Stevie Ghiassi Ghiassi itibaren Miyombo, Tanzanya
I read this . . . 10 years ago? Anyway, it's one of the best books ever written. It's about complex evil people, each of whom has a characteristic that leads to their downfall -- it's like Jane Austen with sex and betrayal. It also provides an amazing look into a society that is long gone, yet is still surprisingly relevant today. Amazing feminist themes, thought-provoking themes about self-delusion. It's weird that there are no good movie adaptations of this -- they're all pretty terrible. Though the beauty of the book comes through in all of them, it's such a great book -- all the move adaptations are interesting and watchable. There's the John Malkovitch version, which is not as bad as the rest, there's the Colin Firth/Annette Benning version, which is really awful despite the fact that Colin Firth and Annette Benning are wonderful in it. There was one part in that one when I just thought "ewwww." There's Cruel Intentions, which is pretty bad, though really inventive in applying a 17th century French novel to modern teenagers. 17 year old bad boy who keeps a girly scrapbook? Seems unlikely.
I started reading this on my honeymoon and I couldn't put it down.
Fantastic book. The only other book I've read by Eggers aside from his ego-memoir and I loved it. His journalistic style is compelling and full of clarity. I loved being there in New Orleans and experiencing this huge disaster from a Muslim-American. Bravo!