The Eyre Affair, by Jasper FForde, is a very odd but brilliant book that
takes you on something of a magical mystical tour to an alternate reality of
modern England, where Dodos are not extinct, certain people have special
talents (like being able to move through time, or enter into the text of a
book), and in general the normal understanding of reality doesn’t hold much
sway. Oh yes, and the arts rule the world – French Impressionist riots,
anyone?
Our heroine, Thursday Next, is a Literary Detective, spending her days
chasing down fake and stolen manuscripts of books. Enter villian extraordinaire
Acheron Hades (don’t say his name out loud!), who steals the original
manuscript to Martin Chuzzlewit and threatens to kill said character! This
plot foiled, he goes on to kidnap Jane Eyre, and holds her to ransom – can
Thursday save the day?
This book is impossible to fit into a genre – I was aware on several
occasions that literary jokes were passing me by, as I was not
familiar with the texts, but this is not a high-brow book – the characters
have names like “Page Tuner”!! And at times my brain was turned inside out
trying to follow the story (this only gets worse in the next book), but
it’s a hugely enjoyable romp, I found I just couldn’t put it down, and
the idea of being able to enter books and interfere with the characters
and plot is but genius!
Give it a try for some fairly light but very entertaining and
totally surreal reading, and marvel in the world FFord has created.
Updated my to-see list again – dropped off King Arthur and The Terminal after considering that I’ve got more than enough films that I really want to see without adding ones that I’m not sure about!
I’ve also taken Two Towers off – not that we’ve watched it yet, but we have started (are about an hour in – circumstances insist that we watch it in various sittings). Should clock another hour tonight, which will put us around halfway through! Got the surround sound going for it too, which I just love, especially when a horse gallops past, or something like that.
Other news – little Ben is getting very good at sitting up now, and can almost do it unsupported. As soon as he can, we’ll be putting him in a high-chair to feed (solids), which will hopefully make the process easier, if no less messy! Soon enough he’ll be on finger foods too, which will be quite fun to watch. He’s still a bit wobbly, and tends to either subside sideways, or lunge forwards and end up landing on his face with his bum in the air (closely followed by load wails!)
Another one bites the dust – Final Fantasy this time, thanks to Channel 5. Don’t think I’ll bother doing a full review – would have been wowed 3 years ago when it came out, now – not so sure..
Hoorrah – my “to see” list is finally shrinking! Went to see the newest Harry Potter flick last night with the missus (first evening out together post-Ben, thanks to a wonderful friend who babysat!), and another friend at work has leant me The Two Towers, which will probably take us all week to watch!
Saw the trailer for King Arthur at the cinema, and I’m going off it. Kiera Knightley is a big draw, but it looks as if she’s just playing “posh English girl with spunk” again, which I think is a shame. She has showed her flexibility in other films, but in Pirates and this one she’s essentially played the same character. (I know that ‘spunk’ is not really used in this way anymore, but it seemed the right word on this occasion. Substitute ‘spirit’ if you like!). It might slip off my to-see the next time I update it – for now, a reprieve.
On one level a wonderful film – thrills, spills, laughs and tears, magic, betrayal, twists a-plenty, and as a cinematic experience I hugely enjoyed it. But as a Harry Potter film – well, I’m not sure it cuts it….
Warning – this review contains spoilers about the Harry Potter film and books.
The lastest installment of the Harry Potter films is probably the least faithful to the book, and Potter-philes are in danger of finding themselves shouting at the screen things like “You can’t miss that out”, or “So how does Lupin know it’s a map then, Harry?”. Worst crime of all is portraying Sirius as a slightly large collie – this is a “bear like” dog who could take on a warewolf!! Significant artistic licence has been taken in order to make the film ‘thrilly’ (although to be fair I jumped in my seat more than once!), and several characters still fail to cut the mustard – most noticeably Ron, Snape, and Malfoy. However, I did find Gambon’s Dumbledore absolutely spot on – much closer to the books – and I do like the film’s Harry and Hermoine (although I think Emma Watson in the film is too attractive to entirely realistically portray Hermione – her transformation into beautiful Hermione in Goblet of Fire will not be the jaw-dropping moment it was in the book – Emma is already beautiful.) Fairly key plot points have been sacrificed to make this film the right length, and my feeling is that several fairly important scenes have been dropped in post-production, leaving a slight incompleteness to the film. I also found the change of director did make a difference to the feel of this film. Hard to put a finger on exactly in what way – the camera and scenes were less focussed somehow.. Harry would be having a conversation in the foreground, and other conversations would be going on in the background that you could still hear. I think the purpose of this was to make it seem like a window into real-life, but for me the effect was to make it look like a highly orchestrated “behind the scenes” documentary – you know when you see all the actors in the background milling around and chilling out. H’mm – this all sounds a bit more negative then I probably mean. I did enjoy the film, I laughed, I jumped, I sat on the edge of my seat at times. Trouble is this is Harry Potter – and the incredible richness and depth of Jo Rowling’s writing just doesn’t translate to the big screen. To much is compromised in order to meet the demands of the industry, and the whole thing ends up being just unsatisfying. I will certainly watch the next 4 films, and avidly await the next 2 books, but it’s starting to fall into the category of films you just gotta watch (like “Star Wars”), rather than because you necessarily are expecting to enjoy them..
Thinking about language, I was pondering about the fact that I now use the term “guys” generically to refer to both men and women, but yet would still refer to something intrinsically male as being a “guy thing”. Similarly I suppose I might refer to something being “a girl thing”, but I can’t imagine ever addressing a group of females with something like “right girls” (unless they were children, in which case I might) – far more likely to say “right guys”.
Been listening those crazy kittens (the atomic ones), and I put up my hand to liking their music – a great combination of catchy tunes, harmonies, some fantastic instrumentation and arrangements, and often quite memorable lyrics.
ANYWAY, the point was that several times they use the word “baby” to refer to their romantic interest – something I myself have done in the past (certainly “babe”) – but since the arrival of Ben it would seem very weird to use “baby” in that way!! I would probabably describe a someone as a “babe” still, but would I really say “hey baby” to A? Maybe I still would!
Unlike the Bangles, I wouldn’t claim to be able to recognise the band members voices – but then the line-up has changed several times, and I can hear the different voices. But I have a soft spot for Susanna Hoff’s voice – it has that sort of ‘rough vulnerability’, even though her diction is pretty dire (for ages I thought the line in If she knew what she wants was something like “No sense thinking like the real Bill and Ted, when she’s fine, fine, fine”. Also Walk like an Egyptian – “they singndance”. Come to think of it Hazy Shade of Winter has pretty indecipherable lyrics too.) Anyway, another example would be Wendy Whitehead (e.g. on Come, Now is the Time to Worship) who also, although in a different way, has a stunning voice that strikes right to your heart (well, right to mine anyway), although her diction is spot on, I should add. I did actually meet Wendy once and it was funny to hear that her normal speaking voice has a definite Southend accent, when there’s no trace of it in her singing! (In case you were wondering, I sound engineered for Brian Doerkson once – actually it was the first time he did “Come, now is the time” in public, which was a very special conference. Perhaps I’ll waffle some more on that next time.)
Oh yes, and that Bangles line is actually “No sense thinking I can rehabilitate her…” 🙂
Ben’s first thunderstorm last night. At around 4am, two HUGE cracks of thunder woke A and I up (actually A says there were 4, so I must have missed the first 2), really rumbly ones that went on for ages.. We lay in bed waiting for Ben to start crying.. and waited.. and .. nothing at all!! I even went in to look on him to make sure he was ok. Quite amazing – I make the tiniest creak on the floorboards outside his room and he instantly starts crying, but thunder so loud that I nearly fall out of bed, and he stays fast asleep.
Strangely billed as a children’s book, Mark Haddon tells the story of
Christopher Boone, a 15 year old with Asperger’s, who finds a neighbour’s
dog murdered, and sets out to solve the case.
The book is written as Christopher’s diary, and gives a real insight
into the mind of a child with this condition. There are frequent forays into
maths and logic, but the emotional detachment is extraordinary – Christopher
is seemingly incapable of understanding what other people are feeling.
Oliver Sachs (who turned his wife into a hat, or something) found it very
funny – I’m not sure funny is a word I’d have used, when I found it quite
moving; sad even – but it is brilliantly written, and hugely engaging.
It is a book of surprises too – the journey does not end up where I was
expecting at all, but the book is all the better as a result. However
in my opinion this is a book fairly and squarely for adult readers, or
at least late youth – I can’t imagine (early) teens getting a lot out of it.
Buy this book on Amazon
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