To write an Oscar-winning novel
June 27th 2009 06:47
I suppose it all comes down to knowing that point where what you're writing is no longer built for the movies. Maybe the author simply cannot see any actors taking up the characters in what's written. Maybe there is so much depth on the page that there is no need for another medium to be used to express the story. Maybe the thought of it is messing up the writer's voice and getting in the way of the final product.
Julian Fellowes is an Oscar winner, for his screenplay of Gosford Park, and his novel 'Past Imperfect' proves to provide enough articulation of the scenes so that it works quite well as a novel written by a scriptwriter. There's no getting past it - the wit and banter between characters makes for entertaining and attention-grabbing pieces of a story that is surprisingly warm, yet sentimentally traditional in its own way.
The sentiment for tradition is the backdrop for the novel. The sixty-something narrator is constantly harking back to stories of his early twenties when he was a part of the higher strands of English aristocratic society.
Oh.
Does that sound boring? Well for the fact that it does seem like a genuine insiders point of view of what was going on with all the social upheavals of the 1960's, it makes for an interesting tale as we witness all that he held dear in his youth unravel into a mortal tale that will have the readers looking back on their own lives and wondering: what goes on with these people nowadays? Who's alive, who's dead, who turned out to be everything we expected them to be, who didn't?
Past Imperfect goes deep into the battlefield of age and the ability to keep face. And it seems to be well and truly from the perspective of a person who has been forced back to the people of his past in which to discover the heir to a dying man's fortunes.
Honestly, it seems autobiographical. Magically so.
If you are looking for light-hearted social commentary to keep your brain warm this winter, I can heartily recommend this book. Well written and articulate, it is something for anyone with a slight interest in the 1960's, whether they had lived through that decade or not.
I sure as hell haven't, and I found this book totally enrapturing. Devour at will.
Julian Fellowes is an Oscar winner, for his screenplay of Gosford Park, and his novel 'Past Imperfect' proves to provide enough articulation of the scenes so that it works quite well as a novel written by a scriptwriter. There's no getting past it - the wit and banter between characters makes for entertaining and attention-grabbing pieces of a story that is surprisingly warm, yet sentimentally traditional in its own way.
The sentiment for tradition is the backdrop for the novel. The sixty-something narrator is constantly harking back to stories of his early twenties when he was a part of the higher strands of English aristocratic society.
Oh.
Does that sound boring? Well for the fact that it does seem like a genuine insiders point of view of what was going on with all the social upheavals of the 1960's, it makes for an interesting tale as we witness all that he held dear in his youth unravel into a mortal tale that will have the readers looking back on their own lives and wondering: what goes on with these people nowadays? Who's alive, who's dead, who turned out to be everything we expected them to be, who didn't?
Past Imperfect goes deep into the battlefield of age and the ability to keep face. And it seems to be well and truly from the perspective of a person who has been forced back to the people of his past in which to discover the heir to a dying man's fortunes.
Honestly, it seems autobiographical. Magically so.
If you are looking for light-hearted social commentary to keep your brain warm this winter, I can heartily recommend this book. Well written and articulate, it is something for anyone with a slight interest in the 1960's, whether they had lived through that decade or not.
I sure as hell haven't, and I found this book totally enrapturing. Devour at will.
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Comment by Morgan Bell
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