We had our first meeting after reading Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie at the beginning of February. "Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare." Reads the back cover of the copy I picked up for the month. This is an interesting factoid considering only two out of six girls in my book club even liked the book, and two didn't even finish reading it.
Despite the mixed reviews, we had a very productive discussion about the book. Who we thought the culprit was from the start and what we thought about the revelation of who did it at the end. The whole book was very "technical and clinical" and one of the girls described it has having "no atmosphere." I agree in that statement as there is little-to-none description of their surroundings, the train and all the character descriptions are given by other characters and not actually by the author. Which we all thought was a different way to do things.
Personally, I was one of the two who liked it, but by the end I thought there is no way that one person could guess right that many times in a row. Yes, I know it is a character in a book, but Poirot's detective skills are so Sherlockian without being Sherlock that I had a hard time believing it all. (Maybe because I am biased and like Sherlock Holmes more. Who knows.) Regardless, there isn't much development as to who Hercule Poirot is in Murder on the Orient Express, but because there are so many books written by Christie about him as the main character solving crimes, we all agreed that there has to be pieces about his past and character in other books.
I also decided to watch the movie; the 2017 one, not the 1974 one. It starts off with building up the character background for Poirot, which the book does not at all touch on. So, that was nice. However, there were many, major differences between the movie and book. So many, I had to stop listing them while was taking notes because I could no longer keep track. The movie even attempted to be witty at times and the book was so very... Serious.
One of the big things that irritated me was the character of M. Bouc. In the novel he is a little ridiculous, but in the movie, he is like over-the-top ridiculous and I didn't like that at all. And some of the passengers took on characteristics and lines and roles of others that were in the book. Then, at the end of the movie, Poirot confronts the passengers on the train in a way that is absolutely and complete different than the end of the book. Took me right out of it.
Overall, the movie was good, well done to an extent, and the scenery was pretty. And I think most people would like it, provided they hadn't read the book and vice versa. They don't really do each other justice and are better off not being associated with one another. If that makes sense.
In the end, we all discussed whether or not we would read another one of Christie's books, and I think I would try another. Most likely Death on the Nile, as it is another one of her most famous novels. We're also all looking forward to reading our next book for February, which is of a completely different genre and writing style. Guess we'll see how that one goes compared to this one.
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