Alena by Rachel Pastan: A review
Alena by Rachel Pastan My rating: 3 of 5 stars "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again" is the sentence with which Daphne du Maurier began her iconic novel Rebecca. For me, that is one of the three most memorable beginnings of all the books I have ever read. The other two? "Call me Ishmael." ( Moby Dick ) And, of course, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." ( The Hobbit) But those two are very different kinds of novels, and the beginning of Rebecca , I think, is the most memorable for me. When I was a teenager, I was under the spell of du Maurier and her books. I read them over and over again, but none more often than Rebecca . Somewhere in there I also saw Alfred Hitchcock's movie which was a wonderfully faithful realization of the much-loved book. When I heard a review on NPR's "Fresh Air" a few days ago of Rachel Pastan's new book Alena and the reviewer mentioned that the book was an homage to Rebecca , of cour...