Glastonbury From Settlement to Suburb A History of the 300-Year-Old Town Book

Solid read on the architecture of screenwriting, breaking down 25 scripts (half hits, half flops) in terms of both structure and characterization. I appreciated the hand drawn charts the most, as well as the author’s strong personal opinions — even when I disagreed with them (as with The Abyss), I appreciated that he didn’t sugarcoat his opinions. I appreciated too, on a deeper scriptural level, the reinforcement of why, for example, despite an amazing twist ending, I always felt like The Usual Suspects didn’t work. Or why The Verdict always came off so grittily authentic. Particularly powerful is the chapter on Casablanca, confirming its perfection on every level (despite the chaos of its creation). What keeps this book from a higher rating is that it a) get repetitive because b) some of these films aren’t given equal page time or the flaws mimic other films already covered. Made me want to read The Devil’s Candy about the making of that most notorious of flops, The Bonfire Of The Vanities.