Thursday, January 20, 2011

Julie Christie's seven favorite books

Julie Christie, the British movie legend whom Al Pacino called "the most poetic of all actresses," was born in Chukua, Assam, India.

Among the directors she worked with more than once: Robert Altman in McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) and Nashville (1975); John Schlesinger in Billy Liar (1963), Darling (1965), Far from the Madding Crowd (1967) and Separate Tables (1983) (TV); and Warren Beatty in Shampoo (1975) and Heaven Can Wait (1978).

She named her seven favorite books for The Week magazine. Two novels on her list:
Look at Me and A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

This American writer dazzled with Look at Me, which describes, among other things, the manipulation of images by the increasingly abstract versions of capitalism that have replaced manufacturing industries. Egan’s books cover an astonishing range of themes, all inter-related, global as well as personal. Written before 9/11, Look at Me reveals an extraordinarily prescient vision. A Visit from the Goon Squad follows a group of diverse characters across several decades, going back and forth across time. We’re always conscious of their future lives, so different from anything they could have imagined. Only a writer with Egan’s gift for intricate structuring could have pulled this off.
Read about the other books on her list.

--Marshal Zeringue