Most evenings, my wife and I read a few pages of a story before we drift off to sleep. Right now, we're about halfway through Poirot Investigates, the third book Agatha Christie published that featured her ingenious detective Hercule Poirot. Like the first two novels, The Mysterious Affair at Styles and The Murder On The Links, the short stories in this collection are narrated by Captain Hastings. Unlike the first two novels, I'm not enjoying them. Or, at least, not as much as I wish I were.
Part of the problem is that I'm not in love with the short story form. When I read, I care about the characters, and a novel gives the author lots of pages to explore that. With a short story, the author has to focus in on the action, the plot, and underpinning idea. So I suppose that's some of the reason for my dissatisfaction with the book.
I think the major reason I'm not enjoying this collection though is because of how Agatha Christie portrays Captain Hastings. In Poirot's first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Hastings might have initially fancied the idea that he was smarter than Poirot, but he also showed great respect for Poirot's instincts and deductions. That's not to say that he never questioned his friend's decisions, but he went along with (what seemed to him) the little Belgian's wackiness more often than not. In The Murder On The Links, however, Hastings seems to be chafing at his friend's actions, and calling into question everything he says and does. Perhaps not verbally, but at least inside himself. I came away from that second novel feeling that Hastings had felt Poirot was wrong every step of the way during the investigation. That's not to say I didn't enjoy Hasting's role in the second novel. Christie really takes him on personal odyssey, and he sort of grows-up by the end of the novel. It's as if he's been clutching onto his friendship with Poirot because he's not really to venture on ahead with his life, whereas by the end of The Murder On The Links he's ready to be his own man. So I enjoyed that aspect of his part of the novel. I just didn't enjoy the complaining, distrusting, thinking-Poirot-is-wacky part.
This theme continues in Poirot Investigates. Perhaps people who read the Hercule Poirot stories before they saw the TV series based on these stories will feel differently, but the Poirot and Hastings I fell in love were the 50 minute adaptations. Each episode expanded upon the story it was based upon, and screenwriters such as Clive Exton infused them with character, strengthening the bonds between Hercule Poirot, his secretary Miss Lemon, Chief Inspector Japp, and especially (or so I felt) his friend Captain Hastings. The Hastings in the TV series might have questioned Poirot, might have gently begged to differ with him, but the Hastings in Christie's stories sometimes grows so angry with Poirot that he storms off at the end of the story, and needs weeks until he can stand being with Poirot again. When he reappears in the next one, he may be over his previous huff, but he's all too eager to think his friend is wacky again.
I used to think it was a shame that Agatha Christie didn't put Captain Hastings in more of the novels. Now I think I understand her reasoning. She needed someone to call into question everything Poirot did, and after awhile it seems tiresome and unrealistic if the same sidekick is doing that. So she brings in other characters who don't know him so well to fulfill that function, and ultimately, be amazed by his brilliance.
Look at these two. They're firm friends. They practically exude affection and mutual respect. That's the Captain Hastings that I fell in love with, that I want to encounter again and again: the TV version of Hastings, not the one Agatha Christie created. I'd hang out with him any day, any time. More importantly, so would Hercule Poirot. Still, if Agatha Christie hadn't created her Hastings, screenwriters such as Clive Exton couldn't have created the version I love.
Still, who knows? I might feel entirely different about Captain Hastings by the time I finish the remaining stories in Poirot Investigates. Maybe, for whatever reason, I'm just in a huff.
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