Comments on: Week 5′s book, a little late: Death in Holy Orders http://www.susanwisebauer.com/52-books-in-52-weeks/week-5s-book-a-little-late-death-in-holy-orders/ Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:22:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Ev. http://www.susanwisebauer.com/52-books-in-52-weeks/week-5s-book-a-little-late-death-in-holy-orders/comment-page-1/#comment-86197 Ev. Tue, 10 Feb 2009 02:12:09 +0000 http://dev.susanwisebauer.com/blog/?p=366#comment-86197 I've seen books by P.D. James for years in the bookstore and always just walked by. For some reason I thought the author was male. What an assumption to make! (Her presumed masculinity wasn't the reason I didn't read them lol). Perhaps I should give her a try. I’ve seen books by P.D. James for years in the bookstore and always just walked by. For some reason I thought the author was male. What an assumption to make! (Her presumed masculinity wasn’t the reason I didn’t read them lol). Perhaps I should give her a try.

]]> By: Trish Lawrence http://www.susanwisebauer.com/52-books-in-52-weeks/week-5s-book-a-little-late-death-in-holy-orders/comment-page-1/#comment-86196 Trish Lawrence Tue, 10 Feb 2009 02:11:37 +0000 http://dev.susanwisebauer.com/blog/?p=366#comment-86196 Yes, the Baroness's age is showing. I finished The Private Patient in November/December and thought it was great until about the middle and then I started to get bored, plus the ending lasted waaaaay too long. I think it may have been her last book though, as she tied a neat bow on the major relationship throughout the last few books of the series and made general observations about the world at large. I do admire her gumption. Eighty-eight! As Jane Smiley's thesis from Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel proposes, novelists burn out after 20-30 years (Austen, Dickens, etc.) and although Baroness James didn't write for all of her 88 years, she has likely come to an end of a supply of fresh plot and characters. I just hope I stop at a peak and not at a downhill slide. :) There's nothing like an audiobook of P.D. James though for a long car trip. Hope your family member is better. Yes, the Baroness’s age is showing. I finished The Private Patient in November/December and thought it was great until about the middle and then I started to get bored, plus the ending lasted waaaaay too long. I think it may have been her last book though, as she tied a neat bow on the major relationship throughout the last few books of the series and made general observations about the world at large.

I do admire her gumption. Eighty-eight! As Jane Smiley’s thesis from Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel proposes, novelists burn out after 20-30 years (Austen, Dickens, etc.) and although Baroness James didn’t write for all of her 88 years, she has likely come to an end of a supply of fresh plot and characters. I just hope I stop at a peak and not at a downhill slide. :)

There’s nothing like an audiobook of P.D. James though for a long car trip. Hope your family member is better.

]]> By: Heather http://www.susanwisebauer.com/52-books-in-52-weeks/week-5s-book-a-little-late-death-in-holy-orders/comment-page-1/#comment-86195 Heather Tue, 10 Feb 2009 01:53:13 +0000 http://dev.susanwisebauer.com/blog/?p=366#comment-86195 Too funny. I just started re-reading this one as well. I don't think that any of James's last four or five books are quite up to the others. I always liked Original Sin best. Maybe it is because, to quote Tina Fey, "I want to go to there!" I agree, James does paint the church as clinical, reserved and businesslike, even in her earlier books. Which is the one where the man is murdered in the locked church and the cleaning woman finds him? (If that one is Innocent Blood then I'm going to feel really stupid.) The priests and other representatives of The Church are always so ineffectual and complacent and depressed. Perhaps her parent was a priest, like Dalgliesh's father and she grew disillusioned with the church? Too funny. I just started re-reading this one as well. I don’t think that any of James’s last four or five books are quite up to the others. I always liked Original Sin best. Maybe it is because, to quote Tina Fey, “I want to go to there!”
I agree, James does paint the church as clinical, reserved and businesslike, even in her earlier books. Which is the one where the man is murdered in the locked church and the cleaning woman finds him? (If that one is Innocent Blood then I’m going to feel really stupid.) The priests and other representatives of The Church are always so ineffectual and complacent and depressed. Perhaps her parent was a priest, like Dalgliesh’s father and she grew disillusioned with the church?

]]> By: A Circle of Quiet http://www.susanwisebauer.com/52-books-in-52-weeks/week-5s-book-a-little-late-death-in-holy-orders/comment-page-1/#comment-86194 A Circle of Quiet Mon, 09 Feb 2009 22:36:38 +0000 http://dev.susanwisebauer.com/blog/?p=366#comment-86194 Original Sin is one of my favorites, too. Have you read her most recent? I love Dalgliesh, but some of the themes bugged me. Di Original Sin is one of my favorites, too. Have you read her most recent? I love Dalgliesh, but some of the themes bugged me.

Di

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