Lost to Austen?

I think I may have a confession to make and I hope you don't hate me for it.

You may have noticed that 'Sense and Sensibility' by Jane Austen has been on my 'current reads' list for rather a long time now.  To be honest, I can't really remember when I started it, but I'm sure it was several months ago.  Now, I know many, many Austen fans who rave about her work and feel incredibly guilty that I have to admit this (I could do with a Regency bonnet to hide my blushes), but I'm really not getting on well with 'Sense and Sensibility'.  And (please try not to swoon ladies)  I didn't get on with 'Pride and Prejudice' either.

Now, I know I'm supposed to like Austen.  She's light, she's witty, she's romantic, she's historical, but I just haven't been captivated by either of these books (despite the presence of Mr Darcy!).  But I think I know why.  The debate around 'which is better, the book or the film/series' is a fierce, bitter and long term one and I really think that's what has caught me out this time around.  After all, what's not to love about Andrew Davies classic 1995 'Pride and Prejudice'?  Or Ang Lee and Emma Thompson's film of 'Sense and Sensibility'?  An awful lot if you saw them long before you thought about picking up their literary equivalents!

So, here I am, a book fan who has managed to close herself off to two of English literatures most popular classics.  Just because she likes to put her feet up in front of the telly once in a while.

I commented on my 'Pride and Prejudice' conundrum to an Austenite friend of mine when I tried to read it originally.  To my surprise, she sympathised and said that the BBC adaptation was very good.  Bit too good if you ask me!

Now, I'm lucky in that although the list of Austen's work is quite short - only six completed novels - I've only watched adaptations of three of them.  So there is hope yet.  Perhaps if I try 'Persuasion', 'Mansfield Park' or 'Northanger Abbey', I will see what everyone else seems to see, learn to love Austen's work and perhaps be able to return to 'Emma', 'Sense and Sensibility' and 'Pride and Prejudice'.

In the meantime, I'm going to go back to hiding my shame behind 'Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day' by Winifred Watson and avoid watching any adaptations of anything else on my list.  Although looking at the cinema listings, that's going to be harder than you'd think!!

Off the Rails?

Today I finished 'The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry', the latest book by journalist and documentary filmmaker  Jon Ronson.

This is the second book I've read by Mr Ronson - I read 'Them: Adventures with Extremists' many years ago and was absolutely fascinated by it.  I haven't read 'The Men who Stare at Goats', the book which formed the basis of the George Clooney film, mainly because I wasn't that interested by the subject matter, but 'The Psychopath Test' caught my eye in one of the weekend papers.

'The Psychopath Test'
by Jon Ronson
(Picador, 2011)

'The Psychopath Test' is exactly what it says it is - a whistlestop journey through the madness industry.  The backbone theme of the book is Dr Bob Hare's checklist of symptoms displayed by psychopaths, but the book explores broader ideas such as the commodification of madness for entertainment or commercial gain, attempts at curing psychopaths and the dangers of labelling.  Don't get me wrong, though, although the ideas that come up can be quite deep and could be heavy going, the writing style is friendly and very weekend newspapery, which makes this book (stylistically at least) a very easy read.

As with 'Them', this book is very much about people and it's Mr Ronson's interest in people and curiosity about what he'll find around the next bend in the tracks that makes this book so readable.  The author's ideas develop with each person he meets and his persistent desire to understand helps his journey - and the book - unfold.

In a way, this is a bit of a paradox of a book.  Somehow, the author has taken quite scary subject matter (insanity, murderers, violent criminals, psychologists who get it wrong, the possibility that the people who run society could be psychopaths...) and real life stories which would more usually be found in true crime books and made them into a relatively friendly and easy going read.  I quite happily steamed through it over a series of lunch breaks, usually reading a chapter at a time, so it was great from that perspective!  Reading it before bed didn't really bother me either.

Unfortunately, overall it did make me feel like I was getting the briefest of stopovers at each branch of enquiry and I do feel as though I would've liked certain ideas to be explored in more depth, like the presence of high densities of psychopaths in the higher echelons of society, for example.

Also, I was left with one unanswered question at the end of the book; 'What about female psychopaths?'  I doubt it was intentional, but it seemed that all the case studies discussed were men, but I don't recall any mention of if/why there are fewer female psychopaths.  It would be crazy to think there aren't any at all!

On the whole, though, I actually enjoyed this book.  I wouldn't recommend it to everybody (I know I'm a bit of a softy, but my stomach did churn in a few places to say the least.), but if you're curious about these sorts of things, it is a good and interesting read.  It's not the end of the journey, but there are a network of other books and sources mentioned so that if your interest is sparked in a particular area, you can look into it further.  I suspect I probably will.

Now to decide where I'm off to next!

Our Friends in the Deep South

Yesterday, I finished 'The Help' by Kathryn Stockett and I absolutely loved it.  It's not a book I would've picked up myself, but someone bought it for me as a birthday present, so I wanted to give it a go.  I'm so grateful to them, I had no idea what I was missing out on!

'The Help'
by Kathryn Stockett
(Film Tie-in,
Penguin, 2011)

Set in Jackson, Mississippi, in the early 1960s, 'The Help' is the story of the town's African American maids and the white women and families they serve.  It has three narrators, Aibileen, a calm, dignified woman who understands the white children she cares for much better than their mothers, the adorably feisty Minny, whose tendency to speak her mind can get her into trouble with her employers, and Skeeter Phelan, a wannabe writer who has just returned from university to find her own beloved maid, Constantine, gone and a wall of silence around exactly what happened.  Through their eyes, we see the good, bad and ugly of Jackson society and none are more ugly than the genuinely evil Hilly Holbrook.  When the search for Constantine leads Skeeter to start writing a book about the maids and their experiences, the malignant shadow of Hilly and those in her thrall looms large.  Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny know the project is important, but can they see it through safely?

I was completely absorbed by the world Ms Stockett has created  from the very first page.  She's done such an absolutely amazing job of capturing the different characters in this book, I honestly felt like I'd get to the last page and discover they were all real people.  I was genuinely disappointed when the book ended as I knew I wouldn't 'see' them again and know that they were OK.  Weirdly, they almost felt like friends - that doesn't happen very often!

The whole book is an emotional rollercoaster - I cried, I hoped, I winced, I pitied, I laughed out loud, I sympathised and, in the last few chapters, I was on the edge of my seat.  Chopin said "People who never laugh are not serious people."  Life is full of funny moments and its a mistake for any author to think their work will be more realistic without them.  I love this book all the more for not shieing away from that, even though the underlying themes of racism and prejudice are so serious.  Without them, the book would have lost its characteristic energy and sparkle.

Although this is a fantastic book, I think it would appeal mainly to those interested in human relationships, so you might want to think twice if that's not really your thing.  Other than that, go!  Go out now and buy a copy immediately!  Or three!  I know I will - an awful lot of my friends will be getting this for their birthdays this year!