So Much Fun, Darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                      My PCP (yes, Primary Care Physician) has been recommending me Jo Nesbo's novels over the years, and, after reading "The Snowman," which I am seeing tomorrow as a movie, I am sorry I did not listen to him, sooner.

                                       I was no naïve I thought Nesbo was a woman, (Remember Jo March, in "Little Women?"  And Katherine Hepburn playing her, in George Cukor's still definitive 1933 version?) and I had no idea the stories are set in Norway.  At least, "The Snowman" was.  And, for the record, before some yokels out there start cracking some vulgar jokes, the surname of the lead character, detective Harry Hole, is pronounced "holy," not the way one would first think.

                                      "The Snowman" is a nice, relaxing, for me, serial killer type story, that covers all the bases, in a compelling, can't-take-your-eyes-from-the-page way. I sort of understood the killer's trauma and motive, but, honestly, wouldn't charity work have been a better solution to the problem?  It worked wonders, in Dickens' day.

                                         That said, the book is fascinating, and I look forward to reading more of Nesbo.  I do think there were a few overdone red herrings, and that the story might have been shortened by about thirty pages, but I understood the author's reasoning, as my desire to get at the answer to things, kept ratcheting up by his splendid skill at building suspense.  And that is what it is all about.

                                           Now, "The Snowman" opens in movies, tomorrow.  I will see it, but the word is already out that if one has read the book, one is going to be disappointed.  And with such an A-list cast, too.  Chloe Sevigny will be worth it.

                                            The actor playing the killer I never heard of, so who knows how he will be?  Or if he will get the required screen time needed.  One thing I can almost guarantee. On the printed page, where it works best, a lot of emphasis is put on medical science, immunology, and rare, inherited diseases.  Reading this book almost compensates for not having taken Advanced Placement Biology.  It will make one feel they have.  But a lot has to be processed and understood.  Movies do not have the time for that. Nor do standard, mainstream audiences have the intellectual capacity to understand it.

                                               So, I am approaching this movie now, with relatively jaundiced eyes.   If I turn out to be surprised, so much the better.

                                                 But, really, when it comes to snowmen, darlings, stick to "Meet Me In St. Louis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"