Particularize Appertaining To Books Don't Look Now
| Title | : | Don't Look Now |
| Author | : | Daphne du Maurier |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 303 pages |
| Published | : | 1971 by Doubleday & Company, Inc. |
| Categories | : | Short Stories. Horror. Fiction. Classics. Gothic. Mystery |
Daphne du Maurier
Hardcover | Pages: 303 pages Rating: 3.88 | 7161 Users | 689 Reviews
Narrative Supposing Books Don't Look Now
Gripping, absolutely gripping – my listening to three Daphne du Maurier tales on audio: No Motive and two from this collection, Don’t Look Now and the author’s famous The Birds. Each reading spanning an hour and a half, the storytelling so compelling, picking up dramatic momentum every single minute, I dare not take a break until the shocking conclusion. And to add a bit more atmosphere to my listening to The Birds, out my apartment window, down at the pond, a gaggle of Canadian Geese started honking and fighting and honking some more.
Patrick McGrath writes in his astute Introduction to this New York Review Books (NYRB) edition how Daphne du Mauier possessed an uncanny genius to craft her stories in ways to sustain tension right up until the the final sentence, an ending frequently shocking and disturbing in the extreme.
I enjoyed each of the nine pieces collected here but two most especially: Don’t Look Now with its clairvoyant older twins and creepy happenings and the story serving as the focus of my review: The Birds. And please don't think of the Hitchcock film - other than attacking birds and terrorized humans, Daphne du Maurier's tale is a hundred shades darker, incomparably more ominous and threatening, even to the point of impending cataclysm for the entire human race.
THE BIRDS
“Black and white, jackdaw and gull, mingled in strange partnership, seeking some sort of liberation, never satisfied, never still. Flocks of starlings, rustling like silk, flew to fresh pasture, driven by the same necessity of movement, and the smaller birds, the finches and the larks, scattered from tree to hedge as if compelled.”
Handyman Nat Hocken lives in remote farming country out on a peninsula in England and remarks to one of the farmers how there’s something quite strange about all the bird behavior this autumn. Just how strange? Nat finds out very quickly when that very night birds enter the bedroom window of his son and daughter, dozens of little birds, attacking both of them, trying to peck out his son’s eyes. Nat takes immediate action, gets his children out of the room, closes the door, and frantically swings a pillow left and right, up and down, to kill as many birds as he can.
The next morning: “Nat gazed at the little corpses, shocked and horrified. They were all small birds, none of any size, there must have been fifty of them lying there upon the floor. There were robins, finches, sparrows, blue tits, larks, and bramblings, birds that by nature’s law kept to their own flock and their own territory, and now, joining one with another in their urge for battle, has destroyed themselves against the bedroom walls, or in the strife had been destroyed by him.” And this is only the beginning.
Later that day Ned is attacked by bigger birds out in a field and, after he races home for protection, both he and his wife hear on the radio that the government of England has called a state of emergency, advising all citizens to remain inside and take the necessary precautions to ensure their safety. But, above all else, people are urged to remain calm.
Time Out for Facts: there exists almost ten thousand different species of birds and according to some experts, the total worldwide bird population could total as many as four-hundred-billion. Whoa! Four-hundred-billion. No matter how you look at it, that’s a lot of birds. Imagine what would happen if, as if directed and coordinated by some unseen unifying force, all those birds began an attack en masse on humans.
Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Žižek believes the author was targeting the prevailing welfare state for their inability to effectively deal with the attacking birds. Patrick McGrath notes how du Maurier’s story anticipates a global ecological disaster. I myself think McGrath is on the mark and Žižek is way off the mark. As Nat Hocken asserts, survival, at least immediate survival, has everything to do with the sturdiness of one's shelter. Sorry, Slavoj - politicians of any stripe will be of little help in fending off a nonstop attack conducted by billions of birds.
Daphne du Maurier delves into the unsettling psychology produced by such an attack. Almost to be expected, initial reactions revolve around denial and rationalization. Very understandable since the cycle of human existence is completely dependent on the laws of nature.
And the more we understand the laws of nature, the more we feel we are in control. Herein lies the terror of the tale – the laws of nature remain intact with one glaring exception: the behavior of the birds. All of a sudden nature has transformed itself into the unknown. As writers such as H.P. Lovecraft recognized, there is no stronger human emotion than fear and no great fear than fear of the unknown.
As per the well-worn admonition, “Don’t just stand there, do something!” humans being humans, there is a natural instinct to take action. Upon hearing a roaring sound, Nat reflects how the authorities have sent out airplanes but knows this is sheer suicide since aircraft would be useless against thousands and thousands of birds flinging themselves to death against propellers, fuselages and jets.
Then Nat hears another sound, a sound prompting him to have one last smoke: “The hawks ignored the windows. They concentrated their attack upon the door. Nat listened to the tearing sound of splintered wood, and wondered how many million years of memory were stored in those little brains, behind the stabbing beaks, the piercing eyes, now giving them this instinct to destroy mankind with all the precision of machines.”
Did I mention gripping? I can assure you, you will never encounter a more chilling, spellbinding, mesmerizing tale then this one. Darn, down at the pond, those Canadian Geese are still honking up a storm. But no attacks on humans have been reported . . . yet.
Details Books As Don't Look Now
| Original Title: | Don't Look Now and Other Stories |
| ISBN: | 0140035907 (ISBN13: 9780140035902) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | John Baxter, Laura Baxter |
| Setting: | Crete(Greece) Venice(Italy) Jerusalem(Israel) |
Rating Appertaining To Books Don't Look Now
Ratings: 3.88 From 7161 Users | 689 ReviewsAppraise Appertaining To Books Don't Look Now
Just an extra word or two: if you've never seen the spectacular 1973 Italian-British film Don't Look Now, it's definitely one you should watch because it's truly a classic!This collection of stories has inspired film and television for years, it's been released in numerous editions and it deals with difficult topics such as grief, a subject often not spoken of back in the day. Each of these stories has a moral message within its words, and beautiful worldly imagery and excellent suspense aside,Setting and SuspenseIt should be no surprise that the author who had conjured up Manderley should be marvelous in her use of physical settings. "Don't Look Now," the title story, is the perfect embodiment of the sinister side of Venice, as those who recall the Nicholas Roeg movie will recall. And remarkably precise, down to street names and minor alleys; contrast Ian McEwan who, when he surely imitated it in The Comfort of Strangers, did not specify his Venicelike city. "The Way of the Cross" is
Great writing in this collection of short stories, though the stories are not so short, more like novellas. Most of the stories carry a sense of dread, and Ms du Maurier takes her time, patiently setting up the foundation, and increasing the sense of uneasiness with every page until it rises to a crescendo. In most of the stories, when the ending finally comes, it almost seems anti-climactic, but actually links back to the beginning - it is well worth the reader's effort to go back to the first
An interesting collection full of stories of subtle (and in some cases, not so subtle) horror and suspense. My favourite was definitely the title story, Don't Look Now, and sadly, some stories didn't really work for me, hence the 3-star rating.
Great writing in this collection of short stories, though the stories are not so short, more like novellas. Most of the stories carry a sense of dread, and Ms du Maurier takes her time, patiently setting up the foundation, and increasing the sense of uneasiness with every page until it rises to a crescendo. In most of the stories, when the ending finally comes, it almost seems anti-climactic, but actually links back to the beginning - it is well worth the reader's effort to go back to the first
Daphne du Maurier is one of my favorite authors and she has never disappointed me thus far. These five longish short stories, each with a different focus but all surprising and unpredictable or at least to me. *Don't Look Now (1971)- Is about a couple on vacation in Venice, trying to enjoy life after their daughter's death but circumstances and possible psychic happenings have put a wrench into those plans. *Not After Midnight (1971) A schoolteacher on vacation to Greece finds not the rest and
Expertly wrought tales of intrigue and nastiness.
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