Lux Loves: Anita Loos

One of my favorite reading experiences of all time was when I spent a couple of weeks at an ashram (yoga retreat) in rural Quebec, and would walk miles each way into the nearest village to buy almost any English books I could find. Most memorably, I read Vanity Fair, Alice in Wonderland, Jane Eyre and Gentleman Prefer Blondes; the latter, a Jazz Age satire penned by Anita Loos, probably about ten times. When I read that she wrote the screenplay for Red Headed Woman, as I came across it at Kim's on my way home tonight, I bought it on the spot. Urbane, earthy and sly, Loos' crisp dialogue (as uttered by Jean Harlow, no slouch herself) had my mouth ajar from the first scene.  Naturally.

Comments

[lisa rosman]

goodness, your lovely post just made me realize that nearly all my favorite reading experiences have either been in non-English-speaking countries or when i've been laid up (which i am right now). in both circumstances, well-rendered mother tongue made me feel at home like nothing else could. This week, it is a tall stack of decently translated Swedish detective novels that is granting me a glimpse of the proverbial forest again rather than all these pesky trees.