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Mar. 16th, 2004 09:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nigeltdeI read Mary Renault's The Charioteer on the weekend (have just embarked upon Gormenghast, eep, a mammoth but enjoyable task); it was very good, which is probably the worst thing about it. Please allow me to vent my spleen a little.
What the hell?????? I am Not Happy. I was totally mislead by the cover, which has a nice picture of the two main characters smiing happily in a photograph, which is complete and utter crap because they DON'T END UP TOGETHER. Normally I'm fine with unhappy endings but not here because they were so Meant For Each Other and they were so sweet and happy together, and I was in the mood for a nice happy even domestic ending, you know how it is, and all the signs pointed there, and then it just veers off into this track of depression and loneliness at the last minute. Bastards!
It actually is very good though, and it's not like the ending doesn't make sense or anything. I was just disappointed. As an aside, this from one of the Amazon reviewers: Reading this book as a heterosexual female, I can't say that I identified with any of the characters.... Can I just say WTF?
Something else I was disappointed by was The Scarlet Pimpernel: I figured Anthony Andrews, Ian McKellen, how could you possibly go wrong, right? But it wasn't the kind of camp or even overacting that I normally find screamingly funny (I like Doctor Who for crying out loud), it was just....bleh. I found Andrews's speech about how awful it was to have to play the fop excruciating, and everyone speaking in English accents irritating. Is there some level of irony I am missing? Ian was good, though, as you'd epect.
What the hell?????? I am Not Happy. I was totally mislead by the cover, which has a nice picture of the two main characters smiing happily in a photograph, which is complete and utter crap because they DON'T END UP TOGETHER. Normally I'm fine with unhappy endings but not here because they were so Meant For Each Other and they were so sweet and happy together, and I was in the mood for a nice happy even domestic ending, you know how it is, and all the signs pointed there, and then it just veers off into this track of depression and loneliness at the last minute. Bastards!
It actually is very good though, and it's not like the ending doesn't make sense or anything. I was just disappointed. As an aside, this from one of the Amazon reviewers: Reading this book as a heterosexual female, I can't say that I identified with any of the characters.... Can I just say WTF?
Something else I was disappointed by was The Scarlet Pimpernel: I figured Anthony Andrews, Ian McKellen, how could you possibly go wrong, right? But it wasn't the kind of camp or even overacting that I normally find screamingly funny (I like Doctor Who for crying out loud), it was just....bleh. I found Andrews's speech about how awful it was to have to play the fop excruciating, and everyone speaking in English accents irritating. Is there some level of irony I am missing? Ian was good, though, as you'd epect.
