November 10, 2019
Some bits of good news about Mary Toft; or, The Rabbit Queen (which’ll be in stores in less than two weeks)—an “Editor’s Choice” review from the Historical Novel Society, and a selection as one of the best books of the month in Literature and Fiction from Amazon (I won’t provide a link to that here, because I expect such a link would be useless by December).
In the meantime I’m reading Frank Herbert’s Dune, for the first time since high school (I purchased the recent mass-market paperback reissues of the six Frank Herbert Dune novels—great covers, with interior design that’s easy on the eyes. My memory of the earlier editions is one of brown covers, thin paper, and tiny print.) I’m happy to see that for the most part the writing still holds up to my teenage memories, but I’m also newly impressed by the David Lynch adaptation, and how its screenplay streamlines the plot down to its essentials without being unfaithful to it. (And Kyle MacLachlan’s performance as Paul Atreides brings a warmth and humanity to the character that is not always present on the page—e.g. during the scenes set on Caladan, you can sense Paul’s happiness at his own good fortune that he is who he is, whereas in the book those same bits of dialogue, delivered word for word, often suggest an imperious, unearned arrogance.)
Soon I’ll be making public appearances for Mary Toft: my tour schedule is kept up to date on my Penguin Random House author’s page.
Have a good week, everyone.
