strange and random happenstance

The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson
Published by: Katherine Tegen Books
Publication Date: June 15th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Solving that which no one else was able to solve should be the biggest high a true crime geek will ever experience. And it is. It just doesn't last. The return to reality was a little harsher than Stevie expected. Spending the summer working at a grocery store at the deli counter isn't exactly the glamorous career she had planned for herself. I mean, the apron doesn't even go with her crime solving red vinyl raincoat! Thankfully she is about to be saved from a summer of drudgery by the new owner of a kid's summer camp in the Berkshires. Carson Buchwald is the owner of Box Box, a subscription box company, as in literal boxes, with delusions of becoming a true crime podcaster. Which is why he bought Shady Pines, the new moniker of a camp all true crime enthusiasts know by it's original name, Camp Wonder Falls. In 1978 four local teens who had just graduated high school in nearby Barlow Corners, Massachusetts, all counselors at the camp, were murdered. There was an old hunting blind about four miles from camp where the counselors were known to party. On that fateful July night the revelers, Todd Cooper, Diane McClure, and Sabrina Abbott were stabbed and stacked like cordwood in the hunting blind while Eric Wilde, the local drug dealer, almost made it back to camp. His body was found first. The most disturbing facts about the case were the brutality and the message painted inside the blind; SURPRISE. And yet the case was never solved. It wasn't a drug deal gone bad or the work of local serial killer "The Woodsman" as DNA ruled him out, and a revenge killing just didn't make sense. The case was badly handled and entered the lore of famous unsolved crimes. Which is why Carson wants to hire Stevie. She'd come and work at the camp and solve the case for his podcast. The chance to get away from deli meats means she'll even brave the wilderness. She is so not the outdoorsy type. Which means a support network is needed and Nate and Janelle agree to come with. They are on the case. Unfortunately the town is rather hostile once they realize Carson's intentions. It looks like he was trying to buy them off with a shiny new library. And in a way he was. Because the answer has to be among the townsfolk. It's the only thing that makes sense. Why else was it never solved? Because someone didn't want it solved. That someone isn't Sabrina's sister Allison. She's willing to help Stevie. But that help might cost her her life. Because more than four people have died and the killing will continue unless Stevie connects the dots.

The Box in the Woods is a bit of a reset for this series. The first three books were dealing with one case and all it's connecting repercussions at Ellingham Academy. Here Stevie is removed from that academic setting and into that most classic of teen horror tropes, a summer camp. And as everyone knows the best parts of a summer slasher are technology breaking down and there being nowhere to run. Which makes the seventies the perfect era for the "historical" crime to be set. And thankfully we are all about the historical in this installment and veer away from the hysteria that Stevie's boyfriend David brings in his wake. Seriously, I agree with so many reviewers who are just fed up with him. He brings nothing to the conversation and this book was all the better for his being almost entirely omitted. What really drew me in though was that this small little town and it's summer camp is Gilmore Girls meets Twin Peaks that just happens to shoehorn in a slasher flick and some Nazis. So yes, you might think that sounds all over the place, but if you're the right kind of person, AKA someone who I'd be friends with, you will totally get that all these disparate elements can fit together perfectly if you have the right mindset and sense of humor. Dark humor. But for me this isn't just a series reset it's also a turning point for Stevie. When she was investigating the Ellingham case all the principal characters were dead. She was legitimately investigating a true cold case, as in all the participates were cold in their graves. Here the crime happened in 1978 so, while not recent history weeps the reviewer who was born in that year, it's still a recent enough crime that those people directly affected, like Sabrina's sister Allison, are still alive. This is new and interesting. Stevie has had to deal with the fallout of a case and it's present day repercussions but she hasn't had to deal with the trauma of real people. She's so focused and inward when she's on a case she sometimes doesn't think of the bigger picture. Which is all well and good when it's a true cold case. When the obsession and the drive aren't running over victims. But here she could easily steamroller over someone to whom this case is an open wound. She has to tread carefully. Not just because the actual killer could still be alive but because the family of the victims are in need of support. They can help but there has to be respect and assurances. When dealing with Allison Stevie is growing. She's learning that there's more to solving crime than just the crime. There's the survivors. That aspect is one she needs to work on. But this is a good start.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Berkshires, Camp Wonder Falls, Cold Case, Gilmore Girls, Maureen Johnson, Nazis, Podcast, Seventies, Slasher, Stevie Bell, Summer Camp, Summer School, Survivors, The Box in the Woods, Trauma, True Crime, Truly Devious, Twin Peaks

I was never into Greek Myths. They either get you at a young age or you're immune, kind of like ponies. I wasn't a horse girl either. And I sure as hell wasn't Rory and Paris spending their Spring Break in a Florida motel watching Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth. Every few years I think to myself, maybe I should give the Odyssey a second chance. Only to very quickly remember how much I hate Odysseus. And if there was any show that would finally change my mind about Greek Mythology I can safely say that this was not it. The problem is that Percy Jackson and the Olympians wrongly assumes that their audience knows all the Greek Myths and would know who everyone was and what was going on from the start. You know what they say about making assumptions? Well, I don't like being made to feel like an ass. This first season, because, yes, they bafflingly renewed it, only has eight episodes in it and it wasn't until Edge showed up and did a big infodump in episode five that I actually was able to kind of figure out what was going on. And while I'm not a fan of the infodump, Edge as Ares delivers it so perfectly, so insouciantly, that I can't help but love it, even if the arrival of the information is too little too late. Edge, or should I say Adam Copeland, is one of the reasons I turned into this show. The children are nobodies, and Walker Scobell as Percy is the most punchable lead ever unless you factor in the actor playing Percy when he was younger, because Azriel Dalman has made me a hater for life, but the adults, good gods damn, they're a stacked cast; Toby Stephens, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Timothy Omundson, Megan Mullally, Jason Mantzoukas, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Suzanne Cryer, Jay Duplass, and Lance Reddick! But I felt like it was a bait and switch. Our hero's father is Toby Stephens and you get to see him exactly twice in this show. No more, no less, and yes, it will break your heart. Perhaps they're trying to put us in Percy's shoes with how he feels about not having his father in his life, but he never knew his father was Toby Stephens and those of us who did now feel cheated. And also have a desperate need to rewatch Jane Eyre or Black Sails, hell, I'd even rewatch The Camomile Lawn! And I know I'm not the target demographic, I was just hoping I'd enjoy it. And yes, sometimes there's occasionally a really great music choice that made me laugh, but guest stars and jokes that will go over most people's heads like Lin-Manuel Miranda humming the theme to Arthur shouldn't be the only things you like about the show. You shouldn't sit down and think, you know, these end credits really are the strongest part of this series. And yet, that's what I thought after every episode. Because if someone asked me right now what exactly happened in this show I would in no way be able to tell them. But if someone asked me to describe the end credits, I would be waxing lyrical about their WPA mural roots and how perfect they are. Dammit, now I want to go watch the end credits again. Especially because I do love Bear McCreary... OK, that's settled, off to watch the credits and ignore the amazing guest stars they have lined up for season two. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, I will come for you.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Adam Copeland, And the Emmy Goes To, Edge, Gilmore Girls, Greek Mythology, Infodump, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Odysseus, Odyssey, Percy Jackson, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Timothy Omundson, Toby Stephens, WPA

Deadly Summer Nights by Vicki Delany 
Published by: Berkley Books
Publication Date: September 7th, 2021
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Elizabeth Grady never pictured the life she's living now as the life she'd have. She is running Haggerman's Catskills Resort for her mother. Yes, her mother. Olivia Peters. You probably know her. The woman who didn't really raise Elizabeth, that was left to her Aunt Tatiana, as Olivia pursued fame but who in her waning years has been left a resort from one of her admirers. Due to financial irregularities, AKA spendthrift exes, Haggerman's is Olivia's only option and Elizabeth is determined to make it succeed, with her mother as the figurehead whose glamorous allure will hopefully draw in the guests with lengthy bookings. Plus her mother can also book acts the other resorts can't with her connections. Just look at the rather controversial yet undoubtedly funny comic they've just booked who could be the next Lenny Bruce. Or so Elizabeth keeps saying to the guests who are taking umbrage with his show. Little did she know when she left the city behind that almost all of her work would be dealing with guests, not dealing with the bills, like she should be. And one guest is about to cause a very large headache. Because he's turned up dead. What seems to be a tragic accident soon has the local sheriff calling the Feds in. Harold Westenham had maps of London and Washington, D.C. on the walls of his remote cabin as well as a copy of The Communist Manifesto. To Elizabeth it looks like the poor man was doing research for a book, an opinion backed up by his nephew when he arrives at Haggerman's. But the arrival of the Feds as well as a dead body puts everyone on edge. Elizabeth has to keep her head. People die at resorts all the time. Sure, they may not be murdered, but it happens. She just has to keep a lid on the crime and keep the guests happy and quell the rumors of Communism. Of course what makes guests happier than free drinks and time with Olivia? Elizabeth will need to solve this case fast if she's to save Haggerman's and not have a whopping bill for alcohol.

I have never gotten to live the summer resort dream of the Catskills or the Poconos made famous in such fare as Dirty Dancing and the second season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Now I have been to resorts there for Moonlight Rising, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan convention. But the Split Rock Resort in Lake Harmony, Pennsylvania only delivered on the buffet, and as for the Friar Tuck Resort in Catskill, New York, it most likely hadn't been remodeled since Frank Sinatra signed the photo above registration to the owners. So the places I went to were far beyond their prime and the culture that Deadly Summers Nights propagates to say the least. Yet it is a nostalgic culture I wish I could have been a part of for even a few days. Or maybe I'm just nostalgic for vacations? Therefore I thought this book would be my best bet to slip into this world from the comfort of my couch. Instead it proved an infuriating read. This book is tailored to fans of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel with a heavy helping of Gilmore Girls and a dollop of Dirty Dancing but without any of the sparkle and vivacity of the originals. Here's the thing, if you're going to do an homage to the oeuvre of Amy Sherman-Palladino the quirky characters and the quaint locales aren't enough. She is known for her rapid fire dialogue and her witty banter. No matter your feelings on her as a person, you have to occasionally, begrudgingly admit that she can write. She has six Emmy Awards afterall. So what do you have when you have all the elements and none of the talent? You have a book you slog through because just having the framework built doesn't matter if you don't deliver on the content. As for the whole Communist angle? It was so obviously a false trail that I was actually yelling at the book one of Miss Scarlett's famous lines from Clue: "Communism is just a red herring."

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Amy Sherman-Palladino, Catskills, Clue, Communism, Deadly Summer Nights, Dirty Dancing, Gilmore Girls, Haggerman's Catskills Resort, Miss Scarlett, Murder Most Foul, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Vicki Delany

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Based on the book by John le Carré
Starring: Mark Strong, John Hurt, Zoltán Mucsi, Gary Oldman, Toby Jones, David Dencik, Ciarán Hinds, Colin Firth, Kathy Burke, Benedict Cumberbatch, Stephen Graham, Simon McBurney, Tom Hardy, Peter O'Connor, Roger Lloyd Pack, William Haddock, Tomasz Kowalski, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Laura Carmichael, Rupert Procter, and Christian McKay
Release Date: January 6th, 2012
Rating: ★★
To Buy

A failed mission in Budapest carried out by British Intelligence quickly grows into an international incident and throws the Circus into chaos. The spy on the ground, Jim Prideaux, is dead, Control is ousted, as is his right-hand man, George Smiley. The new cabal that takes over the Circus, Alleline, Haydon, Bland, and Esterhase, are now running the entire intelligence operation based on "Witchcraft." This magic is an operation that started under Control, which he didn't approve of, thinking that relying too much on one Russian source, no matter how good the material, was dangerous business. But a year after Budapest Control is dead and Smiley is in retirement. Soon new rumors of a mole within the Circus has Smiley coming out of retirement to investigate his former colleagues. With the help of an agent Smiley recruited and trained still loyal to him within the agency, Peter Guillam, and a retired Special Branch Officer, Mendel, the investigation begins. Smiley talks to other ousted agents while Guillam carefully removes files from the Circus itself relevant to their inquires. Soon Ricki Tarr, the agent whose call restarted this investigation which was started by Control himself appears on the scene and tells Smiley about his mission in Istanbul that lead to his certainty of the mole. But spies hold their secrets close and it turns out that even the facts of the Budapest mission are omitting a key piece of evidence; Jim Prideaux is alive. Can Smiley unravel this web of deceit and double agents? Only time will tell.

Taking a labyrinthine book and trimming it down to a film that is only two hours means certain liberties are going to be taken. Instead of slow reveals and doubling back on incidents that we saw before but this time from a different angle this is straight forward linear storytelling at it's simplest. The mission in "Budapest" which in the book we don't learn about until the very end opens up the film and from that moment on I just knew it was going to be drastically different. I had hoped for the better because I didn't love the book, but that hope was sadly in vain. What occasionally bogs down the source material is that there is such depth, occasionally exquisite writing that, taken as a whole, is severely overwritten. Here they went too far in the other direction making everything shallow. There's one scene the film keeps going back to, a Christmas party before everything went wrong. Again and again we return to this shiny happy party, to this time when everyone seemed content. Yet if this was meant to show the subterfuge and secret currents beneath the surface and between the characters it fails miserably. Everything is laid out simply and cleanly making it appear that all lack of knowledge on the part of the spies is based solely on willful ignorance. But then again, a movie which casts Colin Firth as the mole is obviously lacking subtlety. Seriously. It was SO OBVIOUS to me just from the cast list.

Yet what I found oddest about this adaptation was that it was no longer Smiley's story. The book is all about him and his investigation, and yes, while watching Gary Oldman sit in a room reading papers by himself might not have been a movie that would garner box office gold, I still think that this change diminishes Smiley. Which is interesting, because in the book he's constantly diminished by his cheating wife, whereas here she's barely mentioned... so I guess you could say they accomplished the diminishment in a different way? But I have a feeling that wasn't their intent. They filled the screen with so many well regarded stars that they all had to have their screen time and therefore Smiley had to fall by the wayside. And while I might have initially thought this was a bad idea, after seeing Gary Oldman's performance... the less of Smiley the better. Seriously, just trust me on this, he was like an embalmed corpse, and in fact, an embalmed corpse would have had more range and facial expressions than Oldman did in this film. I literally was thinking how even a cardboard cut out would have made a more convincing agent. There's blending into the scenery to be the perfect spy, then there's becoming so much a part of the scenery that you have omitted yourself from the narrative. If you doubt anything I've said here, just watch the scene where Smiley recounts his first meeting with Karla, wherein Karla is played by a chair in some weird student acting flashback and the chair gives a better performance. 

The only benefit to Smiley being sidelined is that he needed a sidekick more than ever and in stepped Peter Guillam, aka Benedict Cumberbatch. Guillam's role is significantly beefed up, which I very much like, because, come on, it's Benedict! But it's also significantly changed. In the book he's a playboy who's in deep with a flautist who he thinks may or may not be playing him with her own husband... he's attractive and blond and bright eyed and bushy tailed, and Benedict could have just as easily played him as originally written as he played him as rewritten. Here Guillam is meek, disheveled, and a closet homosexual. I don't take any issue with him being rewritten as homosexual, his character was already quite fluid in the book, what I take issue with is I feel like this rewrite was done as an apology for the lack of sensitivity in handling gay and bisexual characters in the book. While they proliferate on the pages of Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy they are also constantly getting shade thrown at them. If there's a hint of anything not straight about them then it is commented on in a very disparaging way and their loyalties are questioned. To fix this issue all they would have had to do is keep the characters as they are but not disparage them. It seems like a concession that was thrown in for the benefit of modern audiences without actually thinking it through. It's like how I felt when watching the Gilmore Girls revival. I had spent the last year watching an episode a day a had come to realize that the show was extremely homophobic, so how did they fix that? They attempted to throw a gay parade and out one of the characters... in other words, just a token gesture. So not cool.

Though the biggest WTF moment in the entire movie is that by having Ricki Tarr show up far later in the story I'm mystified as to how Lacon got Smiley to investigate anything. In the book the only reason why Smiley agrees to go back in, to investigate the Circus, is because Tarr's story is so convincing. It also provides the audience with an emotional connection. Tarr fell in love on the job and because of the mole his love was killed. See, an emotional investment for the audience. Here by throwing Tarr's story in almost half-way through the movie, why should we even care about it? He's just corroborating evidence he'd already given over the phone. Did they think, this is when the audience will get bored, throw in a love story... uh, please don't insult our intelligence! But time and time again I come back to the fact that just Lacon whispering a few words in Smiley's ear makes him give up all his beliefs and go back into the fray. This once again is a diminishment. He is easily swayed, he can just give up his daily swims in the river and move into a crappy hotel that looks like it was imported from the Eastern Block and get on with the next chapter of his life. I mean, seriously!?! Come on! Your protagonist doesnt' have sufficient motive for their actions and therefore, once again, I see that this movie is nothing more than surface. He can't just investigate because he's told to, he must have a reason. He must have motive. He must be invested in the outcome because otherwise the audience will be likewise disengaged.

There is only one thing I actually liked about this movie. So let's move beyond the trite chess pieces with the potential spies pictures on them and Control's den of files that were somehow not confiscated when he left, let's go to the small school where Prideaux is in hiding, teaching French. There's a reason the book begins and ends with the school and with Prideaux's father/son relationship to one of his students, Bill Roach, because they are the heart of the story. Roach is rather a pudgy kid with big glasses. There's one line that Prideaux delivers to Roach about the fact that when Roach puts on his glasses there's nothing he can't see. This is a call back to a scene wherein Smiley got new thick glasses. This sets up a lovely parallel between Roach and Smiley that I didn't really think about when reading the book. The two of them are both really Prideaux's benevolent guardians. Smiley wants to protect Prideaux while getting to the bottom of the case and makes every effort to kept up the pretense of his death. Whereas Roach is always looking out for Prideaux. Roach has got his back and will protect him with the faithfulness of the converted. This one line makes you see so many connections and call backs and possibilities that I just wonder what would have happened had the filmmakers bothered to imbue the rest of their story with this depth. This one line shows so much depth, and yet for the most part we're just being show a shiny picture of a past party. I know which one I'd rather have, but perhaps there are those out there who can settle for a quick snapshot in time that captures and hides nothing.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Adaptation, Benedict Cumberbatch, Benediction, Bisexuality, Christmas Party, Colin Firth, Communist, Gary Oldman, Gilmore Girls, Homophobic, Homosexuality, John le Carré, Russia, Tinker Tailor Solider Spy

Talking As Fast As I Can by Lauren Graham
Published by: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: November 29th, 2016
Format: Hardcover, 224 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this collection of personal essays, the beloved star of Gilmore Girls and Parenthood reveals stories about life, love, and working as a woman in Hollywood—along with behind-the-scenes dispatches from the set of the new Gilmore Girls, where she plays the fast-talking Lorelai Gilmore once again.

In Talking as Fast as I Can, Lauren Graham hits pause for a moment and looks back on her life, sharing laugh-out-loud stories about growing up, starting out as an actress, and, years later, sitting in her trailer on the Parenthood set and asking herself, “Did you, um, make it?” She opens up about the challenges of being single in Hollywood (“Strangers were worried about me; that’s how long I was single!”), the time she was asked to audition her butt for a role, and her experience being a judge on Project Runway (“It’s like I had a fashion-induced blackout”).

In “What It Was Like, Part One,” Graham sits down for an epic Gilmore Girls marathon and reflects on being cast as the fast-talking Lorelai Gilmore. The essay “What It Was Like, Part Two” reveals how it felt to pick up the role again nine years later, and what doing so has meant to her.

Some more things you will learn about Lauren: She once tried to go vegan just to bond with Ellen DeGeneres, she’s aware that meeting guys at awards shows has its pitfalls (“If you’re meeting someone for the first time after three hours of hair, makeup, and styling, you’ve already set the bar too high”), and she’s a card-carrying REI shopper (“My bungee cords now earn points!”).

Including photos and excerpts from the diary Graham kept during the filming of the recent Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, this book is like a cozy night in, catching up with your best friend, laughing and swapping stories, and—of course—talking as fast as you can."

Yes, it feels a little bit too much of a tie-in to the show returning, but really, who cares? It's Gilmore Girls! 

Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis by Anne Rice
Published by: Knopf
Publication Date: November 29th, 2016
Format: Hardcover, 480 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From Anne Rice, conjurer of the beloved best sellers Interview with the Vampire and Prince Lestat, an ambitious and exhilarating new novel of utopian vision and power.

"In my dreams, I saw a city fall into the sea. I heard the cries of thousands. I saw flames that outshone the lamps of heaven. And all the world was shaken . . ." --Anne Rice, Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis

At the novel's center: the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt, hero, leader, inspirer, irresistible force, irrepressible spirit, battling (and ultimately reconciling with) a strange otherworldly form that has somehow taken possession of Lestat's undead body and soul. This ancient and mysterious power and unearthly spirit of vampire lore has all the force, history, and insidious reach of the unknowable Universe.

It is through this spirit, previously considered benign for thousands of vampire years and throughout the Vampire Chronicles, that we come to be told the hypnotic tale of a great sea power of ancient times; a mysterious heaven on earth situated on a boundless continent--and of how and why, and in what manner and with what far-reaching purpose, this force came to build and rule the great legendary empire of centuries ago that thrived in the Atlantic Ocean.

And as we learn of the mighty, far-reaching powers and perfections of this lost kingdom of Atalantaya, the lost realms of Atlantis, we come to understand its secrets, and how and why the vampire Lestat, indeed all the vampires, must reckon so many millennia later with the terrifying force of this ageless, all-powerful Atalantaya spirit."

Seriously, if you're laughing as hard as I am after reading this synopsis, let's be best friends! 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Altantis, Anne Rice, Gilmore Girls, Interview with the Vampire, Lauren Graham, Prince Lestat, Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis, Talking As Fast As I Can, Tuesday Tomorrow, Vampires

 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: American Gods, Daleks, Gaiman Gala, Gaiman Toast, Gilmore Girls, Goodreads, Knitting, Llewellyn, Neil Gaiman, Supper Clubs, Wisconsin

The Inheritance by Louisa May Alcott
Published by: Dutton
Publication Date: 1997 (written 1849)
Format: Hardcover, 188 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy(different edition than one reviewed)

Edith Adelon was rescued from an Italian orphanage years ago by the kindly Lord Hamilton to be a companion to his daughter Amy. Lord Hamilton has since died and his son Arthur is the current Lord Hamilton and Edith and Amy have grown into lovely young women. Yet Edith has always felt apart, treated by some in the household, in particular Amy and Arthur's cousin Ida, as nothing more than a servant. When Arthur's friend Lord Percy arrives for the summer, Ida can see there is a connection between Edith and the Lord... a connection that Ida wishes to have for herself. Compounding matters, when their house party expands to include Lord Arlington, he too develops feelings for Edith. Also, after a daring rescue, Edith is responsible for saving Amy's life and is now treated by all as family.

Ida will not tolerate the situation she has been placed in. If being devious won't do, she will be downright underhanded. She will make all those who care and respect Edith despise her. Ida will make it look like the girl with the heart of gold who attends to all the ill and poor of the neighborhood is nothing more than a common thief. Yet there is a secret about Edith that she herself is unaware of. A secret that will change everything, perhaps even her chances with Lord Percy.

Surfing the upper cable channels late at night was how I first discovered The Inheritance. This being before I had a handy cable box that told me what I was watching, or even a computer, I'd just catch parts of it every now and then but I never knew what it was. For some reason I've seen the ball scene probably fifty times because of this strange viewing relationship I had with the miniseries. Also, seeing as I seemed to stumble upon it always around two in the morning I'd never be able to stay awake to see how it ended. All I knew was that it was a romance and Thomas Gibson from Dharma and Greg was in it, oh, and the mother from Family Ties. But being a huge Dharma and Greg fan and seeing Thomas Gibson dancing and strutting around in period clothing was enough to keep me hooked. Quite literally years after the fact I finally found out that it was called The Inheritance and was based on one of the very first stories Louisa May Alcott ever wrote, and then I was able to get it from Amazon for about $4!

So over a decade after it was made and probably five years or more after I had stumbled upon it, I finally knew the ending and the beginning and everything in between. I was also amused that the family estate was Rory Gilmore's High School on Gilmore Girls, but that was just a funny aside because that building has been used in almost everything, even Alias used it as some Eastern European Consulate. Now that I finally knew the author was the famed author of Little Women I ordered myself a copy of the book and was excited to get to reading it right away to see how it compared to the miniseries. As is often the case with me, right away means: and over three years later I create a themed event on my blog so that I force myself to pick up books I've been meaning to read for years. Hence me and The Inheritance finally set a date to meet each other. At least it took a lot less time than getting me to watch that miniseries in full...

The first thing that stuck me about the book was how much the miniseries had changed it! I'm not talking about little things here and there, but that this book is set in England not Concord, Massachusetts, and one of the main characters who I should add is long dead in the book is magically alive in the miniseries only to die tragically. At first I could see no correlation between the two. I was more than a little confused. The book and the miniseries where done in the same year, so at first I thought, maybe the people behind the miniseries where given just a vague outline of the plot and they just made up the rest... but then little things started to pop up which I recognized. The daring cliff rescue, the horse jumping the wall... little things that made me realize that yes, this was, in it's barest essence, the same thing.

Personally, I don't know whether it's because I saw the miniseries first, but the truth is, I far enjoyed the miniseries over reading the book. Edith was a little too good. She was a goody two-shoes. Always suffering silently and working to help the poor and willing to risk her life and her reputation for promises and oaths. How did she suffer from unwanted attention! Dear me, the horrors of men liking her, please. How Ida not loving her pained her most of all. Blah blah blah. She needs a backbone! Also, I know this is in all probability the earliest work of Louisa May Alcott, until something else comes along, but, unlike authors like Austen who where quite developed at this young age, you can tell the youth of the author. Everything is so juvenile and kind of badly written and repetitive. How I wish that Louisa had gone back to this story as a more mature writer, because I think she could have made this a masterpiece, instead it feels like a clunky rough draft of her childhood fantasies.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 1 comments  

Labels: Alias, Concord, Dharma and Greg, Family Ties, Gilmore Girls, Juvenilia, Louisa May Alcott, Miniseries, Rory Gilmore, The Inheritance, Thomas Gibson