THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY, BY PATRICIA HIGHSMITH. GREAT BOOK. FAILED MOVIE.

I'm not at all delighted with the new film THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY, based on Patricia Highsmith's novel. Highsmith was a writer of suspense novels and she knew what she was doing. Unfortunately, the filmmakers of THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY haven't got a clue. The suspense in the novel derives from an ingenious scenario built around the complexities of the three main characters, none of whom are the least bit innocent. While reading the novel, you have no idea what to expect, because you aren't entirely sure how far each character is willing to go. Compare this with the movie ... in which all three main characters have been made to be as cuddly and sympathetic as possible (because filmmakers wrongly believe this is important) ... with the result that a formerly genius plot becomes muddled beyond belief, and all of the potential suspense of the scenario has been milked dry long before the movie can get off the ground. This is not the first time anyone has screwed up the adaptation of a Highsmith novel, and it won't be the last. But I'd like to send a message to the movie industry: Listen to Patricia Highsmith! Don't change her characters! Don't change her stories! When it comes to suspense, she knows what she is doing, and you don't! (But I heartily recommend that everyone read the book, so to the extent that the existence of the movie encourages new readers to discover Patricia Highsmith, it has done a service.)

MRS. GOD: A MARVELLOUSLY STRANGE NOVELLA BY PETER STRAUB

MRS. GOD by Peter Straub has been waiting for me for a long time. I bought HOUSES WITHOUT DOORS in the original Dutton hardcover when it came out in 1990, and was already aware of MRS. GOD anyway because it had previously been published in a limited edition by Donald M. Grant. But I don't ever like to read collections of short fiction all the way through in a gulp, and at some point I set aside HOUSES WITHOUT DOORS leaving MRS. GOD (the final tale) for a rainy day. That day finally came 24 years later, and I've thoroughly enjoyed myself. Some stories are best left for when we are older and better able to appreciate them. I'm not sure I would have praised MRS. GOD so highly if I'd read it when I was 23. Now, at 47, it hit me just right. By coincidence, I have recently been catching up as well with my Robert Aickman (who inspired MRS. GOD, according to Straub) and also with E. F. Benson's strange stories -- both of which I see strongly reflected/warped in the mirror here. Apparently, the Grant edition of MRS. GOD is longer and is rumoured by some to be the far superior incarnation. Perhaps I would like it even better, but I don't own the Grant edition, so unless I track down a copy I'm unlikely ever to find out. At any rate, I enjoyed the present version immensely. As a strange story it succeeds wickedly well. Echoes, as I've said, of Aickman and E. F. Benson, but also echoes of the oddness of Ramsey Campbell, and of course successful allusions to THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE by Shirley Jackson and THE TURN OF THE SCREW by Henry James. (Readers on Amazon or Goodreads who have rated this only one or two stars must be out of their minds.)

GAY LIFE AND LOVE IN THE 19TH CENTURY

STRANGERS by Graham Robb is a wonderful, scholarly exploration of 'Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century' by an acclaimed author of biographies of Hugo, Balzac, Rimbaud, and other works. The author deserves immense praise for bringing to light so much that has been hidden. The need for this book is quite apparent because of the nature of the subject itself -- so much of homosexual life and love was kept deliberately hidden by the men and women themselves, out of fear of persecution and misunderstanding. Indeed, much evidence is already lost to us because of gay men and women's self-censorship and the misguided censorship of publishers, editors, and heirs (burning of incriminating correspondence, etc). Even more daunting is trying to get at the life of gay men and women in ordinary, day-to-day life, as opposed to those who publicly expressed themselves through literature, art, music, or public speaking. Robb is exhaustive in his researches and yet packages his findings like a proper curator, peppering it with insight, opinion, wit, and the occasional provocation. He upends many assumptions not only of the heterosexual dictatorship under which we all live, but also of many gay historians, scholars, and theorists. For example, Robb deftly deflates Foucault's assertion that the 'homosexual' as a self-aware entity did not exist before 1870. Common sense might tell us that Foucault is obviously wrong, but Robb supports this with ample evidence and extraordinary examples from as many Western cultures as he can. And he admittedly doesn't even touch on Eastern cultures, which could provide even more evidence. It would be interesting to read a similar survey of homosexual love in the 19th and earlier centuries taking a specific look at Eastern societies. (Perhaps that book exists and I just haven't bothered to find it yet.) 

EDITH NESBIT

Edith Nesbit is a writer I'm well acquainted with from her magnificent ghost stories -- however, I've never read any of her children's books. Gore Vidal argued that 'After Lewis Carroll, E. Nesbit is the best of the English fabulists who wrote about children (neither wrote for children) and like Carroll she was able to create a world of magic and inverted logic that was entirely her own.' Having re-read Vidal's Nesbit essay and having just watched Lionel Jeffries's extraordinary 1970 movie of THE RAILWAY CHILDREN, now I'm keen to explore Edith Nesbit's children's novels. Nice to have something to look forward to! Vidal's 1964 essay is available free at New York Review of Books: http://bit.ly/19MZt7I

A NOVEL I'M DYING TO READ!

Michael Talbot published his first novel THE DELICATE DEPENDENCY in 1982. It was a paperback original from Avon Books. Subtitled 'A Novel of the Vampire Life' -- I distinctly remember seeing this in the bookstores during 1982, when I was fifteen. I was already reading a lot of horror and fantasy fiction, but for some reason never bought this book. 

I regret that now, as THE DELICATE DEPENDENCY is a much sought-after collector's item. I don't want it for a collection, I just want to read it! Unfortunately, it's long out of print and this was the only edition.

Michael Talbot was a gay man who died in 1992 at age 38 (from leukemia). Perhaps his literary executors have not actively pursued trying to get this reprinted? Given the intense interest and demand, it seems ripe for releasing as e-book at the very least.

The most intriguing thing is that there are 18 reviews posted on Amazon.com, and each one rates it 5 stars. It's been strongly recommended to me several times. Wish I had bought it back in 1982, when I was haunting Books-A-Go-Go in Laramie, Wyo!

HERE'S TO A NOVEL WITHOUT ANY HANG-UPS!

I recently read Paul Monette's TAKING CARE OF MRS. CARROLL for the first time -- a wonderful, unique, summery gay novel from 1978. 

I bought it in 1987 when I was 20 years old, and it sat on my shelf unread until now! Readers seem all over the map on this one, but I absolutely loved it. I do think it helped that I waited until I was 46 to read it (I probably wouldn't have been able to appreciate its subtlety when I was 20). Nothing beats the power of Monette's AIDS memoir BORROWED TIME, but for anyone wishing to be transported back to a carefree sexy summer in the late '70s, I highly recommend taking a dip into TAKING CARE OF MRS. CARROLL! Exquisite and masterful!

<-- The cover art from the 1979 Avon Books paperback is just exquisite. A beautiful sketch of two men kissing, with 'Mrs. Carroll' (or is it?) in the background.