On a score of 1-5 stars, with 5 being the best, how do you rate The Curious Case of Benjamin Button?
***** loved it
0%
[ 0 ]
****
60%
[ 3 ]
***
20%
[ 1 ]
**
0%
[ 0 ]
* loathed it
0%
[ 0 ]
Didn't finish, gave up, couldn't get into it
0%
[ 0 ]
Don't want to read this one
20%
[ 1 ]
Total Votes : 5
Author
Message
Tigerlily Administrator
Joined: 22 Jul 2006 Posts: 7637 Birthday: 7th July
Location: Shropshire
Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 7:43 pm Post subject: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Discuss here your thoughts on the book once you have read it. Did you (not) enjoy it? Anything that struck you or maybe someone else could help if you have a question? We're not really looking for in depth discussions... just tell us what you think of it!
For those who have read the book, please choose a star rating based on how much you liked it.
Joined: 22 Jul 2006 Posts: 7637 Birthday: 7th July
Location: Shropshire
Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 11:11 am Post subject:
This is going to be my next read. The opening few lines sound fab!
Also, we're giving this book away this month - comp ends 17th May so the winner will receive it in time to read it this month should he/she wish! _________________ Reading: Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
Reading Challenge 2009: 8
2008: 4
2007: 10
Joined: 22 Jul 2006 Posts: 7637 Birthday: 7th July
Location: Shropshire
Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 2:01 pm Post subject:
Ha! I didn't realise when I bought it that this story is only 35 pages long and the book includes two other short stories!
Took me just half an hour or so to read. I loved the writing style - it would've made a fab novel. The idea is great. I'd love to know how his mother coped with the birth!! And whether she was enormous when pregnant.
Spoiler:
I felt a sense of panic for Benjamin as he became a boy; having to give up his studies and being unable to fight when he was recalled to do so. I could sense the realisation dawning on him that he'd end up having to do less and less. If anything it made me think growing younger as you age is not dissimilar to growing old, except Benjamin's memories faded. His son Roscoe took care of him in infancy by employing a nurse - people do the same with elderly parents. I wonder if it'd be better to age backwards? No fear of death, although at some point you would panic at the realisation you are going to lose your memories and understanding of the world. A bit like suffering from dementia. I wonder if he died as a baby or if he literally became a foetus or just a cell?
Definitely a thought provoking story. Want to see the film now. Usually film directors have to cut material from novels to fit a 2 hour film. I've been told the film version is long - I wonder what material the director added to make it so. Interesting!! _________________ Reading: Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
Reading Challenge 2009: 8
2008: 4
2007: 10
Joined: 22 Jul 2006 Posts: 7637 Birthday: 7th July
Location: Shropshire
Posted: Wed May 06, 2009 2:51 pm Post subject:
For anyone who'd like to read this story for free, you can read it on www.dailylit.com. They send you instalments to your inbox or phone, but as soon as you've read one you can read the next straight away.
For anyone who'd like to read this story for free, you can read it on www.dailylit.com. They send you instalments to your inbox or phone, but as soon as you've read one you can read the next straight away.
Joined: 27 Jun 2008 Posts: 510 Birthday: 23rd April
Location: Manchester UK
Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 10:56 am Post subject:
blueflower wrote:
What a brilliant site!! Have already downloaded part 1 (and 2 and 3 -got a bit confused)
If you read more than one instalment on the site e.g read up to and including no. 3, does it then email you no. 4 or is it not 'clever' enough to do that ? _________________ Current reading: Blind Man w/ a Pistol, Chester Himes ~ 39 @2009
Joined: 01 Oct 2008 Posts: 843 Birthday: 25 September
Location: Bristol
Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 11:59 am Post subject:
wonderlake wrote:
*Signed up to read it on Dailylit too
Did anyone watch the film version out recently (I didn't... yet?)
I did and I loved it. Have not read the short story yet so I don't know how it compares. Some critics slammed it for being slow, boring and too long but both my husband and I thought it was great.
Joined: 22 Jul 2006 Posts: 7637 Birthday: 7th July
Location: Shropshire
Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 1:20 pm Post subject:
From what I've read, the film version is nothing like the book. It's more along the lines of a novel The Confessions Of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer. Or so I've read anyway. Wouldn't mind having a look at that. _________________ Reading: Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
Reading Challenge 2009: 8
2008: 4
2007: 10
Joined: 29 Jul 2006 Posts: 4137 Birthday: 12th December
Location: Cumbria
Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 6:45 pm Post subject:
wonderlake wrote:
blueflower wrote:
What a brilliant site!! Have already downloaded part 1 (and 2 and 3 -got a bit confused)
If you read more than one instalment on the site e.g read up to and including no. 3, does it then email you no. 4 or is it not 'clever' enough to do that ?
Yes I think it knows where you are with downloads. Having said that I didn't give it chance as I just kept reading.
Joined: 27 Jun 2008 Posts: 510 Birthday: 23rd April
Location: Manchester UK
Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 1:06 pm Post subject:
Polished this off via Dailylit.com > didn't bother to wait for the daily instalments either, considering that it was so short !
Uh, what happened to Benjamin's Mother ? I almost felt that she might have died in childbirth give the lack of reference to her...
The story has a lot of humour at the start- the clown's outfit his dad buys him to go home from the Hospital (!)- but the ending is pretty melancholy
Spoiler:
Benjamin's world gradually becoming smaller and smaller- with no memories of his "backwards" life: his nurse, jumping on the bed etc. and then only his crib and crying when he is hungry...
I imagine that he did continue to get younger & younger - rather than die- until he became just 'a twinkle in his Daddy's eye'
Have to see if I can convince OH to watch the movie _________________ Current reading: Blind Man w/ a Pistol, Chester Himes ~ 39 @2009
Joined: 22 Jul 2006 Posts: 7637 Birthday: 7th July
Location: Shropshire
Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 4:58 pm Post subject:
Good point about his mother. I wondered a lot about her as well. It all seemed to be about his relationships with his male relations, and of course his wife. It was very well done I thought and I like the idea of him turning into nothingness. I expect he'd die at the point he would've been born as he wouldn't have been able to return to his mother's womb to survive as a foetus (if that makes sense!). _________________ Reading: Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
Reading Challenge 2009: 8
2008: 4
2007: 10
Joined: 27 Jun 2008 Posts: 510 Birthday: 23rd April
Location: Manchester UK
Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 9:37 pm Post subject:
Tigerlily wrote:
Good point about his mother. I wondered a lot about her as well. It all seemed to be about his relationships with his male relations, and of course his wife. It was very well done I thought and I like the idea of him turning into nothingness. I expect he'd die at the point he would've been born as he wouldn't have been able to return to his mother's womb to survive as a foetus (if that makes sense!).
Maybe she had a breakdown and had to be commited to an institution??
You'd think Benjamin might have been too, given the historical context of the story ... _________________ Current reading: Blind Man w/ a Pistol, Chester Himes ~ 39 @2009
I'm not usually a fan of short stories but this I actually really liked. I too wondered what happened to his mother though. Did anyone else get the ompression that some of the other characters in the story saw him as a bit of an inconvenience to their lives? That's the impression the story gave me at times but maybe I'm just feeling oversensitive! 4*'s for me overall. _________________ Swap List: http://tinyurl.com/33pg6r
Currently Reading "Switchcraft" by Lowri Turner
Joined: 27 Jun 2008 Posts: 510 Birthday: 23rd April
Location: Manchester UK
Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 8:26 am Post subject:
mummymelly wrote:
I'm not usually a fan of short stories but this I actually really liked. I too wondered what happened to his mother though. Did anyone else get the impression that some of the other characters in the story saw him as a bit of an inconvenience to their lives? That's the impression the story gave me at times but maybe I'm just feeling oversensitive! 4*'s for me overall.
The Buttons seemed like quite a well-to-do family so maybe even if Benjamin had been a normal baby he would have been looked after a wet nurse or nanny rather than his own parents, who might have just popped into the nursery every now and then to give him a pat on the head.. ? _________________ Current reading: Blind Man w/ a Pistol, Chester Himes ~ 39 @2009
Joined: 29 Jul 2006 Posts: 4137 Birthday: 12th December
Location: Cumbria
Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 8:26 pm Post subject:
Mrs Button must have survived the birth - heavens knows how!
"A few people who were unfailingly polite racked their brains for compliments to give to the parents--and finally hit upon the ingenious device of declaring that the baby resembled his grandfather, a fact which, due to the standard state of decay common to all men of seventy, could not be denied. Mr. and Mrs. Roger Button were not pleased, and Benjamin's grandfather was furiously insulted."
In today's world Benjamin would be a media celebrity and could sell his story for millions - and so could Mum - "How I Gave Birth To An Old Man".
It's a bit scary how the first few years of life can be very similar to the last years.
Joined: 27 Jun 2008 Posts: 510 Birthday: 23rd April
Location: Manchester UK
Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 11:01 am Post subject:
blueflower wrote:
In today's world Benjamin would be a media celebrity and could sell his story for millions - and so could Mum - "How I Gave Birth To An Old Man".
Yes !
I was rather reminded of one of those (exploitative?) TV shows :
Bodyshock: The 80-Year-Old Children Progeria is a rare disease that accelerates its sufferers into old age. In 2003, a Swiss doctor discovered one woman to have given birth to no less than five children suffering from the condition. Bodyshock travelled to India to investigate. http://www.channel4.com/programmes/bodyshock/episode-guide/series-10
_________________ Current reading: Blind Man w/ a Pistol, Chester Himes ~ 39 @2009
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4*'s for me overall.