Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Tuesday: Book report.

The fact that it took me so long to finish it kind of says something.  The movie is better.  Part of it is that the movie flows better.  There's an overlap between the "Marnie" section and the "new family at the Marsh House" section.  That's not here in the book, so there's less of a "Marnie is a ghost" feel, leaving just "Anna is only remembering things from her childhood/is crazy."  I also don't understand the family dynamic in the book, either.  Auntie sends Anna to stay with friends on the coast, but when the new family moves into the Marsh House, Auntie gets a "visited and talked and went back home" and the friends get a "here's your toothbrush" bit, and then it's all assumed that Anna will just live with that family now.  WTF?  The movie also slimmed that family down.  There are five children in the book, only two of which have any distinguishing characteristics: the girl who finds the diary, and the baby.  All the other children blur together.  Finally, it's unclear to me why Anna's birth father and mother have to divorce, so her mother can marry someone new before she dies.  It doesn't serve any purpose for her to be married twice, unless this is some 1950s moralizing.  

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