What are you reading?

[Quintus]

'Exorcising Hitler - the Occupation and Denazification of Germany', by Frederick Taylor.   Interesting insight into how the Allies planned a year ahead of the war ending for how to treat Germany after defeat, and how they went about trying to remove former Nazis from posts of influence (but ended up compromising to avoid starving the Germans to death).   I was inspired to look it up after watching the German film 'Labyrinth of Lies', again an interesting treatment of a slightly later period of a new generation flushing out Nazis long after the original purges had finished and the crimes of the past risked becoming papered over.  

[Fiz]

I totally disbelieved her, Jacqueline. I felt she wasn't nearly as helpless and pushed around as she wanted her readers to believe. Doctors receptionists aren't known for being shrinking violets and one of the photographs in the book made me think that she was a very strong character indeed.

[Jacqueline]

I watched the first episode last night of Apple Tree Yard, adapted from the novel by Louise Doughty. I remember enjoying this book and was looking forward to the tv version, but it was a major disappointment.

Absolutely lifeless characters, just about every cliché shoehorned in to something billed as a psychological thriller and the standard incessant music, without which it seems no thought can be thought or action taken. In this case, the dreariness of the music slowed down the action even further.

The book as I recall, was not a psychological thriller, more a story of how a woman could be caught up in events that spiralled quickly out of control. But she was a believable character even though she did some very foolish things.

I shouldn't judge on the basis of one episode, but as a scene setter there was a disastrous lack of chemistry between the tv version and her secret lover. Their meeting was hard to believe and so was everything that followed.

The current trend seems to be depicting women of a certain age as invisible, but guess what, it isn't true that once you get beyond the age of 40 or 50, you are officially past it! The scene where she buys a bottle of water and the young chap behind the counter ignores her as he is texting or whatever on his phone, is presumably an example of her invisibility. It is more likely to be an example of his rudeness and she should not accept it, but she is entirely passive and allows herself to be ignored. This is the point where she meets the mysterious man and we are expected to believe this otherwise intelligent woman is so desperate to be noticed, she will go and have sex in a broom cupboard with this complete stranger. Yeah....

I think this story worked much better on the page than it does so far, on the screen. The book at least allowed the reader, as does any good book, to use their own imagination sometimes. At the end of part one, they were all so unlikeable and the whole production so entirely without nuance, I couldn't care less what happens to any of them

Edited January 23, 2017 by Jacqueline

[Huddsballetmum]

I watched this last night Jacqueline and thought much the same.  I had been looking forward to the programme but by the end of part one was very disappointed.  The book is much better and the characters are much more likeable in the book.

[Jacqueline]

Glad it wasn't just me! I thought that scene in the cafe where the new lovers were sharing some carrot cake over small talk should have been seething with sexual tension. As he put his hand on her knee, was she wondering if the cafe had a broom cupboard perhaps?

No, their body language had all the suppressed passion of two people just exchanging small talk over cake. More like the end of an affair than the beginning. I don't know if it was the script or the way it was played, both or something else.