A few weeks ago I started watching the Jeremy Irons led film of “Night Train to Lisbon”. After about twenty or thirty minutes, I decided to stop, that I simply had the read the book before I finished watching the film. It seemed important somehow.
I have just finished reading the book.
It’s quite a remarkable, challenging, intellectual and philosophical work – and probably not for the feint-hearted! I get the sense that – like Amadeu de Prado’s words – the book may offer ripples and reverberations well into the future.
Now I can back to the film.
Update, 1st August: The film’s pretty good too. They have left out a couple of the minor characters and some themes and events (unsurprisingly) in order to make a coherent film – which it is. The film also ties up a couple of the book’s loose ends, which is satisfying, and there is a different ending – one which was sort of in your mind as a possibility as you read the book. I’m glad I watched the film – and I’m even more pleased that I read the book first!
[Unfortunately my edition – the 2009 Atlantic Books’ translation – had numerous typos / misses by the proofreaders, including one instance of a whole line being duplicated.]
Ian Gouge - Writer 