Skip to main content

Back with Pip

I have just finished, and enjoyed, Mr Pip by Lloyd Jones.

It was a book I just happened to chance upon. I'm not really into serious, modern fiction but this book-based-on-a-book had a nice cover (ha) and the blurb drew me to it because it's based on Great Expectations.

There are times when you encounter a book, show, song, etc, and it somehow becomes magic that never leaves you. Great Expectations was one such book for me. I guess I could say that Mr Pip is an 'enchanting' story (at least for about half the book) but I know that when I read and studied GE I was spellbound, just like Matilda (Mr Pip heroine) and her friends. Which is why it was painful to watch the Gwyneth Paltrow-Ethan Hawke version of it. Great literature can't be diluted, modernised and commercialised.

I'm sure it will be a worthwhile experience reading GE again, as an adult. Hopefully I have will time for it ... Anyhow, it was great re-visiting Pip and company.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

True train school

‘Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster.’ How would you like to have such a headmaster? I finally re-read (read it first as a teenager) Totto-chan, The Little Girl at the Window , a ‘school story’ by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, translated by Dorothy Britton. Totto-chan is the name Tesuko Kuroyanagi called herself, and the book is about her life during her school days at Tomoe Gakuen. Totto-chan was expelled from her first elementary school because of her ‘disruptive’ behaviour, which included constantly opening and closing her desk top (because she was so thrilled by it), ‘vandalising’ her desk (because there wasn’t enough space on the piece of paper to draw) and standing by the classroom window waiting for street musicians to pass by or talking to swallows. Her mother, although probably alarmed about the ...
3 comments
Read more

The Secret Romantic Guesthouse (2023)

The title has an airy, genial feel and the show does have its airy, genial side, but I also think of it as TRAPPED, since everyone was trapped by the past.   It was fun trying to figure out who was who, who was on whose side and how the awful king would fall.   The scholars It wasn’t too hard to guess that Kang San (Ryeo Un) is the deposed/missing prince and that he isn’t really gruff and disinterested although he’s exasperated and rolling his eyes most of the time.  Shi-yeol (Kang Hoon) has the best ‘disguise’, with the nice contrast between his highly-skilled fighting and loyalty versus his silliness.  It felt at times that Yoo-ha (Jung Gun-joo) was an extra but finally, he gets that one brave act of letting himself be captured to protect the rest.   Shi-yeol identifying himself to Kang San as his watchman was dramatic but the most shocking revelation in the show was that the Old Guy (Shi-yeol’s mentor) is the king’s watchman!  Ho...
Post a Comment
Read more

Be Melodramatic! (2019)

An entertaining look at the media world, although the plot and acting (thankfully) weren’t melodramatic! There was some drama over relationships but overall, ‘good friends’ is the prevailing vibe and at the end, you almost want to shout  友谊万岁   (friendship forever). all their living room chats and meals; Eun-jung's brother's home garb and robes! There is also Eun-jung’s other friend, who is a gem, so for me, this show is mainly about friendship.   It is wonderful how everyone moves in because they are concerned for Eun-jung (Jeon Yeo-been). Her grief and healing are movingly portrayed, and Yeo-been’s acting and Eun-jung’s storyline eclipsed that of the main character.  Eun-jung is beautiful, smart and tragic.   heartbreak she gets along so well with her cameraman Han-joo (Han Ji-eun – Ae-wol !) is cute, smart and tragic.  They both work responsibly and seriously, treat others with respect and deserve the success and opportunities that come th...
Post a Comment
Read more