Emma Smith wrote only two novels in the late 40s before she married and put away her typewriter for decades; they were bestsellers and were critically acclaimed, yet they remain today largely forgotten. The Persephone Press has reissued one of them, THE FAR CRY, and like its central characters it is odd and difficult to appreciate at first but well worth it in the end. Fourteen year-old Tersea is pulled out of school by her cantankerous and dislikeable father to go to India with him simply to spite her mother, from whom her father is estranged and who is coming to England to reclaim her; in India, he hopes to reunite with his other daughter from a previous marriage, the lovely Ruth. For… Read more
LP Hartley's first major published work is less forced than his later, more canonical THE GO-BETWEEN and more controlled than EUSTACE AND HILDA. Although it owes much (too much) to Henry James and E. M. Forster and Edith Wharton, it's still a memorable novella, especially in its evocations of a tourists' Venice that is more ultimately more recognizable (and sensual) than Mann's or James's, even if it lacks the other writers' intellectual rigor.
Wealthy, attractive Lavinia Johnstone is in Venice with her formidable Boston Brahmin mother after disappoiinting the latter by refusing four estimable suitors; while acting the tourist, she becomes enamored of a handsome gondolier even if she… Read more
This wasn't SCTV's best season: it didn't show the sheer genius of their syndicated episodes, nor it did reach the manic intensity of the nexts season when Martin Short stepped in and revved everyone's motors. But this, the first season of SCTV Network on NBC, is still about as hilarious as television comedy can get, and the first episode shows highlights from the syndicated show, including what is perhaps the funniest game show parody ever done on television, "High Q."
One thing that made the cast so great was their universal ability to mimic famous performers, something that comes to a head in their hilarious spoof of "The Lion in Winter." Moreover, they were so good… Read more
