Hombre by Elmore Leonard

Title: Hombre
Author: Elmore Leonard

Publisher: Ballantine (1961)


I've heard some of the folks in Cali are enduring a hot, dry summer. Lucky, lucky you, Michael! But, turns out, lucky me, way down south; the days are getting longer and I saw some buds on the Wisteria climbing my porch. Also, my chives are bustling about making lots of new shoots. Yay, spring! I can't wait. But we're not here for me to yap about how happy I am that winter is ending. It's booky/movie time!

For those that are new to our monthly series, this is when Michael reviews a film adapted from a book which gets a review here. 

Click here for Michael's film review of Hombre

at It Rains... You Get Wet

An unscheduled, impromptu stage (of the wagon variety) is carrying six passengers from Sweetmary to somewhere else in Arizona. Each passenger has a unique and urgent reason to be making this journey. They each seem pretty solitary (even, oddly, the husband and wife) but they are quickly united in their disgust at having a man in the stage who lived for a time with the Apache people at San Carlos Reservation. When the stage is robbed, motivations and alliances become even more confused.

...if they knew he'd been living like an Apache most of his life, right up until a little while ago? Would it make a difference to them? I had a feeling it would. I didn't think of myself as one of them, then; now I don't see why I should have left myself out.

The above is from our narrator, Carl, who does a relatively good job at analyzing his own reactions to John Russell (the titular character) and, even when he doesn’t, his first person perspective is consistently thought-provoking for the reader separate from whether or not he manages genuine self-reflection.

...he reminded you of ... almost everyone of them you ever saw: all made of the same leather and hardly ever smiling unless they were with their own look-alike brothers. Then they were always loud, loud talking and loud laughing.

The scene from which that quote derives occurs early in the novel but remained with me throughout. Here is an instance when Carl absolutely dead-on describes a couple of seemingly minor players in this drama by comparing their hard, blustery behavior to each other. (Carl, by the way, defaults white as he only ever specifically notes when people are not.) His choice of words paints an immediate picture and becomes more real as the story progresses. On the other hand, he gets quite a few of his first impressions wrong. 

It's easy for the reader to do this, too. Leonard has quite cleverly crafted this story, with this narrator, to leave a lot for the reader to decide. On the surface, it’s a reflection of the youth and inexperience of the narrator, below that it's a lovely piece of craft on Leonard’s part. In fact, if you read this closely, paying attention to the many perspectives and prejudices that are revealed from beginning to end, it’s clearly about more than just the narrator's fascination with John Russell.

"How come you didn't tell them?"
"Tell them what?"
"That you're not what they think."
"Does it make a difference?"
...
"Sure, they're wrong. But is it easier to convince them of it or just forget about it? You understand that?"
"I'm learning," Russell said.

On top of what can only be described as a sociological study it’s a pretty exciting hold-up. My experience of Westerns is limited (and, unfortunately, mostly negative) so maybe the way this plays out is a dime-a-dozen situation but it doesn’t feel like it. Buried in the straightforward robbery are a multitude of motives, betrayals, victims, and aggressors. 

And I haven't even mentioned Mrs. Favor or Kathleen McLaren. My thoughts on Mrs. Favor would be a huge spoiler so I'll skip them, and McLaren could easily have a post of her own (hell, she could have her own book) which will make this too long so I'll just say: check this title out! Leonard's characters certainly don't disappoint (in a fictional way. i don't think i'd actually like to know any of them:). Also, it's quite a delight that this book is concise and focused. No extra fluff, it gets right to the point. How refreshing!

"I got a question," Russell said.
Braden was squinting to make out Russell in the window. "Ask it," he said.
"How you going to get down that hill?"

Now about that movie... Don't forget to check out Michael's post. 


rating: 4 of 5 stars
 



Click here for an index of the joint post series

Alan Rickman Reel: Mesmer (and a change-up)

My household are big fans of Alan Rickman. As such, we decided to review his films from start to finish. Using IMDb, that put us starting with Die Hard (Die Hard!!!!) and we knew Dogma and Galaxy Quest would be in there, too. Not to mention all our other favorite Alan Rickman films. Plus, you know, we thought we'd discover so many more fun movies. That is probably still true but we've been discovering some real duds in our journey and it's sucking the fun out of this activity. As such, we've decided to keep going in chronological order but to focus on the ones we like or what sounds good to us.

If we skip one of your favorites feel free to make a case for it in the comments. Links to previous reviews can be found below under the cut.

Between this movie and the blurb for Close Your Eyes, we've been inspired to change our Alan Rickman Reel rules!

sgwordy: Wow! That movie was really boring. But mostly just bad.

Dr Musacha: Yep, boring and bad. I think we're done here!

sgwordy: Whoa, deja vu! I totally agree. Should we just skip to the summary or do we need to say anymore about how we're changing our strategy?

Dr Musacha: I might have had to stab my eyes out if we were subjected to more movies like this so thumbs up to the new strategy.

sgwordy: (laughs) On to the ratings then. And we're almost positive we'll have a better review up for next time.

Summary:

Rate the movie on a scale of 1 to 10:

Dr Musacha – 1

sgwordy – -5 (that's a minus, to be clear)

Was Rickman the best thing about this movie?

Dr Musacha – Interestingly, he won a film festival award for his acting in this movie. So according to Montreal, yes.

sgwordy – There was nothing 'best' about this movie (suck it, Montreal!)

In the context of his body of work, on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate Rickman as Rickman?

Dr Musacha – 2

sgwordy –3

Favorite Rickman quote from this movie?

Dr Musacha: I deal with all kinds of derangements.

sgwordy: Cleaning the house!

Why they hate us in the Cantina.

The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum

Title: The Bourne Identity

Author: Robert Ludlum
Publisher: Grafton Books (1980)


It's hard to believe that Michael and I are already past the halfway mark for our annual joint reviews. In fact, we're past 2014's halfway mark, as well. Is this year flying by for anyone else? I'm just happy we're past the winter solstice down here as the days are getting longer again (even if I can hardly tell:). It's also a fun time of year as the Matariki constellation is up in the nightsky which signals the Maori New Year. It's celebrated with a weeks long festival and many different events and activities. But, anyway, on to this post, shall we?

For those that are new to our monthly series, this is when Michael reviews a film adapted from a book which gets a review here.

Click here for Michael's film review of The Bourne Identity

at It Rains... You Get Wet

This title was my pick and I chose it for the movie. I don't even care for the book all that much (this is my second read-thru). I realize that's pretty goofy since I get the book assignment but I wanted to chat about the movie with Michael so obviously this was the only way. Ok, probably not, but I like any excuse to watch the film again and am really excited for its review. But for now I'll commence with AW's trusty format that always saves my bacon in situations like these.

Cover:
At what point does an author get to pass by the excitement of consistently publishing and move on to the thrill of being so successful that the author font is bigger than the title font? I've always wondered that. In any case, this cover is pretty forgettable design-wise.

Premise:
A man is fished out of the Mediterranean with serious gunshot wounds and no memory. Lucky for him, an exiled British doctor takes an interest in the man's health and works hard to keep him alive. The doctor's interest derives from the fact that he's deduced the man is a government agent (most likely American due to his dental work:) from his language proficiency and the surgically implanted negative in the man's hip. The negative (which gets read using a slide projector - hee!) has a Swiss bank account number on it. The man could be the doctor's ticket out of exile. So, recovered, off the man goes to Zurich to try to discover his identity and access his bank account. Almost immediately after obtaining the account funds, people start trying to kill the man who has amnesia. He has learned his name is Jason Bourne. That doesn't do anything for his memory but at least he still remembers how to be a spy and stay alive.

What Works:
The plot. The premise above does not do justice to the twists and turns of this story. I'd include more details but if you're familiar with the work you don't need them and if you haven't read it I don't want to ruin anything. It's a long enough book without me spoiling the reasons to keep going. Suffice it to say he is a spy but when almost everyone you encounter is out to kill you (including those representing your own government) you have to start to wonder just what kind of spy you are.

The psychoanalysis. This aspect of characterization/characters isn't as popular as it once was because, I think, laypersons understand so much more about psychology these days. However, the late 70s and early 80s are peppered with these asides and it works well here. Almost everything about this novel is over-written but don't hold that against this aspect of the book. It serves the character and plot well and doesn't feel like a convenient device.

What Doesn't:
The writing. I'm sure the not-so-subtle hints from above let this one out of the bag already but it's not well-written. And if you thought those italics were annoying consider it my way of preparing you for this title. I don't think I've ever seen so many italics in one book. Also, dozens of paragraphs started with Now! I kept wondering if Ludlum didn't have any faith in me as a reader. On top of the italics everyone shouted or roared or screamed all the time (even when being quiet was really, really important) and usually with !!!!!!!

The length. The copy I read had 566 pages and I think 350 would have been a whole lot better. It makes for a really repetitive read. I wanted to get lost in the action and the suspense but it was hard to do amidst the constant plot recaps. You definitely will not get confused by the plot. It will be explained many times. You will not ever wonder why characters do what they do. You will be told multiple times. You'll never forget what Bourne does or does not remember; he will tell you over and over.

Overall:
This is a book with a great premise and an awesome plot. Sadly, it gets in its own way making it more of a slog to read than a page turner. I'm tempted to look into Ludlum's earliest books going on the assumption that he was probably more heavily edited in his early days. If his plots were always this good, I could definitely go for something shorter and more tightly constructed.


NB: This book is dated in its technology and in its demographics. While the demographics thing did bother me I don't mind books with older technology. I was entertained by the microfiche and switchboards  and telegrams (and not just because I remember using them, well maybe not the telegrams:). Oh yes, it was also written at a time when the US dollar had considerably more value.



Now about that movie... Don't forget to check out Michael's post. 


rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
 


Click here for an index of the joint post series

Interesting Read

Some good points in this article.

Alan Rickman Reel: Closet Land

My household are big fans of Alan Rickman. As such, we've decided to (continue) review(ing) his films from start to finish. Using IMDb, that puts us starting with...

Die Hard (DIE HARD!!!!) and continuing with...

January Man

Quigley Down Under 
Truly, Madly, Deeply

Closet Land (yeah, we know it's out of order:)
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

The trailer makes it seem a lot less terrible than it is!

sgwordy: Wow! That movie was really weird. But mostly just bad.

Dr Musacha: Yep, weird and bad. I think we're done here!

sgwordy: Haha, it's tempting to leave it at that but our adoring fan expects more. Actually, I did have a question. The set-up is pretty interesting so most of the terrible is in the execution. Would it have helped the movie at all if the cast had been two men or two women rather than one man and one woman?

Dr Musacha: Fine, this is for you, Fan. :) Maybe, but Interrogator was so unhinged that it didn't feel like an official proceeding. I really like dystopian police state stories (like 1984 and V for Vendetta) but in this case the threat never hit home with me because the whole situation was so surreal. Instead of making me feel like Victim had become another casualty to the philosophy of safety over civil liberties I just kept wondering if Interrogator was some random, well-dressed sexual predator who had kidnapped his latest victim to torture.

 

sgwordy: I felt the first half of the movie did a much better job of playing into the police state idea (you don't really know since the movie never leaves the one room) but the second half became mostly about the torture and Victim's psychological resistance to it. The police state threat disappeared and it just became a torture film. Speaking of that, even if it had been a good movie I still don't think I would have liked it as I really, really don't like watching torture. Even implied torture is really unsettled for me as a viewer.

Dr Musacha: With only two actors and one set, Rickman and Stowe have a lot of room to explore their skills. Did you think Alan Rickman took advantage of that?

sgwordy: I think his performance was uneven to tell the truth. At times I thought he was dead on for the zealous police interrogator but at other times it felt more like scenery chewing. That might have a little to do with the surreal aspect you mentioned. What did you think?

Dr Musacha: I think Alan Rickman is a master of threatening violence but when he moved into the actual violence I think he wasn't the right actor for the role. He's more of a controlled menace type of actor.

 

sgwordy: I would agree with that. Any other thoughts? I'm ready to move on from this one so nothing from me.

Dr Musacha: Despite my thoughts on Rickman as this particular villain my dislike of the movie didn't have anything to do with him or Stowe. It was the writing and the tone. There aren't any actors you could put in this film that would make me like it more.

sgwordy: On to the ratings then.

 

Summary:

Rate the movie on a scale of 1 to 10:

Dr Musacha – 2

sgwordy – 2

Was Rickman the best thing about this movie?

Dr Musacha –No but he did have a couple good one liners.

sgwordy – Naw, but what was really?

In the context of his body of work, on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate Rickman as Rickman?

Dr Musacha –3

sgwordy –3

Favorite Rickman quote from this movie?

Dr Musacha: I don't smoke.

sgwordy concurs

Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard

Title: Empire of the Sun

Author: JG Ballard
Publisher: Gollancz (1984)


The bad news is, winter has truly set in for us here in the Southern hemisphere. The good news is, it's perfect reading weather. We actually got some snow on Monday! But then, the high yesterday was 15C (60F) so you just never know. "Four seasons in a day" is a common refrain from Dunedin-ites. The fire is going again tonight, though, so we're back to good reading weather. Despite my love of reading, anyone who wants to send some sunshine my way is more than welcome. This month's pick was actually perfect for me here, a light summer read it is not.

For those that are new to our monthly series, this is when Michael reviews a film adapted from a book which gets a review here.

Click here for Michael's film review of Empire of the Sun

at It Rains... You Get Wet

Jim is an 11 year old Shanghai resident born of British parents. When Japanese troops begin the occupation of the International Settlement in Dec 1941, he becomes separated from his family. For several weeks he manages to reside in abandoned suburbs but he is eventually interned at the Lunghua civilian detention center where he will remain until the war is over.

It's immediately apparent that Jim is a clever child with a boundless imagination. He's also cunning, ambitious, vulnerable and supercilious. The point of view is probably best described as third person close and it's used to great effect in that Jim hasn't yet learned to hide (or modify?) certain aspects of his personality. So you meet him, warts and all, at a time when he is still pushing the boundaries of what is socially acceptable for his particular culture group. At one moment you're appalled by his cruelty and the next heartbroken by his vulnerability. It is an unsettling dichotomy that remains until the final page and, somewhat unexpectedly for this reader, becomes integral to Jim's ability to survive.

Because the point of view is so entwined with Jim's perspective it can be hard to know how reliable his interpretations are. I like to think this was a deliberate choice by Ballard to allow the reader a hint of the daily instability Jim experienced. He is a capable survivor who is always willing to try new strategies to obtain food or allies (transient though they may be). He forms several attachments but, as all his other fragile forms of security, they are tenuous and likely to be abandoned when needs must. And, inevitably, needs must.

This autobiographical novel is presented in four parts but focuses heavily on Jim's experience with other ill prisoners trying to get to Lunghua (where, it is thought, conditions will be better) and his last weeks in Lunghua before the war ends. As such, he and his fellow prisoners are severely ill and/or malnourished. The extraordinary lengths the mind will go to survive horrific experiences are often seen in parallel with the lengths the body will go to accommodate deprivation. It is not a book that is easy to read while eating or before trying to go to sleep.

Parts of his mind and body frequently separated themselves from each other.

Empire of the Sun is the first book in a long time to make me want to read it again even before I had finished. This, I think, is directly related to the unreliable nature of a child's interpretation of what is going on around him. Jim is canny and quick to react to circumstances but he is not always able to parse motives.

...and face up squarely to the present, however uncertain, the one rule that had sustained him through the years of the war.

There are several instances of leaving Jim's perspective. They are as glaring for their oddity as for their departure from what is otherwise a technically superior piece of writing. I eventually got used to them but, if I do end up reading this one again, I'll be paying more attention to when and how they are used. It's hard for me to believe they aren't on purpose. It's just too good of a book for something like this to be accidental.

There are several reasons I can see myself re-reading but two things in particular stick out to me. A British doctor, Dr. Ransome, becomes something of a father figure to Jim in the camp. During several of their interactions there is a tacit recognition of a "hunger" in Jim. It's nothing to do with food but choosing the word "hunger" when "desire" might have worked heightens its importance as something vital to Jim's life. At a glance, it seems to be a hunger for his own death. Even though that was my initial response I quickly discarded it. If anything, he was plagued by his inability to not try to survive. In time, I came to think it was a hunger for any death not his own as he has been forced to see every life in direct, intimate competition with his. I would have liked to quickly discard such an attitude for anyone, much less a young teen, but I never could. War is a fucking nightmare.

Lastly, I was fascinated by Jim being immediately referred to as Jim in the text though his family and friends call him Jamie. It's not until he meets Basie, a sometime ally of Jim's despite Jim's enduring distrust, that he is christened Jim. In less subtle hands the switch from Jamie to Jim might have been used to represent loss of innocence, etc but readers are introduced not to Jamie but to Jim. It's that peculiar mix of cruelty and vulnerability that stretches from beginning to end. It's quite possibly a suggestion that he already had the qualities needed to take him through the war.

He resented Jim for revealing an obvious truth about the war, that people were only too able to adapt to it.

Now about that movie... Don't forget to check out Michael's post.



rating: 5 of 5 stars




Click here for an index of the joint post series

Reading Roundup

My oven broke. :(
I discovered this in the middle of prepping my favorite egg/pastry thing. :(

Books are my friends again. :)
(Plus wine is a good alternative to cooking - ha!)


currently reading
The Greatest Traitor by Ian Mortimer
Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (audio, not very committed to listening, will probably take months to get through this at the rate I'm going; especially as a little birdie told me "The Boulton" is recording again:)

recommended
Mutuwhenua by Patricia Grace
The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer
--had one slight nit pick: I wish there had been more about non-French foreigners living in England otherwise very fun way to learn some history (also, I have no idea how I ended up reading so much 14th Century English history stuff at once but there it is)
Kraken by China Mievelle
--too delightfully weird not to recommend

recommended with reservations
The White Queen by Philipa Gregory
The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins (see here, here and here for details)
The Great Gatsby narrated by Jake Gyllenhaal 
Isabella by Alison Weir (extreme reservations, see here)
Misery by Stephen King

not recommended
The Red Queen by Philipa Gregory
Lives We Leave Behind by Maxine Alterio
The Birth House by Ami McKay
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

--interestingly these are all historical fiction. the thing is, there is so much good his. fic. out there that the subpar stuff just can't hold my attention. I should mention that The Name of the Rose has a lot of technical excellence but too little of the actually-want-to-read-it quality.

DNF
Red Rabbit by Tom Clancy
The Road from Midnight by Wendyl Nissen



What have you been reading lately?

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Title: Mockingjay
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic (2010)


I'm pretty sure I'm continuing with these reviews because I am IN LOVE with the covers. Cannot rave enough about how much I love these simple, elegant covers.

Anyway, finished up this trilogy and I remain conflicted. There is so much I like about the trilogy and so much that just irks me no end because it could have been better. This could have been an out of the park kind of story but because of a few things that, to me, seemed like laziness the trilogy ends up being a stunning hook with meh execution. Thankfully, this third installment didn't have any new issues, just more of the same (though not, thank goodness, more of the same in terms of plot. two was a rerun of one but this is definitely a step forward in the action).

I still think the world building is the biggest fault so why don't I pick on that some more? Something I forgot in the first book is that if you're living close to starvation and then you gorge yourself with food, you will be sick. The throwaway line on the train of taking it easy on the food for one day is not enough. And even if you are the kind of person who can bounce back in one day from a lifetime of near starvation, the richness of the food described would be so far beyond what your body could handle without acclimation that you'd still be getting sick.

Also, I have to ask again: why does District 12 exist? Hover crafts and insta-parachutes we have but technology for cheap, automatic coal mining labor we do not? I ask this again because of what happened at the end of book two. SPOILER, highlight if interested: District 12 gets destroyed. As in, IT'S FLATTENED and the people all die or leave. So no one is mining coal in Panem any longer??? Hunh???? You get some announcements of the shortages in the capital but coal is used for a ton of shit, most famously POWER! Are they fully nuclear power? How do they manage this when it turns out District 13 was the center of their nuclear technology and it hasn't been supplying the capital for 75 years? World building matters, people!!!!

Book three gives a pretty good estimate of the total amount of people living in District 12. Turns out it's even higher than I guessed making the idea of only two people hunting in the woods even more ridiculous.

Came by this line: "Patches of my former self gleam white and pale." Doesn't she have olive skin? The line is specifically about skin and that really threw me for a loop. All that business about the distinct looks of the people in District 12 based on their class and then this discrepancy? It's little things like this that time and time again bumped me right out of a narrative I would have preferred to be immersed in.

And maybe that's why I'm so annoyed. There was so much I liked that I wanted to be totally in the moment. I didn't want these things cropping up again and again to ruin a story I was enjoying. With that in mind, I'm going to link to M.'s goodreads review because I think she does a great job of pointing out the best stuff about this final installment. I did want to expand on this point: "the author continues to portray female characters in strong and active ways." To that I would add "when they show up!!!!" I was really excited to see more women in book two (with the potential for even more in book three) but that was not continued into the finale. I'm not talking about the background and peripheral characters (they are nicely peopled with males and females). I'm talking about the characters that really make a difference in Katniss' life. If you list all the characters most important to her and most important for the progression of the plot they are almost all male. The only females I can come up with are her sister and Coin. That's a disappointment.

To sum up: proceed with caution. :)


rating: 3 of 5 stars

For Cat Lovers

Really, there is so much that entertained me in this article but the real question is: do you think your cat has what it takes?

Mutuwhenua by Patricia Grace

Title: Mutuwhenua: The Moon Sleeps
Author: Patricia Grace
Publisher: Penguin (1978)
-not sure if Penguin was the original publisher


From the publisher:"This is the story of Ripeka, who leaves her extended family and its traditional lifestyle to marry Graeme, a Pakeha schoolteacher. In the strange world of the city, Ripeka discovers that she cannot make the break with her whanau and that the old ways are too strong. Patricia Grace s first novel is a powerful, moving story of contrasts – between light and darkness, old and new, young and old, and Maori and Pakeha."


I don't have much of a coherent set of thoughts to share on this one. I just really loved it so want to recommend it. This isn't my first Patricia Grace novel but it's certainly my favorite so far in terms of style and structure. I was so drawn in by the writing. It's absolutely gorgeous. You can roll the words and phrases around in your mind and just delight in them.

Ripeka/Linda is a very sheltered young woman who dreams of a life bigger than the one she has (a restlessness almost anyone can relate to). But she is also a young Maori woman struggling to reconcile her identity/heritage, as passed to her from her elders, with her daily experiences and desires. Grace's portrait of Ripeka's journey is immediately accessible and compelling.

I'm still conflicted on the ending though. And by "still" I mean I can't stop thinking about it or determine how I feel about it (that's feeling on a personal level and on a character level). Any details would be huge spoilers but I have hopes of finding another reader of this title for discussion. And you have to appreciate a book that can get in your head like that and not let you go.


On another note: I follow and participate in discussions about representation and equality in media (especially books cuz, you know, bookworm!!!!) and so was really struck by Ripeka's thoughts after an interaction with her boss and the books she reads (another bookworm! yay!).

...And [I] thought of the books I’d read. In the books I’d read there was only one thing that ever happened to us girls. We didn’t become famous or have interesting or extraordinary lives of our own, or even uninteresting and ordinary lives. We either got ourselves into what is known as ‘trouble’ or we lay about giving some bloke hot sex. And that was all. Nothing else. Except sometimes we did ridiculous things in Pakeha kitchens, like ringing the fire-alarm instead of the dinner-gong because we didn’t know the difference.

  And sometimes we were given the romantic treatment. Soft brown eyes, soft mellow voice – like soft in the eyes, soft in the voice, soft in the head. No one ever had speckled eyes like me or a voice that squeaked now and again and sometimes lost itself altogether. Or sang flat, bathed once a day, and wouldn’t touch beer. Mr Neilson often made me think of the books I’d read.

rating: 4 of 5 stars

I expect better!

I recently read The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat (pub. 1984) and was pretty astonished at the language used by a scientist and non-fiction writer regarding individuals with severe mental impairments. (Lucky for me, a friend read it at just about the same time so we were able to vent in a flurry of email exchanges.) Initially, I was only annoyed at the lack of scientific detail. I chalked that up to it being pubbed in the 80s, the scientific literacy of laypersons has increased enormously since then so I can't exactly blame an author/publisher for being aware of the contemporary landscape. But that offensive (and inaccurate!) language was just inexcusable. So, ok, pass on that author and moving on...

And, bam! It happens again!

I just finished Isabella (pub. 2005) and the author was at pains to explain some of the differences between current and 14th Century English (and Welsh, Scottish, French:) cultural norms. She, like many historians, believes that Edward II was gay or bisexual. There's some explanation about how that wasn't an accepted lifestyle at the time (if only it was 100% accepted now! dare to dream!) and its relevance to the events of the book. She later says that he was capable of (or not revolted by?? can't find exact sentence) "normal sex" since he had not only 4 children with his wife but at least 1 extramarital child. Um, "normal" sex? Looks like maybe you just gave yourself away on that one.

In another instance she describes Isabella as "highly sexed." Hunhhh????? Isabella is thought to have been a woman interested in sex (omg, alert the presses) and so she's "highly" sexed? WTF???? By the author's interpretation, Edward II had two long-term extramarital lovers, a wife with whom he had children (and so, presumably, sex), and numerous (brief) liaisons with lovers before he was married and some after. Where is his description as "highly sexed?" Looks like maybe you just gave yourself away on that one.

And there's this: "Reginald, a widower, was dark of colouring and character." Some of the main players had their physical descriptions relayed but not over many and certainly not such a minor dude as this one (he was featured in ~4 paragraphs) but, dang, it's fun to lump "dark" coloring in with character because it just sounds great and, hell, there isn't a significant portion of the population that still suffers from stereotypes of "dark" being bad! Looks like maybe you just gave yourself away on that one.


So, yeah, it appears that 21st Century historians are as likely as 14th Century historians to say that gay/bisexual individuals have "abnormal" sex, women who like sex are unusual*** and to be described differently than other women (and men, natch, who are clearly always up for it), and "dark" characters are bad and match the "dark" color nicely. Ugh! Ugh, ugh, ugh!!!! There goes another author.

The shame about all this is (I mean, other than the obvious), these academics/scientists write on some really interesting topics. I want to know these things. I want to learn these things. However, I am past the point of being willing to sift through offensive garbage to get to the good stuff. It's unacceptable anytime but certainly in works of academic rigor.


Come on, people, I expect better!

***ETA: or more likely in the 21st Century??? Just read a very edifying passage in The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England (thanks for that, Beth!) and it seems the flack that Isabella was catching for her behavior was more because she was a queen rather than because she was a woman. (Though they weren't exactly shy with the "woman is the root of all evil" stuff, be she a queen or no.)

Science is Cool!

Sadly, I did not see one of these when I was in Australia last week. I did see one of these.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Title: Catching Fire
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic (2009) 

Technically, this isn't going to be much of a book review. I thought Catching Fire was The Hunger Games again so just check out my review of that. Once it became apparent that the second book was pretty much a plot rerun, I expected to end up not finishing it. Turned out, I kept going and am glad I did. Yeah, it's a rerun, but it's an improvement so it wasn't so bad. Ok, Peeta's backstory still sucks but Katniss is just as AwesomeSauce as ever, has a way better ending and she has more female allies. Yay!

Sadly, the world building is still awkward so that's what this post is about. My nitpicks, in list form:

1. District 12 is constantly described as a low population district with very high starvation rates. To not run out of people, they are going to have to find food. And apparently there are woods with game that can be accessed. Desperate, starving people are going to attempt to scavenge no matter how scary those woods might be. It never felt realistic that only Katniss and Gale would be doing this.

2. Katniss' constant conflation of physical affection with marriage just does not track in a place this desperate. People are starving, dying in the mines, can't afford medical care, etc and marriage as the answer to being attracted to someone just does not seem relevant. Now, if Katniss is not interested in pursuing an intimate relationship with anyone then more power to her, but the immediate jump to 'don't want to get married so can't be intimate' doesn't work. She has a lot more reasonable and topical reasons to not be interested in relationships. Stick to those.

3. How does this place maintain any kind of phenotypically distinct merchant class? Again, small population with practically no money. The merchant class is going to be tiny. Even if you get to marry first cousins its phenotype is not going to last long.

4. The capital has hovercrafts and genetic engineering for large mammals and they can't find a better way to mine coal than with humans? Why does District 12 even exist?

5. Where did Katniss get those excellent boots (pre-Games)? (Hey, I described these at nitpicks.:) How would she have found anything valuable enough to trade for those? Or did she make them herself? It's just weird to relate all these reasons why a family is one bad week's hunting away from starvation and then describe supple, leather boots.


Well, these are all I can think of from memory. I have had to return the books so I can't look up some more of the issues but, oh well. I have moaned enough. Oh, wait. Guess not! My biggest annoyance with these books is Collins' decision to have both Gale and Peeta be in love with Katniss. That entire subplot feels so forced. I just try to ignore it.

Misery by Stephen King

Title: Misery

Author: Stephen King
Publisher:  Viking (1987)

As Michael and the rest of the northern hemisphere folk enjoy the improving weather, we down here at the end of the globe are building more fires and sadly saying goodbye to daylight after work. At least I have mlb.tv to get me through the long winter nights. And, books! Yay, books! I think I am slowly reading my way out of the slump. Not necessarily with this one, but still, things are improving. I forgot to ask Michael if he was surprised I suggested a Stephen King title for our series, I'm not usually King's biggest fan.

 
For those that are new to our monthly series, this is when Michael reviews a film adapted from a book which gets a review here.

Click here for Michael's film review of Misery

at It Rains... You Get Wet

Because I like books (and I don't live under a rock) I'm pretty familiar with Stephen King's backlist. I've dipped into it several times on the strength of his popularity but I'm almost never left a satisfied reader. So I moved on to other authors and left King to his many, many (many, many) fans. But then Misery came up in some random conversation between Dr M and I and the premise sounded awesome. Crazy successful author gets 'napped by his "number one fan" and coerced to bring her favorite character back to life. I was hooked. I had Expectations!! I won't say they were great but they were certainly specific. It took at least half the total pages found in the book for me to lower adjust my expectations.

So, yeah, crazy successful author gets kidnapped by his number one fan and she forces him to perform the ultimate takesy backsy and bring her favorite character back to life. Said author was tired of his Cash Cow protagonist and so wrapped up the series with her death. Number One Fan did not care for this development.

Even with my limited experience I feel safe describing this as typical Stephen King fare. Well-written, nicely plotted, perceptive, funny at moments, horrifying at even more, etc. And, of course, interspersed with those lovely turns of phrase a person just can't get out of her mind.

...the survival instinct, he was discovering, might be only instinct in itself, but it created some really amazing shortcuts to empathy.

And his unfailing ability to bring the physical to perfect life with words.

The quick and uncalculated movement awoke his pain from its doze. It snarled dully in what remained of his shins and in the bunched salt-dome that had replaced his left knee. It turned over, needling him from where it lay imprisoned in its cave of bones, and then fell lightly asleep again.

I think what it comes down to is that I am almost always impressed with his ability as a writer but I have very little interest in his stories. I did a little poking around the old intertubes for some extra info on this title and I learned that it is one of King's personal favorites. Also, that he wrote it out of frustration with his fan base for pissing and moaning when he went trotting outside the horror genre, and that Number One Fan represented his own struggle with addiction. There I am thinking I'm going to read an over-the-top look at how an author can feel enslaved by his work and, by extension his fans, but instead it's just a straight up horror show of torture and psychological abuse. There's nothing really wrong with that, if it's what you want to read, but it's not for me. Plus, there were those Expectations. But even when my expectations were realigned I felt like I was enjoying it more for the behind the scenes writing stuff than for the actual story.

My disinclination aside, I do have some legitimate gripes. If you're pissed at your horror fans, have the guts to express it! Don't snag romance fans under your trailer hitch and then drag them through the slimy gutter of your acute contempt for readers. It makes you look like a raging asshole. Also, it's a little tacky making a controlling woman a stand-in for your addiction (maybe I mean derivative) but it's even worse when you decide her physique is what makes her unfeminine and worthy of even more, if it's possible, contempt. There are a lot of reasons to dislike this woman (she is an inhuman monster after all) but her physique seems like the least of our author's problems.

She did not want to hear about his concordance and indices because to her Misery and the characters surrounding her were perfectly real.

One of my favorite bits of the book was the author's underestimation of Number One Fan's grasp of the obligations of the story-teller to their audience. But I won't ruin it. You're just going to have to read it to find out about the weekly serials and fairness.



Now about that movie... Don't forget to check out Michael's post.



rating: 3 of 5 stars




Click here for an index of the joint post series

A Must Read

I was hunting around for the character list* from The Luminaries, and came by this fantastic article by Eleanor Catton.

I love this type of piece. It's not one you read and then go "no, no, no that's all wrong" or "yes, that's exactly what I think" but one where you think "there are so many interesting observations here, I want to have more discussion right now."

Dr M and I talk about this all the time:

The machine of consumerism is designed to encourage us all to believe that our preferences are significant and self-revealing; that a taste for Coke over Pepsi, or for KFC over McDonald’s, means something about us; that our tastes comprise, in sum, a kind of aggregate expression of our unique selfhood.

And this observation speaks directly to my inner reading self:

At its best, literature is pure encounter: it resists consumption because it cannot be used up and it cannot expire. The bonds that are formed between readers and writers, between readers and characters, and between readers and ideas, are meaningful in a way that the bonds formed between consumers and products can never be

But don't take my word for it. Go read it! It's a readers must read.


*why could I not just reference the book's list, you ask? well, I got the audiobook, all 29+ hours of it.

A Good Point

ETA2: Another good point.

ETA: A more in depth look at the concept mentioned in the video below.

Check out this video, and a browse around the other posts is certainly worth your time.

hat tip: GL

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Title: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic (2008)

You just don't hear enough about The Hunger Games... oh wait, that must be another title. In fact, you hear so much I don't even think a synopsis is needed.

Despite this book getting on my TBR list before it was even published, I've only just this weekend got around to reading it. These things happen. One thing for sure, it's a very weird experience to read a book you have heard and know so much about. I mean, yeah, I saw the movie but it's not just that. I've read plenty of books after seeing their film adaptations but, in cases such as these, the sheer volume of coverage is enormous and it's hard to just react to what you're reading rather than to its success and (what feels like) its 100% cultural penetrance.* For me, it took about half the book to have shed the movie, etc and really create my own experience. And here's a bit of what that experience was like.

(*turns out this is a specific genetics term. i had no idea. i was confused by it getting flagged as misspelled as I knew it wasn't but now i should probably just be embarrassed that i have used it multiple times in a non-science setting. so my pop culture definition would be as follows: if you've heard of it, you've consumed it.)


The Good -
 Katniss: She's just fucking awesome. I loved her. What a great character. I had so much fun getting to know her and hanging out with her. You know, excepting those times she had to kill other children (though the book does an excellent job of making sure the characters you're supposed to like are pretty much forced into killing thus making it easy to continue liking them).
 Resource inequity: At times, reading, I'd want to reject the ridiculous resource inequity but you just really can't. It's real and even more depressing in real life than it is in fiction.
 Psychological isolation: This is one of those stories where first person narration is absolutely perfect for feeling the confusion and isolation of the main character. There are a few times when her naivete felt overdone (see below) but, on the whole, I feel like a reader would not get much more than her experience which really helps with the isolation.

The Bad -
 World building: I thought about this a lot as I couldn't at first quite pin down what it was that wasn't working with the world. The premise/plot/action can be really overwhelming (in a good way) but the world is the base of it all so it's kind of important. And it always felt off. This is what I finally came up with. Rather than feeling like a full, multi-dimensional world with any number of stories that could have been told it felt like the author wanted to tell this story and used world bits as add-ons. There were several times this distracted me from the story but never so much in that there were "thousands of slips in the bowl" and most of these people were starving but only two of them thought to hunt in the woods?
 Peeta's backstory: While I enjoyed Katniss not knowing his agenda the whole "loved you since forever, keeping track of you from afar" needs to go the way of the dinosaur. It's creepy, people! And this was also the overdone thing that I mentioned above. I get that Katniss has no idea what's going on with him but I felt it was too easy for readers to figure it out.
 Katniss' end act: I've just read an entire book with this amazing young woman who has gone through what is arguably the most traumatic experience in her world and I have to end it with her wearing sparkly dresses and wilting against Peeta? Now, I like pretty dresses and Peeta (which was a delightful surprise because I thought his character in the movie was terrible) but this was not an end act that could bring me any satisfaction. I got the danger they were in, I saw what the author wanted me to, but I would have liked her to have come up with some better way to do this.
 Lack of female role models/allies: This one seems self-explanatory so I doubt I need to go into it but let's count them. Her father, Haymitch, Cinna, Gale, Peeta equals 5 males. Um, er, Rue? Were they teamed up long enough that I can count her?


The Pretty -
I love the cover! I can't decide if I'm going to continue reading the trilogy but I just might so I can have more pretty books in the house.


rating: 3 of 5 stars

Why do anything? It's all on the internet!

After watching a bevy of movies with old dudes romantically linked with women who could conceivably (even if unlikely) have been their children, I was thinking I'd go over a few careers and compare ages at time of filming between the stars. Turns out I don't need to, it's already been done. I love the internet.

Leading Men Age, But Their Love Interests Don't


Some of these are way worse than others. The one that really squicked me out was the pair in which the guy is older than my dad and the gal is younger than me!

More Love of the Horse