Saturday, June 28, 2008

Three thumbs up for "Lizzie's War" by Tim Farrington! I finished it the other night standing in the bathroom until 1:00, because I just was going to read one more chapter . . . Last time I did that was Alice MacDermott's "After This." I don't think I've ever identified more closely with another fictional character as I did with Lizzie O'Reilly since I was 10 and wanted to be Scarlett O'Hara.

VBS is finally done, and the rest of our summer is going to be spent swimming and being as lazy as possible. Swim meet today went well, but we were a bit sluggish since we stayed up late to finish watching the Keira Knightly Pride and Prejudice. The kids were restless and whiney when we started the movie (Ben: "Aren't there any fights or action?" Me: "Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are fighting right now." Ben: "That's it?!") but when I tried to turn it off everyone complained. By the end they were sitting quietly and talked about it all the way to bed. Personally I thought it was over-acted. Keira is too giddy for Elizabeth. But the cinematography was pretty, and that's what counts these days. I did like the guy who was Mr. Darcy. Should probably know his name - seemed to have the right mix of broody/earnestness/nobility and still seem attractive. I thought it was interesting how dowdy and sloppy some of the character's seemed -- liked they hadn't washed for several weeks, which is probably authentic, but not like the BBC version.

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