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Wednesday April 30, 2008
Books in April
- Locked Rooms Laurie R King
This is the latest in a series of novels which start with The Beekeepers Apprentice, or, "What Sherlock Did Next". It follows the famous sleuth after he retires to Sussex to keep bees. Apart from the excellent (really excellent) work by Michael Dibdin**, I have found modern Holmes pastiches to be truly poor - even comparing them with the later Conan Doyle stories, which were often poorly written. And it is true that a synopsis of the basic premise of the books [young American jewish girl meets older Holmes and marries him..] does sound pretty bad - to us fans.
However, I'm no purist and Laurie King is easily forgiven. She writes very well, the stories are true adventure stories with the emphasis on the word story, in the very best traditions of Conan Doyle or Rudyard Kipling, and they are not pastiches, being really about Mary Russell, rather than "More Adventures of Sherlock Holmes". Probably neither she nor you need my justification, but perhaps I feel I need to justify why I read them!.
Any changes observed in the Holmes character are easily attributed to his being seen through different eyes, and he is, after all, much older. It is amusing to see that Mary is clearly King herself, even down to physical descriptions, and I think because of this she writes with such sympathy and love for her subject matter, that you can forgive her messing about with such an English institution. She makes her premise entirely plausible - I was not so sure about the idea of Holmes marrying, but for the time about which she writes, and our own reader's sensibilities, it would be hard to create stories about an unmarried couple careering around together in such intimate circumstances. It also occurred to me that she has a good contemporary model for such an idea, in Lord Baden-Powell, who, famous Victorian hero of Mafeking, and a bachelor at 55, in 1912 met and married Olave, aged 23; wikipedia notes "not an uncommon age gap at that time".
My favourite of these novels to date has been "The Game" - I think because it is set in India, (always interested me due to family connections) and has nice references to Kipling throughout. Now I have got to grips with my iPod, I have been listening to an audio version of it recently (read by Jenny Sterlin), in tandem with reading Locked Rooms.
Laurie King has a great website with lots of fanzine materials and links, plus a most enjoyable blog which illustrates her charming and fun personality.
** The last Sherlock Holmes Story is such an excellent book that I was astonished to see it was his first and dates from 1978. It really is perfect, in my opinion, so that even while proposing a heretical view of Holmes character, the portrayal is so very accurate that you wonder how we could have ever have perceived the detective in any other way.
I remember a similar sensation when I saw the all male version of Swan Lake - how could anyone ever stage it any other way?! - At Bertrams Hotel Agatha Christie
Read by Rosemary Leach
"In which Christina learns a new word."
I am pleased when my excursions into re-reading Christie novels of dubious literary merit do in fact enrich my intellectual life in some way... The word in question is "simulacrum", and it is the foundation upon which the novel is set. Bertram's Hotel is not simply a nice old-fashioned hotel with all the "old standards", nor is it a commercial Olde Worlde copy for the benefit of tourists - it is a hyper-real stagey version of an old hotel. Not stagnant but actively groomed and polished to produce the required effect.
Within the elderly class-ridden society that inhabit it, all are agreed how wonderful it all is. Yet, most satisfyingly, it takes Miss Marple - who is not one for mawkish nostalgia - no time at all to shrewdly take it all in and regard it not only with suspicion, but also as somewhat threatening. To my mind, this is most vividly portrayed in the Joan Hickson TV series, where the plot is fairly accurately followed - though it could be said, improved upon. In the book, there is a rather tedious focus on the police investigation, and perhaps more true to life, less focus on Miss Marple - she is after all just a little old lady.
Here are some snatches of reviews which I think give a good idea of the overall quality of the book:
"...can hardly be called a major Agatha Christie..."
"...denouement is really too far-fetched..."
"...seldom at her best when she goes thrillerish on you..."
"...a reasonably snug read..."
"...plot is rather creaky, as in most of the late ones..."
"...Elvira Blake is one of the best observed of the many young people in late Christie..."
"...seemingly trashy fiction that nevertheless contributes to a genre of speculative fiction..."
This last reviewer goes on to draw comparisons with other examples of synthetic worlds that seem at first to be benevolent: The Portrait of Dorian Grey, Blade Runner, Westworld, Jurassic Park, and The Truman Show.
In addition to listening to the book, I watched (again) the Geraldine McEwan version in "Marple". This deviates from the book considerably - as do all the Marple series - but in a Good way. Some episodes of this series were very disappointing (for example Murder at the Vicarage, which promised so much with such a fabulous cast but...); however, generally, they offer some nice variations in themes and characters, which I quite approve of. Joan Hickson provided a definitive version - so why repeat that?
The side plot with Martine McCutcheon and Stephen Mangan adds very positively to the story, and reinforces the more light-hearted tone of the Marple series. I read that McEwan has abandoned the role and it will be taken up by Julia McKenzie - it seems slightly odd as they must have filmed almost all of them by now (even some that were not actually Marple stories) and it seems odd that they have filmed Nemesis without the prequel Caribbean Mystery.... but I digress.
More important than any of these considerations - McEwan wears a delightful cardigan throughout - which I fondly imagine having been knitted by someone in the costume department. It seems to me to be a recreation of the pattern from 1936 "My Home" (although this was a jumper not a cardigan) as reprinted in Jane Waller's 30s Family Knitting Book*** published in 1981.
Note that Miss Marple has her trusty knitting bag over her arm, and much is made of the knitting in the recent portrayals. Julia McKenzie says of her new role "I suppose I shall have to remind myself how to knit". I think originally it was introduced to emphasise her persona as one of harmless old lady; in one story she use the pretence of buying some wool in a local shop in order to pick up information. I can't imagine Christie herself knitting somehow, but I guess it was and is a fairly common pursuit.
This must have been a fun role for McEwan - but I was most delighted by her portrayal of Lucia in the TV series of the E F Benson books. These were surely perfect, and the audio books - some read by McEwan and some by Prunella Scales - are also wonderful to listen to.
*** I notice that Amazon show this as a "rare" book and one seller is asking £121 for a copy. Jane Waller mentioned to me that she thought her books from the 1980s - Stitch in Time, 30s Family Knitting Book, and Mens Book - would be worth reprinting, but the publishers were not interested in doing so.
Posted by Christina at 8:14 AM. Category: Books of the Month
