Who's afraid of...
"But you don't remember..." Mrs. Haines began. No, not that. Still he did remember--and he was about to tell them what, when there was a sound outside, and Isa, his son's wife, came in with her hair in pigtails....In her novel Between the Acts, left unfinished at the time of her death, Virginia draws the curtain away from our most secret thoughts and feelings and captures the beautiful subtleties of human emotions and interactions. Virginia Woolf is a master of describing things that are invisible and un-knowable--words unspoken, thoughts unexpressed. In all of her novels, her characters struggle with elegantly hidden confusions: loveless marriages, feelings of inadequacy, longing for the past, aimlessness. Yet, for all their tribulations, Woolf's characters are never cloying or precious--they are real people. They are you and me.
In Between the Acts, a small-town family prepares a community pageant depicting the history of England. As the pageant unfolds, the lives of the family unfold, revealing the love and pain suffered by each of the family members.
I've only just begun to read Between the Acts, but I highly recommend it. Woolf is a brilliant and beautiful writer, and one of my personal favorites. If you haven't read any of Virginia Woolf's works, you really should. Her talent is impossible to quantify. (Start with Mrs. Dalloway or To The Lighthouse if you're a newbie.) I'll keep you all updated on the progress, although I can already tell you, it's going to be a great read.
Another book I've been working on lately is Marie Antoinette: The Journey. I've always been a bit of a Francophile, and although I am generally uninterested in history, I really enjoy learning about the French Revolution. This is a meticulously-researched biography of one of France's most notorious characters, and it offers many surprising conclusions about the life of Marie Antoinette. In all, it portrays her as a kind if somewhat naive young woman whose actions were often misinterpreted. The author submits that Marie Antoinette was actually a loving mother and respectable queen who was the scapegoat for her ineffective and capitulating husband. Of course, the author is sure to mention, Marie was not perfect--she was most likely an adulteress, and for a queen she had a shocking lack of interest in politics--but on the whole, a portrait emerges not of a greedy, interfering Austrian in the French court, but a compassionate, courageous woman who fell victim to dangerous times and rebellious ideas.
The historical details can be confusing at times--I estimate a character count of more than a hundred--but it is an intriguing and gripping story, and at the conclusion, the fate of Marie Antoinette is moving and thoroughly disappointing. Nonetheless, I recommend this book if you like history, or if you like a little bit of celebrity gossip now and then (this book is full of juicy tidbits, even if the subjects are long dead).
PS--Sofia Coppola's adaptation of this book is beautiful and lavish, no doubt, but it is an extremely flimsy glossing-over of Marie Antoinette's life. Kirstin Dunst and Jason Schwarzmann are brilliant casting choices, but the weak and superficial script does not even begin to create an accurate depiction of this book. Artistically, I give the movie two thumbs up; academically, I give the movie two thumbs way down.
More about Between the Acts and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance soon...
Labels: Books
posted by Juliet @ 3:12 PM
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