Black Coffee, a novel adapted by Charles
Osborne from an Agatha Christie
play
Intro: Agatha Christie really did write a play called "Black
Coffee" in 1929. It was staged in 1930 at the Embassy Theatre in London.
This is what Charles Osborne has based the novel on. His qualifications include
being a world renowned authority on theatre and the author of The Life
and Crimes of Agatha Christie.
Review: Having read all of Agatha Christie's books - some
of them two or three times - I was interested to find out if Black
Coffee was going to read like an AC. I figured the story would be there
because a play has all the same story elements as a novel, just in a different
style. The trick, then, would be for Mr. Osborne to fill in all the stage
movement that we would be missing and write out things in the manner of prose.
For instance:
in a novel you would see -
"Monsieur Poirot's quite right," Inspector Japp declared with a smile.
but in a play you'd see -
INSPECTOR JAPP: (smiling) "Monsieur Poirot's quite right."
Was Mr. Osborne successful, you ask? My answer is yes, the writing flowed
and, aside from a slight modern feel, it mostly seemed like Agatha. But...(and
here's where we call in Mulder and Scully)...something went terribly wrong.
The story didn't seem to be up to those unbeatably high standards that won
Agatha Christie a knighthood. How could this be? I mean, she did write
the story didn't she? So how do you explain the fact that I (who have lain
awake nights trying to use my "little grey cells" yet never figured
out one of her mysteries) knew who did it by the time I had reached page
50? I kept telling myself that it was just a red herring, that she wanted
me to think that I knew the answer and then BAM! she would spring it on me
at the end. You can imagine my speechless, uncomprehending shock when I had
reached the end of the novel and there had been no twist, no surprise, and
no gymnastic feat of mental insight by Hercule Poirot. I sat there with my
jaw dropped open and said, "But I knew who did it all along!"
Could Mr. Osborne have been responsible for this? I'd like to read the original
play and see for myself what Agatha actually wrote. Maybe the quality of
a mystery lies not within the plot, or the writing style, but in the
storytelling. Agatha could always read my mind. She could lead me, unsuspecting,
up the garden path, keep me there as long as she wanted, and then spring
the truth on me at just the right moment so that my skin prickled and the
world seemed to turn upside-down. Maybe Agatha is the only one who ever could.
Quote: "The force of Amorite is such," Sir Claude explained,
"that where we have hitherto killed by thousands, we can now kill by hundreds
of thousands."
"How horrible!" exclaimed Lucia with a shudder.
"My dear Lucia" - her father-in-law smiled thinly at her as he spoke - "the
truth is never horrible, only interesting."
References to
Black Coffee and other AC info
Agatha Christie Fan
Page
Fan page with
trivia contest & chat
Einstein's Dreams by Alan
Lightman
Intro: Einstein was a real person. When he was growing up,
he was different from other kids, not a whiz kid like you might expect, but
artistic and philiosphical. He grew up in this century and became a pop culture
icon - a symbol of intelligence. He became a theoritical scientific legend
who was driven and completely absorbed by contemplation of how the universe
works, how time works. He was obsessed with understanding the mind of God.
Is time God?
Review: What would people do if cause and effect worked backward?
Einstein's Dreams is a collection of short stories all about the same
subject: how the flow of time affects us. It is written in a format that
looks like prose, but it is very much like a book of poetry. The writing
style is not narrative, it is made up of snapshots, feelings, impressions,
and snippets of conversation. Lightman's writing is beautiful, and this beauty
often carries over into the content - there are some amazing moments of insight.
Many of the stories are interesting exercises in sociology. With a few of
the stories, however, there was a lack of internal consistency which made
it impossible for me to suspend my disbelief, as one must always be able
to do when enjoying a work of fiction. It is still well worth reading, because
those moments of insight are so unique and thought provoking. They may just
give you a new perspective on the way you live your life and the way you
spend that most mystical of commodities: time.
Quote: "Imagine a world in which people live just one day.
In this world, no one lives to witness the change in the seasons. A person
born in December in any European country never sees the hyacinth, the lily,
the aster, the cyclamen, the edelweiss, never sees the leaves of the maple
turn red and gold, never hears the crickets or the warblers. A person born
in December lives his life cold. Likewise, a person born in July never feels
a snowflake on her cheek, never sees the crystal on a frozen lake, never
hears the squeak of boots in fresh snow. A person born in July lives her
life warm. The variety of seasons is learned about in books."
Sourcery by Terry Pratchett
&
A Christmas Carol by Charles
Dickens
Intro: I went on vacation for 10 days (I can because I'm a
teacher) and I read several things. On the plane I read Sourcery by
Terry Pratchett. Before and during Christmas I read
A Christmas Carol by Charles
Dickens. These two I've decided to
review in combination. Around New Year's I read the National Geographic,
as well as a plethera of instructions to video games, a Tamagachi, and various
other "some assembly required" gifts. I'm not going to review those.(-;
Review #1: Sourcery by Terry Pratchett is a ZAP - POW
- ZING - BOOM ride through the wizard-encrusted streets of Ankh-Morpork with
a quick witted intellectual as your guide. Philosophy abounds as well as
an orangatan librarian. This is one of the defining books in the Discworld
series. If you read this one and like it, immediately get a hold of The
Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic by the same author.
Review #2: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens deserves
every bit of praise and legendary status that it receives. It is poetry,
it is a fairy tale, it is a ghost story, it is a parable. It tells us what
is important in life with efficiency and authority. It calls on all of our
best emotions pointedly and shamelessly. I read this every Christmas and
never get tired of it because it isn't just a story, it's like a hymn. As
the title suggests, it is a Christmas carol, and one of the best there is.
Quote: From A Christmas Carol (please forgive all non-P.C.
phraseology, as this story was written in the mid-1800's)
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad
among his fellow men and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not
forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander
through the world and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared
on earth and turned into happiness."
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery
Williams
Intro: Get out the kleenex.
Review: In my family we have a tradition of reading a poem
or excerpt at the table for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The Velveteen
Rabbit is one of my favorite books to read from. As a children's book
it holds a lot of magic and is a validation of the deep feelings that children
often have for their toys. But when you read it as an adult you realize that
it is full of wisdom. Children often say things that cut through to the heart
of the matter - this book does the same. Let your everyday reality take a
break and prepare to read something straight from the heart.
Quote: "What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they
were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy
the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out
handle?"
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens
to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with,
but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are
Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by
bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes
a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily,
or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the
time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop
out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don't
matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people
who don't understand."
"I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not
said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse
only smiled.
"The Boy's Uncle made me Real," he said. "That was a great many years ago;
but once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always."
Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
(1922)
Intro: They say "Never judge a book by it's cover." I will
expand on that to say, "Never judge a book by a review you read." The review
they had on the back of this book was completely off in my opinion. You may,
after reading this book, feel that mine is completely off, but you'll have
to read it for yourself to find out.
Review: Babbitt is the portrait of an "average American business
man" during Prohibition, which lays out nearly every motivation, action,
and thought that he has during what we would now call his "mid-life crisis."
I don't think they had that phrase then, which makes Sinclair Lewis' depiction
of it even more brilliant. Babbitt is a fumbling, simple man who does not
normally spend time in contemplation or philosophy. He knows how to get along
in the world, and does well for himself, until the midlife hits.
Lewis manages to show a truly realistic picture of a man. Full of all the
flaws and fallacies that everyone is full of, but who has good intentions
and for the most part a good heart. I believe Lewis is depicting a character
that can be identified by all - well, all those honest enough with themselves
to recognize it. Everyone is a product of his or her environment to some
extent. Everyone needs a support group of some kind and wants to feel that
they belong. We all get confused, embarrassed, contradict ourselves, and
even sometimes lie to ourselves. If you're thinking you've never lied to
yourself, I think your doing it now.
This book also showed how two sides of an issue can be argued with equal
logic and conviction by people who are coming from different environments,
and the crazy thing is that they can both be right. During one phase of your
life you may agree with the first side and then later, when you're looking
at it from a different perspective, you agree with the opposite side. Does
that make you a hypocrite? Have you ever been able to see two sides of a
given issue and not been able to reconcile them?
You may find yourself a little less judgemental after picturing yourself
in some of the situations Babbitt gets into. Then again, you may have every
intention of changing, but find yourself returning to the old habits - as
we all do.
Quote: "Why, George," said his wife, "I thought you always
insisted that all strikers ought to be put in jail."
"I never did! Well, I mean - some of 'em, of course. But I mean a fellow
ought to be broad-minded and liberal about things like - "
"But, dearie, I thought you always said these so-called "liberal" people
were the worst of - "
"Rats! Women never can understand the different definitions of a word. It
depends on how you mean it. And it don't pay to be too cocksure about
anything."
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
(1898)
Intro: I read this book in six hours - I couldn't put it down.
I only got up to fix something to eat and to go to the bathroom.
Review: We usually don't believe that science fiction stories
could really happen. There are easy to spot scientific flaws. The better
the science fiction, the harder it is to find the flaws, but they are there
and you still don't believe it. H.G. Wells is better than better in The
Time Machine - he makes you believe it. I'm not saying you won't be able
to find a flaw of you sit down with your buddies and work it out, but Wells
leads you step by step along a line of scientific thought that rivals any
college science class.
Unfortunately, there are some frustrating points in this story. The main
character strikes me as weak and ineffective. He does not prepare properly
for his journey into the future, being under the impression that in the future
all his needs would be easily met. He seems to have very little stamina of
mind or body, and his scientific genius seems to be confined to the theoretical.
He makes quite a few very bad decisions and shows a shocking lack of self
control when faced with difficult situations.
It's possible that Wells was attempting to create a character that can be
identified with by any non-adventurous readers out there and to combine the
intelligent, analytical character with the "average lay-person" character
- like combining Sherlock Holmes and Watson into one person. Personally,
I think the main character is just an idiot.
There is no question, however, about the intelligence of the author. Wells
leads you through a series of theories as to the possible future of our
civilization. If you realize that he is extrapolating from the state of the
world circa 1898, you can see that his logic, combined with a boundless
imagination, amounts to brilliance.
Despite the frustrations, The Time Machine is a gem. The author's
philosophical ponderings are mind-twisting, surprising and beautiful. He
has a way of saying what the reader may have been thinking, but never could
have put into words. This is one of the richest, most picturesque books I
have ever read and I consider it a valuable part of my home library.
Quote: We are passing through time with a uniform velocity
from the cradle to the grave, just as we should travel DOWN if we began our
existence fifty miles above the earth's surface.' ~H.G. Wells from The
Time Machine
The Headmistress, by Angela Thirkell
(1943)
Intro: There is a fan club for this author called the "Thirkell
Circle." This may give you a clue as to the pronunciation of her name.
Review: Angela Thirkell's books are about the families living
in England during WWII. She uses fictional characters, set in a fictional
county called Barsetshire, to give a very realistic account of the conditions
that people were living under in England at that time. There were refugees,
relocations, rationing and shortages, the banned use of uncovered bright
lights after dark (blackout), and working parties to make clothing and
other necessities for the soldiers and refugees. The main characters are
mostly the wealthy and/or titled citizens, although all of the classes are
represented at one point or another.
The Headmistress focuses on an old family who, while retaining their
land and upper class status, have become relatively common financially. This
state is referred to as "reduced circumstances." They have rented their estate
to a girls' school and moved into the village. The "headmistress," or principle,
of the school is the second focus of the story.
This book is like a soap opera with a happy ending. It is very mild soap,
however. It is filled with philosophy and almost entirely composed of
conversation and musings about etiquette. It is very British. If you like
that, you'll be in a very upright, witty, contemplative heaven.
Quote: Miss Sparling found herself telling Mr. Carton about
her struggles to keep her evacuated school in some kind of order. "I was
billeted with Miss Pettinger," she said. "Good God," Mr. Carton replied angrily,
"when I think of that woman and her insufferable ignorance and insolence,
I could burst. What you told me about her attitude to your use of the telephone
is enough to damn her eternally."
The Angela Thirkell Society
C.S. Lewis's Voyage of the Dawn Treader
(1952)
Intro: The story of this review begins with an entirely different
book. I was started upon a lifelong quest by my encounter with a novel called
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The deep inspiration given to me
by F451 was so strong that I vowed to memorize a book over
the course of my life. To avoid any spoilers of F451, I will not tell
you which part of that story led me to my quest. But to which book should
I devote the extreme dilligence required to actually memorize it word for
word? It took me only about a day to figure it out. This is actually the
fourth or fifth time that I've read Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I
always say that everything there is in my life is also in that book. It is
one of the seven Chronicles of Narnia, a series of fantasy books which
are supposedly for kids, but have the wit, wisdom, and deep questions that
we usually attribute to adult books. I have already begun memorizing Voyage
of the Dawn Treader. It begins like this...
"There once was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved
it."
Review: Voyage of the Dawn Treader is about friendship,
loyalty, adventure, idealism, honesty, courage, and honor. It is about learning
what's really important. It's about a small, but royal sailing ship called
the Dawn Treader, which sails from a land called Narnia in another realm
which is visited by three English school children. Many of the metaphors
in this story have their basis in the Christian religion, although I see
them as transcending any particular religious teachings. Don't be fooled
by the child-like setting of this story, deep things lie within.
Quote: As stated by Reepicheep, the Royal Knight (and talking
mouse): "My plans are made. While I can, I sail east in the Dawn Treader.
When she fails me, I paddle east in my coracle. When she sinks, I shall swim
east with my four paws, and when I can swim no longer, I shall sink with
my nose to the sunrise."
"Books stitch the patches of the universe together into one garment for us." - Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
All reviews (unless otherwise stated) are © CatTigerLi Web & Word, and, as under the copyright laws of the US, may not be used without permission.
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