Dissipation and Riotous Living

Freed from the laptop -- I've not yet heard back from Herself (my editor) -- I have embarked on a course of Riotous Living. 

Sooner or later I'll have to deal with Under the Skin again -- anything from a total rewrite and expunging of characters (no, I haven't forgotten having to get rid of Myrna Lou in The Day of Small Things) to quite a bit of tweaking.  But until I hear back from Herself, I'm squeezing in as much fun as possible.

Normally I don't watch TV or movies. But, as I mentioned before, we're going episode by episode through "Foyle's War" and I'm loving it.


And on Tuesday night we watched the latest version of Pride and Prejudice. Now there's dissipation for you!

I almost know this book by heart. I've read it any number of times and listened to it on audio recording.


This latest version took a lot of liberties -- condensing action, shifting settings, and generally livening up the overall feeling.

I was prepared to be annoyed -- and they did leave out some of my favorite bits. But there was a freshness to the retelling of this much-loved story that made it a movie well worth watching. 




All the casting was excellent -- Mr. Bingley was played very differently from previous characterizations -- he's always seemed a bit one-dimensional -- this Mr. B. was much more memorable.  Donald Sutherland was an inspired choice for Mr. Bennet and Dame Judi Dench was a magnificent Lady Catherine de Bourgh. The unctuous Mr. Collins is wonderful. And Keira Knightly's Elizabeth is just right, and Matthew Macfayden reanimates the often wooden Mr. Darcy.

And if the ending smacks of a True Romance magazine story -- somehow I found it highly suitable.


Who knows? I might even watch another movie.

And though I have even more books piled in the corner of my room (the ones I can't discuss) I treated myself to a non-mystery for a few more hours of reading pleasure.

I really love Neil Gaiman's writing. And I've always enjoyed good Young Adult literature. So I popped into Accent on Books and collected this wonderful story of an orphan boy raised by ghosts.  Also highly recommended. Here's a good write-up.