A blizzard was raging in New York, so she had read on the bulletin-board before she left the ship. It was difficult to visualize sheets of fine snow driving obliquely against facades, while sitting on an open terrace in the sun gazing at calla lilies in bloom bordered by freesia. It was difficult, too, to believe that the scene before her was reality. It was more like a drop curtain rolled down between herself and the dull drab facts of her life.
Now, this book isn’t as egregiously trite and cliché ridden as “The Bridges of Madison County” but it is a pot boiler – and the screen adaptation turns it into a thoroughly grand film experience – like Richard LaGravenese’s screenplay of “Bridges” – oh, and some powerhouse performances.
And, I have to admit when I rescued the volume from a pile of books that were being thrown away when I was twelve (see, I have it still) I was mesmerized. Later, when my dad had business in London, and I was there in school he got me a membership to the British Film Institute and it was the first movie from the 1940’s that I saw on a big screen.
Thus, my fascination. Screenplay by Casey Robinson.
I read the book while camping in Mesa Verde and the Grand Canyon! What a contrast that was. I loved the book and well,,,,you know I love the movie.
You know, I’m going to read it again…
You know, I’ve never read it, and ought to. We all need good fiction in our lives, and I read far too much heavy stuff (though I’m reading a very interesting YAF someone recommended to me—I have a young nephew, my sister & I are both bookworms, something she hopes he also picks up).
Anyhow. Potboiler or no, I love the movie and the book must be at least halfway good to have inspired it. 😉
I love both films you mentioned… but I also really enjoyed reading “Bridges of Madison County”. I think I cried for a full hour after I closed the book. That hadn’t happened to me since I watched “Out of Africa”. Okay, it wasn’t “Hamlet”, but I found it very moving.