Christie Talk
Christie Talk - Book Club - September's Book (1)
Murder on the Orient Express
It's the 75th Anniversary of the publication of this iconic novel so there is loads to discuss - not the least of which is the unusual ending.
Warning: These discussions may contain spoilers!
3 replies
3rdGirl on 04 Sep 2009 at 7:35 a.m. GMT
Hooray! MOTOE was the very first AC book I read three years ago, and I am very fond of it indeed. The Poirot on travels books are my favourites and I remember loving the ending and thinking that it was very clever indeed. I shall read it again this month so I can get into the characters a bit more. I'm sure this will be a very popular book club book as it's really one of her most famous books isn't it?
Yana on 20 Oct 2009 at 12:39 p.m. GMT
Hi. Thank you for sharing your ideas. Frankly I've relatively recently become Christie's fan. Yet all this "romance for life" started with a diferent work, which was "Sad cyprss". At that time I admired the author's shrewd penetration into human psychology. I think I begin to see the same in this book but it's so subtle...Alas, as Mr. Poirot'd say )) Frankly I would so much appreciate if you could/would help me understand - through sharing your impressions - what's so magnificent about this particular novel.. I DO want to see that and your impressions.
Will be much obliged
3rdGirl on 21 Oct 2009 at 10:44 p.m. GMT
Hi Yana, welcome to the forum. It's amazing what each person gets out of different books. You've mentioned that you love the psychology of Ms Christie's books, however I read them because I love the 'in between wars' period that they are set in. I'm also fascinated by the travel of that time by trains, ships and aircraft. I love the fact that people still got dressed up to make a journey and met other passengers on their travels. Today we try to ignore the person sitting next to us on a bus or plane!
For me, MOTOE is sucessful because it is so evocative of the era.
I do think it is one of Ms Christie's earlier novels an she was still attempting to do big international intrigue type mysteries. I do agree with you that her more sucessful books have a smaller setting and cast of characters whos backgrounds and personalities come to the fore. That certainly doesn't happen in this book.
I think it's considered more of a 'classic' of it's type because of the novel solution.
What do you think??
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Well, this is a surprise! Two books for the month of September. I guess that makes up for the agony of not knowing that everyone had to go through in the month of August! Oh I know, maybe the word 'agony' is a bit too much. But that's what it felt like and I'm sure most of you felt the same way. Murder on the Orient Express was published in 1934 and 2009 celebrates its 75th anniversary. Even after seventy-five long years the story retains its surprise element. I read the book last month. But the end was ruined for me years ago when my Agatha Christie enthusiast mom blurted it out! So, with the end ruined, I avoided reading it for years. Then last month I suddenly decided to take the plunge as someone mentioned that it was the August book club selection. For me it was an example of the miracles Poirot could achieve with his excellent 'little grey cells'. Snowed in, with no police and no hope of getting any help Poirot just lays back and thinks and that's all it takes for him to solve this rather tricky mystery. As I've already mentioned the ending was not a surprise for me so I couldn't really judge the book impartially. But I'll wait to hear from those of you who have read it for the first time and who didn't have my mom to ruin the ending!