England and USA

The culture I'm going to write about in this post takes place mostly in England or the United States. First off I want to say that Stockholm (Dramaten - Royal Dramatic Theater) does some incredible things. I recently went to see Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey into Night". The performance was as good as they come. The play actually had its world premier in Stockholm (and Swedish) because that was what O'Neill requested (maybe in thanks for the Nobel prize in 1936). An interesting thing about the production I saw was that one of the characters - Cathleen (the maid) - has been written out. Anyway the play was spellbinding.
Back to books - two to pass the time and two I really enjoyed (I am glad that so many people write about books they enjoy in different bloggs). The two time passers were "The Rosary Girls" by Richard Montanari and "At Risk" by Patricia Cornwell (not a Scarpetta, but a stand alone). Montanari has clearly discovered the wisdom of creating characters (Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano) that can continue on in a series. The book following "girls" ("The Skin Gods") is a best seller. Cornwell's non-Scarpetta was more like a short story - I think maybe she is looking for some new characters.
The two books that I read about in bloggs - "The Accidental" by Ali Smith and "The Half Life of Stars" by Louise Wener - were easy to find at the library and enjoyable reads; but both with a certain darkness. Smith's book is the deeper of the two and is rich in language and symbol. It probably needs to be read more than once. Fortunately both of these young writers already have other books out - and because of their youth will certainly produce more in years to come.