John O’Hara is a fine writer, but he wrote some boring books. From the Terrace is one of them.
Archive for January, 2008
From the Terrace Is Downhill All the Way
Posted in 1958 Bestselling Novels, tagged banking, business, friendship on January 31, 2008 | Comments Off
Around the World with Auntie Mame Is a Bad Trip
Posted in 1958 Bestselling Novels, Humor on January 23, 2008 | Comments Off
Around the World with Auntie Mame is broad farce, sprinkled with sophomoric humor. Dennis’s attempts to reproduce accents becomes irritation very quickly, too. As to characterization, the roles of Mame and Patrick could be played by Miss Piggy and Kermit.
Lolita Is Neither Smutty Nor Serious
Posted in 1958 Bestselling Novels, Psychological novel on January 16, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Lolita is not the novel the movie poster leads you to expect. Forget the heart-shaped sunglasses. This is not a book about a seductress. The narrator has to bribe and bully Loilta into sex. Afterward, she cries.
Anatomy of a Murder Is a Keeper
Posted in 1927Bestselling Novels, 1958 Bestselling Novels, Mystery, Suspense, tagged Courtroom, defense, insanity, insanity defense, murder on January 9, 2008 | Comments Off
Robert Traver’s Anatomy of a Murder is courtroom drama at its best.
Lieutenant Frederic Manion shot Barney Quill to death in front of a room full of witnesses in Quill’s hotel bar before turning himself in. Manion says Quill had raped his wife. The only legal defense open to Manion is insanity.
Dr. Zhivago Died with Cold War
Posted in 1958 Bestselling Novels, Romance, tagged Communism, Russia, Russian Revolution, Soviet Union on January 2, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Boris Pasternak’s Dr. Zhivago hit bookshelves in 1958 when American fear of Communists could be measured in home bomb shelters and elementary school air raid drills. The novel became a bestseller and inspired a movie whose title song dominated the air waves.
I vaguely recall the movie as a long series of photographs of snow and [...]
