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The Other Boleyn Girl, A Review
It has been a fun yet exhausting day today, but I wanted to get my initial reaction to the movie published tonight. I’ll write in more depth tomorrow. The movie was good, not great, but enjoyable. All of the characters in the film were caricatures of their counterparts in the novel, but that is to be expected when translating a 600+ page novel into a two-hour movie. I would agree with the review written in Entertainment Weekly and give the film a B.
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What a busy weekend! I didn’t get another chance to even touch the computer. I was planning on writing a more in depth review of the movie, but it looks like Devourer of Books already did that for me. Her review is spot on.
24 Hour Countdown
24 hours from now I will be sitting in the theater watching the film adaptation of The Other Boleyn Girl. Despite my reservations, I’m starting to get excited. I’ve even talked a co-worker of mine into taking a half day off with me. Lunch at Red Robin followed by nearly two hours of Henry. Who could ask for anything more?
I will post my thoughts tomorrow evening as soon as possible.
An Exciting Opportunity Coming Our Way!
Earlier this week I was approached by one of the Online Marketing Managers at HarperCollins to see if I would be interested in receiving an Advanced Readers Copy of Eleanor Vs Ike by Robin Gerber. Here’s a short description of the book:
“Captivating and fast-paced, Eleanor vs. Ike pits the unforgettable Eleanor against the enormously popular war hero, Gen. Dwight David (“Ike”) Eisenhower. But while the opponents promise “an honest campaign,” their strategists have other ideas, miring the race in scandal and bitter innuendo. Suddenly Eleanor finds herself a target of powerful insiders who mean to destroy her good name–and Ku Klux Klan assassins dedicated to her death–as she gets caught up in a mad whirl of appearances and political maneuvering…and a chance encounter with a precocious five-year-old named Hillary Rodham.”
I will also have the opportunity to interview the author! I’ve never done that before and am looking forward to it. Check out the links to the book and the author. If you have any questions you’d like me to ask, let me know.
Still, the best part is that in the end I’ll have another *free* copy to be given out to one of my readers! Let me know if you’d be interested by comment or by email. A week after I’ve posted my review of the book and interview with the author, I’ll hold a drawing. Fun, fun, fun!!!
I should be receiving my copy of the book soon. I’ll keep you updated. Reading a historical “what if?” is going to be new and interesting experience for me.
The Other Boleyn Girl Virtual Book Club Contest
This contest appears to have been completed. You can’t view the site any longer. Thanks to everyone who participated!
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Sony Pictures has sponsored a fun contest surrounding the release of The Other Boleyn Girl. People create and join virtual book clubs. Each person who joins takes a quiz to earn points for their club. The virtual book clubs with the most points can win some fun TOBG or Philippa Gregory prizes. The organizer of the book club earning the most points wins a trip for two to London and will meet Philippa Gregory! I’ve started my own club. If you don’t start your own club, would you consider joining mine? All you have to do is click on this link and follow the instructions? I’d love to have you join me.
#60 Eat, Pray, Love
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
I don’t typically read books about food. For whatever reason, I get bored reading paragraphs filled with nothing but food preparatory details. Knowing this about myself, I never considered even picking up this book off of the shelf to read the description. The only reason I am reviewing this here is that a co-worker offered to let me borrow this book on CD. In the end, my instincts to stay far away from this book were dead on – just not for the reasons I expected.
Eat, Pray, Love is a memoir which describes the impact taking a year away from home to heal from a hard divorce had on Elizabeth Gilbert. During that time, she stayed in three countries: Italy, India, and Indonesia. The book is separated into three sections for each country. She goes to Italy to learn Italian, to India to study at her guru’s ashram, and to Indonesia because a wise man she once met there indicated that she would eventually return to stay with him.
During the Italy section, this book was almost poetic in its theme of finding and honoring oneself. However, the poetry of the book was too often interrupted with seemingly unnecessary references to current American politics. Because of how well the rest flowed, those comments, which ranged from off-hand comments to an entire chapter dedicated to thanksgiving that George W. Bush wouldn’t be president much longer, felt like huge potholes in an otherwise smooth road. They did not add to her experiences with struggling between career and marriage, her desire not to have children, and her spiritual longing. They simply dated a memoir that could otherwise be timeless.
Skipping over the political banter was as easy as pushing the forward button, but there was no way to avoid her agonizing discussions of her spiritual struggles as related to Swammy G, her guru’s guru. It didn’t take me long to start begging for a long soliloquy about cooking two cups of rice a single grain at a time. Still, I was committed to finishing the book until *it* happened.
Play by play of *it*
- 1. Open chapter with Gilbert’s thoughts on the merits of “cherry pick” from the worlds’ religions to discover appealing spiritual practices.
- 2. Literate Housewife rolls her eyes when Gilbert slips a closed minded and oversimplified statement about the Taliban and the Christian Coalition into an otherwise open-minded discussion.
- 3. Continued exploration of the idea that all of the worlds’ religions (sans Taliban and Christian Coalition of course) provide elements of Truth.
- 4. Literate Housewife looks out the window of her car and wonders what it is about grass that makes cows eat it so ravenously.
- 5. Hearing “That’s me in the corner.” jolts Literate Housewife back into Gilbert’s diatribe.
- 6. “Oh, no. She isn’t.” says Literate Housewife.
- 7. “That’s me in the spotlight.” says Gilbert.
- 8. “She musn’t!” panics Literate Housewife.
- 9. “Choosing my religion.” says Gilbert.
- 10. Literate Housewife screams. She turns off the radio thinking that many fundamentalist Christians and Elizabeth Gilbert now have something in common – the misuse of secular lyrics.
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Congratulations, Liz Gilbert. You’ve earned your liberal street cred. You just lost me along the way.
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To buy this book anyway, click here
Gregory Discusses the Differences between Fiction and Film
Here is an interesting article that Philippa Gregory wrote about writing and reading historical fiction and the differences between her novel and the upcoming film rendition of The Other Boleyn Girl. If I gain nothing else from seeing the movie, I really enjoyed reading this article.
A big thank you to Butterflylady from HistoricalFiction.org for posting about this.
Interview with the New Boleyn Girls
USA Today printed an interview with Scarlett Johannson and Natalie Portman. It’s not terribly enlightening, but you might want to check it out. No mention of the kiss…
A Royal Disaster?
The Other Boleyn Girl was my introduction to modern historical fiction, Philippa Gregory, and my beloved Tudors. When I heard the news that a film based on TOBG was in the works, I was thrilled. It was a such a powerful read and I was hopeful that it would make a wonderful movie.
It didn’t take long for people to start crying foul. Simon & Schuster released a mass market paperback version of the novel featuring the cast of the movie and people started arguing that Philippa Gregory was a sell out for allowing this to happen to her novel. I don’t have any strong opinions about book covers. I’m not sure how much control Gregory would have had over this publication as I would think that was part of the movie rights deal. If I were an author, I don’t think I’d turn down movie rights just because of any associated mass market paperback. Besides, it really is a great book. If throwing Scarlett, Natalie, and boob-grabbing Eric on the front cover encourages others to read it, what difference does it make? The grumbling about the book cover didn’t affect my anticipation. When the trailer was released, I got even more excited.
Recently, the first review of the movie has been posted on Rotten Tomatoes. I’m not familiar with Emanuel Levy’s movie criticism, but his review touched on the fears many have had since the movie was announced:
British TV helmer Justin Chadwick makes a disappointing feature debut in “The Other Boleyn Girl,” a hybrid of a trashy period melodrama and a stately Masterpiece Theater episode, resulting in a kitschy film that can’t decide how much to exploit its juicy text about King Henry VIII and the various women in his life.
…Indeed, due to its plot’s twists and turns, this costume meller might have benefited from a longer treatment, a mini-series, rather than a saga that rushes from one preposterous event and climax to another.
Still, there are plenty of movies that I loved that didn’t catch on with the critics. While I’d prefer the movie to be a success with the critics, I’ll hold my judgment until after I’ve seen the movie. It’s very possible that Mr. Levy and I will disagree with each other.
What is truly concerning me is the latest news from the red carpet. On Fox News this morning I was greeted with the following sensational headline:
Portman, Johansson Share Steamy Red Carpet Kiss
Ladies and Gentlemen, has it ever been a good sign when stunts like this pop up while promoting a film? Perhaps I’m jaded, but these types of kisses are not spontaneous when done in front of cameras. It also doesn’t fly with me that this happened because Natalie is tired of being seen as boring. My guess is that people are panicking. If the movie is horrible, historical fiction fans will not be stampeding to the box office. They’ll need to pull in the young male audience. How better to do that than to have photos of Scarlett Johannson kissing another woman?
My heart is heavy, but I will still go and see the movie on Leap Day. My hopes and expectations are now very low. Maybe this will prevent me from feeling as disappointed when I leave the theater as I did after seeing Elizabeth: The Golden Age. I didn’t write a follow up to that post because I was hoping that my utter disappointment was due to lack of sleep. That won’t be the case with TOBG. I’ll post my review as soon as I’ve seen it.
LiterateHousewife,
your loyal historical fiction and film guinea pig…
#59 Gardens of Water
Gardens of Water: A Novel
Gardens of Water tells the story of how the lives of a working class, conservative Muslim family from outside of Istanbul were impacted by the horrible earthquake of 1999. Sinan Basioglu, a hard-working man with a club foot, tries to do his best by his family and keep close to his God. Circumstances force them to take shelter in a relief camp established by Christian Americans. This time spent at the camp is most especially confusing to ?rem, Sinan and Nilüfer’s 15-year-old daughter. Living in the camp provides her with a freedom she hasn’t known since her early childhood. When she falls in love with Dylan, the teenage son of an American expatriate teacher, the entire Basioglu family is caused to question who they are and what is expected from them.
It’s interesting to me how there are times when two or three books I read in a row carry a similar thread. Gardens of Water, although it takes place in the Middle East, continued my thoughts on the plight of women in society. In The Tea Rose, Fiona struggled against the prevailing prejudice that women are not capable to and should not run businesses. The female characters in The Witch’s Trinity were accused of witchcraft when life became hard because of the Judeo-Christian prejudices against them that began with Eve’s first bite of that apple in the Garden of Eden. For a Muslim girl like ?rem, a simple school girl crush could threaten to ruin her family name and negatively impact her younger brother’s future. For many women, life is not all that more safe today than it was back in the time of the witch trials.
Alan Drew’s debut novel is rich in its details about life in Turkey and about what it feels like and means to be Muslim. I found this especially true in his descriptions of the scenery. I felt like I saw Istanbul from a distance and could feel the water over my toes. The scene where Sinan was carrying televisions on his back as he tried to hustle through the streets of Instanbul was probably my favorite. Not only did I feel Sinan’s desperation, I felt his isolation as a Kurd in Turkish society. If you are interested in Kurdish culture, the family life of modern conservative Muslims, or are just looking for an involving book to read, I strongly suggest Gardens of Water.
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To buy this novel, click here
#58 The Witch’s Trinity
The Witch’s Trinity: A Novel
I’ve been reading a lot of historical fiction recently and most of it has centered on London. The greatest portion of that has taken place during the reigns of the Tudor monarchs. I wanted to change things up. So, when I read the list of Divia’s holiday bounty, I instantly took notice of The Witch’s Trinity. Not only does it take place in Germany, it had a paranormal twist. This made it very much different from my usual fare. It was a quick read that did not disappoint.
The Witch’s Trinity tells the story of Güde Müller, an elderly grandmother who lives with her only son Jost and his family. They live in Tierkinddorf, Germany and have been experiencing two years of extreme famine. The strain of living without adequate food is taking its toll on the family and the town as a whole. Güde can tell how much Irmeltrud, Jost’s wife, resents her being alive and taking food that would ordinarily go to her children. After a Catholic priest is called in to investigate whether witches are to blame for the town’s hard luck, one of Güde’s childhood friend is burned at the stake. Still, the town is desperate. The able-bodied men leave the village in search of food. While they are gone, the village starts to turn on one another and it seems that no one is safe from being accused of witchcraft.
This book had a powerful affect on me. It made it difficult for me to sleep well for almost a week. It’s unbelievable the things that humans will do to one another and it’s frightening how open women and the elderly are abuses of many kinds. It’s especially shameful how women turn on each other instead of supporting each other. The terror experienced by Güde and other helpless citizens of Tierkinddorf was so believable that there were entire sections of this book that had my heart racing. I left this book feeling thankful to be alive in 2008 instead of 1608. Witch trials make workplace cattiness seem like child’s play.
As with many books, The Witch’s Trinity was tidied up too quickly and neatly. I would still suggest that anyone interested in witch trials or the plight of women or the elderly read it. You will continue to think about this book and its themes long after you’ve finished it. That certainly sets this novel by Erika Mailman apart from the rest.
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To buy this novel, click here
Book Blogger Con
Have you heard about the 1st Annual Book Blogger Convention that will be held in NYC during the BEA? You should check it out. I know it will be a fantastic experience. Unfortunately I won't be able to attend due to family obligations, but I'll be trolling blogs for up to the minute news.
WE Magazine’s A Woman Blogger to Watch
Literate Challenges
What's in a Name? 3
Random Reading Challenge
