PRIMA FACIE
Suzie Miller
Based on the award-winning play, PRIMA FACIE by Suzie Miller is a stunner!
Tessa Ensler has a promising career as a criminal barrister. A criminal barrister acts on behalf of the defendants in criminal cases. According to law, a person is innocent until proven guilty and part of Tessa’s job is applying that standard in her cases and giving them the best representation she can, guilty or innocent.
On what should have been a relaxed morning with the early sun and a cup of hot tea, Tessa is raped. It changes everything. Now Tessa is in the role of the victim instead of the barrister and it’s not where she wants to be. Tessa quickly learns a lesson in what it truly means to be protected by the law.
The role reversal in PRIMA FACIE is everything. The dynamics are so interesting. Who Tessa is at the beginning of the book is not who she is at the end. The change is heartbreaking to experience, and I was glad of its length when I got into the meat of the story.
It’s 288 pages long, which felt perfect. It didn’t linger to make its point. It was rather succinct, and I liked that considering the subject matter. There are a couple of hard chapters to listen to. I recommend you look up content warnings for this one if that is something you do.
Although this is tough material, it is worth your time. It is frustrating and anger-inducing and those are just a few of the good things about it.
PRIMA FACIE will be published next Tuesday, January 30, 2024. Make sure you pick up your copy and tell a friend about it.
Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced listening copy!
PRIMA FACIE…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Since his debut in 1955, Tom Ripley has evolved into the ultimate bad boy sociopath, influencing countless novelists and filmmakers. In this first novel, we are introduced to suave, handsome Tom Ripley: a young striver, newly arrived in the heady world of Manhattan in the 1950s. A product of a broken home, branded a “sissy” by his dismissive Aunt Dottie, Ripley becomes enamored of the moneyed world of his new friend, Dickie Greenleaf. This fondness turns obsessive when Ripley is sent to Italy to bring back his libertine pal but grows enraged by Dickie’s ambivalent feelings for Marge, a charming American dilettante. A dark reworking of Henry James’s The Ambassadors, The Talented Mr. Ripley—is up to his tricks in a 90s film and also Rene Clement’s 60s film, “Purple Noon.”
THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY
Patricia Highsmith
(1955)
Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly
Welcome to my reading project for the year. I set a goal at the beginning of 2023 to read a classic piece of literature every week this year, totaling hopefully at least 50 completed reviews by the end of the year.
I started with THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY for no particular reason at all. My comfort level for this one is pretty high as it was written more recently of the classics on my list. Maybe that was reason enough.
I loved the characterization and hated the characters.
That about sums it up for me in one sentence. I felt surrounded by these three characters that I loathed. Almost like I was one of four swimmers who went out too far only to start drowning and clawing at each other to stay afloat.
It felt claustrophobic.
The characters are flawless. And reading about them is akin to watching a spectacle. They are intricate and detailed, thoroughly thought out, and well-formed.
However, there is not a lot of plot. Tom, Dickie, and Marge’s day consists of no alarm clocks, lunch with lots of wine, beach lounging, waking up in the mid-day sun, getting ready for dinner, and more wine, followed by a sunset cruise off of the coast of Naples.
The enjoyment is of course in the character of Mr. Ripley. Tom Ripley is a talented con man. Sent on a mission by the farreaching father of Dickie Greenleaf to bring Dickie back home from Italy, where his father would like him best.
Dickie agrees and sets sail across the ocean on a voyage of actualization. Turning him into the man he was always meant to become.
I loved this one and I’m so glad I started here. The material is very approachable and it felt good to have finally read it. Oh, to be a con man before DNA and the internet, CCTV, and social media. It must’ve been so much more fun. The exploits of Tom Ripley would not have been the same in these current days and that added to the charm and antiquity.
I felt like I was reading the first thriller.
My next pick is a more traditional piece of classic fiction. Hope to see you next Friday when I tell you my thoughts on THE TURN OF THE SCREW by Henry James.
Classics reading tip# 2: Listen to an audiobook and follow along to an ebook copy or physical copy.
THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A sharply intelligent novel about two college students and the strange, unexpected connection they forge with a married couple.
Frances is twenty-one years old, cool-headed, and darkly observant. A college student and aspiring writer, she devotes herself to a life of the mind–and to the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi, her best friend and comrade-in-arms. Lovers at school, the two young women now perform spoken-word poetry together in Dublin, where a journalist named Melissa spots their potential. Drawn into Melissa’s orbit, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman’s sophisticated home and tall, handsome husband. Private property, Frances believes, is a cultural evil–and Nick, a bored actor who never quite lived up to his potential, looks like patriarchy made flesh. But however amusing their flirtation seems at first, it gives way to a strange intimacy neither of them expect. As Frances tries to keep her life in check, her relationships increasingly resist her control: with Nick, with her difficult and unhappy father, and finally even with Bobbi. Desperate to reconcile herself to the desires and vulnerabilities of her body, Frances’s intellectual certainties begin to yield to something new: a painful and disorienting way of living from moment to moment.
Written with gem-like precision and probing intelligence, Conversations With Friends is wonderfully alive to the pleasures and dangers of youth.”
The Review
Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney
I’m reading this book with a very small adaptations book club. Now that I’ve read it, I’m a little nervous about our upcoming discussions.
However, you’re here to talk about the book.
CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS is a contemporary fiction novel. In some circles, it is considered a romance novel and is a favorite amongst Sally Rooney fans.
In the book, we follow Frances who is an aspiring writer. She is written in a way that you are fascinated by her and her choices.
She is smart and aware and yet so young and still learning.
To be clear, the characters in the book, including and most importantly Frances, weren’t necessarily written to be liked.
In fact, I think the beauty in the book is that I hated every character and knew those emotions were drawn by Sally Rooney’s great writing.
It’s a great book for discussion and I’m very excited to see how the show, coming May 15th on Hulu, is received.
Have you read CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS?
I thought it was great and gave it…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
