This is the story of love found, love lost, and love found again, between an Irish actress and her husband, a genius American writer and director.

In the beginning of the story, the impossible man-genius Paul Saffron marries Carey Arundel only to part ways later with different people entering and exiting from their lives. At the end, they find each other again as they make a successful movie together.

The book is boringly long, and especially the beginning of it is filled with long stretches of exposition. Maybe for a book published in 1951 first, there were readers available, but I wonder if they skipped those long-winding and going-nowhere sections as they read. After the midway, however, the plot and the storytelling picked up, and reading the book became a joy.

The characters are exquisitely developed, and the story's settings and historical data are correct and interesting.

seeing how the writing of fiction was different sixty years ago from what we observe today.

The variety of characters and the pains the writer took in developing each one.

the too many long and expository sections

James Hilton lived and worked in Hollywood, winning an Oscar for Mrs. Miniver.
His other work are:
Catherine Herself, 1920
Storm Passage, 1922
The Passionate Year, 1924
Dawn Of Reckoning (Rage In Heaven), 1925
Meadows Of The Moon, 1926
Terry, 1927
The Silver Flame (Three Loves Had Margaret), 1928
Murder at School (U.S. title: Was It Murder?), published under the pen-name Glen Trevor, 1931
And Now Goodbye, 1931
Contango (Ill Wind), 1932
Knight Without Armour (Without Armor), 1933
Lost Horizon, 1933
Goodbye, Mr. Chips, 1934
We Are Not Alone, 1937
To You, Mr Chips, 1938
Random Harvest, 1941
The Story Of Dr. Wassell, 1944
So Well Remembered, 1945
Nothing So Strange, 1947
Twilight Of The Wise, 1949
Morning Journey, 1951
Time And Time Again, 1953

It is writing to learn from especially for creating characters, and the story, in the long run, proves to be successful and enjoyable enough.

I am not sure if the writing style is indicative of the times, in which the story was written, or if its due to a writerly neglect. I read other books by this writer a few decades ago, but I don't remember him leaning this heavily on dull exposition. It might just be that my understanding and taste changed also.

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Created Feb 22, 2011 at 6:57pm • Submit your own review...