Next assignment
Two books down. Next assignment: The Wings Of The Dove. Henry James has never been easy reading for me, but the film should serve as a primer for the heavy material. Of course it’s about money. Henry James is always about money.
Iain Softley’s adaptation of The Wings Of The Dove is one of my favorite movies set in Venice. The others are Don’t Look Now and Summertime, even if Rossano Brazzi’s acting is pure prosciutto. Does anyone know where I can get a copy of another movie set in Venice, Senso by Luchino Visconti?
By the way, my snapshot of Caffe Florian appears in the Schmap Guide to Venice.
Venice must be the easiest place in the world to shoot. You can point and shoot at random, and it’ll turn out like a Canaletto.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
January 12th, 2009 at 10:37
Henry James is tough. His works stagger me and it is often a struggle to plow through those long sentences and paragraphs. I read his works slowly. I dare not read him while commuting, being surrounded by people, being in the middle of work. I bought The Wings of the Dove last year for my birthday. (My birthday was last Jan. 6.) I read the novel from cover to cover with determination. I like this quote from the book: “Shouldn’t one, at the start, show the worst– so that anything after that may be better?”…
Not everyone can stand Sir James. But I can. I love him. I have almost all of his novels.
January 12th, 2009 at 11:30
Aaaaah. I’ve already thrown the book a couple of times and I’m this close to quitting. What I’ll do is, I’ll try reading it in tandem with a fast-paced book.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:47
Really? Here are some of the books I excitedly started reading but just had to NOT finish them– Gravity’s Rainbow, Beloved by Toni Morrison, Don Quixote and The Unconsoled by K. Ishiguro. There are many more. I just finished recently Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann. 3 stars out of 5. My next book assignment is the Allen Ginsberg bio I Celebrate Myself.