tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.comments2024-03-19T02:33:46.696-07:00The Passing TrampThe Passing Tramphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comBlogger6789125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-7371979464412824432024-03-19T02:33:46.696-07:002024-03-19T02:33:46.696-07:00Exploring the menu at this burger spot was a delig...Exploring the menu at this burger spot was a delightful experience filled with mouthwatering options. The extensive selection of burgers, sandwiches, and sides cater to a wide range of tastes and preferences. Each dish is thoughtfully crafted with fresh, high-quality ingredients, resulting in an explosion of flavors with every bite. Whether you're craving a classic cheeseburger or something more adventurous, this <a href="https://www.smashhouseburgers.com/menu/" rel="nofollow">burger restaurant menu</a> has something to satisfy every craving.Sergo Buthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07529555437245632588noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-73898674657082277932024-03-14T07:16:21.273-07:002024-03-14T07:16:21.273-07:00Calling all lovers of Ukrainian cuisine! Nestled i...Calling all lovers of Ukrainian cuisine! Nestled in the bustling streets of NYC is a hidden gem—a traditional "<a href="https://sveta-nyc.com/" rel="nofollow">Ukrainian restaurant NYC</a>" that promises to transport your taste buds to Eastern Europe. From hearty borscht to mouthwatering pierogies, each dish is crafted with love and authenticity. Step inside and immerse yourself in the rich flavors and warm hospitality of Ukraine. Whether you're a seasoned fan of Ukrainian cuisine or new to the delights it offers, this restaurant is sure to leave a lasting impression.Arthur Morganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04778340900821209824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-68089419098220803182024-02-27T23:37:45.328-08:002024-02-27T23:37:45.328-08:00Thanks so much for all the kind words. Yes, I wou...Thanks so much for all the kind words. Yes, I would love to teach a class. Teaching was my background. I need to get back to some blogging, I have been doing reading and writing and attending to other things. I actually reread The Clocks and The Pale Horse too and meant to blog on those. Also read a couple of Robert Barnards and three Elizabeth Liningtons (am doing an article) and an Ed McBain. The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-32964240795856901822024-02-23T11:46:08.331-08:002024-02-23T11:46:08.331-08:00Thanks, I enjoyed your post, a retrospective of yo...Thanks, I enjoyed your post, a retrospective of your Christie fandom, and how readings of these books change when you're older. I was really surprised to learn that Christie mentions the Beatles phenomenon in At Bertram's Hotel, which I think I've read but mostly forgotten except for the 80's or 00's TV adaptations. You have good insights into Christie's modus operandi and how it deteriorated as she aged. But you're also able to appreciate aspects of her later novels. I really enjoy reading your evaluations of fiction. You're a thoughtful reader, fair and accurate in your judgments and alert to cultural snobbery, racial and class stereotypes, and sexual subtexts. You'd make a great teacher for a course in mystery literature!<br />DouglasWhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17079605686794757280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-57590396109135455432024-02-11T16:31:44.433-08:002024-02-11T16:31:44.433-08:00Miss Marple of course isn't professional but s...Miss Marple of course isn't professional but she must have had a sense of a calling by that time.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-17558846851130976792024-02-11T16:30:20.103-08:002024-02-11T16:30:20.103-08:00I know, there's nothing wrong, per se, with do...I know, there's nothing wrong, per se, with doing a continuation.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-69074879098281729542024-02-10T16:03:44.760-08:002024-02-10T16:03:44.760-08:00Poirot's head is held down in a bucket of wate...Poirot's head is held down in a bucket of water at one point. Ariadne Oliver is around, but not really herself. Don't know why the book had to be mentioned at all, couldn't the film just have been called a "new adventure" of Poirot? Martyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17570040930983242270noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-80254678762121191962024-02-09T17:41:50.177-08:002024-02-09T17:41:50.177-08:00Miss Marple's feeling about lying reminds me o...Miss Marple's feeling about lying reminds me of Miss Maud Silver's views on eavesdropping: as a gentleperson she wouldn't dream of doing it, but as a detective she felt no qualms.Martyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17570040930983242270noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-57304606944664897612024-02-08T22:29:07.167-08:002024-02-08T22:29:07.167-08:00Yes, actually John Curran did an essay for the Boo...Yes, actually John Curran did an essay for the Book Murder in the Closet I edited, where he delves into all this stuff. And he knows the play versions too. I should check that. I agree it's very noticeable in the the story version. There's also a gay villain in the play The Rats, which I finally read and reviewed here I believe a few years ago. Yeah, I don't believe that character you mention was overtly lesbian, like you say she may never have acknowledged to herself the true nature of her feelings. It's a bit foreshadowed in Halloween Party, though I think there the one schoolteacher was a self-aware lesbian and their relationship probably had been such. All rather like the film The Fox!The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-83333372954779967472024-02-08T20:58:44.423-08:002024-02-08T20:58:44.423-08:00I haven't seen it but it sounds very different...I haven't seen it but it sounds very different, outside of their being a Halloween party.<br /><br />A lot of late Christie seems pretty dark to me, with a melancholy autumnal tone to it. The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-67546995559673159392024-02-08T17:14:36.373-08:002024-02-08T17:14:36.373-08:00There's also Christopher Wren--I don't kno...There's also Christopher Wren--I don't know if this comes through in the play, but in the short story version Three Blind Mice, he reads as clearly gay to me at least. <br /><br />Regarding that other later book, I always kind of questioned how overtly lesbian that relationship is. I know Marple says something about how the victim could/should have married and had a "normal" life, but I'm not sure if the killer really understood her feelings as lesbian love. Like you, I started reading Christie very early and when I read that book for the first time at 12 or so, I fully interpreted the relationship as overpowering misplaced maternal feeling. Then again perhaps we shouldn't base literary interpretation on a 12 year old's impressions!Kacperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15219607289740142139noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-54177859106178612942024-02-08T14:13:47.346-08:002024-02-08T14:13:47.346-08:00I always found/find the killer and motivations in ...I always found/find the killer and motivations in Halloween Party to be so very chilling/creepy. I enjoy parts of the book, but it isn't the comfortable read that some other Christie novels are for me.<br /><br />But I certainly feel that the so called "adaption" set in Venice should not claim any relationship to this novel.Jerrihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02655230282344495721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-25916223116519296652024-02-07T20:21:12.226-08:002024-02-07T20:21:12.226-08:00There's a later book--you know the one--with a...There's a later book--you know the one--with a significant lesbian character and one could take the book as being condemnatory of lesbian relationships but, given the sympathetic lesbian couple in A Murder is Announced, I have always taken it more as a condemnation of obsessive love, love that curdles into mere possessiveness. Paraphrasing Sting, if you love someone, set her free. Christie had already written about a heterosexual relationship that was quite similar in another Marple mystery. <br /><br />Given that it's about unnatural sex in rural communities, I'm guessing bestiality was high on Miss Marple's list! I'm reminded of the Chicken Lady from the sketch comedy show Kids in the Hall.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-90159524494191312032024-02-07T18:56:48.957-08:002024-02-07T18:56:48.957-08:00Yeah, I think in Mrs. McGinty's Dead, about a ...Yeah, I think in Mrs. McGinty's Dead, about a dozen years earlier, the playwright (Robin Upward?) is worried that Sven Hjerson is a "fairy." I think Agatha was trying to be up-to-date with her sexual references in the Sixties. Even people who thought of themselves as progressive could be pretty backward by today's standard. (Or maybe not, given how much of the world seems to be regressing on these matters.) Of course ironically the word "queer' has been embraced by the gay community now. <br /><br />Christie has a funny comment in the book through Miss Marple recalling the minister who was affected with an attack of nudism while working on Armenian relief. There's also an implicit lesbian character in Halloween Party who is interesting. And a reference in At Bertram's Hotel to how the missing Canon Pennyfather might have run off with a choir boy. Of course her lesbian couple in A Murder Is Announced is quite sympathetic. The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-81371294434112327312024-02-07T17:34:52.816-08:002024-02-07T17:34:52.816-08:00Re: homosexuality and Raymond, I'm not sure AC...Re: homosexuality and Raymond, I'm not sure AC would have understood "queer" (even as a noun) to be a slur--for much of her life, it would have been the least offensive word signifying a gay man. She could have used "poof" or something even less savory here and she didn't. I think it's reasonable to assume that when Miss Marple ponders "unnatural sex" and "perversion" she's including homosexuality but I don't think those are necessarily the views of AC herself.Kacperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15219607289740142139noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-72713130300317430342024-02-02T14:08:12.543-08:002024-02-02T14:08:12.543-08:00Thanks, Moira, I'm updating ratings of the lat...Thanks, Moira, I'm updating ratings of the late ones as I read and I upgraded Bertram's Hotel, downgraded Frankfurt, which I just don't think I'll ever be able to finish. I will say at least Postern has Tommy and Tuppence, they make it barely bearable. I've read it three times, though I won't say I don't skip lines.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-12154003429844447882024-02-02T07:14:41.734-08:002024-02-02T07:14:41.734-08:00Oh I am just reading this, Postern of Fate, too, a...Oh I am just reading this, Postern of Fate, too, and will blog on it soon! Your post is fascinating and fair - and luckily for me, I will be able to refer people to your post for these details while I riff on about whatever nonsensical aspect strikes me. Unfortunately almost no clothes descriptions in it.Clothes In Bookshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14680610242823846662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-84368018851678042982024-02-01T20:39:17.904-08:002024-02-01T20:39:17.904-08:00I've reread about two-thirds and there are no ...I've reread about two-thirds and there are no great flaws, I think, if you accept the book for what it is. The criminal plot is a bit wild and woolly in the Edgar Wallace way, but it's all very interesting as late Christie characters say. There's much more narrative control than there is in Thumbs. I think Christie still had pretty good narrative control still though Endless Night. <br /><br />When I was a kid Bertram's bored me, I recall. It wasn't a classic mystery with a dead body in an early chapter and a penultimate chapter drawing room exposition with all the gathered surviving suspects. The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-37846492318931595892024-02-01T19:31:22.559-08:002024-02-01T19:31:22.559-08:00Alice herself went out of her way to tell Meg she ...Alice herself went out of her way to tell Meg she did it alone, obviously to protect her brother, but could that indicate he was actually involved in Hillary's death? Was the Whisler story's only purpose after so much ink just to setup the point that Alice didn't know the Whisler was dead? Seems overkill, no pun intended. Also, the Whisler killings may have been made to look impulsive instead of carefully targeted and planned (the out of town woman having some previous contact with the transplanted Alex). Alex's divorce, a form of rejection could have been his trigger...not murdering any since his father, but remembering the finality of abandoning the abandoned with that death. James short blurb about the alleged Whistler is so brief and fails to fully explain the motives of rage, why the Sunday School tune, why the mutilation. Her explanation seemed cryptic and stereotyping and way to brief for the sustained anxiety created by the existence of the unknown killer. The story felt like it had a shortened ending in some ways to me.anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13383959807093034946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-493120805740002702024-02-01T18:50:06.509-08:002024-02-01T18:50:06.509-08:00(Continued)....
I think making Alex the Whistler m...(Continued)....<br />I think making Alex the Whistler makes his sister's story much more powerful, and she's really what the story is about. James intimate knowledge of mental health issues seems to show contradiction in the tramp, who was a setup with the shoes, and the alleged Whistler who may also have been setup, but all the police and community assume this guy with obvious mental health issues automatically assume is guilty...directly opposite of what Adam does when he deals with the tramp. How can Adam be assuming guilt with the one who couldn't defend himself and be unassuming with the one who could? It's not consistent. I think Alex's personality could explain the almost impulsive killings of the Whisler with the careful planning of killing the Whistler, though that would be odd for most killers. Both are motivated by arrogance though. The careful planning existed because it involved protecting his career, not protecting his manhoods ego as the Whistler. But...Alex would not be able to end impulsive killings in London, I wouldn't think...although the Golden Gate killer seemed to in real life. It seems unlikely. anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13383959807093034946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-64270432739945288952024-02-01T18:47:12.580-08:002024-02-01T18:47:12.580-08:00You have some wonderful insights into Devices and ...You have some wonderful insights into Devices and Desires and PD James. I found your review because that book in particular gave me some ideas I had about her and the book. Just like a novel she wrote about her female detective the travels to an island, I thought she did let the real murderer go free (am I remembering that wrong?)and made me wonder if it was a pattern. And if I was right than it indicated a psychology of a writer who bares a secret guilt she wants to keep buried. I think that she was going to name in the end that Alex Mair was the Whistler. That his cleaning things up before his appointment was closing out the Whistler by pointing to what the police expected to find. That the woman he killed had rejected him in some way, and his vanity and abandonment issues triggered his need to label them lesbians with an L and female public hair stuffed in their mouths. That it wasn't just him protecting his sister from a sexually abusive father but himself also who had been preyed upon...I believe he was younger than his sister. That his dalliance with multiple women was his making up for the shame he felt from the abuse and the women's rejection triggered his rage when his charm had no manipulative effect and they saw him for what he was...a shallow arrogant man incapable of real relationships. As for James...if I am right about the above, I thought working for the Home office, which honestly I don't know much about, might have led her to be part of knowing of justified deaths and could lead to a sense of guilt...but that is just one of many possibilities of a heavy and toxic sense of guilt she seems to portray in her books. For what it's worth, my theories are born out from the psychology of the characters, events, and writers thoughts, not any personal viewpoint. I actually like being a political and Christian conservative, and an amatuer detective fiction solver. Noone in the book questioned the possibility that the suicide was actually a murder to cover up the real murderers tracks and I found that odd. It certainly was plausible. Alex could have even planned to kill Hillary and pretend it was a copy cat, or had been in conspiracy with Alice or found out his sister beat him to it. His alibi was being at the plant, so perhaps that was planned. Perhaps there was an underground escape route from the nuclear plant as Alex joked about a tunnel under the fence. Perhaps James was encouraged to change that ending due to state security concerns on reviewing her book and she complied. Structurally, it seems like the Whistler needed to wrap up the end of the book, but with the title being Devises and Desires, that implies a different focus than the Whistler. James put so much ink into the Alex Mair character as well...to what point THAT much ink? Certainly not to emphasize his sister's murderous act over the multiple deaths of the Whistler. You can't tell the story of Alex and Alice without pointing to the murder of Hillary. I felt like Alex tied all the characters together, yet the point of the story wasn't about the appointment of a government official wa it. That was a secondary story. anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13383959807093034946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-18085505359289316652024-02-01T18:34:59.919-08:002024-02-01T18:34:59.919-08:00I do enjoy Betram's. As you say, the mystery ...I do enjoy Betram's. As you say, the mystery plot isn't that strong, but I enjoy the atmosphere and Miss Marple. In fact, I think I like all of the Miss Marple novels and almost all of the short stories, in various ways. However, there are some Poirot novels and story collections that I don't really enjoy. The Big Four for example.Jerrihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02655230282344495721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-658833649563433662024-02-01T13:53:39.092-08:002024-02-01T13:53:39.092-08:00I'm rereading At Bertram's Hotel and there...I'm rereading At Bertram's Hotel and there's lots there about aging and nostalgia for the past. My opinion of this one actually goes up each time, though parts of the plot are wooly, like Miss Marple's knitting.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-34319273841345229692024-02-01T10:13:16.065-08:002024-02-01T10:13:16.065-08:00I have to read this one again. I regularly re-rea...I have to read this one again. I regularly re-read the first three Tommy and Tuppance books with enjoyment, but tend to not revisit the two late ones, as my younger self wasn't that interested in the issues related to ageing. But as someone fast approaching 70 myself now, I might read it with a different point of view. Jerrihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02655230282344495721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-52021131590145917762024-01-31T12:47:03.914-08:002024-01-31T12:47:03.914-08:00I think you can see it in his last book, The Blue ...I think you can see it in his last book, The Blue Hammer. I actually posted about that last year, or maybe it was the year before. (Now I don't remember.) The Blue Hammer actually bears some similarity to Christie. RM was a fan of her and liked the murder in the past plot. So did Robert Barnard, whose dementia affected his last books. Ironically he wrote of the problems in Christie's last ones. He was only in his seventies and RM only in his sixties.<br /><br />Thanks, I am glad you enjoy the blog. Knowing that I do something that brings enjoyment to people is important to me.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.com