Why does a sentient human being who reads lots and lots of book reviews plunk down $25 for a book that she’s pretty sure she’s not going to like?
Because I had to find out what happened to Corinne and Russell Calloway. Duh.
I’m very fond of BRIGHTNESS FALLS, Jay McInerney’s attempt to — in his paraphrased words, but I think I’m pretty close — do the BONFIRE OF VANITIES but with heart. (Isn’t that like making a gin martini, but with chocolate? Which is JUST WRONG, by the way. Frankly, I don’t even approve of vodka martinis and would normally not put “gin” in front of “martini” but there are some inexperienced types in these parts.) Anyway, a good book, his best of those I’ve read. (BRIGHT LIGHTS, STORY OF MY LIFE LIFE, LAST OF THE SAVAGES.) So, despite the meh reviews for the BF sequel, THE GOOD LIFE, and my own yawning indifference to its plot (not 9-11, but the passionate extramarital affair justified by the fact that the other spouses cheated first, but Corinne and Luke’s cheating is so spiritual and metaphysical, so post 9-11, while their respective spouses cheated pre-9-11)*, I bought it and read it en route to Phoenix. Because I wanted to know what happened to Corinne and Russell and even their friend, Washington. Heck, I’d like to know what happened to the rapacious M&A girl who screwed up the Callloway marriage the first time around.
I realize this is silly. They are not real people. But I’m a sucker for characters. Larry McMurty has broken my heart many times over, revisiting characters from previous books (Danny Deck! Jill! Harmony!) with less-than-spectacular results. Yet when I know there are sequels to books that I’ve read and enjoyed, almost no review in the world can keep me away. If Herman Wouk, who’s still writing, ever wants to write about Marjorie Morningstar’s daughter, I’m there. If Alexander Portnoy checks in, I’m so there. I’d even be up for a Rabbit resurrection.
Anyone else out there forming irrational attachments to literary characters? (Books that are intended to be a series, such as mine, don’t count. I’m talking about the non-series character who sometimes recur.) Did you try Ruth Plumly Thompson’s version of the Oz stories? Do you read the Mitchell-estate authorized continuation of GONE WITH THE WIND? Confess all.
*I’m not saying I’m a puritan who can’t warm up to a good story about adultery. I’m saying THE GOOD LIFE would be far more interesting if Corinne and Luke didn’t have such convenient rationalizations for their affair. Two soup kitchen volunteers swept into an affair while their basically good/kind spouses go about their lives. Now THAT would be interesting.
I loved Clarisse Starling in the book Silence of The Lambs (I liked Jodie in the movie too) I just really loved her, everything about her, she just spoke to me. So I was very excited to read Hannibal, and I got so involvewd with that book, that I was pretty close to ending it at 2am – I got to the end, where Clarisse and Hannibal are together, and I read a certain part, and anyone who read that book knows what part I am talking about … and I thought “No that did not just happen.. It’s late and I made that up…” So I went back and read it again… and was DEVASTATED. There is no way the Clarisse I loved would have ever done that!
And yes, I read GWTW 2 and was equally devastated by that, because my girl Scarlett would have NEVER left Tara. So I didn’t like that one either.
In a series, the one character I ADORE beyond measure is Amelia Peabody in the Elizabeth Peters books. I worry that Ms Peters will pass away and I will never read new Amelia’s again.
I did read From Fields of Gold, the GWTW sequel. Of course, it was’t as good as the “original” but fun nonetheless.
I would love to see how Henry and Clara in The Time Traveler’s Wife continue with their strange lives…
And I would like another dose of The Lovely Bones to see how Susie Salmon is making out in heaven. It will be made into a movie next year so at least that’s something.
Homer Wells in The Cider House Rules must be an excellent doctor by now, but another book just on Homer, Melony, and the orphanage would be great!
Oh and not to be a complete suck up or anything — but I am still crushing on Rick like you would not believe I go back and read about him sometimes … I wouuldn’t mind a Rick and Kristina return.
That’s a hint, in case you missed it
Reynolds Price returns to his characters, sometimes years later — it doesn’t always work (GOOD HEARTS was a terribly disappointing sequel to A LONG AND HAPPY LIFE), but they’re people I love and want to check in on. I picked up Kaye Gibbons’ latest book, the long-delayed sequel to ELLEN FOSTER, but have not read it yet because I’m so afraid of disappointment.
Yes, I read some of Ruth Plumly Thompson- I actually made an effort to purchase as many of the paperback reprint OZ series as possible for my kids- from our library used bookstore and remainder stores- but the only one I have now is a hardback old Purple Prince of Oz. I didn’t read that many of them – and they didn’t make a great impression. Of course, many people(not in this group, of course) never read the Wizard of Oz or other Baum books.
Yes, I read Scarlett- I liked Scarlett meeting her relatives and her “maturing” in Ireland. Was it trash-
maybe- but who cares? It was an excellent book for some work trip -when I didn’t want to think in the evening.
Well, these are almost like novels….
I loved the characters played by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy in Richard Linklater’s BEFORE SUNRISE. Given that, at the end of the movie, you don’t know whether they’re going to stay together, it was a pleasure and surprise to find them appearing again (in a way) in Linklater’s totally odd, animated dream-film, WAKING LIFE. Since they’re in bed together in their scene in that movie–and clearly a couple of long standing–fans can assume there was a happy ending to BEFORE SUNRISE.
But then here came BEFORE SUNSET, which took their story in yet another direction.
I see this series of movies as being a kind of focused, fictional version of the great -UP documentary series (7-UP, 14-UP, etc), and hope Delpy, Hawke, and Linklater make another one in about eight years.
I’ve read that the brain forms specific nuerons in relation to each person we know. Seems to be a good cause for the sense of loss we feel when someone moves out of our lives. The brain’s a pretty adaptable beast, and I’m fairly certain it’s the same case here. Individual nuerons for individual characters.
Arkady Renko, Martin Cruz Smith’s Russian detective, is sort of my literary boyfriend. Except on one of my last rereadings, you know what I noticed? The first time he gets with a woman (he gets one per novel), they do it standing up.
(I hope this isn’t TMI, but I have never done it standing up. I lack the 98-pound physique that makes such an act possible. Why would you, anyway, when there are horizontal surfaces everywhere?)
This could probably be conflated with fanfic, but since I’m a diehard L.M. Montgomery fan, when I was younger — oh, maybe 13 or so — I invented an entire followup story about Anne & Gilbert’s son Shirley, who’d gone off to fight in WWI and when he returned he seemed so aloof and distant that something must have happened to him. I still wonder occasionally.
Otherwise, in the “characters that broke my heart” category, Pauline Moreau in Jeanine Boissard’s “L’Esprit de Famille” books (translated into English and published in the early 80s.) I loved loved loved this girl in A TIME TO CHOOSE. OMG. Happy ending central. Searched for the sequel for years…and she’s a pathetic shrew whose husband was cheating on her. Bleh.
I never knew about a continuing story of Anne and Gilbert!!!! where can one find this treasure? I used to spend days cooped up with my family (once or twice a year) watching Green Gables and Avonlea. The PBS version is the one with Meghan Follows, yes?
Yes, the PBS version has Meghan Follows, and yes the original actors, all the way down to Schuyler were in the continuation. I’m not sure where to find it, though. One of the girls I work with said she thinks she saw it in Wal-Mart.
The PBS version is actually the CBC version (Canadian channel) which…god, aired way back in 1985. Then there was a sequel in ’87, and the one you’re talking about I think was from 3-4 years ago, and yes, it sucked.
I was also a huge Road to Avonlea addict, at least till I read the books and realized how much had been changed. Ah well.
sometimes books and their characters are easier to
get attached to and have relationships with than
real life stuff.
Sarah, I know how you felt. Did you ever watch the PBS series of Anne? I did many times. About a year or two ago, I was watching tv, and lo and behold, there was the continuing story! Anne and Gilbert were a lot older, in Europe during the war, searching to find one another after they were split up some how. I’m not sure if it was because I was so much older, or if it was just really cheesy, but it didn’t do it for me like the original series.