second on the list would have to be Five Go to Smuggler’s Top by Enid Blyton.  I took this book on holiday to Scotland with me and have a distinct memory of sitting on a large rock near a Loch in a pair of shorts and a jumper (I was obviously prepared for all weather events) lost in reading about the Famous Five.  I had a secret crush on Julian and I read this book over and over again during the course of our holiday.

Another novel I borrowed from the library many times was Down Bound Train by Bill Garnet (though now I’m older I think it was more of a novella), and it was probably my first foray into horror, albeit of the ‘pulp’ kind.  I loved how the characters caught this train only to find each one had a nasty secret and at the end of the journey they find their final stop is actually in Hell.  All, that is, except for one innocent passenger who sleeps through the entire journey.  It was real Twilight Zone stuff.  I think I read the 1973 edition, which had a green and black cover from memory.  I haven’t been able to find a copy with this cover but would love to read it again just for fun.

As a youngster I must have read all the Famous Five and Secret Seven novels, I enjoyed Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys and even Hitchcock’s The Three Detectives, but the three books above have always remained fondly in my memory and were my absolute favourites.  So, what were yours?  

A Story of Biblical Proportions

I've just enjoyed an audio reading of Ben-Hur, it is an epic tale of betrayal and revenge set during the time of the Christ.  Judah Ben-Hur is a Jewish prince who is betrayed by his childhood Roman friend Messala, and sentenced to life as a galley slave - which wouldn't be long, as most galley slaves lived only a few years -  Ben-Hur's mother and sister disappear, and the family property is confiscated.  

Through a series of circumstances, Ben-Hur escapes from the ship he is sentenced to and is adopted by a Roman friend of his late father.  Life could be good, but Ben-Hur is tortured by the incident which changed his life and the cruel betrayal by his friend. Messala really is the pits, as a child he was taken into the family home, yet now he sets out to remove all trace of the Ben-Hur family.  Judah's mother and sister are entombed in a leprosy infected cell for eight years, and upon their release they are stoned and sent outside the town's gates. Their tale is so so sad.

Lew Wallace
Author of Ben-Hur

Ben-Hur is full of ideas of revenge, and the opportunity presents itself in the form of a chariot race.   Actually, I was rather disappointed with the race scene itself, especially after the long description of the stadium.  I think that I would like to see this scene re-written by Matt Reilly.  He could certainly inject some real excitement into it!

The novel itself is over descriptive, but when you consider when it was written, it was really important to set the scene and describe it as fully as possible as most people would not have travelled to, or even seen pictures of, exotic locations or animals.

Ben-Hur's story runs parallel with the rise of the Christ, and whilst this side of the story could have been tedious it wasn't.  I certainly found myself drawn into the buzzing excitement in their search for the Messiah. Some of these old classics can be tough (ie Melmoth The  Wanderer) but mostly they are great reads, and this is one of them. So, this was my read for this month's book club theme "The Book that inspired The Oscar Winning Movie".  I must have seen Ben-Hur years ago but barely remember it, just mainly the chariot race of course, so looking forward to finding three and half hours to sit down and watch it again when I get it out of the library :)

Next months read is a food based novel, so I've started The Belly of Paris by Emile Zola. The first thirty or so pages are a description of the delivery of food to the Halles Markets.  It's wonderfully written, and he layers the description of the food as a palette of oils slowly being applied to a canvas.  Fantastic.  I'm not sure what the actual story will be about but I do like the way he writes.  (I read Therese Racquin last year and thought it very good).  I've a few other novels lined up which I'm excited about, plus I need to do a Russian novel for November - probably a Dostoyevsky as I know him the best.

Happy reading all!

Maxine

This is How

This is just a quick post about my new read This is How by M J Hyland.  After really enjoying Carry Me Down, which I read a few months back, I thought I would try another of her books.  Carry Me Down was narrated by the protagonist and slowly unraveled to reveal his personality and emotional problems.  This is How is written in pretty much the same vein.  Patrick Oxtoby has moved into a boarding house by the sea after his engagement is broken off by his fiance.  We don't know why she broke off the engagement but I expect that this will be revealed later in the plot.  The clever use of the dialogue and Patrick's reactions to certain situations leads you to realise that despite his obvious intelligence he is a very disturbed young man.

The whole time I have felt anxiety as to where the story is going.  I'm now six discs into it (another audio!) and things have taken a turn for the worse.  Patrick has done something very stupid, but he doesn't feel remorse or even sorry for what he has done. He does feel confusion though, he just can't understand the consequence of his recent action.

The other characters in the novel are a bit odd too, the boarding house scenes are very cloying and uncomfortable.  It's well written and I'm really interested in where this is going to end up but, unlike John Egan in Carry Me Down, I don't like Patrick. He's cold and dark with a lot of rage bubbling under the surface.

"Of All My Books I Like This The Best"

So wrote Charles Dickens of David Copperfield.

Actually, after finishing this novel, I’m close to thinking that instead of ploughing through 1001 Books You Must Read Before you Die perhaps I should just read everything Charles Dickens has ever written, because he is well and truly a master story teller and so far (apart from Bleak House) I have thoroughly enjoyed what I have read.

When I started David Copperfield I was worried that I would be reading a story about a little destitute boy who battles through trials and tribulations to become a gentleman, and I was very anxious as to what those trials would be because he is such a nice little boy.  Well, it wasn’t like that.  Sure he has a rough ‘trot’ (pardon the pun, you won’t appreciate that one if you’ve not read David Copperfield!) but that does not constitute the whole book and that is what makes it so enjoyable.  When David goes to a questionable school I was imagining all types of beatings and bullying but in fact he meets a school master who does his best under very trying conditions, and he makes friends with two boys (Traddles and Steerforth) who will play very different roles in his life when he is older. 

Mr Murdstone (David’s step-father) and Miss Murdstone the 'steely' sister are very dark moody characters that cast such a gloom over the once happy family that just about breaks your heart.  You can really feel David’s nerves when he tries to do his lessons under the dark glare of his step-father and it’s no wonder he stumbles and forgets.  David’s mother is not allowed to show him any affection and after an altercation with Mr Murdstone he is sent away to school; then, when she dies, he is pulled out of school and sent to work, he was only a small child!

One thing I could not understand as David got older was what this intelligent young man saw in Dora Spendlow, the daughter of his employer, until I read somewhere that she was based on Dickens’ own mother.  He calls her his ‘child-wife’ and that really is what she is.  She’s very pretty but has no concept of house-keeping or doing figures and just likes to play with her dog Jip and can’t bear to be grumbled at or found fault with.  Once David accepts her for what she is and stops trying to change her he finds himself more settled in his marriage although the marriage is short lived.  David’s excuse for his choice in a wife is his 'young undisciplined heart', even Dora towards the end of her illness agreed that they should have enjoyed their love just as a boy and a girl and then just left it there.

Apart from David’s eccentric but loving Aunt Betsey Trotwood (who reminded me of Madame Yepanchin in Dostoevsky’s The Idiot), the other strong female in the book is Agnes, she’s very placid and wise, but even she has difficulty dealing with the devious villian of the novel Uriah Heep who slithers his way into the family business and eventually the family home.  Dickens describes him as a thin pale man, with ginger hair and no eyebrows to speak of who is snake-like in his movements and demeanour.  I expected him to have a negative influence over David’s life; however this is not the case.  He casts his poison over Agnes and her father instead and his true nature is exposed by Mr Micawber, whom Heep employs, believing him to be as corrupt as himself.

Now Mr Micawber is a strange character, and I was married to someone like him once.  He never pays his debts and is always waiting for an opportunity to ‘turn up’.  I didn’t like this character particularly (not because it brought back bad memories!) but because of his long convoluted speeches and letters - they annoyed me immensely.  However, he does seem to be a popular Dickens character giving rise to some well known quotations, and after all he is the one who exposes the devious Heep for what he really is, because despite the trail of debt Micawber is actually an honest man.

The strange thing about the novel is that David is barely ever called by his correct name, being called by many nicknames (Daisy), pet names (Doady) and also taking on his Aunts surname of Trotwood, it is like by writing his 'autobiography' David is setting the record straight that this boy, young man and eventually father, was actually called David Copperfield.

David Copperfield is quite an easy read in comparison to Bleak House, being a linear narrative, and there is a lot that you can identify with as we all grow up and fall in love.  If you have never read Dickens don’t let the size of the novels or the convoluted language put you off.  He doesn’t take long to draw you in, and takes you on a wonderful journey with his characters that leaves you sad to say goodbye once you have finished.