Word of the day :
malison
: curse, malediction
Happy weekend, everyone! Julia's got a lot of work to do this weekend... Gabriel and I? Not so much! Gabriel and I will play, watch a good slate of college/NFL games, I'll get more and more into J.K. Rowling's
A Casual Vacancy...
In case you haven't gotten an opportunity to check out my other blog,
http://mybookylife.blogspot.com/, here are some brief capsule reviews of books that I've read in October:
The Road to Wellville (1993) - T.C. Boyle's rollicking, at times Dickensian, well-researched satire at the early days of the health food industry and Battle Creek, Michigan. A lot of imagination and fun, with a great central character: the egotistical, hard-driving John Harvey Kellogg. I learned a lot, too.
(****) (out of 5)
Wild Child (2010) - T.C. Boyle's newest collection of short stories and one of the best, most fertile compilations I've ever read. Each story here - the great title story, "Balto," "La Conchita" - stands on its own as a mysterious, teeming, haunting entity.
(*****)
Lord of the Flies (1954) - A beautiful, terrifying novel that still holds up. This was the first time I had read it, and I was glad I finally did. Both a boys' adventure story and an allegory, it was suspenseful and troubling. By now, the main characters - Ralph, Piggy, Jack - are almost archetypes.
(****)
Madame Bovary (1850) - I'm also glad I finally read this one. One of the greatest novels of all time, with a main character who provokes a myriad of responses, from outrage to pity. It's a strongly realist novel - Flaubert describes and describes - but there's so much emotional accessibility here that it's almost impossible not to get into it and fly through it.
(****)
Breed (2012) - Chase Novak, a pseudonym for Scott Spenver, makes his debut outing with this grisly, lightly satirical, creative horror tale about a wealthy but infertile Manhattan who undergo a painful fertility treatment (in Slovenia!). Ten years later, and with two creeped-out kids, they're beginning to change... into what? Fast-paced, with well-maintained tension. Good ending too.
(****)
The Red Badge of Courage (1885) - Stephen Crane's landmark novel was an influential one, but, man, is it boring! Bor-ing! It's short but seemingly endless.
(**)
The Distant Hours (2010) - Kate Morton's third novel is, like her other books, a Gothic novel that weaves in and out of the past. Set against the backdrop of WWII, it's reminiscent of Daphne DuMaurier and Shirley Jackson's
We Have Always Lived in the Castle, but the story - about a young girl evacuated during wartime to an English countryside castle, lorded over by a reclusive author and his odd daughters - stands on its own pretty well, though I thought it got less interesting as it went on. Memorable images though.
(***1/2)
The Human Fly and Other Stories (2005) - A collection of previously published short stories by T.C. Boyle - except for one, "Almost Killing an Elephant." It's an ideal intro to Boyle's work, and while I wasn't as intrigued and drawn into every story, there are some startling, immaculate ones here, including "The Love of My Life."
(****)
When the Killing's Done (2010) - A terrific, complex novel that makes you think. It's about the various people entangled in environmental issues - re-introducing and eliminating species, etc. - regarding California's Northern Channel Islands. With compelling historical footnotes and intriguingly-motivated characters awash in gray, it's compulsive reading.
(****1/2)
Pick Up (1955) - I'm new to Charles Willeford, but I'll come out and say it: this is the most powerful book of existentialism I've read in a long time, maybe ever. It's about two lost alcoholic souls wandering the streets of 1950s San Francisco, both of them suicidal. A murder occurs, and the man, a one-time promising talent at the Art Institute of Chicago, is in prison for it. The great joke and irony of the book is that the man confesses his guilt and wants to die, but the justice system does everything it can to get him off and back on the streets. Devastating ending. Strong, clear writing, not the bleak turn-off that it sounds like.
(*****)
Night Rounds (1999) - Helene Tursten is a popular Swedish mystery writer, and this novel, written thirteen years ago but published this year in the States, is one of her Detective Irene Huss novels. It's a solid mystery, concerning the murders of nurses at a declining hospital, but I thought the killer was very easy to guess. I'd read another entry in the series, though.
(***)
Last to Die (2012) - My favorite Tess Gerritsen book yet, with Rizzoli and Isles trying to protect some very special kids at a woodsy reclusive Maine boarding school. Strong plotting, and the unusual setting shakes matters up. Tense right through the end.
(****)
*
NFL picks for the weekend? Well, I already whiffed on Tampa Bay, but I'm determined to have a good week; though how I can top last week's near-flawless 12-1 forecast. There are a lot of games this week that are tough to predict.
Green Bay over Jacksonville (well, maybe except this one)
Chicago over Carolina
San Diego over Cleveland
Detroit over Seattle
Tennessee over Indianapolis
New England over St. Louis
Miami over NY Jets (boy, I'm not sure...)
Philadelphia over Atlanta (bye-bye, undefeated teams)
Washington over Pittsburgh (I'm playing with fire with this one too)
Oakland over Kansas City (I would go with KC, but then I remembered that Brady Quinn was starting for them - yikes!)
Dallas over NY Giants
Denver over New Orleans (though my gut is saying Saints)
San Francisco over Arizona (how quickly Arizona will have fallen to an also-ran 4-4)
Last Week's Record: 12-1
Season Record: 65-39
*
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Dylan Thomas
Happy birthday, Mr. Thomas
*
A performance today, one of my 500 Greatest of All Time:
Annette Bening
as Nic in The Kids Are All Right (2010)
Bening does everything right in the wonderful family comedy by Lisa Cholodenko. She manages to make her character funny and precise, warm and tough, befuddled and open-minded, protective and reactive, fierce and forgiving. In other words, there's not a moment she doesn't come across as completely human. Bening is an actress who can pretty much do anything, play anything - at times she might come across as too theatrical in some films, but, here, she's devastatingly real and without remove. She has some great scenes too: whether telling off Mark Ruffalo by informing him what she would rather have than his observations, or letting down her guard to Joni Mitchell's "Blue," only to discover her betrayal moments later.
Images:
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