feather_ghyll (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
feather_ghyll) wrote2008-10-12 02:22 pm
feather_ghyll) wrote2008-10-12 02:22 pm
REVISITING: Veronica in Venice
First of all, I've been revisiting my review of the Nancy Drew film, which should teach me not to comment on things I haven't read/seen, because I liked it despite my misgivings when I heard of the project, but when you have a gut reaction to a childhood friend being brought 'up to date'... Here's a link I came across on the rebranded (ugh) Famous Five: The Next Generation (ugh) that articulates some of said gut reaction. My Son is Disgusted. from The Age of Uncertainty.
I think I've mentioned or linked to stuff that's mentioned this rebranding of the Famous Five before (see the tags). I probably shouldn't comment, because I had a clear-out of most of my Blytons many years ago (I may even have got rid of the school stories). But the Famous Five were always my favourite over The Secret Seven, and I remember liking the one where Anne got a spine, and disliking the later series that was written by someone else and translated into the English. But this latest new version? Sounds a bit rum to me.
I've also reread
Veronica in Venice: Jill Stevens, Nelson 1964
It was one of the books that I rediscovered a while ago, and I decided to pick it up and reread it, because I honestly didn't remember it, despite being set in Venice. That was probably not a good sign.
The main problem is that it's slight, considering the theme it's tackling. Veronica Macready and her mother have had their family holiday plans changed at the last minute, because the men of the family have had a fracas. Veronica's brother Bruce, who has been working at his father's electronics Company (the capital is Mr Macready's) until very recently, has run away...to Venice. Veronica is, like her tender-hearted mother, a peacemaker, and capable of seeing that everyone has a point - her father who wants her brother to make something of himself (and is mortally afraid his son will turn into that dread thing, a beatnik! A worry he mentions every couple of pages) and Bruce, who, it turns out, left because his work was going to be used for military purposes. A clash between the practical (or materialistic) and the idealist, then. Except the treatment is superficial.
The book is rather conservative, but without that much conviction - in Venice, Bruce has decided to become a pastor, but it's a very low-key decision, and his father changes his mind about steamrolling his son into 'seeing sense', but mainly because of a sentimental episode involving a cat. They both agree to adjust their ways slightly, and the wimmen-folk are relieved. Why, Veronica can even have the touristy holiday she's been longing for! Sorry to be sarky, but, despite the author's obvious feeling for Venice, it's weaknesses, especially in tackling quite weighty subjects, and the 'sympathetic' heroine's inadequacies made me quite see why it was forgettable. The only difference this time around was that I had to wait fo a bus after reading it, so I had to consider it.
I think I've mentioned or linked to stuff that's mentioned this rebranding of the Famous Five before (see the tags). I probably shouldn't comment, because I had a clear-out of most of my Blytons many years ago (I may even have got rid of the school stories). But the Famous Five were always my favourite over The Secret Seven, and I remember liking the one where Anne got a spine, and disliking the later series that was written by someone else and translated into the English. But this latest new version? Sounds a bit rum to me.
I've also reread
Veronica in Venice: Jill Stevens, Nelson 1964
It was one of the books that I rediscovered a while ago, and I decided to pick it up and reread it, because I honestly didn't remember it, despite being set in Venice. That was probably not a good sign.
The main problem is that it's slight, considering the theme it's tackling. Veronica Macready and her mother have had their family holiday plans changed at the last minute, because the men of the family have had a fracas. Veronica's brother Bruce, who has been working at his father's electronics Company (the capital is Mr Macready's) until very recently, has run away...to Venice. Veronica is, like her tender-hearted mother, a peacemaker, and capable of seeing that everyone has a point - her father who wants her brother to make something of himself (and is mortally afraid his son will turn into that dread thing, a beatnik! A worry he mentions every couple of pages) and Bruce, who, it turns out, left because his work was going to be used for military purposes. A clash between the practical (or materialistic) and the idealist, then. Except the treatment is superficial.
The book is rather conservative, but without that much conviction - in Venice, Bruce has decided to become a pastor, but it's a very low-key decision, and his father changes his mind about steamrolling his son into 'seeing sense', but mainly because of a sentimental episode involving a cat. They both agree to adjust their ways slightly, and the wimmen-folk are relieved. Why, Veronica can even have the touristy holiday she's been longing for! Sorry to be sarky, but, despite the author's obvious feeling for Venice, it's weaknesses, especially in tackling quite weighty subjects, and the 'sympathetic' heroine's inadequacies made me quite see why it was forgettable. The only difference this time around was that I had to wait fo a bus after reading it, so I had to consider it.