I read Katherine Hepburn’s account of making The African Queen
and John Irving’s account of making The Cider House Rules,
My Movie Business. I liked Hepburn’s book better. She’s a better writer,
and knows more about the movies, and people, and how things are done,
and how to do things well. How to get around obstacles. She’s a shrewd Yankee.
So is he. He just, he
had it easier. Throughout his career. I tried to read A Widow for
One Year because of the movie with Jeff Bridges, The Door in the Floor, but I didn’t
make it through it. Too many clever accidents and coincidences. Dancing bears
and circus midgets.