Published : 2021 || Format : print || Location : Colombia ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ What was it about the country that kept everyone hostage to its fantasy? The previous month, on its own soil, an American man went to his job at a plant and gunned down fourteen coworkers, and last spring alone there were four different school shootings. A nation at war with itself, yet people still spoke of it as some kind of paradise.. Thoughts : Infinite Country follows two characters - young Talia, who at the beginning of this book, escapes a girl’s reform school in North Colombia so that she can make her previously booked flight to the US. Before she can do that, she needs to travel many miles to reach her father and get her ticket to the rest of her family. As we follow Talia’s treacherous journey south, we learn about how she ended up in the reform school in the first place and why half her family resides in the US. Infinite Country tells the story of her family through the other protagonist, El
She smiled darkly and shook her head. "I'm not crazy. I'm not. Of course what else would a crazy person claim? That's the Kafkaesque genius of it all. If you're not crazy but people have told the world you are, then all your protests to the contrary just underscore their point. Do you see what I'm saying?"
My very first introduction to Dennis Lehane was through the movie, Mystic River. At that point, I didn't know the movie was based on a book, but when I did come across the book many years later, I knew I had to read it. Now I have a huge tome of Mystic River staring at me every time I look at my shelf. It's not that I'm not keen on reading it, I'm terrified. One, because it's huge. Second, because I never really understood the movie, Mystic River, and had to read reviews and spoilers to actually know what it was about. I assume the book is the same. So instead, when I saw Shutter Island at an airport bookstore, after browsing through the shelves for 15 minutes (making me almost late for my boarding), I decided to risk it. At best, I'll enjoy it. At worst, I'll sleep.
Luckily, the best happened. I actually devoured it. Here's the first thing I noticed - Dennis Lehane's writing flows easy. There were no heavy-vocab crunching or roundabout phrases, which is the impression Mystic River the movie put into my head. Instead, I got pulled into this thriller right from page one and enjoyed it to the last page.
US Marshall Teddy Daniels arrives in Shutter Island along with his partner Chuck Aule to investigate the disappearance of an inmate from this inescapable fortress. Teddy is convinced that the place reeks of radical brain treatments and experimentation. What Chuck doesn't know is Teddy has his own personal vendetta to carry out and that getting out of the island may be harder than either of them expected. To add to their troubles, there's a vicious storm brewing and communications with the mainland has failed.
Even before I started, I knew there is a major twist in the ending, thanks to my wonderful friends who had to mince the movie ambiguities in my presence, when it first released. They were generous enough not to talk about the ending, but they dropped tantalizing hints about how awesome it was. When the twist came eventually, it still took me by surprise. Whatever I expected, it wasn't that. And when the ending of the ending came? I needed a cup of coffee to sort it out. Well no, I had to read the ending again to decide which side of the the ambiguity I wanted to be in.
I'm not generally a big fan of ambiguous endings, that is, if the ending is wide-open. One book that I read last year, One Amazing Thing by Chitra Divakaruni had an ending which could have gone either way. I certainly didn't appreciate that. On the other hand, books like Shutter Island, and movies like Memento and Inception, although having ambiguous endings, have plenty of hints strewn all over, which can be dissected in so many way to come up with plenty of theories. I don't mean to say I do that, but I enjoy reading the theories.
A week or two later, I watched Shutter Island at home, but since I knew what's happening, and what will happen, I didn't have to strain myself too much. Moreover, the movie stuck to the book's storyline religiously - the booklover in me immensely respected that. I do think however that the movie follows a slightly different theory at the end. That's my interpretation. I did like the movie take better, maybe because the character Teddy Daniels turned out the way I wanted him to. As for the movie itself, I thought it was really well-done. Leonardo DiCaprio as usual, was amazing, though I'm not sure he was the right person for this role. Even now, when I think of Teddy Daniels, I don't see him. But he certainly acted out that one emotional, very tragic scene towards the end of the movie really well. He captured the shock, denial and betrayal very succinctly.
This is another one of the book-movie pair I enjoyed. Most often, I prefer the book, but in this case, I can't choose a favorite. I enjoyed both!
I bought this book with my hard-earned money (and nearly missed my flight thanks to it).
Comments
Kathy, I didn't want to watch the movie either, but I think in the end, it turned out to be not-so-creepy. Maybe because I already knew what to expect?
Helen, you should! The book isn't too scary really. It's more thrilling.
Juju, me too! Thanks!
Kat, I heard many bloggers saying the movie sticks to the book storyline. Since I really wanted to sample Dennis Lehane's writing, I figured I could wait until I read the book. The movie was so awesome though, right?
Collect Dreams, After reading and loving this, I'm going to get hold of more of his books. I'm really looking forward to them.
Agree with you on all points about shutter island movie, though I wish it was a bit faster paced. Still don't see Leo as Teddy. While I was blown away by the book's ending (didn't see it coming), now that I read other reviews of the movie about the ending, I actually like the extra twist (I didn't catch the extra twist if I didn't read the others' theory... guess I was too sleepy to figure it out lol).
I think Gone, Baby Gone is another movie/book by the same author, but hadn't watched/read it.
I have watched all the movies mentioned in this post but somehow never felt like picking up these books,but Ur post has given me the push to pick up "mystic river"..
Keep writing girly :)
I have the book sitting on my shelves (I think I bought it the day after seeing the movie) - but have yet to make time to read it.
You have inspired me to get it off the shelf and at least move it to the nightstand :)
Care, I'm glad to hear that the book Mystic River is fast paced! Now I'm more than eager to read it!
Devi, you should read Mystic River, girl! Even I should read it, lol! Glad that you're following my blog! :)
Molly, I try not to watch a movie before reading it either.. it so spoils the book for me. :( I hope you read it though, it's a great book!
Tiptress, you said it right about the love-one-hate-other between books and movies. It's true in most cases for me, too.