By JK, on April 23rd, 2009 While book lovers almost universally malign their favourite books being turned into movies, reading books simply because one has seen the movie is also often frowned upon. After the books are tarted up with movie covers and showered in media coverage, their new mass appeal gives them a sort of nouveau-riche celebrity. But really, this knee-jerk snobbery is founded on an overly biased and likely faulty assumption that film is somehow inherently inferior to literature, and that the two mediums can’t enrich one another. Or perhaps I’m just saying that because I can think of two books I’ve read recently that jumped up in the interminable “to be read” queue by virtue of their film adaptations.
Of course having seen the movie already inevitably affects our experience of the book. Most importantly, we already know the plot, so the book itself is forced to rely on its other strengths. And as I picked up Charles Frazier’s celebrated novel Cold Mountain, I hoped that my reading experience would be undiminished by my familiarity with (and appreciation of) the movie (2003, Directed by Anthony Minghella, who also wrote the adapted screenplay).
But before we get into it, a brief synopsis for those who haven’t [...]
By JK, on April 4th, 2009 It is one of the greatest acts of literary audacity that I can think of not only to write as Virginia Woolf, but to write Virginia Woolf herself. One of the essential modernist writers who reconceived the novel, her prose is instantly identifiable with its rivers of breathless clauses. Of course she is also infamous for her struggles with what appears to have been bipolar disorder, and finally ended her life midway through the second world war. So it is safe to say writing as Virginia Woolf and writing Virginia Woolf herself requires an enormous amount of talent, research and audacity. And in my humble opinion, Michael Cunningham pulls it off beautifully.
Before I sat down with The Hours, I spent the time rereading Mrs. Dalloway, which was my first Woolf in my second year of university, and I don’t think I really grasped it. On a second reading I appreciated it much more (though still less than The Waves or To the Lighthouse). In any case, for those who wish to read The Hours, your appreciation of it will increase significantly with Mrs. Dalloway fresh in your mind.
There are three stories in The Hours. The first is Mrs. Dalloway almost [...]
By JK, on January 27th, 2009 There are many books out there that claim to be about morality (two I’ve read recently – Mercy Among the Children and Fifth Business), but some seem to encourage a more passive, guided exploration of morality, while others leave the readers adrift in the situations, daring them to reach their own conclusions. Bernhard Schlink’s The Reader belongs to the second category.The back of the book states that is is “hailed for its coiled eroticism and the claims it makes upon the reader” and so I’m going to try and explore these two areas (and how they often intersect).
The first major moral question of the novel concerns how we judge what is moral or immoral, as a sexual relationship develops between the 15-year-old protagonist, Michael Berg, and Hanna, a local woman who is over twice his age. The relationship seems generally tender, with the lovers sharing their love through sex, and literature – for Michael reads aloud to her frequently. We only ever get Michael’s perspective, and he seems to look upon the relationship as a positive thing. For him, it is not just sexual; he is completely in love with Hanna. Take this passage of peaceful fulfillment:
“As the days grew [...]
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