Archive for the ‘Books’ Category

« Older Entries

Culture Club

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

My opinions are back:

1) Huge. I am just. So. In. Love. It could not be clearer that the writers have respect, compassion, and, well, love for every character they create. Which means despite whatever conflicts crop up, all very realistically portrayed and involving less-than-ideal behavior on the parts of the characters, the feeling I have after every episode is, well, love. I WANT TO HUG ALL OF THEM. Please let me hug these fictional people!

2) Autism: The Musical. A bit homegrown in terms of composition/production, but it doesn’t matter. The content is all there—a group of autistic kids working with a dynamic adviser/director to produce a musical while their supportive, exhausted, and worried parents attempt to see them through. Sigh. I wept my way through. It’s sad. Sad and happy, but lots of sad.

3) MilkMilkLemonade. When I heard that this play featured a gay 5th grader living on a farm whose best friend is a talking chicken, my path was clear. Opening night! We were there! And it did not disappoint, from its dance-number interludes to its probing, unflinching look at the relationship between the main character and the bully from down the road. (Excruciating—and then, not.)

About a third of the way in, there’s a scene in which the two boys play house which sort of blows the top off the play, structurally, thematically, spiritually—it makes the play so much bigger than it had been. That is the scene that won me over, and that is the scene that I would most like to see again. (In other news, the directing and acting are fantastic.)

4) A Visit from the Goon Squad. Can someone explain Jennifer Egan to me? As in, any fans out there want to tell me what I’m missing? Most of what I’ve read by her feels superficial, and this book is no exception. Plus, as loyal readers know, I am not a fan of the multi-narrative. (If you’re going to write a novel, write a novel; if you want to write a book of short stories, write a book of short stories.) I’ve actually given up only part-way through, so if this is a mistake, please let me know.

5) Letters to Sam. I was a little worried that this was another Tuesdays with Morrie, which was too pat and simplistic for my tastes (although, remembering back, I think I went in with expectations of contempt). But after hearing author Daniel Gottlieb on Fresh Air, I swallowed my elitist pride and put it on my wishlist. Gottlieb has had quadrapolegia for almost 40 years, and despite lifelong anxiety and many medical complications, past and current, his orientation toward his body and his life is gratitude. So.

And . . . the book is simple, though it’s meant to be; it’s written for Gottlieb’s autistic grandson. At times it’s even a little simplistic. But some of the letters are gems—spare and wise, nailed to the earth. I’d have asked him to go deeper in certain places and would have questioned his assertions here and there. But mostly I’m glad for his wisdom and his fortitude. Thanks and wow, Daniel Gottlieb. Wow and thanks.

Posted in Books, Movies, Theater | No Comments »

The Kids Are All Right

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

What I expected was the sit-comification of a lesbian relationship. What I got was the sit-comification of a lesbian relationship, followed by a sobering and emotionally honest accounting of what happens when one partner in a marriage has an affair.

Hmm.

Given the wisdom and integrity of the second half, why is the first half so bad? Specifically, why does Annette Bening’s character have to be so stereotypically hard-ass? (She’s the rigid, overprotective, driven doctor-mom.) And why can’t Julianne Moore’s character be a mature and articulate adult? (She’s . . . no 50-year-old I’ve ever met.) And why are the jokes predictable and unfunny?

No one ever hires me to clean up her screenplay. Why? Total mystery.

In other news, I read this book. And my review is similar to the above, in that: a) After the dreadful first few chapters, b) the story is surprisingly heartfelt and moving, if never quite spiritually deep. (My mother-in-law*: “Does she get to the point that Victor Frankel discusses, where you look toward making an internal emotional shift in the face of an utter lack of control over your external circumstances?” Me: “Errrr . . . no.”)

I wish Kerman’s editor had helped her revamp her pre-prison story and perhaps shift it to later in the narrative, as a flashback or series of flashbacks. Instead, Kerman powers through her criminal activity without a breath, telescoping to a point of vagueness that feels evasive and rushed. BUT once she gets to prison everything slows down. And we see, of course, that even in a minimum-security prison with a reputation for leniency, life sucks. Abuse, humiliation, ridicule, favoritism, recrimination, etc.

I hate the prison system. I wish it would die and be reborn as a just, compassionate national program of rehabilitation and restitution.

*One of my three mothers-in-law, that is. And as of three weeks ago, they are all totally legal. Fabu!

Posted in Books, Complaint Dept., Movies | No Comments »

Media Highs/Lows

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

So much to review, so little time.

1) Is anyone else enjoying Huge? Great premise: Angry, rebellious, body-accepting teenage feminist refuses to endorse values at the weight-loss camp to which her parents have consigned her for the summer. And she’s played by Nikki Blonsky!

Before the show aired I worried that Blonsky’s character would be co-opted into a pro-dieting message, but not so far. So far the show has managed to present both Will (Blonsky) and the other kids, most of whom are there by choice (or “choice,” considering the cultural context), in an impressively nuanced way.

I’m loving the romantic tensions and sweet moments of vulnerability for kids whose lives are generally sucky. Plus, fat kids portrayed as attractive. Hallelujah!

Show! Don’t abandon me now!

2) In his weecap of Winter’s Bone in The New Yorker, David Denby writes that director Debra Granik “envelops us in mysteries that can never quite be solved.” Actually, all the mysteries in that movie are solvable. Guess Denby didn’t have smartypants John Diller by his side to explain.

3) You know, I’m kind of into memoirs of difficult childhoods, but I had to stop reading Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle about 50 pages in. (More accurately, I flipped to the final 20 pages to find out how she survived.)

Here’s why: a) The book is like a Steve Reich composition with a single, endlessly repeating note but none of the hypnotic and purposeful tonality; b) There’s no reflection to speak of, just the narration of events; and c) There’s no emotional depth in the telling. Why is this book popular? Is this book popular?

4) If you read a collection of essays by a sassy twentysomething humorist who was maybe trying a little too hard and whose tone felt  acidic and possibly slightly rancid with no clear reason why, would you read her second collection? That is the question I am forced to ask myself as I make my way through Sloane Crosley’s How Did You Get This Number?

I think what happened is that I mostly forgot what I thought of her first book, and also I am disproportionately interested in humorous essays about twentysomething experiences in New York involving crazy Craigslist roommates. Anyways, I’m not finding her funny or even likable, and now she has a series in development with HBO?

Universe! Don’t abandon me now!

Posted in Books, Movies, Television | 2 Comments »

2 x 2

Monday, July 12th, 2010

Two movies, two books.

1) Winter’s Bone. Gaaaaah! If I had seen the preview, which is super-creepy, I’d never have seen the movie. But I didn’t see the preview! I merely read the first few words of several trusted reviews, all of which said things like “This remarkable independent film” and “This spectacular work of cinema.”

Dutifully, I went.

Yes, it is a remarkable work of film, literary and beautifully crafted. It is also a FREAKING HORROR SHOW.

2) The Visitor. Poor John. In 2008 when this film came out, I mocked him for wanting to see such a formulaic comedy—i.e., straight-laced, soul-dead white guy is brought back to life (Aside: Do you think those last four words justify the use of the single-but-pretentious word “revivified”?) by musical immigrant with brown skin. But the film is far more sensitive than that, and hey! Not a comedy! Good film. Sad. Recommended.

3) Born to Run. I usually steer away from anything even remotely redolent of machismo, but in this case I was interested. I like counter-culture ideas, particularly involving the body, and this book makes an excellent case for barefoot, long-distance running as the natural form of movement for the human body. Along  the way, there are plenty of interesting ideas about evolution, physiology, and the benefits of compassion and joy.

However: Author Christoper McDougall, who writes for Esquire and Men’s Health,  jacks up pretty much every sentence with super-pumped cliffhanger hype. Do men like that? Men, do you like that?

4) Was This Man a Genius? I own this book and had read it maybe a decade ago. But the other day I saw it on the shelf and thought, “Why not? I can’t remember a word of it anyway.” Of course, it came back as I read. And . . . Was Andy Kaufman a genius? Or a madman? Both? I will never know.

In related news, I think I am the only person I know who likes Julie Hecht. Readers? I used to teach stories from her first collection, Do the Windows Open?, and my students were baffled. “What’s the problem with this narrator?” they would ask. “She just needs a hug,” I would answer. Recently I checked online and discovered that Hecht has published a couple more books in the last decade! Entirely without my having noticed!

They’re on my Amazon wishlist. And my birthday is July 26. I predict a happy ending here.

Posted in Books, Movies | 4 Comments »

Blessing

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

I remember Gregory Orr from his visit to the Young Writers’ Workshop at the University of Virginia, where I was lucky enough to spend a couple of summers during high school. He was (still is) a professor there, and he joined us for an evening, reading his poetry and (I think?) leading a discussion of the writing process.

I don’t remember his poetry. I don’t even really remember his presence, which—I now imagine, having just finished his gorgeous and shocking and deeply moving memoir—must have been considerable. (Fifteen: The age at which you don’t know a good thing when you see it.) I’ve simply remembered his name all these years, occasionally finding his work in The New Yorker.

The Blessing was published in 2002, but I didn’t discover it until a few weeks ago, when a friend posted about it on Facebook. It’s a remarkable work, spare and breathtaking, honest and harrowing. Orr opens with what appears to be the punchline—that he killed his brother, by accident, when he was 12—and then steps back to paint a portrait of his family that transforms the killing into something different, something actually almost explicable, given the terms.

And then a whole lotta of shit rains down.

The delivery is so grounded and matter-of-fact, even when presenting shocking news, that it risks flying below the radar. But the content is so emotionally honest that we never lose Orr, or his experience, even when he loses himself.

CRAZY-good memoir. Highly recommended.

Posted in Books, Highly Recommended | 2 Comments »

Kindle Me Poor

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

I don’t entirely get it, but the Kindle has the magic power to enable me to read a 400-page book in two days*. At $9.99 per, I’m going to have a very expensive habit if I don’t supplement with books made up of actual molecules.

Sigh. Nothing is ever the entire solution.

You may quote me.

*I partly get it. I’ve been sick.

1) Life Would Be Perfect if I Lived in that House. This is one of those memoirs that feels like it was written because the author had a contract and needed a topic. I don’t begrudge Daum her real estate and interior design fantasies, as I am infected with a rabid case of same, but she could have captured the entirety of the book’s wisdom in 3000 words.

2) Speaking of authors who have contracts and need topics, Lynne Sharon Schwartz (my grad school advisor!) admits as much in the opening to her new memoir, Not Now, Voyager. Which kind of put me off the book. Which resulted in, perhaps a little too insta-karmically, my not buying it after having downloaded a free sample on the Kindle.

Free Kindle samples, will you kill literature?

3) I can hardly imagine reading Alice Munro on the Kindle—sacrilege! And anyway I had received her newest collection of stories, Too Much Happiness, as a holiday present in December. (Thank you, Barbara.) Oh, the exquisite pleasure of an Alice Munro story! I had read most of them already, whenever they were published in The New Yorker, and as they are capital-L Literature they always improve with repetition.

Munro lays out the emotional complexity of a novel in every story, but her work is never crammed and always patient. It’s the opposite of so much else out there, including Daum, which takes a kernel and attempts to puff it into an entire bowl of popcorn (or some other, better metaphor implying a more substantial end result). In this way Munro is one of the most generous writers ever, possibly on par with Shakespeare in terms of how many characters she is willing to meticulously craft and then release into the world.

I know. Who gets compared to Shakespeare? Like, ever? But I think so. In that way.

Thank you, Alice Munro. You are mind-blowing.

Posted in Books, Complaint Dept., Highly Recommended | 6 Comments »

One Day

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

After hearing an interview with the author on NPR, I read this.

I enjoyed it. At first I thought, “This is an excellent thinking person’s/literary snob’s summer read.” Then I got to the very unexpected twist. And I thought, “This novel is more serious than I was taking it to be.” Or maybe, “This novel is not fully aware of its tone.” Either way, worth reading.

Oh, and one more thing: This novel believes that a lifelong womanizer and alcoholic can be reformed at 40 by suddenly realizing that he’s in love with an old friend. So . . . I don’t know about that part.

Also, my first Kindle experience! After a short adjustment period and a bit of frustration in not knowing how long the book was*, the read went smoothly. I think I have been Kindle-fied.

Ruh-roh.

*Apparently it’s 448 pages? But I read it in two days! I guess, well. Yeah.

Posted in Books | No Comments »

Beautiful Boy

Monday, June 21st, 2010

At the request of a friend, who is going through an analogous experience, I read this book.

It’s wrenching and, well, beautiful. It’s not literary, and at first I struggled to settle into the pace, which felt rushed and telescopic. But by mid-way through, when author David Sheff sinks deeply into his pain, I was won.

And I was struck and moved by Sheff’s humility. I guess there are few things more humbling than a child’s addiction, but I imagine that it would be far easier to shut down in the face of such an onslaught of suffering. After years of struggling with a beast he can’t  control, Sheff remains kind, compassionate, open, and interested in the problem.

A great book to give to anyone who deals with familial addiction.

Posted in Books | No Comments »

Stuff

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

After I heard the authors on Fresh Air, I bought the book.

When John began to read it (first), he was so fascinated that he ended up reading the entire prologue aloud to me.

SPOOKY.

(It’s about the infamous Collyer brothers.)

This week it was my turn, and I gulped the book down in 4 or 5 sittings. As a compulsively neat/orderly person, it was more than a little unsettling, but the tone is so thoughtful and compassionate that I was able to stay with it through the end. (Also: John had warned me against the chapter on hoarding animals, so I skipped it. I am constitutionally unable to tolerate cruelty to animals.)

I think what I’m left with, in addition to the itch to purge my drawers and closets, is a great respect for both the authors and some of their subjects, particularly a  brave woman they call Irene. She was willing not only to work with the therapists to try to clear her home but to report every belief and feeling that came up for her while doing so. Not easy.

Anyway, as with so many psychological issues/defense mechanisms, hoarding seems to be something of a matter of degree: i.e., we all have the behaviors to some extent, but some people have them to the point of dysfunction. So if you’re even a little overwhelmed by the volume of stuff in your life, this book could help.

Posted in Books | No Comments »

More on Franzen

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

I have a little secret. It’s this: The Corrections is overwritten. But it doesn’t matter, because most of the sentences are gorgeous anyway, and Franzen’s genius re: family dynamics and the way personality is both formed and gets played out vis a vis parents/children/siblings is colossal.

Ergo, The Corrections still ranks in my Top 3 Books Ever, along with The Line of Beauty and The Golden Notebook.

In case you were wondering.

Meanwhile, I’ve just learned that Franzen has a novel coming out on 8/31, a million years from now, and I’m panting with anticipation to see whether a) the recent story in The New Yorker was an excerpt and b) how his writing has matured. If a) is true, then b) is thrilling indeed!

Posted in Books | 2 Comments »

« Older Entries