have yourself a Hitchcock summer

you don't have to go outside. in fact it might be better if you don't.

“To Catch A Thief” (1955) courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Do you feel the pressure to have the right kind of summer?

A bright summer day says, enjoy me! but enjoy me correctly or prepare for misery. You must have friends and a summer house! Preferably near a body of water! It must be so fun and put together but also easy, breezy, carefree. There will be things waiting to trip you up - the heat, the treacherous sand, the lack of appropriate footwear! But you must not let them win. Exhausting.

your remedy: A Hitchcock summer.

Suspenseful, mysterious, equally oversaturated and in shades of gray. Slanted sunlight through latticed blinds. A cold drink with an enemy. Innocent people thrust into dangerous situations. Familiar stories told in new ways. Stay inside all day with the AC on - strangers cannot get you this way.

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Mr Mark and I watched Vertigo this week, and it was the perfect antidote to life right now. What a pleasure slow cuts are! Our brains are slowly deteriorating like an exploding star with the hyper-realistic fast cut camera work in most modern movies, and I wanted to capture the same undemanding feeling from a novel. Something that says slow, languid, but also salacious, suspenseful, or manipulative (!). An experience that doesn’t require you to be social or keep up or do anything at all with your day. A few of the following were directly responsible for a few films, but all suggestions give you permission to slow cut your summer.

novels for your slow cut summer

all books linked here in my Bookshop.org store: Hitchcock Summer

Stills courtesy of Paramount Pictures

North by Northwest, Rear Window: a little bit detective, a little bit spy

• The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan - a young man gets caught up in dangerous global politics and must assume all manner of fake identities to save Europe - if he can.

• The Little Friend by Donna Tartt - Harriet’s brother was found hanging in a tree in Alexandria, Mississippi; 12 years later, lonely and forgotten, Harriet spends a summer attempting to solve his murder, whatever it takes.

• The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler - hired by a dying millionaire, cynical detective Phillip Marlowe must stop a blackmailer before he has the chance to ruin everyone else.

Stills courtesy of Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures

Vertigo, The Birds: a little uncanny, borderline evil

• The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain - the solution to a bad marriage is always murder - but how will they pull it off?

• Don’t Look Now by Daphne du Maurier - a series of nine weird, uncanny, suspicious stories that directly inspired Hitchcock - and for me to lock my door.

• The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis - an autofictional crime story about an unstable teenage boy who suspects the new hot guy at school is a serial killer.

Stills courtesy of Paramount Pictures

To Catch a Thief, The Man Who Knew Too Much: a vacation gone shifty

• Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald - the tragic tale of a bunch of young, wealthy people struggling with alcoholism and mental illness set against the beauty of the French Riviera.

• The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith - when minor criminal Tom Ripley is hired by a desperate father to find his son and bring him home, everyone gets more than they bargained for.

• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie - ten people with something to hide are stuck on an isolated island mansion as one by one they start to die. What secrets will be revealed?

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and a few more on my TBR - what would you add to the list?

A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin, Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King, The Beach by Alex Garland.

Or tell me your favorite Hitchcock movie in the comments - cheers! 👻

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The Curator: reading through an LA fever dream

The Curator: backlist books on my summer TBR

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