Carol’s Comments June 2024
Hello Everyone! Welcome to another issue of Carol’s Comments. After publishing my last blog in November 2023, I wondered if I would write another installment of my blog ever again. Fortunately, by late February, I discovered an eclectic assortment of novels that fascinated and kept me company for the last four months.
I’ve always loved reading books about or by Jane Austen along with watching film adaptations about her novels and life. So when I read in the Masterpiece online newsletter last December that PBS had produced a film adaptation of Gill Hornby’s novel Miss Austen that would air on the network sometime in 2024, I knew I had to read it. I quickly snatched up a copy at the River Park Branch Library.
Hornby’s novel focuses on Cassandra Austen, Jane Austen’s older sister. Told in flashback, the narrative begins in 1840 when Cassandra, now an old woman, travels to Kintbury, England to visit her friend Isabella Fowle, secretly searching for her late sister Jane’s confidential correspondence and intending to destroy them to protect her beloved older sister’s legacy.
While Cassandra desperately looks for these incriminating letters, the reader is transported to youth in 1797 when she was betrothed to Tom Fowle. Unfortunately, this ill-fated marriage never happened.
When Jane Austen died in 1817 at age 44, she named Cassandra Austen the executor of her literary estate. Although all the letters in Hornby’s novel are imagined, in real life, Cassandra burned the majority of the confidential correspondence that she had personally exchanged with her sister as well as other people during Jane’s literary career. Cassandra Austen died unmarried in 1845.
Hornby’s novel features a very detailed section which describes the entire Austen family along with their extended family and friends included in the book. This helps the reader understand the story and keep track of the plot’s characters as the narrative moves back and forth in time between the late 18th and the middle 19th centuries.
Hornby’s captivating yet complex storyline reads like a page from one of Jane Austen’s novels, This very imaginative book transports the reader into Jane Austen’s world as seen through her sister’s perspective. It was so addictive that I couldn’t stop reading.
I highly recommend Miss Austen to Jane Austen fans or anyone who enjoys historical fiction or literary biography.
I love mysteries but ironically prefer watching rather than reading them. In early April, I read a very fascinating positive review in the New York Times television section about Netflix’s new limited series Ripley, an updated film version of the novel The Talented Mr. Ripley originally written by Patricia Highsmith in 1955. The series sounded very intriguing that I quickly added a reminder to my watchlist so Netflix would put it in my queue when the series premiered on April 4. I started streaming the program when it appeared in my list.
Starring Andrew Scott as Tom Ripley and written and directed by Steven Zaillon, Ripley begins in mid 1950s New York where disillusioned twenty-five years old Tom Ripley tries to survive the tough city streets as an amateur grifter and con man. Fortunately, one day he meets businessman Herbert Greenleaf. Believing that Tom and his son Dickie attended prep school together, Greenleaf gives him a generous allowance and pays for Ripley’s ticket to travel to Italy and convince his son to return home to the United States. Ripley quickly accepts Greenleaf’s offer.
When Tom arrives in Italy, he becomes thoroughly obsessed by Dickie and his very posh lifestyle and his intelligent friends especially his very modern girlfriend Margery Sherwood. Not only does Ripley want to be Dickie’s closet companion, he literally wants to become Dickie.
Tom Ripley is a true sociopath because he plots to murder Dickie in a suspicious manner that makes it appear the young man is still alive while Ripley uses the elder Greenleaf’s money to live opulently as Dickie all over Italy while retaining his own identity by committing two gruesome murders with consequence. Shot in black and white, the miniseries gives the film a very creepy tone reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock and vintage film noir movies made in the 1940s and early 1950s. This technique makes the gory murder scenes especially Dickie Greenleaf’s killing easier to witness. I found Ripley so riveting that I watched all eight episodes in one day.
After watching Ripley, I decided to read the original novel The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. I especially enjoyed the novel because it intricately delved into Tom Ripley’s past and explained his sociopathic behavior in a strangely sympathetic way. The reader, although appalled by Ripley’s criminal acts, still has compassion for such a truly despicable and villainous antihero mainly because of his struggles with homoerotic tendencies and longing for acceptance by others, albeit in a very perverse way.
I liked Highsmith’s unconventional mystery very much and hope to read the other four Ripley series books very soon. I highly recommend Ripley which is more faithful to Highsmith’s book than the 1999 movie written and directed by Anthony Minghella and starring Matt Damon as Tom Ripley and Jude Law as Dickie Greenleaf. The Netflix series as well as Highsmith’s novel will appeal to people who love the noir genre in film and literary form.
I have always adored Paris especially its culture, bookstores, libraries, art, fashion and cuisine. While browsing through my Kindle app a few months ago, it recommended Ruth Reichel’s new book The Paris Novel. When I read positive reviews about the novel in the New York Times Book Review and Vanity Fair, I quickly placed a hold on a copy at the library.
Set primarily in 1983, The Paris Novel revolves around young copy editor Stella St. Vincent. When her unconventional and estranged mother Celia dies suddenly, she leaves her daughter an unusual inheritance – a one-way plane ticket to Paris, a reasonable amount of money and a note saying “Go to Paris.” At first, Stella feels very reluctant to travel there but with much encouragement from her boss to take a break and explore the city, she heads off on an unknown adventure.
For the first few weeks, Stella lives very frugally. Then one day, she accidently stumbles across a vintage store where she spots and tries on a beautiful Dior dress. The shopkeeper insists she buy the dress – with one caveat- Stella should the dress to the iconic restaurant Les Deux Magots and sample its culinary treats for the evening. Then the next morning, she can return the dress for a refund. She reluctantly accepts the storeowner’s offer and begins an unforgettable and unexpected journey that will ultimately change her life forever.
At Les Deux Magots, she meets Jules, a kindly 80-year- old art collector who introduces and encourages her to sample many French culinary delights. For example, that evening she eats oysters on the half shell and escargots with garlic butter for the first time.
Then several weeks and decadent meals later, she indulges in ortolan, foie gras and other delicacies. As the weeks pass, Jules becomes Stella’s mentor and patron by immersing her in Parisian art, culinary and literary worlds. For instance, she meets George Whitman, the current owner of Shakespeare and Company originally founded by Sylvia Beach. There she meets poets Alan Ginsberg and James Baldwin and eventually becomes very bohemian herself by working and living at the bookstore as a Tumbleweed.
While staying at Shakespeare and Company, she also becomes fascinated by the artist model Victorine Louise Meurant who posed for Manet’s famous painting Olympia. Stella learns from Jules and from doing research at the Bibliothèque Nationale that Victorine was a talented artist herself but because of her poverty and profession the French art establishment wouldn’t allow her to exhibit her paintings at the French Salon. Determined to solve this 100 -year-old mystery, Stella eventually uncovers what happened to Victorine and discovers if any of her paintings still exist.
Ultimately, The Paris Novel is the perfect summer reading treat for armchair literary travelers like me who love French food, fashion and Impressionist art. I highly recommend it!
The books reviewed in this blog can be found in most local public libraries. My readers in St. Joseph County, Indiana can visit the St. Joseph County Public Library’s web site at sjcpl.org for additional information.
Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful summer and see you all next time.
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