This was one of my first books by Danielle Steel. I read this book when I was a teenager and was one of my instant favorites. I read a few more Steels after that but didn't really take to her writing a lot. She would go on and on for pages (literally) about each emotion the heroine felt. You would think that the reader would get it in a few lines but I guess there are people (esp in US where therapists are a part of daily life) who like talking on and on about what they are feeling.
Anyway, I liked this book so much that I had Aparajita gift it to me when we were living in Chennai (from Landmark - a favorite place for both of us). Unfortunately, a friend of hers borrowed it and never returned it to me. Recently, I started rereading my favs just to see how I, and my perspectives, had changed over the years. I got the book from Amazon and saw that this book was unique - it was based on a screenplay. This is the first time I see a movie written on a movie and not the other way round. So, being the process person I am, I watched the movie first (luckily available on netflix) and then read the book. The movie is very bad - the heroine's voice and acting is stilted while the hero, though good looking, is not very convincing. The book is much better, Steel has put in dialogues and strung the stroy better - changed the plot to make it more convincing and has developed a couple of sub - plots including the mom's character (who is a central figure in the story) which somehow gives a better sense of the landscape.
So, why did a standard rich boy/poor girl story attract me so much? The story is pretty standard but I read it 'happily ever after' was not an impossile concept and this story said that things turn our right if 'it is meant to be'. And when you are young and full of youthful optimism, it is always meant to be. So, I would have a reverse catch 22 kind of situation in my mind - I would by cynical and lose hope and resign myself to the situation - but then at the back of my mind I would hope that it would turn all right later, in the end. I would officially say to myself that there is no hope and unofficially, unacknowledged by me, a hope would be alive.
So, how did I feel reading this story 10 years later? I still kind of liked the book and deplored the poor acting of people in the movie. But now, when I read the part where they meet again after a couple years (which I loved earlier), I wonder at how easily they forgive each other. In reality, it is very difficult to forget the hurtful period you have been through. Even in a case like this, where circumstances separated the two, you would generally look for a person to hold responsible and take out your hurt on - simply for the fact that you cannot hurst circumstances in return, like you can do to people. But even with this new found, real cynicism (no unacknowledged hope remains), I indulge the book like you do to all childhood stuff.
Anyway, I liked this book so much that I had Aparajita gift it to me when we were living in Chennai (from Landmark - a favorite place for both of us). Unfortunately, a friend of hers borrowed it and never returned it to me. Recently, I started rereading my favs just to see how I, and my perspectives, had changed over the years. I got the book from Amazon and saw that this book was unique - it was based on a screenplay. This is the first time I see a movie written on a movie and not the other way round. So, being the process person I am, I watched the movie first (luckily available on netflix) and then read the book. The movie is very bad - the heroine's voice and acting is stilted while the hero, though good looking, is not very convincing. The book is much better, Steel has put in dialogues and strung the stroy better - changed the plot to make it more convincing and has developed a couple of sub - plots including the mom's character (who is a central figure in the story) which somehow gives a better sense of the landscape.
So, why did a standard rich boy/poor girl story attract me so much? The story is pretty standard but I read it 'happily ever after' was not an impossile concept and this story said that things turn our right if 'it is meant to be'. And when you are young and full of youthful optimism, it is always meant to be. So, I would have a reverse catch 22 kind of situation in my mind - I would by cynical and lose hope and resign myself to the situation - but then at the back of my mind I would hope that it would turn all right later, in the end. I would officially say to myself that there is no hope and unofficially, unacknowledged by me, a hope would be alive.
So, how did I feel reading this story 10 years later? I still kind of liked the book and deplored the poor acting of people in the movie. But now, when I read the part where they meet again after a couple years (which I loved earlier), I wonder at how easily they forgive each other. In reality, it is very difficult to forget the hurtful period you have been through. Even in a case like this, where circumstances separated the two, you would generally look for a person to hold responsible and take out your hurt on - simply for the fact that you cannot hurst circumstances in return, like you can do to people. But even with this new found, real cynicism (no unacknowledged hope remains), I indulge the book like you do to all childhood stuff.
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