Tag: novel

The 39 Steps

This novel is different to the film adaptations I had seen of this novel. I rather liked the tone and pacing of it. It’s a thriller written at the time of World War I and while there are some contrivances, it’s a bit like watching a good action film, you don’t really care because you become invested in the protagonist’s adventure. There are no female characters in this book other than “extras” which is fine by me, but surprised me after I saw the movies. I read that this book was popular in the trenches of the war when it was published in 1915, and I can see why. This style of thriller writing, spies, and men who are innocent but capable, was new at the time. I quite enjoyed myself, partly because the writing made me feel I was in 1914. Richard Hannay is also a  rootable character even though he’s not exactly an everyman. I am tempted to read the rest of the Hannay books.

The 39 Steps

For a short time, I actually thought I read this book around the time I watched the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock adaptation when I was a teenager. It’s a fairly short novel so I wondered why I hadn’t read it; I must have almost taken it out from the school library. The 1935 film is one of my favourite Hitchcock films and allowed me to discover Robert Donat, who is underrated as an Old Hollywood actor probably because of his early death in the 1950s. There was a 2008 BBC TV version starring Rupert Penry-Jones which I remember mostly for being different than the Hitchcock version and for the cheesy ending. Now I understand why it felt that way since there was no romantic subplot in the original book itself. There is a girl in the Hitchcock version, but it feels a bit more streamlined into the plot. The other thing I remember a lot from the 1935 version was that they made Hannay Canadian. At the time of the movie, John Buchan was Governor General of Canada so this could have been a shout-out? It amused me more that Donat was not Canadian; you don’t see a lot of Canadians featured in old Hollywood or British movies. I had a similar feeling watching Bogie as a Canadian in The African Queen. I digress, but I recommend the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock The 39 Steps especially if you like Hitchcock but haven’t seen his pre-140s work. The movie is similar to North by Northwest and made even more classic by its black and white cinematography.

Read January 30th, 2012.

What Alice Forgot

The premise of this book made me pick it up. I like the whole, “What if you wake up and you’re older than you were the day before?” premise. It would be fascinating to see how one and the life has changed. Sophie Kinsella did a similar one in Remember Me? but that one was more light hearted. This one was also chick lit but focussed more seriously on women in their middle age. There are three narratives in this novel with three different women. The main one is Alice’s third person omniscient limited perspective. Second is her sister’s first person writing to her therapist and followed by their grandmother’s letters to an old lover. While this allows for different perspective on the whole situation and you find out more about the characters, sometimes, it’s not obvious how the three narratives are connected until much later. I found it a bit too much especially since there is a lot of jumping back and forth about people’s memories at times. I also didn’t feel I got a good sense of all these women until the very end, but the drama and the mystery of their lives kept me reading. Alice grew on me and I liked the epilogue, but this book didn’t capture me for most of the book.

A visit from the goon squad

I learned about this book from the UK book show “The TV Book Club” I have read a couple of books from the show, and it’s probably one of the only places I seek to find new books from other than saying randomly at the library.

I have generally mixed feelings about this book. I completely forgot the premise and the structure from the segment on the show I watched back in July. In short the book is a series of short stories and while the characters are all connected in some way to two of the “main” characters, you don’t really see it until the latter half of the book. Also, the narrative structure differs from chapter to chapter: first person, second, third, editorial style, etc. There is one wonderful chapter done in a graphical slide show format which was the highlight of the book.

The characters are hard to grasp since some of them only show up for one chapter. It also felt experimental at times which can be good actually. I think it worked out for the most part. I don’t know if I would recommend this book to everyone because the uneven structure can be confusing at times especially if you read books in small sittings (which I didn’t so it was ok for me to keep track of mostly).

I was a bit surprised to hear that this book won the Pulitzer Prize. I have read a lot of Pulitzer prize winners over the years, but this may not be the most memorable. To the book’s merit, I think Egan does showcase how transient life is in these stories. By jumping around time, the reader sees how people change, but you won’t necessarily see how those changes happen. I guess this makes the book more realistic, but I can see how some people who like more linear and regular narration wouldn’t enjoy that. I will say, I liked a couple chapters more than others.

If you are interested, you can watch the Youtube video of the book on “The TV Book Club” here:

Read on January 16th, 2012.