{"id":1462,"date":"2019-04-24T15:00:05","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T21:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=1462"},"modified":"2019-04-21T09:25:15","modified_gmt":"2019-04-21T15:25:15","slug":"book-the-39-steps-1915","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/24\/book-the-39-steps-1915\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: The 39 Steps (1915)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><u><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/images.gr-assets.com\/books\/1386527992l\/19293791.jpg\" alt=\"The 39 Steps\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\">The 39 Steps<br \/>\n<\/u><\/strong>Year: 1915<br \/>\nAuthor: John Buchan<br \/>\nLength: 234 minutes \/ 3.9 hours<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s weird to think that stories like&nbsp;<em>The 39 Steps<\/em>&nbsp;have only been around for 100 years. Perhaps their ubiquity in modern action thrillers has made me numb to their \u201cman on the run\u201d plotline, but I didn\u2019t find this book to be as interesting as I had expected. Sure, it\u2019s short, but how many of its twists and turns were merely repeating the same way of escaping the main character\u2019s pursuers time and again? And perhaps that\u2019s the main issue I have with this book: the main character seemed to be too skilled at eluding capture for it to be believable.<\/p>\n<p>I know the \u201cwrong man\u201d trope that thrusts an ordinary person into these kinds of circumstances isn\u2019t as realistic as it could be, but when Richard Hannay just happens to know exactly what to do at each instance, I wonder how \u201cordinary\u201d he really is. Don\u2019t get me wrong, the chase is exciting, it\u2019s just oddly convenient for the protagonist. Of course, maybe I was already ruined by having seen Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s version of this story in&nbsp;<em>The 39 Steps<\/em>&nbsp;(1935), which added in elements of romance and changed some key plot points.<\/p>\n<p>In the end,&nbsp;<em>The 39 Steps<\/em>&nbsp;still stands as one of the originators of its genre. Even if the style has morphed and evolved over time, it\u2019s essential to recognize where it came from and what its early influences were. If you\u2019re interested in the history associated with the genre, then this book for you. Heck, if you have a few hours to kill in an airport or waiting room, this book might be the ticket. Just don\u2019t expect much out of it other than some slightly-entertaining distraction.<\/p>\n<p>A basic, if perhaps unbelievable story, in the early action-thriller genre, I give <em>The 39 Steps<\/em> 3.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n<h2><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\">&nbsp;<strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\">&nbsp;<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\"> <\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 39 Steps Year: 1915 Author: John Buchan Length: 234 minutes \/ 3.9 hours It\u2019s weird to think that stories like&nbsp;The 39 Steps&nbsp;have only been around for 100 years. Perhaps their ubiquity in modern action thrillers has made me numb to their \u201cman on the run\u201d plotline, but I didn\u2019t find this book to be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,54],"tags":[1755,18,1759,55,1757,1758,8,1756,19],"class_list":["post-1462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3-0-stars","category-book","tag-1755","tag-action","tag-alfred-hitchcock","tag-book","tag-john-buchan","tag-man-on-the-run","tag-review","tag-the-39-steps","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1462"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1466,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions\/1466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}