and then writing Little Men.
Not to keep nattering on about Little Women, but I’m with Ms. Alcott. Jo (as a feisty spinster) could have made a go of it, she could have been one of those bold Victorian women who left her stuffy home, wrote books, travelled to the Pyramids and other far away places alone, maybe become a journalist, mapmaker, run an intellectual salon, after rejecting domesticity. But Little Women wasn’t that kind of book, every chapter was based on Pilgrim’s Progress (a work about Christians laboring away in the world), and syrupy do-the-right-thing lessons learned. The girls had to get married to appropriate men, even Jo, awkwardly with that awful professor. I don’t think I ever read Little Men, supposedly Jo enjoyed the company of the boys in her school - certainly not burdened by girls! with their drama, vanity, and dreams of romance.
Better than Laurie? Hah! Men don’t come better than Laurie. As for Amy, she can go suck pickled limes.
Agree! I hated Amy, and was horrified when she got Laurie.
My understanding was that Laurie was based on a Polish count that Louisa admired and perhaps had an affair with. Because she didn’t marry him, she didn’t let Jo marry him. It is also true that she was a staunch women’s rights advocate, and approved of Boston marriages, whichever way you define it. She herself lived an adventurous life, and wrote the blood and thunder stories that Jo gives up.
Little Men was based on her father’s school, though much more luxurious than the conditions she herself grew up in. Bronson Alcott was a fanatic.
I love Mario Puzo… and I started to love the first 3/4 of “Fools Die”. I put the novel down for some reason for a few years w/o finishing it.
When I picked it up again, I remembered all the characters in impossible situations that I loved.
Then, I came to the ending and I was Horrified at how callously and easily he slaughtered them. Pigs in a slaughter house died better. It was such an abrupt end, like he was rushed or forced.
the only one I didn’t like was the actress john had that weird relationship with I always thought her whole point was she was a victim of how scummy showbiz is …
I mean cully was a gambler who just made the ultimate gamble and lost which he was going to do eventually… his was just with the mob boss
osano was actually based a few people literary puzo knew (ive heard hes just an exaggerated version of puzo himself)one of which supposedly died of either syphilis or an aids like illness but even the macguffin of the biography was based on real life
Maybe you guys might be more charitable towards Professor Bhaer, and his relationship with Jo, if you heard “How I Am” and “A Small Umbrella In The Rain” from the musical.
Gerrold doesn’t get a pass from me, because I want more Solomon Short quotes.
Harlan, well, um. Yeah, I met him once. He’s a force of nature (if forces of nature had a huge ego). [sub]he mocked me for having him sign my Science Fiction Book Club copy of Dangerous Visions[/sub].
What’s wrong with Shallan? Shallan’s awesome.
Nynaeve would never ask someone about pooping in armor.
I had always admired John Steinbeck for his deserved inclusion in the tiny number of great American writers, until he came out with that stupid “Travels with Charlie”, which places him somewhere beneath William Least Heat Moon.
Cormack McCarthy, standing by himself as the greatest American writer of his generation, is now writing junk screenplays for Hollywood big-studio blockbusters starring beautiful people…