I get a real kick out of reading book and film reviews. There is a lot of writing talent out there amongst those reviews. Often I am bowled over by how well written they are. A few choice words, a cleverly crafted sentence; the thought that goes into writing them can leave me breathless. They can also leave me with the slight worry that the book or film may not be as good as the review.
Below are a few examples I have collected:
– The first was not a written one, but one I heard on the radio. Boyd Tonkin, Literary Editor at The Independent newspaper was speaking on Radio 4 of the late Booker Prize winning historical fiction writer, Barry Unsworth. He explained how meticulous Unsworth was in his research to ensure historical accuracy and added “…but never allowing the weight of his knowledge to burden the flow of his narrative”. What kind of genius line is that? As soon as I heard it, I rushed to grab a pen and paper to write it down. I didn’t know why I needed to write it down, but I just knew I needed to record it so as to be able to admire its brilliance at a later date.
– Russell Letson from Locus Magazine reviewed the technothriller book ‘Hard Questions’ by Ian Watson, describing it as “A pinball-machine adventure”. Wow! Such a vivid picture painted in such a few words.
– Richard Voza over at Brainsnorts wrote a thoroughly entertaining movie review of Prometheus, with great lines in it (and forgive me Beth for the rude word here), such as “Charlize Theron plays Meredith Vickers, a woman whose rank and role aboard the ship are not as clear as her ass through the fabulous uniform she wears”. I like a review that gets me laughing.
– Carolyn Kellogg of the Los Angeles Times reviewed the book ‘Gold’ by Chris Cleave, and said “The book resembles a soap opera…If an evil twin had shown up, it would have fit right in”. I love that, it doesn’t try to be clever with words but the evil twin reference makes the point in a simple but perfect way that leaves us nodding wisely in complete understanding.
– Frances Wilson from The Telegraph reviewed the book ‘Missing Out’ by Adam Phillips, commenting at one point “Here he is one step ahead of us, and following his sentences around their hairpin bends is the thrill it used to be”. This one left me curious, what is it like to follow sentences around hairpin bends? I need to know.
As much as I enjoy reading the reviews, I don’t usually let them sway me too much in terms of my decision as to what I read or watch; they are after all just opinions. We’ve all experienced going to watch a film that was highly favourably reviewed by all the critics, and ended up hating it, or reading a book that rocked our world but was slated by the reviewers. Often I deliberately don’t read the reviews until after I have watched the film or read the book, so as not to be influenced too much.
Do you enjoy reading the reviews? How much do you let them influence your choice to watch the film or read the book?
