Micro Review 2 (2023)

 

Caroline: Little House, Revisited by Sarah Miller (HarperLuxe)

I've been a fan of the Little House on the Prairie books for pretty much as long as I've been a reader. Little House on the Prairie was one of my earliest purchases from the school book club leaflets and I still have that same edition almost 40 years on.

I was also a fan of the newer children's books that were written in the 1990s and explored the childhood lives of Laura Ingalls Wilder's ancestors, including her mother, Caroline.

I can't remember where I saw mention of this new story about Ma (Caroline) but it was my first book purchase of 2023 and I'm pleased to add it to my collection even if I'm not quite sure what to make of it nor who it is aimed at.

This book reworks the end of Little House in the Big Woods and all of Little House on the Prairie to tell these stories from an adult's point of view. For the most part the book does rehabilitate Ma from the passive character she appears in the originals and it is interesting to have an adult view of the nightmare journey the family undertook. 

But...to rework the book as an adult tale the story has just been enhanced by adding references to Ma's pregnancy, the birth of Carrie and then marital relations between Pa and Ma. Without these the book would be fine for the original audience!

The fine line between keeping the spirit of the original and updating some of the more xenophobic views was done sensitively, and the afterword explains clearly how the decisions as to how this worked was informative. I also liked the way that as far as possible Miller managed to keep to Ingalls Wilder's timeline whilst including more of the actual happenings,

The story was fine and I quite enjoyed it but I'm not sure it added anything to the Little House story.

Theatrical Interlude 30

Mojo, Harold Pinter Theatre, London 2013.

I've been delaying writing this theatre visit up as even a few weeks on I am not sure how to do so fairly.

Rebecca and I were lucky enough to secure tickets to the very first preview performance of this revival and so in many ways this was like seeing a work in progress and it doesn't seem kind to write about it.

So...

It was a really interesting experience to see something that no one else had before, it had a stellar cast that threw everything they had into the performance and the first act was brilliant - fast paced, tense and just enough black humour to counter balance that.  It didn't matter that as an audience member I didn't really know what what going on - I've come to realise that it what I was supposed to feel as it is what the main characters on the stage are also feeling.

Act 2 wasn't as great, for me it was overlong with less humour. This time not really understanding the characters' motivation really meant I felt too far at sea to enjoy the experience fully.

However this was the first public performance and I am sure that if I was to revisit some of these points, especially the run time, would have been addressed. Sadly I just didn't like it enough to want to look out for the chance to see it again.

I do think that the problems I have with Mojo are all my own, many of the reviews I've read are much more positive and I must stress that there wasn't a weak link on stage. Perhaps I'm just too immersed in 450 year old plays at the moment to appreciate a modern play?

Mojo 'opens' on November 13th and I think that it will get pretty good reviews and with a cast including Ron Weasley, Merlin and Q from Bond it is always going to find an audience!