The joy in discovering that the author you wrote off as irrelevant may be just the woman to teach us how to bounce back, be wildly productive, deal with haters, and always get the last laugh
The thing I come back to again and again with Agatha Christie is her nuanced, dead-on grasp of human nature. She understands us on both superficial and shadow-deep levels. The settings and customs of her stories may feel quaint, but her sense of people is just on point today as in her nearly post-Victorian era.
Similarly, Poirot may be (and, okay, totally is) an egotistical fusspot, but he's also a splendid mirror for society who either waxes sycophantic for selfish ends, or simply dismisses him as an eccentric "frog" (never mind that he's Belgian). Few take him seriously until it’s their ass in the drawing room reveal.
The “reveal” is a trope that worked, in part, because people were/are that absurdly short-sighted, presumptuous, and arrogant about their relative standing to others – something Christie understood from quite a few different angles and could unpack for you with sobering clarity and precision through her detectives. (Although I believe the apple-chomping Ariadne Oliver was Christie’s preferred alter ego, within the Poirot series at least)
I haven’t read a single Christie Book but I discovered all of the films based on the books and recently have watched Agatha with Dustin Hoffman. I can’t get enough of watching Poirot. I absolutely love it! It has everything you could want. Thrill, Comedy, Romance. You just keep guessing along the way. I will be reading something soon. Loved your article.
The thing I come back to again and again with Agatha Christie is her nuanced, dead-on grasp of human nature. She understands us on both superficial and shadow-deep levels. The settings and customs of her stories may feel quaint, but her sense of people is just on point today as in her nearly post-Victorian era.
Similarly, Poirot may be (and, okay, totally is) an egotistical fusspot, but he's also a splendid mirror for society who either waxes sycophantic for selfish ends, or simply dismisses him as an eccentric "frog" (never mind that he's Belgian). Few take him seriously until it’s their ass in the drawing room reveal.
The “reveal” is a trope that worked, in part, because people were/are that absurdly short-sighted, presumptuous, and arrogant about their relative standing to others – something Christie understood from quite a few different angles and could unpack for you with sobering clarity and precision through her detectives. (Although I believe the apple-chomping Ariadne Oliver was Christie’s preferred alter ego, within the Poirot series at least)
Let's go surfin' now everybody's learning how, come on a safari with me.
I haven’t read a single Christie Book but I discovered all of the films based on the books and recently have watched Agatha with Dustin Hoffman. I can’t get enough of watching Poirot. I absolutely love it! It has everything you could want. Thrill, Comedy, Romance. You just keep guessing along the way. I will be reading something soon. Loved your article.