I Never Promised You a Rose Garden was the first book my parents ever seriously considered not allowing me to read. In the end, they trusted me, even at age twelve, and I bought it at a local bookstore—still have my copy. I read everything I could find about insanity. The film version of Theodore Isaac Rubin's David and Lisa came out that year too, but I didn't read the novellas till I was in high school. I found Things Fall Apart when I was 18 in college, and it changed my life. I taught that novel.
btw, I think you might be remembering the film version of Little Big Man. I recall being furious at that scene as unfaithful to the novel. But perhaps I misremember. The book is funny, but that moment was not played for laughs, as I recall.
I was quoting from the film--I looked up that scene on YouTube--didn't know how well I remembered it. The scene isn't played for laughs in the movie either--there's just a certain humor in OLS's fate, which is our fate, the human condition. It's touching, and the line OLS utters leavens the moment just enough.
There was a lot of humor they left out of the film. I felt the ending undermined all that Old Lodge Skins was saying in those last two chapters. Took out the sting of tragedy, but he'd earned that dignity, in my opinion... at least in the novel.
"He laid down on the damp rocks and died right away. I descended to the tree line, fetched back some poles, and built him a scaffold. Wrapped him in the red blanket and laid him thereon. Then after a while I started down the mountainside in the fading light" (445).
I found my ragged 1964 paperback. 95¢ Even then I tried to read books before seeing the film.
Oh, terrific. I'm gonna have to read it . . . but I've still got half of my last Victober book to finish [Trollope, [THE FRAMLEY PARSONAGE]. Thanks for your quick and astute responses!
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden was the first book my parents ever seriously considered not allowing me to read. In the end, they trusted me, even at age twelve, and I bought it at a local bookstore—still have my copy. I read everything I could find about insanity. The film version of Theodore Isaac Rubin's David and Lisa came out that year too, but I didn't read the novellas till I was in high school. I found Things Fall Apart when I was 18 in college, and it changed my life. I taught that novel.
btw, I think you might be remembering the film version of Little Big Man. I recall being furious at that scene as unfaithful to the novel. But perhaps I misremember. The book is funny, but that moment was not played for laughs, as I recall.
I was quoting from the film--I looked up that scene on YouTube--didn't know how well I remembered it. The scene isn't played for laughs in the movie either--there's just a certain humor in OLS's fate, which is our fate, the human condition. It's touching, and the line OLS utters leavens the moment just enough.
There was a lot of humor they left out of the film. I felt the ending undermined all that Old Lodge Skins was saying in those last two chapters. Took out the sting of tragedy, but he'd earned that dignity, in my opinion... at least in the novel.
"He laid down on the damp rocks and died right away. I descended to the tree line, fetched back some poles, and built him a scaffold. Wrapped him in the red blanket and laid him thereon. Then after a while I started down the mountainside in the fading light" (445).
I found my ragged 1964 paperback. 95¢ Even then I tried to read books before seeing the film.
Oh, terrific. I'm gonna have to read it . . . but I've still got half of my last Victober book to finish [Trollope, [THE FRAMLEY PARSONAGE]. Thanks for your quick and astute responses!