Books Tasted - Everything bookly (and a few other things)

I watched Marie Antoinette, the movie starring Kirsten Dunst and directed by Sofia Coppola, a few months ago. The movie almost felt like it didn't have a plot; it meandered from scene to scene without any feel of cohesion and when it was over,  I felt like I had just watched one of those videos of a log burning in a fireplace - it was like opening the door to someone's daily life without gaining a whole lot of insight into why they are doing what they do.

Not that I mean to be overly harsh about the film. It was a decent film and beautiful. I just didn't ever feel pulled into the story the way I expected. It did make me want to learn more about Marie Antoinette though, and I saw on IMDB that the movie was inspired by Antonia Fraser's biography Marie Antoniette: The Journey. I checked out the book from the library and it was pretty big. Yikes.

It took me almost a month to get through it, because I wasn't devoting a lot of time to it and it's a pretty hefty book to plow through. If you like biographies or history, I'm sure you'll like this book. It gives a lot of insight into the world of Marie Antoinette and is very sympathetic to the queen. It covers in a lot of depth her childhood and what court life was like for her as a young bride.

Part of what made it hard for me to get through was the author's assumption that her readers would be very familiar with French history and other people from the time period. While she spent lots of time introducing some members of the court, others were only touched on, assuming you knew their background. Or she would talk about aspects of court life that were interesting or difficult, but assume you understood that court convention. I gave up trying to learn all the names and resigned myself to not understanding many little parts of the story.

Like the movie, the book felt like you were skimming over the life of Marie Antoinette. This is probably due to the fact that I regularly read fiction, and the book is not written like a fictional story, but instead like a very long essay on Marie Antoinette's life.

I also liked all the photos and artwork included in the book. It really helped bring parts of the book to life, especially since Antonia Fraser references the artwork as part of her story.

I recommend this book for lovers of history or biographies, but not if you're not a big non-fiction fan.