I am listening to The Hunchback of Notre Dame, not particularly closely. The first third--the download came in three sections--was mostly background noise. I listened to the second third this weekend but felt bad that Dandelion got all dirty in the garden with me. I might have set up external speakers on the porch but audio books really don't work well at such a cranked-up volume. It's in some primitive format, but it's narrated by George Guidall, which is all I needed to know.
When the librarian introduced "Stage Coach" at the 'brary earlier this month, she mentioned "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" as one the superb movies released that year. A child in the audience asked if the library were going to show that as well. "No," said the librarian, not adding, "and this version that I mentioned is not the Disney abortion you probably mean." I felt bad for the kid: I really don't think "Stagecoach" can be very fun for a seven-year-old. There's really not much adventure in it, just anxiety about the adventure.
I don't remember the movie of "Hunchback" much at all, just the basics--Charles Laughton begging for water and the creepy priest. I had forgotten the goat. As soon as someone mentioned trial for witchcraft, I twitched. There's going to be Goat Mortality, I just know it.
I am reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry to RDC. I haven't read him a book since Christmas, with Bridge to Terabithia. As expected, the grounding in time and place that you get reading the book to yourself falters when my Yankee voice doesn't easily drop g's in dialogue, and the flavor of everyone's speech is diminished as I fumble to say "they" instead of "their."
But it's a great story. It was my first, and for years my only, exposure to what life was like for people for an entire century between the Civil War and Civil Rights. I really like May the Circle Be Unbroken as well, though it's a much less compelling story. I think Taylor tried to include too much and didn't integrate the pieces well. Of course it's hard to avoid seeing Wade Jamison as Atticus Finch during T.J.'s trial. But Stacey's job and Moe's cotton and Miss Annie Lee's voting and Cousin David's daughter and marbles-as-gambling too--those are a lot of themes to juggle, and they're not integrated very well.
Then there's The Land, which I was glad to read for more background on the Logan family but which just did not work as a story. I don't even remember The Road to Memphis. But I do love love love Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
What is the world coming to? Neve Campbell cast as Salamanca Hiddle with Sarah Michelle Gellar as Phoebe in a cinematization of Walk Two Moons? A reportedly not fat kid as Stanley Yelnats and a reportedly not African-American kid as Zero in the cinematization of Holes? Avoiding the cinematization of Ring of Endless Light was easy, and Sigourney Weaver as the warden is pretty brilliant casting. So I might not die. Unless I have to see the movie of I Capture the Castle. I would just fall over and expire.
RDC is going to the east coast soon, to work in Boston for a week and then go to Connecticut. He'll see his best friend and his baby one day and spend another with his aunt and uncle and see his grandfather. He has just persuaded his aunt and uncle to go to New York to see the Matisse-Picasso exhibit at the MOMA. I am envious but not jealous, which is fine. He was debating the ethics of cajoling his aunt and uncle into doing this. They're not afraid of the city, as my relatives are; they saw the huge van Gogh exhibit at the Met; they brought him to the Tutankhamen exhibit when he was a child.
Really, that was the deciding factor for me. He asked me if I would be jealous, and I said no, I would be happy for him. I will always regret that I didn't see Tut; unless I ever go to Cairo, I never will. He must go.
His aunt said they could train back afterward and eat in Connecticut. That cracked me up, because that's what she wanted to do when we went east in November as well: to join us in the city on Wednesday during daylight and then train home in time to eat dinner. In Connecticut. Leaving New York City. To eat in Connecticut.