Books Pre-Praiseworthy

I read these books back in September – October both before and during my reading of Praiseworthy when in need of light relief.

The Friday Afternoon Club, Griffin Dunne

I read this before starting Praiseworthy. It was spruiked as a memoir by a Hollywood insider that was a cut above the usual, but I didn’t find it so. The author is of the famous Dunne family. Griffin’s father Dominick, known as Nick early on but later Dominick, was a film and television producer. Having thrown his weight around in Hollywood he finally abused too many people and too many substances (drink and drugs) and lost his pre-eminence. He was down on his uppers when his daughter Dominique was murdered by her boyfriend. Dominick covered the trial and wrote an essay about it that was published in Vanity Fair. Thereafter he became famous for essays on celebrity trial like the Menendez Brothers, O.J. Simpson, Claus von Bülow. The book is largely focussed on the effect of the daughter’s murder on her family and on their relations with one another. Which includes Griffin’s author uncle John Dunne and his wife Joan Didion. No-one comes out of the story very well. The author’s anger at the legal system and the legal players – lawyers, judges – who conspired to release his sister’s killer after a derisory period of imprisonment is palpable. And it is uplifting to see the efforts some, including the author, have put in to make domestic violence treated seriously. The name of the book is from a group who meet on Fridays to remember his sister. But still like all books by Hollywood insiders it is sprinkled with interactions with famous names like Humphrey Bogarde, Sean’s Connery and others. Griffin has been a moderately successful actor – I’d not heard of him. He’s played a small part in the series Only Murders In The Building which I’ve been enjoying. I wouldn’t really recommend the book.

Enid, Robert Wainwright

I liked this one a lot. It’s another Aussie girl does good tale and reminded me of Elizabeth Beauchamp who became Elizabeth von Arnim whose story is recounted in The Countess From Kirribilli which I’ve written about here. Edith was born into the Lindeman wine company dynasty. A bucolic early life in Sydney and the New South Wales bush is followed by a series of marriages – there were four – mostly to the rich and famous, an American then three Englishmen, the last two being a Duke and a Baron. It’s a rollicking story. The American part takes you into Henry James territory – all that wealth, all that philistinism. Said husband dies shortly after the birth of a son and Enid has to manage the family response. She returned to Sydney a bit of a celebrity. She was incredibly beautiful which is perhaps captured accurately on the cover of the book. Either way she attracted men – wealthy ones – like flies. She returned to Europe at the start of WWI, finds London dull, moves to France where she drives an ambulance ferrying wounded soldiers and creating havoc among the officers who were all smitten; which leads to another marriage ostensibly arranged to get her out of the way. The Duke and Baron came later. She was on the spot at various historic occasions; the opening of Tutankhamun’s tomb, coronation of George VI, in the South of France during WWII. Fleeting visits to Sydney. All the while filling the society pages of the world’s newspapers. Two much publicised trials about inheritance – one of which was covered by Dominick Dunne (he took the side of the Duke’s American ex-wife). Famous families, celebrities abound. It’s really a great story. Recommended.

Four Agatha Christies

I read these in downtimes from Praiseworthy. One of my favourite forms of relaxation when very tired is watching the different film versions of Agatha’s stories. I often want to check whether there have been deviations from the original which takes me back to the book – easy when you can buy with one click and read on the same night! Invariably the story is much better without the made-up bits that have been added.

Appointment With Death

This one is about the unspeakable mother who takes her subjugated children out to a ’dig’ in the Middle East. Poirot overhears an anguished she’s got to be killed on his first night in Jerusalem. The foreshadowed murder duly occurs. Ingeniously arranged in full view of the whole encampment. There’s a link to past events. Great cinematography in the David Suchet series. I love the costumes, the hair & make-up, the landscapes, grand houses and their interiors – indeed the whole evocation of the 1920s. And the starry casts. And he is terrific as Poirot especially in the early ones before he became a little too mannered. But really there was no need to make up relationships between the avenging parties over and above Agatha’s version! And doing so strained credulity – which Agatha never did!

The Mystery of the Blue Train

The film of this was a pretty true representation of the book. I was delighted to discover the so-called Blue Train featured also in the life of Enid! And also as I discovered in a later book about H G Wells and his links with Elizabeth von Arnem. It was indeed a train frequented by the rich and famous. It’s a complicated story like lots of Agatha’s. An old lady in St Mary Mead dies and leaves her lovely young companion a fortune no-one knew she had. An American millionaire (played by a very patrician Elliot Gould in the film version) buys a famous ruby for his daughter. Who’s married to a wastrel – or is he? There’s a famous criminal – the mysterious Maquis- who wants the ruby. And there are some attractive but hopeless English expatriates living on the Riviera who would like some of that fortune left by the old lady in St Mary Mead. Luckily Poirot is on the case when the owner of the ruby, the millionaire’s daughter is murdered. But why was her face so disfigured to make her unrecognisable?

After the Funeral

This was also an okay depiction of the story. A wealthy man dies after a serious illness, his family come to the funeral after which the will is read. But why would the long estranged, now back in the fold, and a beneficiary, sister Cora allege he’d been murdered. The movie had Poirot involved from the outset but the book has the elderly lawyer Mr Entwhistle investigating for the first half of the book. Another murder and an assault lend credence to the idea the patriarch was murdered. But was he? I wanted to see whether Poirot assuming the identity of an emissary for a Refugee organisations was accurate. I thought a bit far-fetched for Agatha but indeed it was so. As in lots of Agatha’s stories goodies and baddies aren’t easily identifiable. Good fun.

Five Little Pigs,

I didn’t see a movie version of this, but I loved the book. Poirot is called in to investigate an historic murder case. The daughter of the woman convicted of the murder of her husband, who died in prison wants to know whether mother was really guilty of killing father. The murder victim is a Lucian Freud type painter – I wonder who Agatha had in mind in 1943. Narcissistic, obsessed, magnetic to women not his wife, bully boy etc. Mother on the other hand is saintly. I’m not sure about the allusion to the nursery rhyme that echoes through the book as the character and lives of the five investigated by Poirot. The book cover identifies them: stockbroker (went to market), his brother (stayed home), a socialite (had roast beef), a governess (had none) and a disfigured archaeologist (cried wee wee all the way home). Great characters, great plotting. But enough Agatha for the moment.

Swimming With Seals, Victoria Whitworth

I read this a long time ago and wrote about it here. I enjoyed it a lot then but was then disappointed when I saw the movie of the book, called The Outrun, at MIFF2024. I’ve written about that here. I thought that the film over-emphasised the author’s alcoholic past to the detriment of the story of recovery and wondered if I’d overlooked that in the book. I wrote this before revisiting what I’d written about the film and discover I said exactly the same! Reading the book again confirmed there was much more in it about what aided her recovery than what was shown in the film. In particular she is depicted as almost entirely isolated in the Orkney Islands – the birthplace to which she has returned in an attempt to ensure long-term sobriety. This is inconsistent with the book which includes lots of inter-actions with local people and their importance in her recovery. As well as her continuing interaction via the internet with the world beyond. Especially her research efforts into climate and species. It’s always interesting to compare films and books; you can see where things have to be compressed to keep audience interest. I’m disappointed often by attempts to sex things up. It’s interesting that the script writer here was the author of the book. There’s a great performance by Saoirse Ronan as Rona which is critical as she’s in every frame. There are also wonderful landscapes and seascapes. Incredible place the Orkneys. So loved the book, the film less so.