'Black Box' by Jennifer Egan
26 October 2012
One of my favourite recent novels was 'A Visit from the Goon
Squad' by Jennifer Egan (reviewed here in July 2011). I've just read Jennifer
Egan’s latest book ‘Black Box’ which takes one of the characters from ‘A Visit
from the Good Squad’ into a story of her own. But ‘Black Box’ is a very
different kind of book. It is extremely short (really a short story rather than
a novel), it is written entirely in the second person and it was originally
written (and published) entirely on Twitter. The story therefore consists of a
series of short sentences, each no more than 140 characters. At first this
feels very odd and disjointed but soon you get used to the rhythm and poetry of
this structure and you focus on the story itself. It’s a peculiarly interesting
and enjoyable experiment.
Labels: Books
'The Woman in White' by Wilkie Collins
26 October 2012
I really enjoyed 'The Moonstone' by Wilkie Collins (reviewed
here in June 2009) so I thought I would explore some of his other novels. I've just finished ‘The Woman in White’ – an intriguing Victorian mystery thriller.
Through a series of first person narratives from different perspectives a pseudo-legal
case is built to prove how the young heroine has been wronged by her husband
and to unearth the murky secrets of his past. It’s a cleverly constructed book with
an unpredictable and gripping plot that I enjoyed being wrong-footed by several
times. Collins is also very funny, drawing comic portraits of characters from
one person’s perspective that are confirmed through their own words when the
relevant character becomes the story’s narrator (something he also did in ‘The
Moonstone’). I'm looking forward to reading more by him.
Labels: Books
The Western Mediterranean
26 October 2012
We had a wonderful two weeks on board the P&O cruise
liner, Ventura, in the Western Mediterranean. This was an even bigger ship than
the Oriana which we went to Norway on earlier this year but the food, service
and entertainment were of the same excellent standard. We ate far too much but
worked some of it off through an intensive programme of ballroom dancing on
board and walking on our days on land. We visited seven places: Barcelona,
Monte Carlo, Elba, Rome, Naples, Alicante and Gibraltar. In the limited time
available we only scratched the surface of the big cities but we enjoyed our
whistle-stop tours. We did a lovely 9-mile hike on the isle of Elba, over a
wooded hill to a secluded bay and back round the coast. Another highlight was
our first visit to Pompeii which was as fascinating as I was expecting but a much
bigger site than I had realised. We took the cable car to the top of the rock in
Gibraltar and encountered the famous Barbary apes. It was a great holiday.
Labels: Holidays
'Rope' by Patrick Hamilton
4 October 2012
We are back at the tiny TADS Theatre in Toddington on
Saturday to see Patrick Hamilton’s 1929 play ‘Rope’ – famously filmed by Alfred
Hitchcock. This was another great TADS production, directed by Lea Pryer. The
balance between tension and comic relief was expertly managed as the murderers Brandon
and Granillo serve dinner to their guests on top of the trunk which only they
know contains the body of their victim. James Sygrove gave a fantastically physical
performance as Granillo – his guilty looks, nervous twitches and descent into
hysterical terror about what he has done all accomplished with great subtlety.
Cameron Hay handled Brandon’s brash confidence well and Stephen Pryer’s
expressive face showed us every thought process as their friend Rupert Cadell begins
to suspect that all is not what it seems.
Labels: Drama, Theatre
