Kate Derie (cluelass@cluelass.com)
Tue, 28 Dec 1999 13:37:40 -0800
Had myself a hard-boiled little Christmas -- or rather, a
little hardboiled at Christmas, but that's not as hummable.
Got Miami Purity and Connelly's Blood Work. Finished Miami
Purity last night and I'll never be able to look at a dry
cleaners the same way again -- I may have to convert to
wash-and-wear. A wonderful character sketch of a certain type
of dependent and co-dependent woman -- I'm sure you could fit
her into several of the pigeonholes in DSM-IV (Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. -- the
shrink's bible*). It was a little slow at first -- in fact, I
flipped to the end and read the final scene, which was good
enough that I went back and read the whole thing. The
secondary characters, however, were not as well-delineated --
it would have been quite a challenge to portray them through
a first-person, unreliable narrator, and Hendricks wasn't
quite up to it. But a fine book for a first-time author, all
the same.
Saw Ripley yesterday. Although leisurely, it never dragged
for me. Terrific evocation of period and place. However,
there were things that bothered me -- a minor one was that in
some scenes, there was no glass in Ripley's eyeglasses, but
in other scenes, there was. Very distracting, when it would
have been much better to be consistent. And furthermore, they
were a Clark Kentish sort of prop, since he didn't seem to
need them in the scenes where he didn't wear them.
More major was that the depiction of Tom Ripley -- who
*definitely* could be looked up in the DSM-IV -- made him
seem to be more of a poor, troubled youth who was (initially
at least) a victim of circumstance. Minghella was much too
soft on him IMHO. Finally, I personally would have preferred
a more ambiguous ending -- just cut off the final scene and
leave us wondering -- will he or won't he? Thumbs up,
nevertheless.
*Publisher's synopsis: "The DSM IV provides the only
comprehensive classification of all recognized psychiatric
disorders in print. This edition features increased emphasis
on multicultural influences, development across the lifespan,
and substance abuse disorders. More than 1,000 clinicians and
researchers have contributed to the revision of this classic
reference. " Maybe we should put it on the readings. I would
add a smiley to that, but I fear eggs might be thrown (at the
emoticon ratherthan the weak attempt at humor).
Regards, Kate Derie Creator of the ClueLass HomePage, http://www.cluelass.com
Editor of the Deadly Directory, http://www.deadlyserious.com
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