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Rabbit Trail Reviews
Mar. 21st, 2012 04:37 pmRecently, I read The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright, an utterly charming book about four siblings who pool their allowances to allow each of them a Saturday adventure. As a modern reader, I doubt the feasibility of their activities -- but they did things I've done or always wanted to do... and that made it even better, somehow. I actually started reading about the Melendys with The Four Story Mistake, which reminded me a lot of Noel Streatfeild's Ballet Shoes (--I think. One of her books anyway.) I'm going to have to look up the other two soon. I'm just a little surprised that it's taken me this long to find Enright... she reminds me so much of the books and authors I've loved before: Noel Streatfield, Kate Seredy, Mabel Leigh Hunt (specifically Ladycake Farm which is comfort reading at its absolute best) and the Boxcar Children.
I also read The Blue Thread by Ruth Tenzer Feldman, which has the intriguing premise of a young Oregon woman in 1912, the women's suffrage movement, and Biblical time-travel. It's nicely written and plotted, as far as I can tell it's well-researched, but as a Christian I kind of think it lacking in that area. I don't expect it to be in-your-face, but I thought there was a general lack of... awe? After all, the heroine met Moses when the Israelites were on the brink of the Promised Land. That scene was good. I just expected it to have a little more affect on her life back home.
On the non-fiction front, I'm currently working through The Company They Keep by Diana Pavlac Glyer. This is a nice thick book about the Inklings and their influence on each other. It's very good, full of quotes and interesting thoughts on writing. I would highly recommend it. The author has a very readable style and the footnotes are all interesting side excursions.
I also had the opportunity to view the 1935 movie version of Les Miserables. It more or less followed the book... you could at least rationalize stuff that ended up being cut or changed... but the ending didn't quite work. Valjean had had his chance to say goodbye to his family, and then Javert let him go and there was nothing left to resolve. The End. Uh... except for the whole speech that may or may not have happened after Javert's death: "Sorry, Cosette, I guess I was wrong about needing to go toprison England but that's okay! You marry Marius and I'll... do something."
I quite liked the casting of Javert. For some reason, I have a mental image of Javert cast as a tall, saturnine fellow, (okay, the very first incarnation of Javert I ever saw was tall and quite handsome, and Terrence Mann hasn't helped there either...) and Charles Laughton was short, slightly chubby, and you felt that duty and following the letter of the law really was everything he had. I also have absolutely no quibbles with the casting of Fredric March as the extremely good looking Jean Valjean/Monsieur Madeline. *swoon* The bishop was a splendid sort of fellow too, and while the acting might have seemed a little stagey and stilted, I am not complaining. That the moment where I shipped Valjean and Eponine? I'm sure it was unintentional on the filmmakers part... but on the other hand, I can't quite unsee it. It'd be a Colonel Brandon/Marianne sort of pairing, agewise, and that's by saying that Valjean was only fifteen or so when he was shipped off to the galleys. And if they'd let her live, that could have cleared up the awkwardness at the end. Yeah. I'll keep telling myself that.
I also read The Blue Thread by Ruth Tenzer Feldman, which has the intriguing premise of a young Oregon woman in 1912, the women's suffrage movement, and Biblical time-travel. It's nicely written and plotted, as far as I can tell it's well-researched, but as a Christian I kind of think it lacking in that area. I don't expect it to be in-your-face, but I thought there was a general lack of... awe? After all, the heroine met Moses when the Israelites were on the brink of the Promised Land. That scene was good. I just expected it to have a little more affect on her life back home.
On the non-fiction front, I'm currently working through The Company They Keep by Diana Pavlac Glyer. This is a nice thick book about the Inklings and their influence on each other. It's very good, full of quotes and interesting thoughts on writing. I would highly recommend it. The author has a very readable style and the footnotes are all interesting side excursions.
I also had the opportunity to view the 1935 movie version of Les Miserables. It more or less followed the book... you could at least rationalize stuff that ended up being cut or changed... but the ending didn't quite work. Valjean had had his chance to say goodbye to his family, and then Javert let him go and there was nothing left to resolve. The End. Uh... except for the whole speech that may or may not have happened after Javert's death: "Sorry, Cosette, I guess I was wrong about needing to go to
I quite liked the casting of Javert. For some reason, I have a mental image of Javert cast as a tall, saturnine fellow, (okay, the very first incarnation of Javert I ever saw was tall and quite handsome, and Terrence Mann hasn't helped there either...) and Charles Laughton was short, slightly chubby, and you felt that duty and following the letter of the law really was everything he had. I also have absolutely no quibbles with the casting of Fredric March as the extremely good looking Jean Valjean/Monsieur Madeline. *swoon* The bishop was a splendid sort of fellow too, and while the acting might have seemed a little stagey and stilted, I am not complaining. That the moment where I shipped Valjean and Eponine? I'm sure it was unintentional on the filmmakers part... but on the other hand, I can't quite unsee it. It'd be a Colonel Brandon/Marianne sort of pairing, agewise, and that's by saying that Valjean was only fifteen or so when he was shipped off to the galleys. And if they'd let her live, that could have cleared up the awkwardness at the end. Yeah. I'll keep telling myself that.
