Ira Levin (1929–2007)

I saw the reviews on this. I kinda dreaded getting into it, but I got the damn book for free, so I thought, hey, let's give it a go. It's Ira freaking Levin, so how bad can it be, right?

Bad. It can be really bad.

This reads like the entire thing was truncated, or badly condensed, and they kept only the boring parts. There's so many opportunities to explore some emotional depth that are simply blown right by. Instead, the reader gets a brisk run through of corporate meetings, marketing show more strategy meetings, business meetings, catch up meetings...meetings.

Nothing of any consequence occurs until about the halfway, then nothing until the very end of the book. In between, we're treated to the dullest non-horror a horror novel could ever produce.

And this fact? This is the real horror of this novel. It just sits there and does nothing...but, wait! Is the reader rewarded for their patience at wading through this mess?

No, they truly are not. Instead, the last few pages grabs the reader and slaps them around for their stupidity in sticking with the book that long.

Don't believe me? Read it and tell me I'm wrong. show less

Ira Levin mi sa che potrebbe raccontarmi un po’ qualunque cosa e sarei comunque soddisfatta.
Qui siamo nel noir puro. Un reduce di guerra, convinto che il mondo sia stato ingiusto con lui, cerca di dare sfogo alle sue aspirazioni.
Una volta entrato in contatto con la figlia di un ricco industriale, laborerà con freddezza chirurgica alla ricerca di una dote.
Romanzo costruito benissimo, assolutamente verosimile e, nonostante l’età, per niente invecchiato. Tutti i personaggi sono belli show more caratterizzati, in modo particolare l’assassino, il padre e la prima e l’ultima sorella (Ellen ci e piaciuta meno). 350 pagine stampate larghe che si polverizzano sotto gli occhi e, nonostante un finale un po’ scontato, le ultime frasi rendono comunque il tutto assolutamente perfetto. Del resto, dei due finali secondo me possibili, questo è sicuramente il più azzeccato, il più spendibile cinematograficamente parlando (ira levin era pur sempre uno sceneggiatore) e il più plausibile.
Confermo la mia voglia di voler leggere tutto quello che ha prodotto. Tranne forse il seguito di rosemary’s baby che pare sia effettivamente una gran ciofeca trash, ma chissà… show less

“Having observed that the most suspenseful part of a horror story is before, not after, the horror appears, I was struck one day by the thought (while not listening to a lecture) that a fetus could be an effective horror if the reader knew it was growing into something malignly different from the baby expected. Nine whole months of anticipation, with the horror 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 the heroine!”

“ . . . I nonetheless felt like I was stuck with Satan.
“In whom I believed not at show more all.”

“Lately, I’ve had a new worry. The success of 𝘙𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘺’𝘴 𝘉𝘢𝘣𝘺 inspired 𝘌𝘹𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴 and 𝘖𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘴 and lots of et ceteras. Two generations of youngsters have grown to adulthood watching depictions of Satan as a living reality. Here’s what I worry about now: If I hadn’t pursued an idea for a suspense novel almost forty years ago, would there be quite as many religious fundamentalists around today?”

—excerpts from Ira Levin’s afterword to 𝘙𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘺’𝘴 𝘉𝘢𝘣𝘺

There really isn’t anything from the book that needs cited. The movie is so faithfully adapted from the novel that, if you’ve seen it, you hardly need read the book. This is no slight on this work. It’s slick and psychological and unnerving—just like Polanski’s version, except that he maybe upped the camp a bit (to great effect). I bet it was just as shocking upon publication as the movie was upon its release. It’s hard to say, though, since I was born six years after the book’s appearance and had watched the movie decades ago. All this to say that the two pieces, to me, are inextricable. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an adaptation that’s been so assiduously plotted and not suffer for it.

Really, the afterword has more meat for an author who’s beguiled by another writer’s process than the actual book itself. I love how he was struck by the idea without having an ounce of belief in the idea. (Challenge accepted! says the writer.) And to see the author’s struggle with its success and possible influence on American fundamentalism was worth an entire bookshelf of inferior horror fiction. show less

Having recently read a new novel about the creation of a Nazi Fourth Reich set in 2012, I wanted to return to this classic thriller.

I noticed two things immediately: first of all, the prospects of evil Nazis unleashing another nightmare in the world was far more plausible in the mid-1970s when so many of them, including Dr Josef Mengele, were still alive and relatively young. That’s the real horror of books like this one and ‘Marathon Man’ (from the same decade) which were both made show more into excellent films.

The second thing I noticed is what a great story-teller Ira Levin was. The book is gripping from the first page to the last.

The book was also far ahead of its time in its discussion of the possibility of cloning. What Mengele does in this book has still not been achieved (as far as I know) with humans. But it will happen. Let us just hope that the people cloned are nothing like these boys from Brazil. show less