"He had achieved this state consciously after year upon year of unconscious rehearsal of the manifest paraphernalia of arrogance and contempt, then exceeded it".
Every now and then, an exception to the rule raises its head. In terms of movie adaptations, this, in my opinion is certainly one where the cinematic offering is far superior to the literary version, and I say that with one foot staunchly set in the opposite court. It is rare where one's own imagination can't invent a more intriguing adaptation than the likes of Hollywood, however the prose on offer here is so laboured that I say bring back Angela Lansbury and Frank Sinatra.
The novel is written as if the author has both simultaneously swallowed the dictionary and also harbours a desperation to be considered as a serious author. Drowning in a sea of unusually large words that mesh poorly together, the reader is left to shirk the constant undertone that screams " look at how clever I am". If , perhaps he'd succeeded, then the work would exist as some kind of revelation; as it stands, it seems to be the poor cousin of the scriptwriter's polish. It is VHS compared to blu-ray.
The ideas, must have been novel to the contemporary readers upon its release and certainly the notions are exciting and interesting, the difficulty arises in the delivery.
I have not seen the Denzel Washington movie adaptation, however it would be interesting to compare both movies with the book.
3 out of 5, old blue eyes sang it better, now let's go play some solitaire.
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