The Notebook
Overall: 4.5/5
Finished this recently and discovered that it was made into a mini-series on Showtime. Unfortunately, I don't have cable or streaming, so I can't watch it.
Anyway, the book itself is great and lends itself almost a Theater of the Absurd. After the Russian Revolution and the emergence of the Communist state, a nobleman is sentenced to permanent house arrest in one of Moscow's most posh hotels. If he ever leaves, he will be summarily executed. How does one write an entire book about that when the location does not change and the character himself does not really change either?
Well, make every place in the hotel its own, distinct location. Turn them into their own characters, with their own personality, function, and desire. Show how the other characters--those who do have the freedom to come and go--change over time as the communist government slowly devours every shred of society, famine sets in, war breaks out, and the arts, which this gentleman so devoutly esteemed, turn into a manicured propaganda machine. Throw in the flower of innocence corrupted by this propaganda, a child who, as she grows up, knows it is her duty to cast off her friendship with this Former Person, yet in her heart she knows he is the only one she can trust with a task of the utmost importance.
And finally, watch this gentleman pull off the ultimate heist. A man who cannot go anywhere or do anything without the government knowing about it, uses the mind and talents and money they despise to pull one over on them.
