Did anyone here ever read Raintree County?

[OnionPatch]

At first, I couldn't get into it. It was just a little too flowery and poetic and nothing seemed to be happening. But one day I was desperate for reading material and picked it up again. Once the plot began to thicken, I started to enjoy it and now I'm hooked and finding myself really loving this old novel, especially the poetic and philosophical passages. Another thing I love about it is that the Civil War part of the book is told from a Northerner's perspective. It seems to me like most novels about the Civil War are told from the perspective of a southerner. Being a Yankee whose ancestors fought for the Union, it's great to finally read this point of view. And there's a ton of insight into many of the political views of the times, as well, which I'm loving. I'm not quite finished with the book yet but will be soon. I had never even heard of it before, but I think it will stick with me for a long time. I know they made a movie from the book starring Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift, but I'm having a hard time imagining how it could possibly be anything like the book. I'll watch it sometime but not until I'm done reading.

So if you read it, what did you think?

[fadedrose]

1. I saw the movie . . .

Raintree County made a beaufiful movie. I was pretty young when I saw it, and at that age, I liked it very much. Now, I think I would not like it. Too much has happened in public and personal life to give it my full attention and the actors' fame and deaths are a distraction to the story. It was gorgeous, Elizabeth Taylor was gorgeous, the costumes, trees, etc., I still remember.

Now I'd rather read mysteries and am looking forward to the new TV program "The Event," and seeing George Cooney's new movie...

The book is probably better than the movie because the book hasn't aged.

[OnionPatch]

2. The book is so packed with philosophical musings

and long, elaborate thoughts and dreams that I have a hard time imagining how the movie could express them. Plus, the book is about a thousand pages long. The movie must leave out an awful lot. It has to be a whole different puppy than the book. But I'll watch it. Partly just to see how it differs from the book but also because I love Elizabeth Taylor. Glad to hear some positive comments on it. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

So, if you like mysteries, are you reading the "The Girl....." series? I keep getting recommendations for those books. My favorite genre is historic fiction and they don't seem to write so much of that anymore. I have to dig for it deep in the archives sometimes. I'm glad I dug deep enough to find this jewel of a book. One of the most amusing things about it are that the three main characters very much represent the political makeup of today. I guess this fight has been going on for ages. Garwood B. Jones and Cassius Carney are the conservatives of the day and it's hilarious how much they sound like today's Republicans. The professor is the libertarian. Johnny, the sweet, idealistic, main character is the liberal, of course. They talk a lot of politics in the book. That's partly why I would recommend it to anyone on this board who likes historic novels.

[MineralMan]

3. I read it decades ago, and was just thinking about it the other day.

I'm going to bag my parents' copy (the one that I read while in HS) and bring it home at Christmas. They have a couple other books that I read, too, during that period. One, that particularly impacted me was "Not as a Stranger." I'm going to grab that one, too. Time to revisit old books, I think, now that I'm older than dirt.

[OnionPatch]

4. So it must have stuck with you some

if you were thinking about it just the other day after all this time, right?

Lol, I'm getting to be older than dirt, too, or at least as old as, but that book was new to me. I haven't heard of "Not as a Stranger", either, but I'll see if they have it at the library.