35: Polo: Jilly Cooper: ISBN 0552150576
Mar. 24th, 2004 10:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I feel like it's a bit of a dirty secret to admit to having enjoyed reading this stuff as a teenager. What could be worse then than admitting that I've actually bought some of it. It was in the cheapo bookshop at 3 for a tenner though, and that will have to be justification enough. It's a horsey boozy blockbuster full of sex and tantrums, which sounds terrible in a lot of ways but in fact is somewhat endearing. The loveliest characters all end up settled happily at the end, and the underdogs win the important match at the end of the book and all is well with the world.
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Date: 2004-03-24 10:11 pm (UTC)Sounds good to me - sometimes that's what we need. Personally, I'm taking some Enid Blyton to read on holiday!
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Date: 2004-03-24 10:36 pm (UTC)Where does the yardstick that deems what is culturally good or bad reside? It's not measurable, it arises out of a consensus. What is wrong, or at the very least, questionable, is that a few people have the more sway in deeming cultural goodness or badness than other people.
In my defense, I point out that Shakespear was the Jackie Collins of his day.
Anyway, there's lots about Jilly Cooper that even the self defined Great and Good could applaud, if they so wished. She doesn't promote style over plot, and her writing style jars on me far less than, for example, JK Rowling. She has a fantastic imagination, and a real empathy for the people she is writing about. OK, this leads to less than consistent characterization, but people change, y'know?
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Date: 2004-03-24 10:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-24 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-25 12:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-25 12:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-24 10:37 pm (UTC)And she does write some very endearing sorts of people - e.g. Luke, in Polo, who is lovely :-) And even though Perdita behaves like a bitch throughout you still *want* her to work things out. I'm always rather fond of her horrendously-behaved teenagers, as well.
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Date: 2004-03-25 12:07 am (UTC)If I were really ashamed to admit to it I wouldn't be posting to LJ. I like reading well-written trash though from time to time. Mind I'm pondering between Du Maurier's Rebecca or Anne of Green Gables to take to bed tonight.
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Date: 2004-03-24 11:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-25 09:27 am (UTC)I used to read Mickey Spillane