The Talented Mr. Ripley

For one of my classes this year, I had to read the book, The Talented Mr. Ripley. Mos tof the books in this class, including The Secret Agent, I have not liked. This one was different. It is about a con man, Tom Ripley, who begins to admire the life an acquaintance leads in Europe. He admires it so much, that he murders the guy and takes over his life, convincing everyone that he is Dickie Greenleaf. The plot is fairly complex, but the book is easy to read and incredibly entertaining. When I have time, I might look into the sequels. I believe there are five total books featuring Tom Ripley.

One thing that must be said, is that the movie is not as good. Judging by the reviews online, it must be a fairly good movie if you have never read the book. However, when comparing it to the book, it just does not hold up. The movie adds characters and plot lines in an effort to make an already complex storyline even more complex, but the result is that the magic is lost.

My suggestion, read the book, forget the movie. That is not that surprising, as the only movie i have found so far that is better than the book, as I have mentioned before, was My Sister's Keeper.

The Secret Agent

I recently read Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent. It'a a twisted story about a group of terrorists who talk more than they actually take action.

Okay so maybe it's a classic novel. Maybe people who know their stuff think it is amazing. All I know is when I read a book, I want it to be fun, not a chore. The Secret Agent wasn't just a chore. I wasn't just cleaning my room. I was cleaning the whole house. The complex narration style makes it incredibly difficult to read. I'm okay with this as long as at the end, I enjoyed the story in general. This is how I feel about Absalom Absalom by William Faulker. Incredibly hard to get through, but looking back, it was a great story. Looking back at Conrad's book, it still stunk.

Don't read it.