More than 4m copies of Agatha Christie's 80 whodunnits are bought around the world every year. But is she really as good as her fans say, or have they just lost the plot?
To me, they're not so much whodunnits as idontgeddits. I have tried many times over the years to get into Agatha Christie's books. It should be easy. I'm an omnivorous (if you're being polite; undiscriminating if you're not) reader. I am no fan of the modern world and particularly not of the gore that increasingly besplatters it whenever the words "murder mystery" or "crime fiction" heave into view.
But I have always found Christie unreadable. Frank Skinner in his autobiography explains that he can't enjoy fiction – any fiction – because the minute he opens a book to read "Alan walked into the room", he thinks, "No, he didn't. There was no Alan. There is no room. You...
To me, they're not so much whodunnits as idontgeddits. I have tried many times over the years to get into Agatha Christie's books. It should be easy. I'm an omnivorous (if you're being polite; undiscriminating if you're not) reader. I am no fan of the modern world and particularly not of the gore that increasingly besplatters it whenever the words "murder mystery" or "crime fiction" heave into view.
But I have always found Christie unreadable. Frank Skinner in his autobiography explains that he can't enjoy fiction – any fiction – because the minute he opens a book to read "Alan walked into the room", he thinks, "No, he didn't. There was no Alan. There is no room. You...
- 10/1/2010
- by Lucy Mangan
- The Guardian - Film News
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