The Painted Veil; by W. Somerset Maugham

A few of my friends, whose opinions I highly value, recommended this movie, so Andrew and I rented it a few weeks ago. It was very good, but, as my friend says, "for a PG-13 movie it is extremely sensual and you will see Edward Norton's bare bum."

The book followed along well with the plot of the movie until the end. And then, let's just say that I like the movie better. The ending of the book was a little depressing--not the ending-ending, per se, but the beginning of the ending.

The book is about adultery. Fair warning. But nothing is described in detail (it was written in the 20s). The book starts in the thick of an affair--but then Kitty, the unfaithful wife, is whisked off to a cholera-stricken village deep in the heart of China.

It's there that she goes through a repentance of sorts, and really seeks to find herself through service.

It's a bit of a tear-jerker, really, and made me very happy to have the beliefs that I do. The book deals in depth with death, the question of an after-life, finding happiness in this life, and so on.

Having been the wife of a scholar studying abroad, I was able to relate with the boredom that Kitty faced, although, I must admit that is really all I saw of myself in Kitty.

And, just a movie pitch, too...BEAUTIFUL! It made me want to go to China so badly. It was filmed on site and they showed so much of the landscape...ugh. I want to go to China. The book was descriptive, but mostly of emotion, not landscape. So if you want to see the beautiful Chinese country side, and like us can't afford to just go, the movie does a great job.