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Post by novastar6 on Mar 12, 2017 4:52:01 GMT
Has anybody read this book?
By pure chance I found it at a sale, had no idea what it was but it sounded interesting. I'm halfway through it, very amusing, very entertaining, very intriguing...and I just found out it's a children's book which I guess shouldn't come as a surprise since I was marveled by the severe lack of any cursing in it.
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Post by poelzig on Mar 12, 2017 5:04:16 GMT
I couldn't believe the one armed albino as the killer. (spoilers)
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Post by Nalkarj on Mar 14, 2017 3:40:21 GMT
Has anybody read this book? By pure chance I found it at a sale, had no idea what it was but it sounded interesting. I'm halfway through it, very amusing, very entertaining, very intriguing...and I just found out it's a children's book which I guess shouldn't come as a surprise since I was marveled by the severe lack of any cursing in it. So happy that you're enjoying this one--it was one of my favorites when I was little! (I even watched, and distinctly remember, the pretty lousy film adaptation, Get a Clue.) Remarkably, Miss Raskin was one of the great puzzle-plotters of our time, which makes it all the more disappointing that she never made the transition to adult detective-stories. The Westing Game has an ingenious plot, brilliantly hidden (like a particular revelation, in fact, in The Last of Sheila!), which seems distinctly inspired by, or at least born of the same fruit of, Ellery Queen's works. Do post your thoughts when you get to the end. |
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Post by novastar6 on Mar 14, 2017 13:16:17 GMT
Has anybody read this book? By pure chance I found it at a sale, had no idea what it was but it sounded interesting. I'm halfway through it, very amusing, very entertaining, very intriguing...and I just found out it's a children's book which I guess shouldn't come as a surprise since I was marveled by the severe lack of any cursing in it. So happy that you're enjoying this one--it was one of my favorites when I was little! (I even watched, and distinctly remember, the pretty lousy film adaptation, Get a Clue.) Remarkably, Miss Raskin was one of the great puzzle-plotters of our time, which makes it all the more disappointing that she never made the transition to adult detective-stories. The Westing Game has an ingenious plot, brilliantly hidden (like a particular revelation, in fact, in The Last of Sheila!), which seems distinctly inspired by, or at least born of the same fruit of, Ellery Queen's works. Do post your thoughts when you get to the end. Yesssss, I was just thinking this book would make a great movie and why has it never been done, when I found out about that horrible TV movie, the reviews on Amazon are mixed but luckily though IMDb deleted our posts, they didn't delete the comments, 2 pages and all but 2 reviews agree the movie's crap. You'd think that would give them a 'clue'. Just finished the book yesterday. It has so many twists and turns you about need a score card to keep up. I don't think there's any way in hell it could ever be made into a children's book if it was just published today, because people would say it's too hard and too confusing...I loved it. Though there's one thing I'm still confused about. Spoilers. So Turtle confessed to being the firework bomber, but she suspected her sister Angela was the real bomber, which would include the bomb that maimed her and put her in the hospital. Was that a deliberate act to get out of having to marry the intern? |
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Post by Nalkarj on Mar 14, 2017 16:35:27 GMT
So happy that you're enjoying this one--it was one of my favorites when I was little! (I even watched, and distinctly remember, the pretty lousy film adaptation, Get a Clue.) Remarkably, Miss Raskin was one of the great puzzle-plotters of our time, which makes it all the more disappointing that she never made the transition to adult detective-stories. The Westing Game has an ingenious plot, brilliantly hidden (like a particular revelation, in fact, in The Last of Sheila!), which seems distinctly inspired by, or at least born of the same fruit of, Ellery Queen's works. Do post your thoughts when you get to the end. Yesssss, I was just thinking this book would make a great movie and why has it never been done, when I found out about that horrible TV movie, the reviews on Amazon are mixed but luckily though IMDb deleted our posts, they didn't delete the comments, 2 pages and all but 2 reviews agree the movie's crap. You'd think that would give them a 'clue'. Just finished the book yesterday. It has so many twists and turns you about need a score card to keep up. I don't think there's any way in hell it could ever be made into a children's book if it was just published today, because people would say it's too hard and too confusing...I loved it. Though there's one thing I'm still confused about. Spoilers. So Turtle confessed to being the firework bomber, but she suspected her sister Angela was the real bomber, which would include the bomb that maimed her and put her in the hospital. Was that a deliberate act to get out of having to marry the intern? To be perfectly honest, I don't know or, more accurately, don't remember. I haven't read the book for ages and don't have a copy readily available. I completely agree that "it has so many twists and turns you about need a score card to keep up" and that it wouldn't be published nowadays. That is simply too bad; I used to serve on the board of a "Newbery Club" at the local library that picked the best children's book of the year and tried to match it up with the National Newbery Committee, and--boy!--have I seen the gradual emasculation of children's literature, and we are all the more unfortunate for it. |
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Post by novastar6 on Mar 14, 2017 18:51:59 GMT
I completely agree that "it has so many twists and turns you about need a score card to keep up" and that it wouldn't be published nowadays. That is simply too bad; I used to serve on the board of a "Newbery Club" at the local library that picked the best children's book of the year and tried to match it up with the National Newbery Committee, and--boy!--have I seen the gradual emasculation of children's literature, and we are all the more unfortunate for it. I thought so. People always point to Harry Potter, etc., and say 'look how many pages, look how deep and dark, kids are smarter today than they were'. Sorry, the fact that The Wizard of Oz was taught in kindergarten before the 1939 movie and today it counts as 5th grade level reading material says otherwise. One of the few books I grew up with, Prisoners at the Kitchen Table, not a famous book, not a well known book, I doubt anybody even remembers it anymore, it was written in the 70s, 2 kids kidnapped by a couple claiming to be the girl's aunt and uncle, trying to ransom the kids, the girl gets diarrhea and worries she'll die from it, eventually the two kids have to storm off on their own with a gun in hand for protection before they're found by the cops, none of this says to me that it would have a snowball's chance in hell of being published today. Or Freaky Friday...people love the movies today, but I'm sure were it published now people would take issue with the 15 year old in her mother's body worrying that her teen body might get raped and strangled by some pervert on her way to a dirty movie or something of that sort. And in the last few months I've read several children's books from the 80s, 90s, etc, that surprised me merely for the fact they actually use adult language, never saw anything of the sort when I was a kid growing up but so many books with even the kids going 'I'm pissed off' 'damn, damn, damn', 'son of a bitch', etc. I've said this about children's TV, family movies, etc., but it's definitely true of books too, people USED to expect kids to be able to handle FAR MORE than they do today. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2017 0:51:31 GMT
My wife highly recommended it but I didn't enjoy it that much.
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Post by pkcommando on Mar 28, 2017 16:58:41 GMT
I had it, meant to read it, then gave it away when I was trying to clear out some space in my apartment before a move.
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Post by hi224 on Apr 1, 2017 14:39:52 GMT
I have.
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Post by Nalkarj on Jun 9, 2017 15:37:49 GMT
novastar6 , I recently re-read The Westing Game for the first time in years--and enjoyed it just as much as, if not more than, always--and I think I have an answer for your question:
The bombing was less a way to "get out of it," I think--Angela's still wondering what she should do about it in the hospital, if I remember correctly--than it is just an act of rebellion against the whole concept that her life is being predetermined for her. Angela was actually the most interesting character in the book (well, she and Judge Ford), for me. I applaud Raskin for having Angela marry Dr. Deane in the long run, because it creates a scenario that makes me less a cliche of "I want to escape you controlling my life" and more of a real person. To quote John Dickson Carr--"real people who live and breathe, not dummies to pad out a chapter."
I have just read Raskin's earlier detective story, The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues, which is also very good--something of a tribute to Sherlock Holmes. Not as good as The Westing Game, of course, but great fun, with one or two superb clues. Raskin's talent was remarkable, and it's all the more unfortunate (1) that she passed so young and (2) that her books will not be read by many adults who think themselves too grown-up to read "children's books."
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Post by novastar6 on Jun 10, 2017 22:46:07 GMT
I have just read Raskin's earlier detective story, The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues, which is also very good--something of a tribute to Sherlock Holmes. Not as good as The Westing Game, of course, but great fun, with one or two superb clues. Raskin's talent was remarkable, and it's all the more unfortunate (1) that she passed so young and (2) that her books will not be read by many adults, who think themselves too grown-up to read "children's books." That is a shame. When I got the book, I had no idea it was a children's book, but to me it wouldn't make any difference because I read them all the time anyway, but yes there are certainly a lot of stuck up people who think they're too good for something like that. Makes you wonder what world they're living in. |
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Post by Nalkarj on Jul 10, 2017 2:27:30 GMT
novastar6 et al. I have now read all of Ellen Raskin's short novels: The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel)
Figgs and Phantoms
The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues
The Westing GameI was interested in reading that Figgs and Phantoms, which I only recently finished, was the book published after Leon/Noel, for the two books are utterly unlike each other in symbolism, plot, and theme. Figgs is not a detective story at all (unlike her other three books) but rather a meditation on loss and mourning. A powerful and moving little book, very effective. It is so unlike a traditional children's book that one character looks at pornography, and the word itself is used! (And in that Newbery Club I noted before, there was a whole uproar when the word scrotum was used in a book. Hummm...) The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel), on the other hand, is the book in her oeuvre most similar to a traditional children's book. There are two perky, clever kids who uncover everything when the adults are off being silly. By the way, there are some particularly lovely clues, and the final twist (with similarities to The Westing Game) is ingenious, somewhat similar to Christie's "The Companion" and Brand's Tour de Force. By the way, the young heroine (every one of Raskin's books features a young heroine, probably a self-portrait) seems a rough draft of Turtle Wexler. Tattooed Potato is more moving and better-characterized than the silly Disappearance of Leon, but it is not as deep as Figgs and Phantoms, either. Again, the twist is a delight, upsetting everything we thought we knew from the beginning. Of course, The Westing Game is her masterpiece. It repeats on many of Tattooed Potato's themes, but in a more insightful way. And the twist is, as we know, a joy. My conviction is even more secure, now, that Raskin's talent was remarkable. How I wish she'd written more. By the way, I recommend this: ccbc.education.wisc.edu/authors/raskin/main.htm
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Post by novastar6 on Jul 10, 2017 5:28:13 GMT
novastar6 et al. I have now read all of Ellen Raskin's short novels: The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel)
Figgs and Phantoms
The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues
The Westing GameI was interested in reading that Figgs and Phantoms, which I only recently finished, was the book published after Leon/Noel, for the two books are utterly unlike each other in symbolism, plot, and theme. Figgs is not a detective story at all (unlike her other three books) but rather a meditation on loss and mourning. A powerful and moving little book, very effective. It is so unlike a traditional children's book that one character looks at pornography, and the word itself is used! (And in that Newbery Club I noted before, there was a whole uproar when the word scrotum was used in a book. Hummm...) The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel), on the other hand, is the book in her oeuvre most similar to a traditional children's book. There are two perky, clever kids who uncover everything when the adults are off being silly. By the way, there are some particularly lovely clues, and the final twist (with similarities to The Westing Game) is ingenious, somewhat similar to Christie's "The Companion" and Brand's Tour de Force. By the way, the young heroine (every one of Raskin's books features a young heroine, probably a self-portrait) seems a rough draft of Turtle Wexler. Tattooed Potato is more moving and better-characterized than the silly Disappearance of Leon, but it is not as deep as Figgs and Phantoms, either. Again, the twist is a delight, upsetting everything we thought we knew from the beginning. Of course, The Westing Game is her masterpiece. It repeats on many of Tattooed Potato's themes, but in a more insightful way. And the twist is, as we know, a joy. My conviction is even more secure, now, that Raskin's talent was remarkable. How I wish she'd written more. By the way, I recommend this: ccbc.education.wisc.edu/authors/raskin/main.htm I found The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues at a thrift store, I bought it but I haven't read it yet, and I hadn't noticed it's the same author. |
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