Thursday, December 26, 2013

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

                             http://pagesofjulia.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/button.jpg 
I have, for most of this month,  been taking a reading holiday.  This means that I have, at a whim, been reading what I want and it has not been too challenging, or inappropriate to the holiday just  barely finished.  I looked for inexpensive kindle books to read (mostly Pride and Prejudice variations which I will probably write about at some point after I have had the chance to re-read them again...which will most likely also be at a whim and when I need to take a break), and some Christmas themed stories (with one or two of them also a P&P variation).  Naturally I revisited Dicken's A Christmas Carol.
So now that Christmas is over (pretty much), I pulled something out of one of my many boxes of books to read last night and this book, I thought, would be good for an appetizer.  Since I have only read The Great Gatsby, I have no great expectations as to how this story would go not knowing what kind of story was typical for Fitzgerald, so it was a surpise.  The movie brought my attention to the story (though I have never and probably shall not ever see the movie...I just can't bear Brad Pitt and it takes a lot for me to overcome that particular prejudice to see a movie he stars in), and I came across this little gem on a sale table for about a dollar or two (who could resist that?).
It is such a charming little book!  It is almost what you would call a novella.  The illustrations are rich and cheerful, adding that special something to enhance the story, the colours teal and purple unifying the illustrations throughout the book.  I don't believe that I am giving anything away (thanks to movie trailers), but all I will say was that I was curious how this story might have come about...how he would have been born old in the first place (and a fully grown old man at that!) and how his life would have ended (no doubt the movie would have elaborated on that, but I can say no more without giving away too much information).   This edition is worth a look, and I will be keeping an eye out for other pretty editions of the author's work. 

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