Ian Rankin and other crime fiction authors have said that if one wants to really understand a country look to its crime fiction.That’s certainly true as far as I am concerned.I feel I know Edinburgh from Scottish writer Rankin’s novels about John Rebus. The same is true of Michael Connelly’s and Denise Hamilton’s visions of Los Angeles; or John Lescroart’s San Francisco; or James W. Hall’s South Florida.The list goes on and on and on…So it seems logical to me that crime fiction would inspire tours of locales mentioned in the novels.Of course, these tours would have to be tied to authors whose novels are so representative of a region.Like Ian Rankin.If you visit Edinburgh, you can find a walking tour has been set up to prowl the streets of Edinburgh mentioned in Rankin’s novels.“They take different routes each time, depending on how the guy feels,” Rankin told me during an interview last year for Mystery Scene.But usually each tour includes a stop at the Oxford Bar, where Rebus (and Rankin) has been known to frequent.
Donna Leon’s novels are so closely tied to Venice that she also has inspired many a tour of this lovely Italian city.Toni Sepeda is a professor of literature and art history in Northern Italy.For years she has conducted tours of Venetian sites visited by Leon’s hero Commissario Guido Brunetti.The next stop is a tour book.Brunetti’s Venice: Walks With the City’s Best-Loved Detective, written by Sepeda with an introduction by Leon, has now been published by Grove Press. It’s $16.95 with 256 pages.
Its publication coincides with that of Leon’s 18th novel, About Face.Brunetti’s Venice features description and history of the actual place mentioned in excerpts from Leon’s novels.The guide book looks rich in Venetian lore.My friend, Doreen, and her family are going to Venice this summer and are taking the guide Brunetti’s Venice with them.Maybe they will at least send me a postcard.
Archive for the ‘Ian Rankin’ Category
Traveling in Venice with Donna Leon; starting with Ian Rankin’s Edinburgh
Sunday, May 17th, 2009First book it, then see it
Sunday, March 29th, 2009I started to ramble on to a question raised by one of our intelligent readers and authors, Deborah Shlian, about whether it’s better to see the filmed version before reading a book.
The question came up in the blog about The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency that starts March 29 on HBO, with numerous encores planned.
I think that the beautifully filmed and acted The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency can be enjoyed by those who have not yet read the novels as well as those who helped make them bestsellers.
But the filmed version of Alexander McCall Smith’s novels are an exception.
Most of the time, it’s obvious to me – read the novel, savor the novel, enjoy the novel. Then, if there is a filmed version, see it but realize that no film version can match the intricacies of the novel.
First, there’s the reality of time. An averaged-sized novel would be too long to be filmed entirely for the movies; not even a miniseries could capture all the nuances of a novel.
And it’s that word nuances that really matters.
Authors feature wonderful large and small nuances about their characters, scenery, plot and dialogue.
The best novel to screen projects are those that capture the essence of the book.
They show you through talented actors and directing the essence of what the characters are thinking and respect the source material.
(For another perspective on this, be sure to read Kevin Burton Smith’s excellent article “The Casting Couch” on casting mystery characters in film and television in Mystery Scene’s upcoming Spring issue.)
Mystic River was an excellent filmed version of Dennis Lehane’s novel. The cast, including Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins, and Laura Linney, could not have been better.
Anyone could see that movie and be satisfied.
But they would have missed Lehane’s nuances. Like those lovely paragraphs talking about the fathers who worked in the candy factory and “carried the stench of warm chocolate back home with them.” Because of that, Sean Devine and Jimmy Marcus “developed a hatred of sweets so total” they never had dessert.
Or the line “Brendan Harris loved Katie Marcus like crazy, loved her like movie love…,” which Lehane once said was one of the first lines he wrote for Mystic River.
Imagine James Crumley’s 1978 The Last Good Kiss as a film. Sure it would make a great action film.
And the first scene would have to be of a man and a bulldog drinking in a falling down bar.
But could any film capture what is considered to be one of the best beginnings of any novel?
“When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon.”
Sometimes there isn’t even an attempt to capture that essences of a novel. Take Michael Connelly’s Blood Work, a good novel, a mediocre film.
Or Burglar, based on Lawrence Block’s funny Bernie the Burglar novels. I mean really….did anyone in their right mind imagine Whoopi Goldberg as Bernie?
But let’s end this on a positive note.
Those that do work include Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse novels reimagined as HBO’s True Blood and Ian Rankin’s John Rebus novels shown on BBC America as Rebus, now available on Acorn Media.
I also am looking forward to seeing Val McDermid’s A Place of Execution, which got nothing but rave reviews when it was shown on television last year in England.
Surely I have missed some. What do you think?
Ian Rankin and Anthony Bourdain have No Reservations
Sunday, March 8th, 2009Among my addictions, in addition to my husband, my dogs and mystery novels (hey, I put him first, didn’t I?) are anything on the Travel Channel, the Food Network and the reality shows on Bravo.
So it’s fun when those interests intersect.
On a recent Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations on the Travel Channel, Scottish author Ian Rankin joined the renowned chef for a tour of Edinburgh.
Edgar winner Rankin, who recently ended his extraordinary series about police detective John Rebus with Exit Music, took Bourdain to one Edinburgh’s top restaurants, the Kitchin, as well as a chip shop.
While the Kitchin sounded great, sorry, guys, I’ll pass on the deep-fried haggis.
I wasn’t surprised to see Bourdain pull Rankin into his show.
Who knows Edinburgh better than Rankin? Just read one of his
excellent crime fiction and you will know about Edinburgh. Rankin takes the reader to the well-known places as well as the city’s hidden spots.
Don’t forget that Bourdain also is a writer.
Now, he’s best known for his nonfiction Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, an amusing look at his life and the restaurant industry.
But Bourdain also has written three mysteries: Bone in the Throat (1995); Gone Bamboo (1997) and Bobby Gold (2001).
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations has numerous encores. I’ve caught the Ian Rankin episode at least three times.
ON THE ROAD WITH INTERNATIONAL MYSTERIES
Monday, February 16th, 2009I may never get to Norway. I’d like to someday. There’s not much stopping me, frankly.
But as I get older, I realize that there are so many places I want to visit, so little time and that one has to sacrifice some places to enjoy others.
My father used to tell me you can’t do everything in this world. Took me a long time to believe him.
Instead, mysteries have given me the chance to vicariously visit the world. That’s why when I am asked to review a mystery set in a foreign country, I seldom turn it down.
So Jo Nesbo’s Nemesis gave me a view of Norway that was off the beaten path, showing the country and Oslo in particular as only an insider can. Amaldur Indridason and Yrsa Sigurdardottir have brought me to Iceland. Cara Black to Paris. The list is endless.
I’ve been in London and England nearly a dozen times and for years I have relished novels written by authors from the United Kingdom about their countries. Val McDermid, Mark Billingham, Peter Robinson, and Ian Rankin have given us insider’s views of England and Scotland. Declan Hughes’ The Wrong Kind of Blood opened up Ireland to me.
McDermid’s latest novel, A Darker Domain, not only showed me a part of Scotland that few know exist, but also took me on a side trip to Italy.
A few months ago while getting ready for a cruise that would go to England, France and Ireland, then trans-Atlantic to Canada, I packed the essentials. Oh, yeah, sure, clothes, make up and money were already in the suitcase.
I am talking about the real essentials of any trip – books. The cruise was 12 days and I worried that I was only packing 12 mysteries. (For the record, 12 novels taken, 12 read; had my suitcase been able to handle more I would have taken another five as I did run out of books. GASP!)
It wasn’t until I was in England that I realized that subconsciously every mystery I had chosen was written by a U.K. author. So while I was in London, I was reading Mark Billingham’s stand alone, In the Dark, Mo Hayder’s Ritual and Kate Atchinson’s When Will There Be Good News?
Aside from the thrilling plots and complex characters, mysteries sometimes act as travelogues.
So I wonder what foreign set novels have given you an unusual glimpse of a country or city?
