Don't Look Now

Daphne du Maurier's "Don't Look Now" is an exceptional collection of short stories. My favorite is "A Border-Line Case." The sense of place of the small island on which Ballyfane Castle in Ireland is located is exquisitely described. Also, the plot unfolds at a boiler pace and doesn't let down until the final reversal. Shelagh starts the story with her father's odd death. Obviously closer to her dad than her mom, she seeks to uncover a bit about his past before beginning her role with the theatre company. This leads her to seek out Commander Nicolas Barry. She is taken almost forcefully in the dead of night in a boat over to the island, her belongings are fetched from the Kilmore Arms hotel, and she finds herself a guest of the unusual Commander Nicolas Barry almost against her will. Add to this the strangeness of seeing her parents' wedding picture in his living room with Barry's head superimposed over where her father's head should be. From there she tries to figure out what is going on here as this woman-less band of 12 men populate the island. Thinking they might possibly be homosexuals, she finds herself as they are digging at an excavation on the island. Finally, the novel speeds to its climax as we suddenly find ourselves square in the middle of Irish Republican Army bombings. The final reversal at the end caps off an incredible short story. It was "Don't Look Now" that was made into the great 70s film with Donald Sutherland & Julie Christie. This is also a marvelous tale of intrigue as a couple tries to adjust to the loss of a child. Add to this the flare of Venice with its canals and travel by boat, two strange sisters with psychic ability who claim the dead child is trying to communicate, and we come up with another tremendously satisfying story."The Breakthrough" with its emphasis on science and trying to have a computer capture a living essence at the moment of death is rather like H.G. Wells' science fiction. "Not After Midnight" also has a tremendous sense of place as an English tutor holidays in Greece. I was a bit confused at the end as to why the story began with him resigning his post, but the story is populated with great characters. The final story "The Way of the Cross" works somewhat less well with quite a huge cast of characters to shuffle through 70 pages, which kept me trying to figure out who went with whom. All in all, this is an excellent collection of short stories by a great writer. Enjoy!

Du Maurier has a clear talent for writing intelligent, engaging prose in a very accessible, clear style. Her characters are real, and their conversations are completely believable. My favorite of the five tales featured here was the title story; like du Maurier's classic novel Rebecca, this is a taunt psychological thriller with a surprise ending. In the second story, "The Breakthrough," the standard search for life after death is presented in a unique light. My least-favorite story of the book was the third, "Not After Midnight," as it had a disappointing ending which I still don't fully understand. In the fourth story, "A Border-line Case," the characters are less believable than is typical for du Maurier, yet the story is still worthwhile. Finally, for the last tale, "The Way of the Cross," du Maurier takes a different tact by telling the story from the perspectives of several main characters rather than just one, and the positive result is less thriller, more human interest. du Maurier is an excellent storyteller, and most readers are likely to find something to praise in at least one of this book's well-written stories.

At First I had a little problem reading the book, because so many words were explained. Gradually it went easier and I started to like reading it & #61514; It was so exciting- Sometimes I was so strained that I couldn't stop reading & #61514;When I read the end, I was very surprised but also a bit disappointed. At first I didn't like it, because it sounded so unreal and I hoped that everything turns a good way, but now I think it's not that bad. You didn't expect this ending, that's a good point for liking it.It's not a extraordinary book which I recommend reading in your spare time, but for school it's ok.