Huddled at my kitchen table just now, as I am so often, I
heard a sound so familiar that I didn’t notice it for a while. Then I did.
Tennis balls! Being knocked about in the little club out back! Perhaps we
really are getting the world back!
I did some knitting today – not very much. Perhaps another
picture tomorrow after the Andrew Marr show. What I did today was play a
recently-purchased DVD of Visconti’s film “Il Gattopardo” while knitting. (Not
without some difficulty, reminding myself how to tell the television to show me
the recording. Will I be able to restore it to real life in time for Andrew
Marr?)
When I was really young, 10 or 11 perhaps, I saw the movie
of “My Friend Flicka”. I loved the book passionately. It was the first time I
had ever seen a film made from a book I had read. I honestly expected to see
the movie that ran in my head as I was reading. It was a cruel, cruel
disappointment.
Visconti’s film comes about as close as is possible, and I’m
older and wiser now. It’s not the book. It’s not nearly as good as the book.
But it looks more or less right.
Comments
Oh, Mary Lou, a glut of asparagus! Hot with butter and
lemon! Cold with oil and vinegar! My brother-in-law grills it with a bit of Tabasco.
Then start again.
My father’s mother in Constantine, Michigan, had a big stand
of it. All I remember is hiding in the fronds later in the season, which I wasn’t
supposed to do. My mother’s parents had, in effect, a smallholding, in Dallas –
a big vegetable garden, a cow, chickens. I have no memory of the food being
delicious, although it certainly should have been. I remember the hired man
turning the proper old-fashioned ice cream maker on Sunday mornings. I remember
him beheading chickens, too.
I knew him for years only as “John”. I remember how very
pleased I was to discovered that he was really “Mr McGregor”, just as in “Peter
Rabbit”.
How old was I when I finally learned that asparagus can be a treat? Pretty old.
Tandah, you encourage me to go on with Elizabeth Strout,
despite not much liking “The Burgess Boys”.
I only see movies made from favorite books if I can really separate the two in my mind before I see the film. Otherwise, I'm afraid the movie may spoil the book for me and I'll never want to read it again. Is that odd? It's why I have not seen the new Little Women, even though I might enjoy the familiar landscapes and so on (I live in central MA) it seems likely that the movie (which has gotten probably well-deserved rave reviews) would alter the version of the book I have seen in my mind's eye since I was quite small. All of LMA's books had a place in our family bookshelf, but my mother's childhood copy of Little Women was the centerpiece.
ReplyDeleteIf I see a movie first, I’m fine. Of recent books then movie experiences, I loved Wolf Hall. I couldn’t imagine how it would be done but Mark Rylance did it. I remember taking my goddaughter to see a play of the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, which was her favorite book at the time. She was sorely disappointed, and whispered to me “That’s not how they looked in my mind.”
ReplyDeleteI have grilled and steamed, with butter and lemon. I’ll have to try the cold with vinaigrette. The season is so short.
I remember gooseberries, eaten on a family friend's farm, before they were outlawed as possibly poisonous. I used to know most of the chapter titles in Little Women because I had read it so often. Now I only remember "Aunt March Settles the Question." It always had such a ring to it.Chloe
ReplyDeleteFresh asparagus plucked and eaten raw turned out to be my favorite.
ReplyDeleteIf I recall correctly, the issue with gooseberries in the USA is that they harbor a microbe, or something, that damages a species of tree that is valued. The berries are fine.
When a show is made from a book I enjoy, I do as much research as I can to find out what to brace myself for. In some instances, I decided that the movie actually improved on the book. A TV miniseries has a better chance of doing justice to a novel.