Darcy

I watched the mini-series Lost in Austen and enjoyed it a lot. Despite another actor in the role, I still find myself fond of Mr Darcy. It’s really weird. I know the character is famous as being a much loved one from romantic fiction.

I don’t know why I, like so many women, find myself interested in this rude, proud, aloof man. Is it because of the greater context of the story (even in adaptations like Bride and Prejudice and reworkings like Lost in Austen)?

Is it just because it appeals to some interest in that man that you can’t stand but are attracted to anyway?

Whatever it is, I wonder where my Mr Darcy is?

Matthew Macfadyen, Pride and Prejudice (Movie)

Colin Firth, Pride and Prejudice (TV)

Martin Henderson, Bride and Prejudice

Elliot Cowan, Lost in Austen

Reading journal: Children Of Men

I loved the movie Children of Men, thinking it was the best film I saw that year. In the end credits I noticed it was based on a book by PD James (someone known more for thrillers) and I looked it up. It took me a while to find a copy and even longer to read it.

It’s a slim volume and a quick read. It differs greatly from the movie only a few character names really made it into the movie, a little bit of dialogue (Miriam’s tale) and the general themes. The movie was able to expand the story to a more harsh look at immigration and lack of hope. In the book Britain isn’t the only country soldiering on but people have it pretty well. Sure the world’s ending but the violence of the movie is much less present people having lost the spirit to fight.

As might be clear I much prefer the movie which gave the potential of the unborn baby much more pressing urgency and a stronger ending. I’m glad I’ve read the original source now, but when I revisit the story from now on it will be on DVD.

Rereading journal

The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey
With a back log of novels on my shelves and many trips to the library I don’t have much time for rereading books. However when I saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button I was struck with the similarities to this book and began rereading it.

It is a great book. I read it the first time on my trip to Broome a few years ago. Reading it again I remembered the key plot points but there were particular events relating to the supporting characters I’d completely forgotten and they surprised me again. A non-linear romance can be a little confusing (I wonder how the movie version will handle this? supers?) but it’s also painful.

Reading Journal, sort of

The Swimming Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst
In this tale set in 1970s London, William Beckwith, a young attractive, well-to-do and highly sexually active gay man helps save the life of an elderly lord, and is asked by him to help put together a book of memoirs.

The book I guess was trying to give a slice of life in gay London but I found it rather muddled. The flashbacks from Sir Nantwich’s diaries were of more interest but they too only led to what I suppose was the climax. But it was a limp climax, with more questions left open and no resolutions.

Sure the high libido of the narrator meant many many sex scenes, in a time where gay sex could be had seemingly anywhere, but it was hardly erotic. There were comments towards the end about how you don’t think of people in the past, before your time, having sex and that was an interesting idea.

This novel was listed in AfterElton.coms list of popular gay novels and I found it in my library as an audio book. It’s the first audio book I’ve listen to and I wasn’t a big fan. The pace was a bit too slow for me, the transitions to the reading of memoirs wasn’t flagged audibly as well as it would be in print, and the accent didn’t match how I’d consider the character’s voice.

Reading Journal

Here’s What We’ll Say by Reichen Lehmkuhl
Reichen is famous as half of the gay couple that won the fourth series of the Amazing Race, and for being half of a gay couple with newly out, former pop star Lance Bass.

This autobiography covers none of that, but rather focuses on his growing up and most predominantly his time in the air force academy. He tells of years of denial. He tells of living through “Dont Ask, Don’t Tell” and how unfair this policy was. He tells of his involvement in a secret society of gay and lesbian cadets relying on trust to keep their secret their own.

There was a lot of details of the ins and outs of air force training which is not much interest to me. The extent of his earlier denials, up to and including his 20s was much more interesting. Some of his celebrity life would have been interesting too. I know enough to know that I have no interest in the armed forces.

Reading journal

M or F by by Lisa Papademetriou and Chris Tebbetts

When high school teenager Frannie needs help chatting to the cute boy in the class, her best friend Marcus chats for her online. All is well until Marcus finds himself falling for the guy too.

The book is told in alternator voices by two authors. I found the narrative shifts each chapter a little distracting which is odd because the Rainbow series was similar. I think it was mainly because I can relate to a gay teenager better than a teenage girl.

It was all a very tolerant Chicago high school with gay characters accepted pretty much unquestioned. It kind of adds to the fantasy element that makes reading this sort of novel fun for me – wishing my high school days had been this easy, and wishing I’d had novels like this to read in high school.

The book did get me some attention on the train. I was standing reading it and a teenage girl, maybe 16, sitting down took a long look at the cover and the back cover blurb, then looked at me and then whispered to her boyfriend. Not exactly subtle and I was right on top of her so it wasn’t like I wouldn’t notice. I kind of laughed to myself that maybe she had seen her first homosexual!