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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
For the love of books, 17 Mar 2004
Just yesterday, the following question was posed to me: Are publishers cutting down in the number of serious literary fiction they provide to the readers? Several aspects should be considered to answer this question and most of them are presented in this movie. It has been a trend in the past that masterful novels become bestsellers only years after first been published. One of the most notorious cases is Heller's Catch-22. Most publishers are guided by profits, and since serious literary work is usually "financed" by other bestsellers, economic conditions may hamper the amount published of the former.This movie is a documentary that shows the quest of Mark Moskowitz to find the author of a book, "The Stones of Summer", that marked him deeply and left him wondering why Don Mossman never published another book. The viewer finds himself participating in the search that involves finding other readers of the book, talking with people that knew the author either as his peers, publishers, dust-jacket designers or tutors. Some of the interviews will immerse you in the world of books and you will find yourself either revisiting or discovering masterpieces worth reading. The juiciest interview, in my opinion, was the one Moskowitz conducted with Prof. Fiedler, who has a very interesting view of why there are so many one-book writers. This movie is clearly made by a book lover for book lovers, if you do not belong in this category you should not even attempt to watch it or you will get bored easily. However, those people that are always eager to learn about authors and their inner turmoil, novels that are worth reading and how the publishing industry works, will find this movie delightful. I must say that I have not read "The Stones of Summer" and am not planning to do so in the short-term. Nevertheless, I do not think this fact, or the one that you read the book and did not like it are an obstacle to enjoying the movie.
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