Sum it up in a sentence

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Mon, 2005-08-08 12:21

We haven't done this one for a while, so I thought it might be nice to bring it back from the grave, so to speak...

Think of a famous book, play or film and sum it up in one sentence. Try as much as possible both to describe the thing that you're summarising but also make a comment upon it.

Here's a few to get you started:

I'm reading 'Albert Speer: His Battle With Truth' by Gitta Sereny at the moment. This could be best summed up with the sentence "Six Million Jews? I just thought he was a nice man with a lovely 'tache."

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh would be "Heroin is brilliant, except when it's horrible."

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: "Repressed sexual desire can often be sublimated into breathtaking feats of detective pedantry."

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: "One man's journey to find out that it doesn't matter how hard you try, everything's going to be rubbish anyway."

Anyone got any more?

Mon, 2005-08-08 12:57

archergirl

Boy, I've had a helluva time logging in; two password changes and I finally got in. 'After You'd Gone' by Maggie O'Farrell: "Families suck, and love is horrible, too". 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' by DH Lawrence: "If you're upper class you either hate or fear sex. Long live the proletariat!" (Sorry, that's two sentences...) 'The Hobbit' by JRR Tolkien: "An all man's fantasy tale of an all men's journey in a world where even the eagles are male."

Mon, 2005-08-08 13:11

Brighton Rock

Anything by Nick Hornby "Please let me be a Londoner, I don't want to be from the home counties, I want to talk about Holloway Road till your ears bleed."

Mon, 2005-08-08 14:51

maddan

The Count Of Monte Cristo 'revenge is a dish best served very very slowly'

Mon, 2005-08-08 16:01

hox

Gulag Archipelago: Stayed in again today. The Female Eunuch: I'll iron it when I've finished this chapter... A Suitable Boy: I fancy an indian.....

Mon, 2005-08-08 16:08

justyn_thyme

Joyce's Dubliners: Family life--the horror, the horror. Conrad's Heart of Darkness: European carpetbaggers cringing with angst and doubled over with jungle rot execute prat falls for amusement of cynical natives.

Mon, 2005-08-08 16:21

tom_saunders

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller: young man with a horn. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding: my, that's a lot of pants.

Mon, 2005-08-08 16:33

ralph

bell jar - sylvia plath - I'm mad, me. I like boys Man and Boy by Tony Parsons- 'I hope Hornby does not read this.' Life of Pi- A confused boy goes sailing with his cat and gets hit in the head by a fish. Toast by Nigel Slater. A boy eats a lot of food (including fish) and worries about his Mum.

Mon, 2005-08-08 16:37

markbrown

Koba the Dread by Martin Amis: Stalin was wrong and so was Christopher Hitchens Orwell's Victory by Christopher Hitchens: Orwell was right and so was I

Mon, 2005-08-08 17:45

#10

markbrown

Look Back In Anger by John Osbourne: Playing the trumpet in a flat makes you very grumpy The Spire by William Golding: Religious faith is no replacement for a sound grasp of architecture The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis: Evacuee children find exciting religious allegory in cupboard Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth: I love/hate being Jewish, I love/hate w**king The Catcher In The Rye by JD Salinger: Me versus all the phonies, cheats, grownups and liars I Knew I Was Right: The Autobiography by Julie Burchill: Me versus all the phonies, cheats, grownups and liars

Mon, 2005-08-08 17:49

#11

Tyler King

The Bourne Supremacy by Robert Ludlum : "Everyone is a poser"

Tyler King

Mon, 2005-08-08 18:03

#12

maddan

From Here To Eternity by James Jones: It's hell being a soldier, but you love it. King Solomons Mines by S Rider Haggard: "Funny story, went on a little expedition into the interior, found a diamond mine of all things, dashed queer folk there, nearly died a couple of times of course, shot a corker of an elephant." Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville: 'I love Billy, but I'm not gay.'

Mon, 2005-08-08 19:13

#13

justyn_thyme

Simplississimus: Rags to rags by way of riches. Perfume: Nothing smells but everything stinks. Confederacy of Dunces: Fat guy sells hot dogs in New Orleans, farts a lot, then moves to New York.

Mon, 2005-08-08 19:23

#14

radiodenver