I rewatched The Talented Mr. Ripley, having just finished rereading the book. Unfortunately, I liked the film a lot less this time around, because seeing them in such close proximity made me realize it’s not a very faithful adaptation of the book. The movie bends over backwards to make Ripley likable and in doing so completely alters all the characters. Philip Seymour Hoffman’s performance was the only thing that came close to the book.
Speaking of books, I’m retrenching a little with this year’s intractable Reading Project. I’ve very much enjoyed rereading the first two Ripley books and am nearly finished with Ripley’s Game (after which I plan to watch the John Malkovich-starring movie and then complain about it to you if it takes too many liberties with the book). I guess there are two more Ripley books after this one, which I’d like to check out…maybe next year. For now, I’ve got to turn my attention to Harry Potter—I’d had grand plans of rereading the entire series before the last book came out, but at this rate I’ll just have time to reread Book 6, which I’m afraid I don’t much remember, before Book 7 is delivered to my door next Saturday. And then suddenly we’re into August, and me with 17 books still left on my list! So I’m getting rid of The World According to Garp, which I never had much enthusiasm for, and Cloud Atlas, which doesn’t really fit into the Project because I don’t own it—I just have it on long-term loan from P. I’m also giving myself the option not to read all the Sherlock Holmes if I can’t fit it in. That leaves just the Shirley Jackson stories, which I’m looking forward to being terrified by, Stanley Park, which I’m told is about food, The Girl in Hyacinth Blue, which I have no particular interest in but A’s mom gave me a signed copy, so I have to see whether it’s worth keeping, and the Wodehouse books, which I’ll relish. Hopefully these revisions will rescue the Project from feeling like a chore.
