We're back into Orange Wednesday. We've been using the Orange phone more since we've had the caravan (it's all about signals - they aren't very strong in St Andrews on any networks) so, once again, Orange are texting us our free ticket every week. This afternoon it was the excellent My Week With Marilyn. It's a gentle story about a young cinema runner's week long association with mega star Marilyn Monroe when she visits England to film at Pinewood with Sir Larry Olivier. Kenneth Branagh steals the show as the actorly actorrr Olivier with his wonderfully theatrical enunciation feebly attempting to win over the young, talented and extremely vulnerable Munroe (another fine performance from Michelle Williams, so impressive in Blue Valentine and a safe bet for another Academy Award Nomination in this role). Olivier's attempt at movie success depends upon Monroe but her erratic and unmanageable behaviour threatens to wreck the production. Bullying Sir Laurence can't handle her and she is frightened of him. Step in twenty three year old Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne) the 3rd assistant director or "gopher" as he calls himself . Marilyn seems to like him and the film chronicles his increasingly love struck efforts to keep Olivier's movie afloat. It's a very enjoyable film based on a real life story. Now we will have to see The Prince And The Showgirl - the real 1957 film in the story.
I'm not going to get political again and go on about today's strike but the local Vue must have been over the moon as the place was packed with families with kids and teenagers going to see Arthur Christmas, Tin Tin, Immortals and that Twilight film. It was as busy as a typical weekend. The local shops were pretty busy too. Maybe Vue and the retailers will be asking for another strike next week.
A few weeks ago I mentioned on the blog that I'd downloaded a selection of books for the Kindle in an attempt to find a good comic novel. To date the covers misled as neither The Rotters' Club nor Skippy Dies were exactly a barrel of laughs and I don't know where on earth I got the impression that Rabbit Run was humorous. However, unlike the other books I mentioned which, though entertaining enough, were not particularly thought provoking, Rabbit Run really is a classic deserving of its place in the stratosphere of American fiction. It's hard going. Not an easy read and, I worry, somewhat misogonist but what a piece of writing! Updike's prose is both lyrical and poetical and gives this aspiring writer one hell of an inferiority complex. There are another three Rabbit books written at around ten year intervals. I won't be waiting ten years to read the next.
We've got friends coming on Saturday to celebrate Josephine's success in developing Sorority Girls and Holding Out For A Hero. We've got an episode of each to watch as well as fitting in drinks and a three course meal. So our guests are arriving at 5.30. It promises to be a good night.
I'm a bit of a lazy so and so when it comes to choosing books and, as Marion has such brilliant literary taste, I tend to simply read what she's bought - I'm rarely disappointed. This is even easier now that we both have Kindles and we can read the same books at the same time. But just before we headed up to the caravan on Saturday I decided to pop into Waterstones in Liverpool and choose some reading for the long dark hours in St Andrews. I made a list after looking at the covers from a wide range and then went home and downloaded them onto the Kindle (sorry Waterstones but at least you sold me a panini and a cup of coffee). I wanted something that might make me laugh so I chose The Rotters Club by Jonathan Coe, Rabbit Run by John Updike and Skippy Dies by Paul Murray. In addition I picked a few that were not for laughs and bought Pigeon English and The Slap because both are best sellers and have some critical acclaim.
I finished The Rotters Club pretty quickly. It was a well written novel about adolescence interwoven with seventies nostalgia and Trade Union politics. I enjoyed it although it did not provide the laughs suggested by the cover. Skippy Dies took far longer to read and it was almost a week before I finished it today. The Kindle version does not have page numbers but the percentage bar at the bottom of the screen kept telling me I was far from finished and I just read that it runs to almost 700 pages in paperback. I feel somewhat exhausted and a little let down as, yet again, despite being well (nay brilliantly) written, I failed to find the humour proclaimed on the back cover. Set in a posh Catholic boys school in Dublin there is plenty of scope for adolescent laughs but this tale of 14 year olds is simply too dark to be a comic novel and I found myself disappointed that I have failed, yet again, to find the holy grail of a book that will make me smile. Many years ago I enjoyed Tom Sharpe's Wilt novels and, whilst I bet they are terribly dated today, they were written just for laughs. If anybody can point me in the direction of a modern equivalent, I will be very grateful - mind you I've still got the Updike to redeem my choice.
We're off to the wonderful Old Course hotel tomorrow for three nights. You may wonder why, when we have our caravan to stay in, we should up sticks and head for a luxurious five star hotel with an outstanding spa, huge comfortable rooms, deep baths and magnificent breakfasts. A mystery. But one with a logical solution. It's quite simply because many months ago, in our pre caravan owning days, the hotel tweeted an unbeatable special offer for November and I booked it. The excellent deal had a no cancellation clause so I suppose we'll just have to grin and bear it. Poor us.
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| My Novel |
While I am up here in Scotland I hope to be putting the finishing touches to my novel. I wrote it over two years ago and then had to shelve it due to work commitments but since retiring it has been professionally critiqued for me by a leading light in publishing and I have done a rewrite taking everything he said on board. I think its quite good (apologies for the immodesty) and I am now looking at ways of self publishing it for the Kindle. I will be pleased when it is finally finished as I feel that I have learnt an awful lot about writing and can't wait to start my next one. Maybe I will try and write something that will make people laugh.
