tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post2870745725758553679..comments2024-03-28T10:31:55.774-07:00Comments on The Passing Tramp: The Big Five from the Bottom Shelf: The Most Popular of the Least Popular Christies; Plus, The Tuesday Night Bloggers!The Passing Tramphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-45824515784193327102015-09-27T21:44:24.880-07:002015-09-27T21:44:24.880-07:00And the unreliability and vagueness of the author....And the unreliability and vagueness of the author. Was she suffering from senile dementia or Alzheimer's when this book was produced? Ross Macdonald was suffering from the initial onset of Alzheimer's when he wrote The Blue Hammer, but a strong book was managed anyway. <br /><br />The last two Christie books are about old people trying to remember things, and frequently failing. I can see why the qualities that you and Lucy highlight might make Postern a more interesting book than Links, say, if not a better book, at least as conventionally defined.<br /><br />"It's pretty ghastly, isn't it?" wrote the literary agent Dorothy Olding. "Much worse than the last two....Poor dear, I wish there were a way to tell her this shouldn't be published--for her sake."<br /><br />Her biographer Laura Thompson writes: ""Since the 1960s the books had required a certain amount of polishing, partly because the Dictaphone made Agatha more prolix, but no editing could make Postern of Fate into a tight piece of detective fiction....the plot is barely fathomable, indeed it is scarcely existent, and by now Agatha's voice on the Dictaphone meandered like that of an old, old woman as she crept along the distant paths of her life."<br /><br />I think some people chose some books as favorites because of what they felt they told us about AC herself. That helps me understand how some people picked Destination Unknown as a favorite, for example.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-34693444728319699512015-09-27T18:41:06.918-07:002015-09-27T18:41:06.918-07:00Well, Postern of Fate is one of Christie's mos...Well, Postern of Fate is one of Christie's most groundbreaking and innovative works. Just as Roger Ackroyd was a pioneering work of post-modernism (see Roland Barthes and Umberto Eco inter alia), Postern of Fate is an anti-detective novel, indeed an anti-novel in the line of the French nouveau roman. Its theme is memory, senescence and senility; the unrelaibility and vagueness of Tuppence's memories reflects the unreliability and vagueness of the plot. This is Christie deconstructing her own work with a vengeance, what Harold Bloom would call an act of artistic self-wounding.<br /><br />Whereas Murder on the Links is a well constructed if rather dated mystery influenced by A.E.W. Mason.Nick Fullerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05668031989499870182noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-52666822413405705442015-09-27T04:16:17.404-07:002015-09-27T04:16:17.404-07:00Dare I enter that particular postern again?Dare I enter that particular postern again?The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-84139735218003517712015-09-27T04:15:02.443-07:002015-09-27T04:15:02.443-07:00Or could that be Miss Marple's old friend on t...Or could that be Miss Marple's old friend on the cover?The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-36180518540702481032015-09-26T22:57:27.606-07:002015-09-26T22:57:27.606-07:00I'm surprised Murder on the Links, Hallowe'...I'm surprised <i>Murder on the Links</i>, <i>Hallowe'en Party</i> and even <i>Elephants Can Remember</i> lost to <i>Postern of Fate</i>. They sure have their fair share of problems and aren't exactly top-tier Christie titles, but better <i>Postern of Fate</i>? No. I refuse to accept that reality! TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-16236666774373170452015-09-26T21:40:29.831-07:002015-09-26T21:40:29.831-07:00The last one is by Tom Adams, who is considered pe...The last one is by Tom Adams, who is considered perhaps the greatest Christie cover artist. I think it's deliciously baroque.<br /><br />I think Murder on the Link is hilariously bad though. Who noticed Poirot with that astounding French maid on the cover? <br /><br />I thought the first one was interesting for a depiction of a fifties juvenile delinquent and of Miss Marple. That's an early representation of her on a fifties pb cover.<br /><br />I've read Postern of fate and can't say I enjoyed it either time, Lucy, bit you have made a case for it as a nostalgia trip and I may try it again someday. Kevin Killian says it was supposed to be called Doom's Caravan originally and that it was actually much altered in editing. It would be interesting to get some idea what the full version might have been like.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-76597113273356985752015-09-26T20:59:01.450-07:002015-09-26T20:59:01.450-07:00The Murder on the Links cover has a certain so-bad...The <em>Murder on the Links</em> cover has a certain so-bad-it's-good vibe going for it. Sort of. dfordoomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02306293859869179118noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-90685851278100490182015-09-26T16:51:19.669-07:002015-09-26T16:51:19.669-07:00What amateurish covers!
What amateurish covers!<br />Lucy R. Fisherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08632983296994349550noreply@blogger.com