|
|
2.0 out of 5 stars
Showing now, at a cinema near you..., May 9 2001
By A Customer
Rereading this collection recently, it struck me that John Fowles is to novels what Ridley Scott is to films. Both craft consistently slick, well-put-together work which quite often doesn't stand up to much intellectual scrutiny. Thus, Ridley Scott made "Alien" and "Blade Runner", which looked and were great, but also "1492" and "Gladiator", which merely looked great but were quite vacant. Similarly, Fowles wrote The Collector and The Magus, but (unfortunately for his reputation) he also wrote Daniel Martin and The Aristos. The Ebony Tower works best if you think of it as a series of commercials - movie trailers, almost - for the rest of his work. That's not what it was meant to be, but that's how it works. Some of it's good, some of it's dull, but it's always at least well-constructed and workmanlike. So there's the usual bit of thought, the usual bit of female nudity (well, quite a lot, actually), the usual rumination on the human condition, and the usual episode featuring a bearded middle-aged writer whose alluring intellect very young women find so attractive they overlook his bandy white legs and paunch and leap enthusiastically into his bed. If you've read his Daniel Martin, you'll know exactly what I mean. If you actually *are* a bearded middle-aged writer with said bandy white legs and paunch, you won't. You'll like this if you're the kind of person who collects both classic movies *and* their original theatre trailers. But you'd never sit down and watch just the trailers, right? And that was how I felt about this collection. If I wanted a dose of Fowles, I'd go straight for his two classics.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
 
|
|
|
|
