Tell me what you've read!
Daphne
du Maurier, RebeccaPart of my plunder from the Aspen library last weekend (20 September
1997), along with paper Carol Shields and Tom Robbins titles. I like it.
As far as gothic goes, "Reader, I married him" here surpasses
"I'm asking you to marry me, you little fool." But I like it.
I have already seen the movie, and while I didn't think of it at the time,
"The Celluloid Closet" makes a credible argument for Mrs. Danvers'
eros love for Rebecca. So I am looking for hints in the novel. I
like how the protagonist is not named. The only hint of her name du Maurier
gives is that Maxim de Winter was able to spell it correctly, right off,
which was rare. Besides Josephine Hart's Damage, there is another
novel, which I don't remember, whose protagonist is also unnamed, to good
effect. I wonder if anyone's written about this treatment.
Also, while the reader is calm and composed and possibly as removed as her
unnamed status allows her to be, she sounds more polished and sophisticated
than the novel's protagonist is portrayed as. Except that the novel is told
as a recollection from years hence, which maybe explains why she sounds
older than she is written.
Final opinion (971010): Hitchcock was a better director than DuMaurier was
a writer. But I wonder if the screenplay was changed because no one wanted
Laurence Olivier to have done all that Maxim de Winter did, as happened
with Cary Grant in "Suspicion."
And check out the name of the reader: is that appropriate?
Recorded Books Incorporated, read by Alexandra O'Karma
971010
Carol
Shields, The Stone DiariesI made a list of Pulitzer winners and resolved to read them all, just
as I read all the Newbery winners. And the most recent was The Stone
Diaries. I decided to look for a book because my commute home from class
involves a more crowded and jouncier route than my regular to-and-from work
route (so I can't read paper). And there this was, waiting for me in the
Koelbel library when I introduced HAO
to that esteemed bibliothèque. It was a good novel to listen
to, and I liked the use of lists and letters to give insight and perspective.
I don't understand how and why Daisy occasionally used the first person;
I think that might be an area of criticism that I missed by listening to
it instead of reading it. Also I would like to read how and why it was chosen
as a Pulitzer. 22 September 1997
Recorded Books Incorporated, read by Alyssa Bresnahan
Fyodor
Dostoevsky, Crime and PunishmentI am going to pick this up again when I resume taking the bus, sometime
in the fall. For now, riding my bike to work, I have taken a hiatus from
recorded books. I still should find poetry or short stories to listen to
poolside though.
Recorded Books Incorporated, read by George Guidall
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