Where Was Rebecca Shot? Curiosities, Puzzles, and Conundrums in Modern Fiction, by John Sutherland

Retrieved from: the library (ILL from NIU)
(0297841467), 1998
Suggested by: me
My Ratings: 9 Merit, 7 Interest, 6 Fun

More “why” questions, this time encompassing a lot of modern titles, including (much to my dismay) The Firm by John Grisham. Oh, well.

Once again, I’m only going to cover the books I’ve read, or at least have some familiarity with.

Since I mentioned it, I’ll start with:

• The Firm--Where are the computers? It is, after all, set in the 90s.
• The Heart of Darkness (Conrad) -- The chapter is entitled “L’horreur! l’horreur!” The question is what language is Kurtz speaking throughout the book, and why translate only some of the time?
• To the Lighthouse (Woolf) -- Three-deckers. Anyone know what they are? Well, thanks to this book, I do! And they stopped being published well before any character in Woolf’s book would have been likely to be reading them au courant.
• Whose Body? (Sayers) -- You couldn’t use the word “foreskin” in a novel in the 20s. But how else would one “know” that a naked man was Jewish immediately? Hmmm.
• Rebecca (du Maurier) -- Where was she shot? As in locale, not in what portion of her anatomy. This chapter also tries to answer whose body is mistaken for hers originally, what is Rebecca’s successor’s name, and what happens to Mrs. Danvers.
• Lord of the Flies (Golding) -- Piggy’s glasses couldn’t have started a fire: he had the wrong sort of vision problems. Oops.
• The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway) -- There’s really no way to spend 24 hours in one arm-wrestling bout while drinking without having to stop and take a pee. So is the old man embellishing fact? Between that and seeing lions on the beach in Cuba, the man is playing fast and loose with his history.
• Lolita (Nabakov) -- What was Humbert’s first crime? Ugh, I don’t want to read this book...
• A Clockwork Orange (Burgess) -- In Burgess’ book he mentions a book entitled A Clockwork Orange. Is it the same book? [This is a fascinating chapter for other reasons, among them that the opening scene where F. Alexander’s wife is raped is based on a true event from Burgess’ wife’s life.]
• Curtain (Christie) -- How old was Poirot when he died? And who removed so much of the time-stamp from this book before it was published? Sutherland doesn’t really answer the latter question, only saying that whoever did it missed a few tidbits. Christie, the original alternative history queen!
• The Odessa File (Forsyth) -- Forsyth accurately predicted (or rather, he asserted) that there were millions of dollars in gold confiscated by the Nazis still sitting in Swiss bank accounts. The book was published in 1972 and set 10 years earlier. It wasn’t until 1996 that the World Jewish Congress demanded a full accounting from Switzerland and it was found that there actually was a high amount of business that had been done between the Reich and Swiss bankers.
• First Blood (Morrell) -- What is the deal with Rambo’s knife? How has it become the centerpiece in the movies--and culture--when it’s really not mentioned in the original book? And where has Rambo been since the end of the war (the book was published in 1972, the movie was released in 1982)?
• Neuromancer (Gibson) -- The chapter is called “Who invented cyberspace?” I think he chose the wrong verb; Gibson clearing named it, but we all know Al Gore invented it (I joke, I joke).
• The Bonfire of the Vanities (Wolfe) -- Where is Tottenham Park? And are they playing cricket or rugby? Considering how specific and detailed Wolfe’s descriptions are of New York, the fact that he got the small bit of the story set in London so totally wrong is a major gaffe.
• Original Sin (James) -- In her most recent books, James’ murderers seem to be expunging their fury at the end of their lives. Why not kill when they are younger?
• Death is Now My Neighbour (Dexter) -- What is Morse’s first name? He finally reveals it in the final book in the series. But why was it chosen? And when did Dexter decide that was his name? From the beginning of the series, or was he just a good puzzle-solver, using a name that fits all the clues set out in the series?
• The English Patient (Ondaatje) -- I get the sense that Sutherland doesn’t think much of this book. His issue is the timing of all the prewar events. I loved the book (and the movie), so this didn’t bother me, except that I agree with his quibble about flying a plane that has been buried in sand for a decade.
• The Remains of the Day (Ishiguro) -- Another one I loved. Sutherland wonders, in light of Mr. Stevens’ interest and knowledge of foreign affairs, why does he seem so completely unaware of what was going on in the world while his story is being told.
• Beloved (Morrison) -- ”How Old is Beloved?” Oh, please, Mr. S. She’s a ghost. She can be any age, at least in Morrison’s version of ghostdom. This isn’t a mystery. Or rather, if it is, then the mystery is the whole book!

Sutherland adds a chapter in which he contacts the available authors and asks them these questions. Some respond, some don’t, which is almost as fascinating as their answers.