classics (or not)
Aug. 21st, 2010 07:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lauradi7dwIn the midst of a Rupert Evans video binge (working my way through his filmography)*, I borrowed "Fingersmith" from the library. I like Sally Hawkins and Imelda Staunton, who both are in it, but had never seen it nor read the book by Sarah Waters, on which it is based. The book was shortlisted for both the Orange and Booker prizes, but I'd have to hope it was better than the film. Probably it's just me, though - it seems like any Dickens adapted for Masterpiece story except for part about a woman falling in love with another woman (with some kissing and stuff). I can admire Dickens for his earnest do-gooder attitudes about improving the lives of the poor and people in asylums, but there are always too many absurd plot twists for me. There are a couple of those here, too. The story would have been much better without them, I think. The scenery is nice, though. The opening London scene (set on Lant street, home of the current Charles Dickens Primary School) has a rooftop with a view of Saint Paul's (from Bankside) that is almost identical to the rooftop in the TV adaptation of "Neverwhere." I wonder whether it's the same rooftop, or maybe the same studio set.
Also deemed to be classic but maybe not fun choices for tween girls are the books the Mr. Obama bought for his daughters' beach reading - "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The Red Pony." I presume those are on their school's summer reading lists. The girls are 9 & 12.
They also bought some series books,
http://www.landofelyon.com/home.html and "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins, which I suspect are more likely to have been the girls' choices, not the parent's or the school's. I don't actually know them, though. Maybe they have classic American Lit tastes and picked the first two as well.
*one of his that was ecently released to big screen is "Agora," (starring Rachel Weisz). We had planned to see it, but it left the Landmark Kendall already and hasn't turned up at any other local cinemas.
Also deemed to be classic but maybe not fun choices for tween girls are the books the Mr. Obama bought for his daughters' beach reading - "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The Red Pony." I presume those are on their school's summer reading lists. The girls are 9 & 12.
They also bought some series books,
http://www.landofelyon.com/home.html and "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins, which I suspect are more likely to have been the girls' choices, not the parent's or the school's. I don't actually know them, though. Maybe they have classic American Lit tastes and picked the first two as well.
*one of his that was ecently released to big screen is "Agora," (starring Rachel Weisz). We had planned to see it, but it left the Landmark Kendall already and hasn't turned up at any other local cinemas.
