I've read it now. And I agree everything you say in its praise.
I'm so glad. You should write about it yourself!
I wondered about the title and then it struck me that the glass pearls are a perfect symbol for the false/stolen memories Braun delights Helen with.
Yes! It's both the most important of the Paris stories and the best possible metaphor.
Far from being "boring and stupid" as the review has it I find Helen utterly charming.
Agreed. She's integral to the novel, also I like her. It was the kind of review that left me wondering if the reviewer had actually finished the book.
If it had ever been turned into a screenplay then Michael Powell- in his Peeping Tom phase or mood- would have been just the man to direct. Does that count as irony?
Whatever it is, I can't disagree with you. And once you bring Powell into it, I start wondering whether it would have been too late to cast Anton Walbrook—so often Pressburger's stand-in—as Braun.
Powell would also have done a grand job on Killing a Mouse on Sunday too- probably better than Zinneman managed.
I need to find and read that. How does it compare?
How intriguing that Pressburger used his own memories as Braun's "glass pearls". How complicated!
I really hope it finds its audience with this new edition. It is not a minor work at all.
no subject
I'm so glad. You should write about it yourself!
I wondered about the title and then it struck me that the glass pearls are a perfect symbol for the false/stolen memories Braun delights Helen with.
Yes! It's both the most important of the Paris stories and the best possible metaphor.
Far from being "boring and stupid" as the review has it I find Helen utterly charming.
Agreed. She's integral to the novel, also I like her. It was the kind of review that left me wondering if the reviewer had actually finished the book.
If it had ever been turned into a screenplay then Michael Powell- in his Peeping Tom phase or mood- would have been just the man to direct. Does that count as irony?
Whatever it is, I can't disagree with you. And once you bring Powell into it, I start wondering whether it would have been too late to cast Anton Walbrook—so often Pressburger's stand-in—as Braun.
Powell would also have done a grand job on Killing a Mouse on Sunday too- probably better than Zinneman managed.
I need to find and read that. How does it compare?
How intriguing that Pressburger used his own memories as Braun's "glass pearls". How complicated!
I really hope it finds its audience with this new edition. It is not a minor work at all.