ELLE Buzz

Today’s guest blogger: Andrew Falconer, ELLE’s Managing Editor

First off you may have seen the tv trailers for The Crazies [out on Friday]. I went to a screening last week. It’s a remake of an old George A. Romero film from 1973. Very good fun. An old fashioned horror - no torture porn – just plenty of jumps and moments when you wish that the cast would avoid the horror cliches but of course they can’t. It’s nicely shot and has a very memorable scene in a car-wash! A perfect late night date movie.

http://www.thecrazies-movie.com/

For something a little more highbrow, I’ve just finished reading ‘Beside The Sea’ by Veronique Olmi. A sad, disturbing and short novel about a mother taking her children to the seaside for the first and last time. Although its tone is very different from Lionel Shriver’s ‘We Need To Talk About Kevin’ it is similarly disturbing and likely to prompt debate.

The novel is the first of three from new publisher Peirene. Their focus is on contemporary European literature in translation and their mission is that it be thought provoking, well designed and short. The latter is a quality that’s sure to appeal to our time-strapped readers. More about Peirene here:

http://peirenepress.com/

I’m going to give their next book a go shortly, but first I’m finishing Joyce Carol Oates’s ‘A Fair Maiden’. Last month The Guardian said it was a second-rate ‘Lolita’. That might be a bit harsh but I’ll admit that it’s yet to really grab me.