Our Town

At first I didn't get the appeal of this day as it seemed another standard representation of small town life and love. Then in the final act it turned avant garde as the dead characters of the town talked about what made life and that town so meaningful. The team behind The Fantasticks worked on a musical of this for years only to have Wilder's nephew say they couldn't do it after all. I think they would have made one of their best. I need to watch the movie.

The Admirable Crichton

This was a cute play by J.M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan. A rich family is stranded on a desert island. Their butler becomes the leader and the one who saves the day. He even wins the love of one of the girls Mary. But will everything will be the same when they come back home? This was later made into a movie in the 1950s which I have to watch. Yes Peter Pan was J.M. Barrie's masterpiece but it's fun reading what else the writer had to say. 3/5

Rock Crystal

It's curious NYRB (New York Review Books) has put this out twice. They put Rock Crystal out as a novella alone. I guess once NYRB realized how great of a writer Stifter was they decided to release the whole short story collection it came from Motley Stones. One edition is translated by Marianne Moore, a poet I like, so if you're a fan of hers then it's worth investigating. This is about two children who visit their grandparents during winter but get lost in the snow on the way home. Soon there's a search party. It's a perfect book to read during December. There's something enchanting about it.