Review of New Moon
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I finished New Moon, the second book in the Twilight series this week. Like most people, I think it's not quite as good as Twilight, but it has a lot going for it. Some thoughts:
1. Stephenie Meyer is not the world's great stylist, but she does have a few nice lines in New Moon. One of my favorites was "I was a lost moon." This is how Bella describes her life after Edward leaves, and it's a good image----a moon that is used to revolving around another planet, suddenly having its planet disappear and having no center, no course.
2. Edward leaves Forks after the first or second chapter of the book. The next chapters are nothing except a chapter title that is the name of the month. October. Blank page. November. Blank page. I've never seen this before in a novel, and it's kind of brilliant. Eloquent, actually.
3. By the first couple of chapters, there are two scenes that are powerful. One is the scene where Bella sees her grandmother in a dream. Can't give details without spoiling, but it's a haunting and memorable scene. The other is when Edward leaves, which feels devastating. You really feel this pain, and those couple of empty chapters that follow are a really smart way to convey Bella's numbness and to give the reader . . . I don't know, let's call it "narrative time" to absorb what's happened.
4. I like the themes Meyer weaves into the story. One is the question of what to accept in life. Edward is gone, but there is a good man (Jacob) who loves her. If she accepted Jacob into her life, is that settling? Is it realistic? Is passionate love better than mature love, or vice versa? Her treatment of this issue is not simplistic. It reminded me of Terence Malick's movie about Pocahontas, The New World. She has a passionate connection with John Smith (played by Colin Farrell), but when he leaves she is slowly courted by another settler (played by Christian Bale).
5. Also, after reading Meyer's stand-alone sci-fi novel The Host, I see more clearly her interest in the possibilities for building bridges between cultures, races, individuals of different values. She often presents two cultures that are naturally opposed or hostile to one another, and then shows how, slowly, painstakingly, bridges can be built, through personal contact or previously unrecognized common goals.
By the by, Deb found this nice interview of Stephenie Meyer online.
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I finished New Moon, the second book in the Twilight series this week. Like most people, I think it's not quite as good as Twilight, but it has a lot going for it. Some thoughts:
1. Stephenie Meyer is not the world's great stylist, but she does have a few nice lines in New Moon. One of my favorites was "I was a lost moon." This is how Bella describes her life after Edward leaves, and it's a good image----a moon that is used to revolving around another planet, suddenly having its planet disappear and having no center, no course.
2. Edward leaves Forks after the first or second chapter of the book. The next chapters are nothing except a chapter title that is the name of the month. October. Blank page. November. Blank page. I've never seen this before in a novel, and it's kind of brilliant. Eloquent, actually.
3. By the first couple of chapters, there are two scenes that are powerful. One is the scene where Bella sees her grandmother in a dream. Can't give details without spoiling, but it's a haunting and memorable scene. The other is when Edward leaves, which feels devastating. You really feel this pain, and those couple of empty chapters that follow are a really smart way to convey Bella's numbness and to give the reader . . . I don't know, let's call it "narrative time" to absorb what's happened.
4. I like the themes Meyer weaves into the story. One is the question of what to accept in life. Edward is gone, but there is a good man (Jacob) who loves her. If she accepted Jacob into her life, is that settling? Is it realistic? Is passionate love better than mature love, or vice versa? Her treatment of this issue is not simplistic. It reminded me of Terence Malick's movie about Pocahontas, The New World. She has a passionate connection with John Smith (played by Colin Farrell), but when he leaves she is slowly courted by another settler (played by Christian Bale).
5. Also, after reading Meyer's stand-alone sci-fi novel The Host, I see more clearly her interest in the possibilities for building bridges between cultures, races, individuals of different values. She often presents two cultures that are naturally opposed or hostile to one another, and then shows how, slowly, painstakingly, bridges can be built, through personal contact or previously unrecognized common goals.
By the by, Deb found this nice interview of Stephenie Meyer online.
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