all about art
Man, I was gonna write a long post about all the art I’ve been consuming recently: an exquisite Sweeney Todd, currently on Broadway, where the small ensemble of actors remain onstage the entire time, doubling as the orchestra, and a coffin in the center doubles as half the set; and Middlemarch, which, along with The Eustace Diamonds, features a male character whose lineage is suspected of being tainted with JEWISH BLOOD! and yet, despite the shame, marries the heroine. Is this a 19th century trope, or a 19th century coincidence?
(Does one need to yell “spoiler!” when discussing books that have been around longer than my family has been in America …? If so, I apologize.)
Also Inside Man, Friends With Money, The Mistakes Madeline Made, and Happy Endings. No time to comment on any of it! I’ve gotta go catch a plane and hang out in the heartland for next five days. If you’ve seen/read any of the above, feel free to post your own opinions in the meantime.
you should read george eliot’s “daniel deronda.” it’s pretty good, and a bunch of the protagonists manage to be: (1) sympathetic (2) jewish and (3) characters in a victorian novel all at the same time. in fact, the whole book is basically about how rad judaism is.
word. my grandmother loved it.
aah, I’m only up to page 300-something in Middlemarch right now!
sadly, I am not making that up. ha.
katie