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Captain Correlli's Mandolin is being serialised as the afternoon play on Radio 4 at the moment. I read it I think probably nearly exactly 7 years ago and although ( cut in case anyone hasn't read it ) I remember really liking it, especially the first half and very clearly remember telling my friend Ca who was reading it at the same time that I had fallen in love with Captain Correlli myself. So it may be that I have changed a lot in the last seven years, I've had a child for one thing, or simply that it is badly adapted or acted or both (not unheard of in the R4 afternoon play lets be honest)but really I haven't been enjoying it at all. It's a bit like Mel Gibson who I used (at roughly the same time now I think about it, hm) to have a huge crush on but has now turned out to be a complete arsehole and hasn't aged well either.
Have been reading Making History by Stephen Fry. I admire him hugely - he is so talented, I can't think of anything I have seen him in that I haven't loved - even 'Peter's Friends' - but I've never read any of his novels before. To be honest this was something of a disappointment to begin with. The narrator sounded too much like SF doing one of his characters and it didn't quite seem to work in print. It seemed pretentious and over done, clever for the sake of it. It was rather up and down until the main plot really got going and then it improved a lot. But that meant that the first half to two thirds of the book was nothing to write home about. Still I ended up enjoying it a great deal and on reflection I think that this is in part because there is a little subplot that turns into a love story and if I'm honest at bottom that is all I require from a novel these days. If it is competently written (great literature not required) with a bit of humour and a love story with a happy ending then I'll like it. Though that can't quite be everything because I love Harry Potter and there's no love story in canon, or not one I like, and although fanfic fills this void for me I loved canon before I knew fanfic existed. Oh well all this is tosh then.
Have been reading Making History by Stephen Fry. I admire him hugely - he is so talented, I can't think of anything I have seen him in that I haven't loved - even 'Peter's Friends' - but I've never read any of his novels before. To be honest this was something of a disappointment to begin with. The narrator sounded too much like SF doing one of his characters and it didn't quite seem to work in print. It seemed pretentious and over done, clever for the sake of it. It was rather up and down until the main plot really got going and then it improved a lot. But that meant that the first half to two thirds of the book was nothing to write home about. Still I ended up enjoying it a great deal and on reflection I think that this is in part because there is a little subplot that turns into a love story and if I'm honest at bottom that is all I require from a novel these days. If it is competently written (great literature not required) with a bit of humour and a love story with a happy ending then I'll like it. Though that can't quite be everything because I love Harry Potter and there's no love story in canon, or not one I like, and although fanfic fills this void for me I loved canon before I knew fanfic existed. Oh well all this is tosh then.
