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evelyn_bCross-posted from Livejournal
What I've Finished Reading
If I say that Murder on the Orient Express doesn't hold up as well on re-reading as Roger Ackroyd or Death on the Nile, I hope you all know I don't mean it as a criticism. Orient Express is an extremely efficient machine for producing a couple of very impressive experiences in the reader, and once that result has been achieved, you can only revisit the process from outside it. I don't mean "now it's ruined," any more than fireworks are ruined when you light them; some things are single-use on purpose.
That doesn't mean it's dull reading it a second time. I don't think the characters are as sharp on re-read as those in Ackroyd or Death on the Nile, but it's not because they're badly drawn; it's because Orient Express is so efficient that every interaction is a piece of the puzzle. I was impressed again by how much atmosphere Christie manages to create with how little active description, and by the long-distance train as a vehicle for suspense: narrow, sealed, moving inexorably forward, and full of strangers. What could be better?
There's more to Orient Express than that, of course. But one of the difficulties of a mystery this perfect is that I don't know how to talk about what it's about without giving away the ending, which is genuinely spectacular and which it may only be possible to experience once. I'm not going to tempt any of you with a spoiler cut, or any hints, on the off chance you haven't read it. Just read it! I don't say this very often, because I don't really trust my own tastes, but Murder on the Orient Express is one book that everyone should read at least once, if they are interested in books at all. A familiar plot is peeled back slowly to reveal a sadder and stranger one; every new piece of evidence seems to make the case more hopeless, until the picture is complete.
I'll be going to see this movie, how about you? (One reasonable complaint I've heard so far: Poriot wouldn't indulge in the false modesty of calling himself "probably" the greatest detective in the world; there's no question about it and no other candidates to consider).
What I'm Reading Now
The Apple in the Dark (by Clarice Lispector) includes both murder and mystery but is not a murder mystery (even though it was shelved with the murder mysteries at the bookstore). Martim is an engineer who has either killed his wife or can't tell whether he killed his wife or not. In any case, he's escaping across the countryside at the beginning of the book. Isolation, heat, and thirst send him into the Lispector Zone, where every action and every inaction are equally painstakingly atomized and made strange.
Aunt Dimity's Death is a very light mystery with no murder in it, a cozy so cozy that its vestigial ties to murder have been severed completely and the traces almost disappeared. Lori Shepherd is a reasonably likable everywoman whose mother used to tell her funny bedtime stories about a character called Aunt Dimity. One day, after Lori's mother has died and Lori herself has suffered some disappointments, she gets a mysterious letter from a very oddly run law firm informing her that Dimity Westwood, a real person, has left Lori some things in her will, and also requests that she turn the Aunt Dimity stories into a book.
It's interesting. Everything about it is very artificial, like a sitcom, but it's comfortable enough in its artificiality that I don't mind at all. The rambling mansion/law office where Lori is given dinner and a change of clothes, for example, is not really "English" or "anachronistic" as Lori describes it, but frankly and openly fictional; it's like a twelve-year-old's daydream. There's even a live-in staff made of (allegedly happy) law-school interns, neatly solving any "servant problems" our daydreaming twelve-year-old might have read about in the works of Christie et al..
So Lori, luckily unemployed and unencumbered, is being sent on an all-expenses-paid trip to England to live in Dimity's cottage and edit the original manuscripts of the bedtime stories she grew up with, with the help of a couple of friendly lawyers she's just met. Well, why not? Except that Bill, the younger partner in the fictional law firm, has just offended Lori by giving her a closet full of new clothes without warning or prior consultation! Who does that? And now she's learned that Bill is being sent to England with her as her assistant, and she can't say no because it's one of the terms of the will! Oh, no! Now they'll be stuck together in another prize specimen of daydream architecture, in a daydream of England! What if he tries to give her more presents?
What I Plan to Read Next
I feel like my plan to read all of Christie in order is having some disappointing results, not for me, but from the standpoint of anyone reading. I'm having a good time, but it seems like all my reports are coming out the same: twenty-odd variations on "Hah, Christie, you fooled me again and I liked it!" Any suggestions? Things you'd like to see? Questions I should answer? The next book on my list is Parker Pyne Investigates, a short story collection I know nothing about.
What I've Finished Reading
If I say that Murder on the Orient Express doesn't hold up as well on re-reading as Roger Ackroyd or Death on the Nile, I hope you all know I don't mean it as a criticism. Orient Express is an extremely efficient machine for producing a couple of very impressive experiences in the reader, and once that result has been achieved, you can only revisit the process from outside it. I don't mean "now it's ruined," any more than fireworks are ruined when you light them; some things are single-use on purpose.
That doesn't mean it's dull reading it a second time. I don't think the characters are as sharp on re-read as those in Ackroyd or Death on the Nile, but it's not because they're badly drawn; it's because Orient Express is so efficient that every interaction is a piece of the puzzle. I was impressed again by how much atmosphere Christie manages to create with how little active description, and by the long-distance train as a vehicle for suspense: narrow, sealed, moving inexorably forward, and full of strangers. What could be better?
There's more to Orient Express than that, of course. But one of the difficulties of a mystery this perfect is that I don't know how to talk about what it's about without giving away the ending, which is genuinely spectacular and which it may only be possible to experience once. I'm not going to tempt any of you with a spoiler cut, or any hints, on the off chance you haven't read it. Just read it! I don't say this very often, because I don't really trust my own tastes, but Murder on the Orient Express is one book that everyone should read at least once, if they are interested in books at all. A familiar plot is peeled back slowly to reveal a sadder and stranger one; every new piece of evidence seems to make the case more hopeless, until the picture is complete.
I'll be going to see this movie, how about you? (One reasonable complaint I've heard so far: Poriot wouldn't indulge in the false modesty of calling himself "probably" the greatest detective in the world; there's no question about it and no other candidates to consider).
What I'm Reading Now
The Apple in the Dark (by Clarice Lispector) includes both murder and mystery but is not a murder mystery (even though it was shelved with the murder mysteries at the bookstore). Martim is an engineer who has either killed his wife or can't tell whether he killed his wife or not. In any case, he's escaping across the countryside at the beginning of the book. Isolation, heat, and thirst send him into the Lispector Zone, where every action and every inaction are equally painstakingly atomized and made strange.
Aunt Dimity's Death is a very light mystery with no murder in it, a cozy so cozy that its vestigial ties to murder have been severed completely and the traces almost disappeared. Lori Shepherd is a reasonably likable everywoman whose mother used to tell her funny bedtime stories about a character called Aunt Dimity. One day, after Lori's mother has died and Lori herself has suffered some disappointments, she gets a mysterious letter from a very oddly run law firm informing her that Dimity Westwood, a real person, has left Lori some things in her will, and also requests that she turn the Aunt Dimity stories into a book.
It's interesting. Everything about it is very artificial, like a sitcom, but it's comfortable enough in its artificiality that I don't mind at all. The rambling mansion/law office where Lori is given dinner and a change of clothes, for example, is not really "English" or "anachronistic" as Lori describes it, but frankly and openly fictional; it's like a twelve-year-old's daydream. There's even a live-in staff made of (allegedly happy) law-school interns, neatly solving any "servant problems" our daydreaming twelve-year-old might have read about in the works of Christie et al..
So Lori, luckily unemployed and unencumbered, is being sent on an all-expenses-paid trip to England to live in Dimity's cottage and edit the original manuscripts of the bedtime stories she grew up with, with the help of a couple of friendly lawyers she's just met. Well, why not? Except that Bill, the younger partner in the fictional law firm, has just offended Lori by giving her a closet full of new clothes without warning or prior consultation! Who does that? And now she's learned that Bill is being sent to England with her as her assistant, and she can't say no because it's one of the terms of the will! Oh, no! Now they'll be stuck together in another prize specimen of daydream architecture, in a daydream of England! What if he tries to give her more presents?
What I Plan to Read Next
I feel like my plan to read all of Christie in order is having some disappointing results, not for me, but from the standpoint of anyone reading. I'm having a good time, but it seems like all my reports are coming out the same: twenty-odd variations on "Hah, Christie, you fooled me again and I liked it!" Any suggestions? Things you'd like to see? Questions I should answer? The next book on my list is Parker Pyne Investigates, a short story collection I know nothing about.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-06 05:05 pm (UTC)0_o
I would have been nonplussed at Branagh!Poirot but I was relieved because the name of the trailer threatened Johnny Depp!Poirot and that was a step too far (you should probably put warnings for that kind of thing). That is kind of a hilarious trailer, though, probably made by the sort of person who thinks you should call books "Killer Dolphin". BUt it's just too soon: we need at least a few more years before anyone can possibly accept fake Poirots who aren't David Suchet! It will probably be pretty, though.
Now they'll be stuck together in another prize specimen of daydream architecture, in a daydream of England! What if he tries to give her more presents?
All she really wanted was to be stuck on a train under suspicion of murder! (Probably). That sounds like a lot of fun. (Aunt Dimity, I mean, not being stuck on the murder train.)
And your entries are never dull!
no subject
Date: 2017-06-06 05:23 pm (UTC)I'm casually fond of Branagh (though I haven't seen one of his movies in years!) and curious to see what he'll do. I don't know if he actually thinks of himself as the Hercule Poirot of ACTING, but I wouldn't be surprised. I appreciate his decision to get as far away from Suchet as possible without actually losing the stache. Better to have something completely different than a poor imitation.
That is kind of a hilarious trailer, though, probably made by the sort of person who thinks you should call books "Killer Dolphin"
I especially like the helpful Suspect Text and the pounding pop song at the end. So stylish! Very 1934!
Aunt Dimity is lots of fun so far.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-06 07:36 pm (UTC)Probably true, and, being Branagh, it will be very pretty and it has an impressive cast, so I'm sure it will be entertaining, maybe even in the right ways. But it is still way Too Soon!
no subject
Date: 2017-06-06 07:37 pm (UTC)I feel that it would dearly like to declare that the WHOLE WORLD is in GRAVE DANGER and ONLY ONE MAN can save it now, but it has to refrain.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-07 01:18 pm (UTC)ONE STACHE.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-07 01:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-06-10 12:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-06-06 09:34 pm (UTC)I think there are only two Aunt Dimity books, out of at least twenty, that actually have bad guys.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-07 12:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-06-07 08:01 pm (UTC)I suppose that, apart from the lack of crime, they do have the elements of a small town cozy, and Lori often suspects that crimes are occurring or have occurred. A number of the stories involve figuring out things that happened decades or even centuries before.
The first few books in the series vary quite a bit, but later books settle into a very definite formula with a largish cast of continuing characters from the area around where Lori and Bill end up living.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-07 08:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-06-07 11:01 am (UTC)I don't like that trailer much, though I do generally like the cast aside from Depp. I miss David Suchet sob. ... oh who am I kidding, I'll definitely go see it.
I am enjoying your re-read! Hmmm, I'd be interested in hearing about how she plays fast and loose with time. I mean. How old are Poirot and Marple REALLY? Yet their historical contexts definitely change. The 30s books are very different from the 60s ones.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-07 12:55 pm (UTC)Before I ever read any classic mysteries, I had gotten the impression that they all took place in a vague and idealized interwar neverland of lawn tennis and lemonade, which turns out not to be true at all. The settings change a lot! it's only Poirot who's eternal, and even Poirot gets a little tired after a while.
I'll keep the time thing in mind! I'm sure people have tried to work out Poirot's age and discovered that it can't be done. You can probably just about make Miss Marple work within a normal (long) human lifespan if you start her out at about fifty, which is younger than I ever picture her, but which may very well look ancient to Raymond West et al.. But with Poirot I think we have to just allow ourselves a Gallic gesture of resignation.
I've always thought that if I were going to start a long-running series, I would pick a time period and stick with it, rather than trying to make every new book contemporary - the Ramona Quimby books have the same odd time conveyor belt in which Ramona is 5 in 1958, and 6 ten years later - but as a reader I enjoy the disorienting effects of detective stasis. It wouldn't suit every character, but it suits Poirot, who would be offbeat in any age, and it suits Miss Marple who is quite comfortable erring on the side of anachronism most of the time.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-09 12:29 pm (UTC)Idk what would be easier as a writer but I find both approaches interesting. The one approach I DO NOT like at all was what Diane Duane did with her Wizards series, i.e. re-released a revised version to try and fix all the timeline errors. No! Live with your plotting mistakes!
no subject
Date: 2017-06-07 10:12 pm (UTC)Those live-in law-school interns do worry me, though. One suspects they are either robots or under mind control.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-07 10:19 pm (UTC)Those live-in law-school interns do worry me, though. One suspects they are either robots or under mind control.
Don't worry! Not a single one of them has a speaking line or even appears in the frame with a letter on a silver salver, as far as I remember. They are figments of the daydream - NPCs, as the kids probably stopped saying ten years ago. All potential labor issues have been solved forever for the firm of Willis and Willis, because it's just a book so why not.