Book Review: Possession

I finished reading A. S. Byatt’s Possession, which I enjoyed very much ( Spoilers )

In short (and without spoilers), despite having some reservations in the middle I both enjoyed and admired this book: it took the things that I had reservations about and explored them so thoughtfully and with such emotional subtlety that it totally won me over.

Also I just love books where research rather than murder is the impetus for a mystery plot, although they’re hard to find. Other examples include Josephine Tey’s Daughter of Time, Emily Arsenault’s The Broken Teaglass, and Barbara Michaels’ Houses of Stone - I feel like I’m forgetting another book that I’ve read in this vein, but it’s just gone.

Over on evelyn_b’s journal someone recommended Lucy Sussex’s The Scarlet Rider as another example of this genre (what would you call it? Literary/historical research mysteries?), so clearly I should look that up too.

Finding Dory

My mom and I went to see Finding Dory, and I liked it a lot! I haven't seen Finding Nemo for years (I was actually not that enthusiastic about Finding Nemo, but it's been so long I can't remember why. It may have been Marlin. I definitely thought the Dory parts of Finding Dory were stronger than the Marlin parts), so I probably missed some of the subtleties there, but Finding Dory holds together just fine without it.

I particularly liked Dory and her grumpy octopus friend! The bubbly happy friend and the grump with a heart of gold is one of my favorite types of screen buddy pairing, and this is a beautiful example of it.

Also I found Dory's memories of her childhood very affecting. Her parents are so worried about her and her ability to take care of herself because of all her memory problems, but also trying so hard to help her build confidence in herself, and using the things that she likes - shells! - as building blocks so those lessons will be fun and loving and memorable.

Finding Dory did not make me cry like some other Pixar movies have, but I did tear up a bit ( Spoilers )

I also really enjoyed the short film at the beginning, the fluffy little sandpiper chick learning how to deal with the waves. So cute! It's like they found the cute! button in the brain and just jammed their finger on it for five minutes, the whole thing was so adorable. And the feather fluff was so beautifully rendered, and the sea, and I'm always so impressed by how much emotion Pixar can manage without using any words at all.

In fact, I think Pixar should consider doing more movies like Wall.E, where part of the film is almost wordless. It really showcases their strengths as a studio - and it's a strength that I don't think any other film companies can match right now, so it would showcase their uniqueness as well.

Not that Pixar needs any advice from me. Many of their movies are stunningly unique already (who else would come up with something like Up or Inside Out?), and I'm always happy to see whatever they do next.