Carrie asked:
"Was the Deep End based on a crime novel? Wasn't it something
French? Anybody read it and have any insights in the changes
that were made? I dug Memento but TDE didn't do a lot for me.
It was quite a lovely film and well acted but I found
the story rather nonsensical and thought it ran out of steam
well before the end (as we've been discussing that some books
want to be shorter than the editors make them, I thought
maybe this feature wanted to be a short; there wasn't enough
to sustain a film IMO)."
Deep End was based on The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay
Holding. I haven't read it, but Raymond Chandler certainly
thought highly of it. From one of his letters:
"For my money she's the top suspense writer of them all. She
doesn't pour it on and make you feel irritated. Her
characters are wonderful; and she has a sort of inner calm
which I find very attractive. I recommend for your attention,
if you have not read them, Net of Cobwebs, The Innocent Mrs.
Duff, The Blank Wall."
I haven't found The Blank Wall, yet, but I did find The
Innocent Mrs. Duff (haven't read it yet) as half of an Ace
Double. I'm guessing she can't be accused of padding, it's
only 147 pages; the other half, The Virgin Huntress is only
107.
"But I couldn't get through 20 pages of the Ice Harvest, much
less the whole thing. Would finishing it have been worth my
time?"
If you didn't like the first 20 pages, you won't like the
rest of it, it's more of the same, driving from one bar to
another while waiting to make a meet. And that's why I liked
it, even if the ending was a touch too O'Henry ironic after
the mostly naturalistic story.
Mark
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