Jamaica Inn

Jamaica Inn 

by Daphne du Maurier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really liked Rebecca, then I started My Cousin Rachel and couldn't get into it so I was not sure how reading Jamaica Inn would go. I ended up really enjoying it. 

"The coaches avoided Jamaica Inn, hidden in the harsh Cornish moors not far from the coast, for its name was evil, and no man knew what it's dark shutters hid. Yet it was to Jamaica Inn that Mary Yellsn went when her mother died, to join her aunt Patience and the man her aunt had married, Joss Merlyn, the landlord of the Inn. Only too soon was she to learn the full tale of its horror, though she stayed beneath its roof because of her aunt, so lovely once, so battered and haunted now." --Goodreads blurb

Like Rebecca this story has a female narrator who doesn't really understand what is happening around her but figures it out as the book goes along. It also has a similarly dark and gothic tone. The characters, both our heroine and the people around her are complex, interesting people. There were several points where the story took a turn I didn't see coming and it was very skillfully crafted.

After reading the book I watched the 1939 movie which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and introduced Maureen O'Hara. I thought it was fairly dreadful. The story is much simplified from the one in the novel, characters are added and totally changed,  and all the suspense is sucked right out of the story by beginning the movie with an event that happens about 3/4 of the way into the book. 

Written in the 1930s and set in the 1820s this book is on my Classics Club list and I am also counting it toward the Historical Fiction Challenge and the What's in a Name Challenge (double letters in the title).

The Flight of the Falcon

The Flight of the Falcon by Daphne du Maurier
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It wasn't as amazing as Rebecca, but this was an enjoyable novel set in Italy about a man returning to his past and realizing that it wasn't as he thought it had been.
There were quite a few twists and turns in the plot which kept things moving (not easy in a book that takes place entirely in one man's head).
This is my first book for the 2018 What's in a Name Challenge as it's title contains the word "the" twice.

Review: Alena

Alena by Rachel Pastan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book has the same plot as Rebecca, and the same basic cast, and most of the same scenes. There are a few small changes in the plot and the relationships among the characters, but overall Alena is very true to the original it is based on. Where Pastan does make her own mark on the story is in the setting. This story is placed in a museum on Cape Cod instead of on a British estate. This provides an opportunity for a lot of exposition on art and its role in the world which adds a dimension to the novel that it needed. The descriptions of the art and the scenery surrounding the museum are nicely drawn. Here is a description of Cape Cod:

"It's barely land at all. Just a curved ribbon unrolling into the blue--or smoky gray--Atlantic. The sky is so wide open, and everything is always in motion. The grass, the flags, the clouds. Even the land, shifting under you." (p. 53)

This is an enjoyable novel, and the lengths to which it follows the structure of the du Maurier classic is an interesting twist.

Rebecca

“If only there could be an invention that bottled up a memory, like scent. And it never faded, and it never got stale. And then, when one wanted it, the bottle could be uncorked, and it would be like living the moment all over again.” ― Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca

 

First published in 1938 Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier has a very old-fashioned feeling to it. It does not seem to fit into the time of its publication, but rather to harken back to an earlier period. The descriptions, especially of Manderley, are lush and detailed and there is a foreboding feel to most of the novel. It is also a page turner. The very first paragraph tells us a lot (though not all) of where the story will end up which I found to be both a reassurance at certain points and an incentive to keep moving. There were also occasional shocking bits--where it seemed like one thing was true and then you suddenly discovered something else entirely--which kept things moving quickly. 

The characters were compelling, even the minor ones like Max's sister, as each had a distinct identity that supported their role in the unfolding drama. The house, as well as other locations in the novel, are drawn for the reader in ways that are both visual--the red flowers lining the drive to Manderley, for example--and atmospheric. The creepiness of the unused wing of the house is tremendous, but what exactly makes it creepy is hard to pin down as du Maurier blends the descriptive details and the action so skillfully. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this gothic tale of jealousy and deception on an English estate and am looking forward to watching the Hitchcock film based on the novel.  

Challenge: BBR2013

Reading with Tequila is hosting the 2013 Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge. Since I was one of the bloggers who contributed to the 2012 list I feel like I should play. The challenge is to read a certain number of books from the compiled recommendation list during 2013. All formats are fine, but re-reads don't count. Reviews of the titles read are appreciated, but not mandatory. I am signing on for Level I (5 books) and plan to read at least 5 of the following books:

• A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness  (it is already in my TBR pile)
• The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (also in my TBR pile)
• Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain (would fit into the Foodies Read Challenge)
• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (one of my Classics Club titles)
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (also Classics Club)
• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (also Classics Club)
• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (also Classics Club)