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A review by verosnotebook
The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White
4.0
Having liked Hitchcock’s ‘The Lady Vanishes’, I was pleased to see the story that inspired the film being brought back by the British Library.
It turned out to be a suspenseful read, eventually. The narrative starts slow and sets not so much the scene, although the descriptions were beautiful, but rather many of the players and their motivations. Our heroine comes across at first in a less than flattering lens, but be patient. Once in the train, all starts happening.
Yes, I did like it, for two reasons. First, the thriller aspect of it. I was getting really anxious for Iris (and Miss Froy), not being believed, being gaslighted, and even threatened! The 3rd person narration does wander about, maybe too much, but it still mostly worked for me (liked the denouement but not the very end
Then for the themes the author focuses on. The most visible one is that of communication and language, how people react in foreign lands at not being understood, how some try to learn the new language while others become obtuse. This lead on to the behaviour of the English in the 1930s, a very nationalistic one and rather unsavoury. Again, we see how even this nationalism is undermined by personal needs, even petty ones. Finally, we have a study on the worth of witnesses. Iris, our heroine, is at first listened to just because she is English. However, since being a woman and alone, her voice is progressively diminished when put against that of people of supposedly higher social status and men.
Coming back to Hitchcock’s adaptation, he did use nearly all the elements but he changed the tone. He also took away from the heroine, diluting her role by having the male character joining the limelight. Still, the result is more comedic to me, while he could have made it really tense.
It turned out to be a suspenseful read, eventually. The narrative starts slow and sets not so much the scene, although the descriptions were beautiful, but rather many of the players and their motivations. Our heroine comes across at first in a less than flattering lens, but be patient. Once in the train, all starts happening.
Yes, I did like it, for two reasons. First, the thriller aspect of it. I was getting really anxious for Iris (and Miss Froy), not being believed, being gaslighted, and even threatened! The 3rd person narration does wander about, maybe too much, but it still mostly worked for me (liked the denouement but not the very end
Spoiler
why would she end up with Max after what he did?!Then for the themes the author focuses on. The most visible one is that of communication and language, how people react in foreign lands at not being understood, how some try to learn the new language while others become obtuse. This lead on to the behaviour of the English in the 1930s, a very nationalistic one and rather unsavoury. Again, we see how even this nationalism is undermined by personal needs, even petty ones. Finally, we have a study on the worth of witnesses. Iris, our heroine, is at first listened to just because she is English. However, since being a woman and alone, her voice is progressively diminished when put against that of people of supposedly higher social status and men.
Coming back to Hitchcock’s adaptation, he did use nearly all the elements but he changed the tone. He also took away from the heroine, diluting her role by having the male character joining the limelight. Still, the result is more comedic to me, while he could have made it really tense.