Books and Books and Books!
Aug. 21st, 2003 11:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceebeegeeI ordered a bunch of books from Amazon last week. Drool...they're all starting to come in. Yesterday I got The Phantom Cyclist, a neat book I read as a kid. It's seven short stories involving (English) children and ghosts. One great story is called "Cherry Ripe"--it involves a young boy recovering from an illness who stays with a relative in the country, in a house that holds a portrait of a pretty young girl dressed in old-fashioned clothes, whom he later meets in the garden outside the house. She remembers being ill "but I can't remember what happened next...I must have gotten better without knowing it." Weird things happen around her--one day she takes off her sash and can't untie it, and when the boy looks at the portrait next, the sash is gone. He mentions the portrait and says the picture "'is old, I'm sure. It must have been painted before I was born.' Caroline's face clouded...'It couldn't be,' she said. It was only last summer. It was before I had the smallpox.'" And his kitten is terrified of her.
I love how understated the writing style is. I love trying to figure out the context--Caroline must've died from the smallpox. They throw out tiny details but it's all so haunting because they don't tell you everything. And I love the idea that all times are one, that we may be constantly interacting with people from the past without realizing it, because the ghosts in the book seem relatively normal, with few details to give them away at first. I read another book once called "A Traveler in Time"--just fantastic, about a girl who's in a very old house, where it's very easy to drift back in time. She becomes involved in current events with supporters of Mary, Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth but it all seems so...inevitable and natural. She doesn't really question what's happening, she just sort of drifts along, half observer, half participant. I love that nonlinear theory of time.
I also ordered The Bad Seed. For those who've only seen the movie with Patty McCormack--read the book. The ending of the movie is changed, and a poorly supported attempt to enforce a moral order. I'll just say that Rhoda does not get struck by the Gods on high in the book--talk about a deus ex machina! And again with the context--I love reading about Christine's growing awareness of her heritage--that her mother was the Incomparable Bessie Denker, who murdered her entire family (save Christine) for profit. There's an amazing passage in the book about a dream Christine has:
There was a woman with a hatchet in her hand...she went toward the barn, holding the hatchet behind her for concealment, and called out in a sweet, patient voice, "Christine! Where are you, Christine?"...But Christine, hidden in the tall grass, would not answer; and when she looked up again, the barn was full of windows, and each window framed the face of one of her mother's victims. There was one window vacant, and she heard her mother saying, "Christine, take your place with the others!" Then the others at the windows chanted in chorus, "You'll never find Christine. Her present identity is well concealed."
That's just...brilliant. That is one of the most powerful mental images ever. I have never gotten that image out of my head, and it's also so cinematic. I'm seeing a dark Midwestern sky, as before a tornado, and a small figure crouching in the grass, as a lumbering monster searches for its prey. And the faces in the windows. Brilliant.
I love how understated the writing style is. I love trying to figure out the context--Caroline must've died from the smallpox. They throw out tiny details but it's all so haunting because they don't tell you everything. And I love the idea that all times are one, that we may be constantly interacting with people from the past without realizing it, because the ghosts in the book seem relatively normal, with few details to give them away at first. I read another book once called "A Traveler in Time"--just fantastic, about a girl who's in a very old house, where it's very easy to drift back in time. She becomes involved in current events with supporters of Mary, Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth but it all seems so...inevitable and natural. She doesn't really question what's happening, she just sort of drifts along, half observer, half participant. I love that nonlinear theory of time.
I also ordered The Bad Seed. For those who've only seen the movie with Patty McCormack--read the book. The ending of the movie is changed, and a poorly supported attempt to enforce a moral order. I'll just say that Rhoda does not get struck by the Gods on high in the book--talk about a deus ex machina! And again with the context--I love reading about Christine's growing awareness of her heritage--that her mother was the Incomparable Bessie Denker, who murdered her entire family (save Christine) for profit. There's an amazing passage in the book about a dream Christine has:
There was a woman with a hatchet in her hand...she went toward the barn, holding the hatchet behind her for concealment, and called out in a sweet, patient voice, "Christine! Where are you, Christine?"...But Christine, hidden in the tall grass, would not answer; and when she looked up again, the barn was full of windows, and each window framed the face of one of her mother's victims. There was one window vacant, and she heard her mother saying, "Christine, take your place with the others!" Then the others at the windows chanted in chorus, "You'll never find Christine. Her present identity is well concealed."
That's just...brilliant. That is one of the most powerful mental images ever. I have never gotten that image out of my head, and it's also so cinematic. I'm seeing a dark Midwestern sky, as before a tornado, and a small figure crouching in the grass, as a lumbering monster searches for its prey. And the faces in the windows. Brilliant.
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Date: 2003-08-21 02:09 pm (UTC)The girl, Rhoda, is also older in the movie--she's 11 or 12, whereas she's 8 in the book. I suppose it would be difficult to get a child who could pull off such a difficult role if they were that young, hence the change for the movie. I do know that Patty McCormack played the role on Broadway and then did the movie. Also Rhoda is a brunette in the book.