RIP IX BOOK 3: Laura by Vera Caspary

"I decided that it was lucky that most of my cases had not involved women. Their logic confused me."

One day, for no particular reason, my dad bought me a book. He claims now that he bought it because 'he knew it was good', but I think we all know that he basically looked at the name and thought it would be a cool thing to get me. AND HE WAS RIGHT. 

So, and please bear with me because I finished this abouuuut a month ago AND I haven't written a review in about ten million weeks, this book is about Laura. Surprise, right? To be more specific, it's about Laura, murder victim and formerly an advertising extraordinaire, woman of independent means and kinnnd of badassery. She's not your average murder victim, OR your average 1940s woman and that's really just the start of what makes Laura (the book) so damn good.

There's a limit to what I can say here without giving away so so much information about the murder, and, more importantly, the murderer, so this is going to be fairly brief. It's brevity, however, shouldn't be used as an indicator of how much I liked the book, because I liked it so much I could probably write whole essays on it. The fact that I'm going to HAVE to do that, along with the fact that I really want you guys to read this book without knowing what's going to happen, prevents me from it, but rest assured- it's awesome.

Laura is a noir novel, but it's also a noir novel that's kind of feminist. This isn't to say that the detective is a woman (although that would have been awesome) because actually he's a handsome police officer, but the novel is very clearly focused on Laura and the excellent person she was. The men are all obsessed by her, and not just in a 'oh my gosh she was so beautiful and I loved her so' kind of way (although that does happen) but also in an admiring, impressed-with-her-success kind of way. Laura is outlived, for instance, by a sponging fiancé, and how often do the genders work that way round? Not that often, I'd say.

The perspective in Laura isn't just that of the detective, but that of other people who knew and loved her. The novel opens with the narrative of an older, fatter writer who was in love with Laura but also generally considered her on-his-level, and he annoyed the shit out of me. I actually thought I wasn't going to get on with the book because of this, but then the narration shifted and I realised that, actually, I wasn't supposed to like him, and all was well again. Seriously, it's a really good book, guys.

Laura is basically a really really good noir novel, just in itself, and it has the added benefit of being written by a woman so its focal female point is realistic and interesting and sometimes seems more whole than the characters who are alive. I was excited by its noirness, because it's a genre I'm so interested in yet never seem to read, but I was, of course, even more excited by its feministness. So much excitement that I'm just making up words now, apparently. But you guys will forgive me, I'm sure. Just, freaking read this book already!

It's my birthday! And I'll be narcissistic if I want to...

Hey guys! If you follow me on twitter or have generally read anything I've written in the past, ooh, I don't know, MONTH, you'll know that it's my birthday today! I am very very old. It's not even worth talking about, really. (OK, I'm 24 today. Aaaaand, now you want to punch me, don't you?)

Anyway. In honour of my birthday week (Oh hells yes I get a whole week) I'm trying to post everyday this week (by which I basically mean, writing 5 posts the weekend before and scheduling the crap out of those babies- I have other stuff to do, y'know?) so that I can give all of you a liiiittle treat while I, hopefully, get many treats, most of which are cake-related.

I'm already being incredibly narcissistic by assuming that 5 blog posts by me are EXACTLY what you want, so I'm sure you'll bear with me as I go through cultural references to my name. Oh yes, that's right- I've racked my brain to think of all the Lauras in books, films, tv and music, and I'm going to tell you how I feel about the fact that they share my name. I'm sure we're all going to enjoy this as much as I will!

Shuddup, Gosling, we're doing this.

Laura Chase in The Blind Assassin: Laura's kind of like the mysterious, dreamy younger sister to the main character, Iris, but she's also maybe the most interesting character, or at least the one you want to learn more about while you're reading. She also kiiiind of reminds me of Luna Lovegood, so... She can keep my name, yes.

Laura from High Fidelity: How you feel about Laura in High Fidelity (either the book or movie- they're pretty much the same apart from location) probably depends on whether you're a man or a woman- she's either the shrew who needs to tell her boyfriend what to do all the time, or a woman who wants to move on in life, and wants him to grow up and move on with her. I'm sympathetic to both views, but on the whole, I'm ok with this Laura.

Laura Brown from The Hours: This is the Laura I feel most connected to from anything- the kind of woman who would do almost everything for just another half an hour of reading time is a-ok with me. But really, she also has A LOT of the kind of thoughts that are kind of the thing I read books for- to feel like I'm not the only person who thinks things like that. Her name is just a happy coincidence, but I still can't help but love it.

Laura Fairlie from The Woman in White: Oh hey, remember when we (or, you know, some of us) read The Woman in White and Laura was the 'love interest' character and everyone said she sucked and it made me sad because sentences like 'Laura is so lame and boring' make me unhappy for some reason? Yeah, that was horrible. This chick needs to get a new name, like, yesterday.

Laura Jesson in Brief Encounter: I've only seen Brief Encounter once, and it was literally about a month before I started blogging, which makes me kind of sad because OH! How I needed to talk about it at the time. Now I can't remember it that well (I definitely need to watch it again) but I do know that I liked Laura, and just wanted her to be happy, dammit!

Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks: It's a little bit creepy hearing people say (a LOT) 'who killed Laura?' 'Why would they do this to Laura?!' 'It's Laura! She's dead!' and so on. Even though you basically don't see Laura Palmer alive onscreen, her presence is everywhere in the programme, and on the whole... I can't get too upset about her having the same name as me. She seems like she was pretty messed up, but also for good reasons, and oh my GOSH am I going to go on about Twin Peaks again? Ok, I'm stopping now.

Laura by Bat For Lashes: I'm pretty sure I've posted a video of this song before, but if not... THIS SONG IS AMAZING. And not just because it's called Laura, although, let's face it, that doesn't hurt. But seriously... So. Good.

Tell Laura I Love Her by Ricky Valance: My mum used to sing this to me when I was little, and I hated it, for some reason. I still don't think it's an amazing song, but I'm open to the sentiment now! Damn, kids are crazy...

These are basically all the Lauras I can think of, which is weird because it's such a popular name for people my age (there were even two Laura Jones's in my year at school. TWO. That's ridiculous.) but I guess not so much for fictional characters or people who are going to be famous and stuff- of real people, I can only think of Reese Witherspoon, whose actual first name is Laura, Laura Linney, and Laura Ingalls Wilder (and I haven't even read any Little House books) so... I'm pretty sure that all Lauras need to step it up, basically. Yes.

Now...