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Carissa Green Reads

I read widely from many genres. Perhaps this blog will feature fewer ratings and reviews, but I certainly intend to write about my reading life - it's the subject I most find myself wanting to talk about.

Currently reading

D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of WWII
Stephen E. Ambrose
Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad
M.T. Anderson
The Path Between the Seas
David McCullough
Chekhov Four Plays
Anton Chekhov, David Magarshack
The Gay Science: with a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs
Walter Kaufmann, Friedrich Nietzsche
A Kierkegaard Anthology
Robert W. Bretall

Notes on Adaptation: The Emperor of All Maladies

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer - Siddhartha Mukherjee

So I just finished watching the last of the three nights of broadcasts of the Ken Burns-produced "The Emperor of All Maladies" miniseries, based on Siddhartha Mukherjee's book. 

 

Edward Hermann was the narrator. And in the closing images, they gave him an "In Memoriam" credit. I forgot he died. So there's a reminder that this will probably be the last new thing in which I will encounter his work. 

 

I'm a huge fan of Ken Burns' work. He produced this film but did not direct it. However, it is clear that director Barrak Goodman is a Burns protégée. He uses Burns' techniques but puts his own overlay on it. It's like seeing a famous painting copied in a totally different color palate. 

 

As an adaptation, it does Mukherjee's book a good turn. Mukherjee himself is a talking head in all three episode, somewhat reprising his lyrical prose on the "big ideas" of cancer. His work permeates the episodes, but some new pieces are added -- some on-camera case studies that are of-the-moment. 

 

Look, this was a fine film and a worthy adaptation. And I love Burns' work. But why this one was six hours and "Prohibition" was only four, I do not know.

 

-cg