Ira Levin, R.I.P.

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He was 78 years old.

G00blar, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 09:19 (sixteen years ago) link

I only read Rosemary's Baby (when I was 20, maybe?), but I loved it. A perfect blend of 'literary' and 'trashy' prose and plot, plot, plot.

G00blar, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 09:21 (sixteen years ago) link

have read almost all of his books, i think, and his thing of doing the big reveal in the middle and letting the repurcusions echo for the whole of the second half never got old.

actually, i can't think of a bad one. Accompanying films almost universally good too.

* A Kiss Before Dying (1953)
* Rosemary's Baby (1967)
* This Perfect Day (1970)
* The Stepford Wives (1972)
* The Boys from Brazil (1976)
* Sliver (1991)
* Son of Rosemary (1997) (not read this)

koogs, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 09:43 (sixteen years ago) link

I don't know who he is... wait, was he in Yo La Tengo?

abanana, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 09:46 (sixteen years ago) link

i've read a couple and agree with Gooblar in regard to the perfect mix of lit and trash. RIP indeed. :-(

nathalie, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 10:03 (sixteen years ago) link

Hail Satan, and R.I.P.

Ben Boyerrr, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 11:16 (sixteen years ago) link

I read Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives, both awesome.

Never read it, but the movie Death Trap was pretty killer too.

dan selzer, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 13:54 (sixteen years ago) link

I read only The Boys from Brazil as a teen, fun junk.

Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 21:54 (sixteen years ago) link

Fact: Ira Levin lived on the 15th floor of the building I grew up in. I lived on the 7th floor. Very nice guy, actually.

Alex in NYC, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 22:40 (sixteen years ago) link

what floor did Ruth Gordon live on?

Dr Morbius, Thursday, 15 November 2007 14:13 (sixteen years ago) link

I've read A Kiss Before Dying. Great popular literature, some excellent plot conceits. Wrote it when he was only 23 apparently, the bastard.

Zelda Zonk, Thursday, 15 November 2007 14:24 (sixteen years ago) link

eight years pass...

Click on the "From Novel to Film" image: 53 stills from The Stepford Wives, pretty much the film in miniature. Click through all of them quickly--there's a great (and mystifying) punchline towards the end.

http://mcmolo.blogspot.ca/2015/02/from-novel-to-film-pt-11-stepford-wives.html

clemenza, Thursday, 24 March 2016 17:27 (eight years ago) link

one year passes...

Really having fun watching boys from brazil rn

(Easy morbs we're taking a whiskey topup break)

remember the lmao (darraghmac), Wednesday, 24 January 2018 20:39 (six years ago) link

six years pass...

I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that was new to me and loved it as much in the past five years as The Stepford Wives.

Joanna’s final thought where she gives in to the gaslighting that’s been trying to suffocate her the whole story haunts me like almost nothing else. It breaks my heart every time.

Joanna went forward, toward Bobbie standing by the sink with the knife in her hand, so real-looking – skin, eyes, hair, hands, rising-falling aproned bosom – that she couldn’t be a robot, she simply couldn’t be, and that was all there was to it.

Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Sunday, 26 May 2024 14:59 (one month ago) link

You've got to see the original film (remake is terrible).

clemenza, Sunday, 26 May 2024 15:11 (one month ago) link

I'd like to watch Deathtrap again, could be fun if it hasn't curdled.

paisley got boring (Eazy), Sunday, 26 May 2024 15:27 (one month ago) link

xp I have! It’s on YouTube and nowhere else that I’ve seen

Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Sunday, 26 May 2024 15:31 (one month ago) link


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