A few years ago we watched Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with Gary Oldman and liked it very much. I'd read the book when I was younger and thought it was... well, dull. Back then I was into spy books with car chases and gun battles. And George Smiley - meh. But after seeing the movie, I read the book again and to my surprise, thought it was great. Middle-aged me fell in love with middle-aged, un-glamorous, brilliant, yet plodding George Smiley. He wasn't so dull after all.
To Kill a Mockingbird is another example. Most of us read that when we were young and identified with either Scout or Jem. (I was totally Scout - growing up in a small southern town, idolizing my father. I even had bangs.) Reading it when I was older and married with children, made me relate more to Atticus. I wondered how Atticus felt about the loss of his wife, about raising two children on his own. How hard was it for him to take the Tom Robinson case when he knew it would impact his children? Things I never considered when I read the book the first time.
The books stay the same, but we change. We can re-read to enjoy something familiar, something that's given us pleasure before. And we can discover new layers, new details we missed the first time around.
Great blog!
ReplyDeleteI'm kvelling, and that's a good thing! Thanks for the shout out!
ReplyDeletere-reading. love it. great blog, will be back, for sure
ReplyDeletePeace, Jo
Love to reread. PS I got Thomas too!
ReplyDeleteGreat point -- books are the constants, and we are the variables. Which I realize is math and not English but a day isn't a day until a metaphor has been mixed. I wonder if it works in reverse too -- that a book that really meant something as a kid means absolutely nothing now. I know it's true in film. I would re-read a fave book -- but I have given them all away over the years. Now slightly wistful...
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ReplyDeleteI re-read books all the time. Like you, To Kill a Mockingbird, is a favorite. Another is, The Bear Went Over The Mountain by William Kotzwinkle. I re-read Shakespeare and various works by the Italian Dino Buzzati, the Argentinean, Fernando Sorrentino, and the American, William Stafford who is more known for his poetry but has weaved some pretty amazing stories. There are others as well like The Sheltering Sky by the great Paul Bowles or Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin (now a movie),..
ReplyDeleteI tend to not share my favorite books least people think I'm unintelligent or shallow, so it's a pretty cool think you're doing here, Ann.
I am living your changed perspective (to my chagrin): I am reading a book with my students right now that I didn't go back and properly reread before I started it with them... HORRIFIED at the innuendo and the bits that are embarrassing if spoken aloud. We are reading out loud one day, then in pairs, then silently... Am going to have to strategically plan all those bits for the non-out-loud days. Cannot believe that, despite best intentions, I have turned into an old fuddy-duddy parent.
ReplyDeleteI re-read Dr Seuss all the time and continually get new insights into my soul! Seriously, the thing thats great about re-reading or re-experiencing any art form is that YOU have changed and so your view of the material is altered by the kaleidoscopic change of your life. I used to watch Road Runner all the time as a kid and now I have a completely different take on the material!
ReplyDeleteI also re-read books, mostly because my brain is going and I forget things. Like my father watching the same episode of Murder, She Wrote. And even though I've been teased mercifully for it, GWTW is one of my favorites.
ReplyDeleteOn a nostalgic note, I read a lot of pulp fiction, swords and sorcery and horror when I was a kid. Then I moved away to more mature and challenging pursuits. But this year I find myself drawn back to The Shadow and Robert E. Howard. This may not be a good thing. Still as crazy as it seems, I see things I didn't see when I was 14. But not much. As my wife says, I am such a boy.
ReplyDeleteLove Le Carre... when the subject was the cold war. I hadn't read TTSP in years, saw the film which was fantastic. Which was one of the few times I re-read a book of fiction. 2nd time... eh.... Maybe because the film was so wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI've read Inside the Third Reich more than once. Ummm, and anything by Gitta Sereny.
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