Summer Sunshine

What a perfectly fine summer day. A very gentle breeze, lots of sunshine and everything lush and green. There are dragonflies and butterflies floating in the air while the birds seem to have gone into hiding in the trees, escaping the heat. I have puttered around the yard, watering and cutting and then gone into the sunroom to rest a while and have a drink of water or cup of coffee.

It’s the very heat of the day now so I have been reading “The Independence of Mary Bennet” which I find very disappointing. It is nothing but a gothic romance that has turned the beloved Austen characters inside out. Darcy is a loathsome villain, Bingley is a philanderer with a Jamaican mistress, Lydia is a drunken trollop and Mary has somehow become an Elizabeth while the real Lizzie is a weeping pot. Why do authors choose to so malign the characters created by someone else who clearly did not have such a vision of the characters? I don’t understand. I thought since the author of this book was Colleen McCullough, the author of The Thorn Birds, that it would be a quality read. I am sadly disappointed but naturally I can’t help but finish it. I try to suspend my knowledge and pretend that these are all completely different characters with the same name.

I feel the same way when they do a remake of a film or television show. Giovanni Ribisi as Pete Cochrane of The Mod Squad, are you kidding me? Everyone knows that Michael Cole was cooler than cool and to have the character be a fumbling idiot ruined the whole movie for me. Clare Danes was okay as Julie but I haven’t been able to watch the movie again because Ribisi annoys me beyond belief.

Don’t even get me started on “Scarlett”. What part of Margaret Mitchell’s words is incomprehensible? Scarlett would never get Rhett back, but she would be a better person. Perhaps. Never in a million years would Scarlett lose Tara. Wasn’t that obvious to anyone who read the book?

So right now I thought I would write out my frustrations with this book --- and ask myself why I put myself through the pain of it all? Next up, Judge Judy’s book “Beauty Fades, Dumb is Forever” which ought to give me a laugh. She sure has a way with words!