The BOOK Review 
Cimarron by Edna Ferber
[Bookmooched. Discarded from the El Paso Public Library, Veterans Park Branch. Published 1930 Doubleday & Company, Inc. 300 pages. On bookmooch again, if you want it: just look for me: "bkclubcare"]
Who knew?! Who knew that Ms Ferber was witty and wild and a feminist and craved excitement?! I have to admit this: I thought she would be just like Pearl Buck. (confession: I have never read Ms. Buck. I’m sure my idea of Buck is totally not based in reality. I started one of her books once and found it so oOLllllllddddd = dry, boring yuck. I was probably in high school and I will allow any reader to tell me to try her again, really!) I expected Ferber would be the same as Buck: boring.* I mean, come on! This book is a WESTERN. Not a genre I usually read, if I ever have.
Swashbuckling independent good-looking men and the women who have to put up with them and love ‘em anyway.
Or rather, ONE MAN: Yancy Cravat. He craves the wild west, the latest last frontier: off to Oklahoma once the Government steals the land from the Osage. A newspaper man; defender of Indians and whores, anyone on the wrong side of power. Can’t settle down. Quotes Shakespeare – Milton – the Bible with ease and accuracy. Same way he shoots his gun. He’s killed men and made friends of outlaws. He loves his woman with passion. However, just one little thing… he cannot stay in one place for too long.
One woman: Sabra Cravat. Spoiled and high class, follows her man to Oklahoma and raises his children. Attempts to civilize the wild west, tame that frontier. Runs the newspaper while Yancey runs off to adventure, eventually elected to Congress. ALWAYS ALWAYS loves her man.
A selected passage:
The visit (back home) was not a success. The very things she had expected to enjoy fell, somehow, flat. She missed the pace, the exhilaration, the uncertainty of the Oklahoma life. The teacup conversation of her girlhood friends seemed to lack tang and meaning. Their existence was orderly, calm, accepted. For herself and the other women of the Town of Osage, there was everything still to do. There lay a city, a county, a whole vast Territory to be swept and garnished by an army of sunbonnets. Paradoxically enough, she was trying to implant in the red clay of Osage, the very forms and institutions that now bored her in Wichita. … She took a perverse delight in bringing the shocked look to the faces of her Wichita friends and to all the hordes of Venables and Marceys and Vians that swarmed up from the South to greet the pioneer.
This is the only book I read for this latest Read-A-Thon. I can say it was an easier read to keep up with than many books of late. At times, I felt uncomfortable with the 1920/30’s language and even while Ferber was calling attention to stereotypes and injustices to African Americans, Jews, and Indians; it was so obviously from a white perspective and dated. But in a way, it adds to the understanding of the historical context. Besides race relations, the social themes were also interestingly presented. She kept Sabra committed to her husband yet gave her the independence to carry on without him.
Her style was fanciful and fast paced; engaging and lively. I enjoyed it very much.
♦
The MOVIE Review 
Screenplay by Howard Estabrook, Directed by Wesley Ruggles
Oscar Winner 1931 Best Picture, Best Writing – Adaption, Best Art Direction. Nominated for Best Actor (Richard Dix), Best Actress (Irene Dunn), Best Direction, Best Cinematography. The imdb page is here. A version was also filmed in 1960, and one is scheduled for release 2010.
Mostly true to the novel beginning to end, some scenes/lines lifted directly from the text (way to go Edna!)
Overall, quite enjoyable. The acting, however… I felt myself chuckling at the over dramatics and the close ups on facial expressions. Definitely some re-use of film for the Oklahoma Rush scenes. A few of the dying scenes were PURE drama; “well done, bravo!! bravo!!”
Book & Movie for the Lit Flicks Challenge, and my own specific flavor to see Best Picture Oscar Winners that I have yet to see…
* footnote… I decided after posting this that I should do more research on the MISS Edna Ferber. So, of course, I went to Wikipedia. I had no idea that she was a member of the Algonquin Round Table! If I had known that, I probably would have been that much more eager to read this. Lili Taylor played her in that movie about Dorothy Parker, another author I have always said I need to get around to and read something by.
Further reading brought me to this quote by Alexander Woollcott that seams appropriate for what will happen tomorrow (US Elections, in case you didn’t know!)
“I’m tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn’t work. Of course it doesn’t work. We are supposed to work it.”
OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH-kla-homa…where the wind comes whippin’ down the plains,
Where the wavin’ wheat,
Can sure smell sweet,
When the wind comes right behind the rain,
Oklahoma, every night my honeylamb and I,
Sit alone and talk,
And watch a hawk,
Makin’ lazy circles in the sky,
And when we say, “yow-Iyippy-o-I-aye”,
We’re only sayin’ “You’re doin’ fine Oklahoma, Oklahoma, O K L A H O M A,
Oklahoma, OK.
Sorry. I just had to sing it.
No problem, sing away. Sing far far away -> no, over there. WAY over THERE.
I love the scene in Mrs. Parker and The Vicious Circle where Edna Ferber comes in dressed in a very tailored suit (dress & jacket) and Alexander Wolcott says: “You almost look like a man, Edna!” and quick as lightining she replies, “So do you, Alec!” She’s made to seem awkward and a little out of place at the Round Table because Parker and the rest of them prided themselves on pretending like work was effortless and they didn’t care about it anyway, and Edna obviously loved work and she’s a little too earnest about it. Yes, I have this movie on DVD and have watched it numerous times.
Thanks for the book/flick review of Cimarron. I saw part of the 1960 version… for some reason it was playing on Korean TV! It was fair to middling — I only watched it because it was something in English.
Some movies must be enjoyed over and over again. I’m going to put the Mrs. Parker movie back on my list and read something by her (any sugs?) As for Cimarron, it was better than I expected. Thanks for this comment. OH – a movie that I think gets worse the more you watch it is Bridget Jones Diary. That movie annoys me…
Before you watch the movie, read some of the poems.
Short stories: “The Waltz” and “Big Blonde”.
YEA! OK! Thank you for these.
Yet again, another selection I haven’t read or seen. I need to get cracking! Maybe I’ll add this one to my Lit Flicks Challenge selections.
Ah, I just like to be different. There are only 2 more Best-Pic-Oscar movies I have yet to see…
Wow, you only have 2 more to see! Well, I am impressed! I might have heard about Cimarron, but didn’t even know it was a movie! Love your review style, especially as I read romances when i was younger! so you made me laugh..but not sure I want to read either, although I did watch Mrs Parker and The Round-table (not as often as Bybee!) and I don’t remember Edna Farber, so i will have to rewatch it. But *sniff* you don’t like Bridget Jone’s Diary, which is my movie I turn to when I need something silly and brainless (the book is my ‘brain candy’ for the summer!!) and a really good laugh. Besides, it has Colin Firth, and, well, *sigh* he is darn good-looking. Yikes, 2 Best Pic Oscar movies to see…wow…
Well, now that you are so amazed, I’m going to have to go check my list to make sure! I’ll post again on it soon… I really need to do a challenge update post. Thanks for stopping by and saying hello.