You’re not as messed up as you think you are:
Your self-absorption makes you messier.
Just settle down and you will feel a whole lot better.
Deep down you’re just like everybody else.
(Reasons Not To Be An Idiot ~ Frank Turner, 2008)
Maybe what’s holding me back from writing more (new) blog posts – about topics other than Frank Turner *g* – is, that there have been a few posts in planning which I have never followed up on. Or didn’t finish writing. And then the destructive cycle of “it’s too late to be of interest now – I should have finished writing it on time – you shouldn’t even think of starting a new post when you haven’t finished the old one – you will never be able to finish another blog post again – you suck at keeping a blog…” followed by a lot more negative thoughts. Or not even thoughts as much as just negative feelings, which just obviously paralyze me. Hello downward spiral *sigh*
Maybe I can put those demons (or whatever) to rest for now by doing a summary kind of post or drafts version of the posts that could/would have been and move on. It’s worth a try.
Book Review: The Cole Trilogy
I started reading the first one “The Physician” after seeing the movie in February. I have read the whole series once before, almost 20 years ago and I remember that I liked it, even though I didn’t remember much of it’s stories. I enjoyed the movie of the first book though and decided to refresh my memory. They changed quite a lot of the plot for the movie or not the plot in general, but so many details. It felt like two very different pieces of art, not necessarily in a bad way. I liked the movie, but the original story is much more complex and I liked the love story in the novel a lot better. His love in the movie was kind of a boring woman, unlike the Scottish Mary Cullen. And Scotland is where the story ends, which always is worth extra points. :-)
The second one is set before/during the American Civil War and is definitely my favourite of the three novels in this series. It’s structure was a bit confusing to me at first, it’s sort of a story within the story, but once I got past that I enjoyed it a lot. Rob ‘Shaman’ Cole might be my favourite of all the Rob Coles within this series. I loved his determination to achieve his dreams (study medicine, get his girl *g*) and my heart broke a little for him a few times, whenever he encountered huge obstacles. One scenes that stayed with me for a while was, when at 5 years old and after having lost his hearing after a measles infections, he was forced to speak instead of communicating via grunts or gestures. His parents did the right thing to force him to keep using his voice, but it was still heartbreaking.
The third novel, which takes place in the 1980s was my least favourite of the three, even though I liked it well enough. I cared about the characters and I wished that Rob(erta) and David would find a way to stay together after all the tragedy, but all in all, there was too much “lecturing” about the lack of health care and about the abortion issue and other stuff for my taste. I don’t mind taking a stand on political / social issues within a novel, but this felt so blatantly obvious to me sometimes. And it made parts of the book kind of boring unfortunately.
But all in all: A trilogy worth reading. Interesting historical setting (book 1 and 2) and characters to care about and all their personal and relationship drama :-) I had a very enjoyable time with the Cole family through the centuries.
Tom Christie – Undervalued character in Outlander
I’ve read “A Breath of Snow and Ashes” one or two times, listened to the audiobook version at least once, but it has taken me this second time with the audio version to really value Tom Christie as one of the most fascinating (supporting) characters in this series. I guess I didn’t care much about him or tried to understand him, because of his antipathy towards Jamie. And Jamie is my favourite, so the first impulse of course was to dislike Tom Christie. But even Jamie grudgingly acknowledges his qualities and these two men are alike in a lot of ways. They are both stubborn and religious and loyal… and both in love with Claire.
I hadn’t remembered the details about his backstory (Malva not being his daughter, his wife executed etc.), when I stared noticing his feelings for Claire while I listened to the audiobook. I did remember his plan to sacrifice himself to save Claire’s life. But I obviously also had forgotten that it all was so heartbreaking. For everyone involved, Claire and even Jamie. But Claire most of all. Such a sad story. And it had me wondering – of course *g* – who I would love to play this part in the TV series, if it hopefully will get to season 6 in a few years. And I started wondering if they might include him in the Ardsmuir part of season 3 already, because it’s so much easier to introduce a character when the events take place (on the TV screen) instead of having it all told in retrospect three years later. But maybe they’ll stay close to the books and we don’t meet Tom Christie until season 6. I guess a lot of viewers might not remember the character three years later anyway? But I still sometimes wonder who I might like to see in this role.
Talking about actors in the movie/TV version of novels: For some strange reason (maybe because I read it around the Oscars’ Ceremony) I pictured a long-haired Brad Pitt as David Markus in the third book of the Cole trilogy. A well aged version of Tristan from Legends though, not the shaggy real life look Brad Pitt was seen in too many times these past few years *g*