FILMS
LOGAN (2016) D- James Mangold.
In the near future, Logan, aka Wolverine, aka Hugh Jackman has found himself in the unlikely and unwanted role of Professor Xavier's (Patrick Stewart) carer. The latter's enormous mind is failing, and when he has a funny turn he starts triggering earthquakes in the vicinity. Then an unusual girl turns up at their bolthole requesting sanctuary from a giovernment who would use her as some sort of psychic weapon.
When I heard Stewart on Graham Norton gushing about how extraordinarily good this film was I thought it was just another bit of Hollywood hyperbole. I was wrong. Logan is terrific- perhaps the best of all the X Men franchise, funny, thoughtful, beautifully acted and really powerful in its impact. I don't think anyone has really explored before the idea of the superhero as an aging, vulnerable being, facing old age and death, albeit with great courage. The portrayal of the human, vulnerable aside of those which we previously thought of as invulnerable is superbly done. If you see only one superhero film this year, make it this one- and see it even if superhero movies aren't your thing.
ZOOTROPOLIS (aka ZOOTOPIA) (2016) D- Byron Howard and Rich Moore (Disney)
OK. This wabbit wants to be a cop, hopefully take down the cheeky-chappie fox who's cocking a snook at society. He achieves his dream, then forges an unlikely alliance with the fox to expose the evil mayor who is poisoning usually peaceful creatures to render them vicious "wild animals" so she can crack down generally on personal freedoms (think President Erdowan).
In other words, the latest, and to be fair, quite creditable offering from the Disney studios, now perhaps the world's most powerful media giant.
Some say Disney hasn't done anything of real quality since the "Big Five" of the 30s and 40s: Snow White, Fantasia, Bambi, Pinocchio and Dumbo. Others would say that's a bit uncharitable, even me. Although I have long been suspicious of the man behind this empire, a man who hated unions, didn't respect women, never employed blacks or Jews and who peddled an idea of a perfect American Society that had little to do with real life, his studios have created quite a number of outstanding movies. In fact I offer this latterday "Big Five"- my entirely personal choice of notable offereings since then: One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Mary Poppins, Aladdin, Wall E and Frozen. Where's Beaurty and the Beast, or The Lion King, for that matter? Hey, I said it was a personal list. You make your own if you want to.
Whether you approve of Disney's safe, non-threatening (certainly to the establishment) world view, or, like me, you have deep misgivings about it, you have to say they keep on putting out class products- and Zootopia is a worthy successor to these.
AQUARIUS (2016) D- Kheber Mendonza.
A woman (the estimable Sonia Braga) lives in an apartment on the seafront in Recife, Brazil. She had cancer a few years back, but she's a survivor, and she's a holdout too. She refuses to sell her apartment to the developers who have bought all the others units in her block, and would build a bigger tower block in its place. In order to "persuade" her to sell, they hold noisy orgies next door and try various other dirty tricks. But the lady did not survive this long without the most formidable strength of will.
What emerges is an extraordinary portrait of strength and perseverance in the face of corruption. Braga is splendid as the woman who will not be moved in this brilliantly observed minor masterpiece from Brazil. Highly recommended.
GET OUT (2017) D- Jordan Peele.
A preppie girl takes her black boyf home to meet the parents and things seem to go OK for a while. Then Mum, a skilled hypnotherapist, offers to cure our guy of his nicotine addiction. To tell what happens next would be an unwarranted spoiler, and I don't wish to do that in what turns out to be one of the scariest movies I've seen in a long time. Suffice it to say that it starts out like Guess who's Cominbg to Dinner but pretty soon turns into something more akin to Rosemary's Baby.
You probably won't have heard of Jordan Peele. Don't worry, neither has anyone else, but that's about to change. Costing less than $5 million to make, this film has netted over $140 million, putting it in the same category as, in an earlier era, Never on a Sunday, or even the granddaddy of all made-on-a-shoestring-but-made-a-fortune movies: The Blair Witch Project.
Why is it called Get Out? Well, you know that scene in Psycho, when Arbogast is going up those stairs and you want to scream "Don't go up there!"? Same thing here.
I have a feeling we'll be hearing more of Mr Peele, and I for one will be looking out for his name on the director's credit.
Sunday, 30 April 2017
April 2017 book and film review
BOOKS
COP KILLER, by Maj Sjowell and Per Walloo.
A divorcee goes missing in Skania, southern Sweden, then is found strangled and half buried in a muddy pond. Now promoted to commander of the National Murder Squad, Martin Beck is called in from Stockholm with his assistant and old friend, Lennart Kollberg. Evidence appears to point to a recently released murderer who lives nearby, and his superiors would love him to wrap the case up in a neat little bundle, but Beck isn't convinced the man is responsible. The investigation continues, with agonizing slowness. But Martin Beck is never a man to hurry...
I began reading the ten-book series of Martin Beck stories in 2008, and I've been taking one a year away on holiday ever since. Now I'm on number 9, and I congratulate myaself on my restraint in not devouring them more quickly.
Sjowell and Wahloo's books have been immensely influential since they came out in the 60s and 70s, with Jo Nesbo, Henning Mankel and innumerable other crime writers around the world acknowledging their debt to their calm, if sometimes horrific, procedural-based crime thrillers. Their brand of world-weary socialism is not quite as fashionable as it was, but more's the pity for that. The co-writers deconstruct the brave new world of modern Swedish society and its militarised, centralised and inefficient police force with devastating insight and humour. Terrific.
THE PAST, by Tessa Hadley.
A middle-class family from the Smoke descends on their holiday cottage in the West Country for three weeks of bucolic life. But with such a potentially explosive mix of disparate personalities living in each other's pockets for so long, something has to happen. And it does...
Tessa Hadley is widely respected both here and in America, where she regularly contributes to the prestigious New Yorker magazine. And that she can write there is no doubt. This is certainly superior to, say, Up Close, by Shelagh Weeks (see last month's review), even though it covers quite similar territory, but oh dear, this is not what I call great writing. Intelligent members of the chattering class winding themselves up a treat over the minutiae of their individual brands of existential angst is not what I really look for in a book these days, if it ever was.
I have said in the past I tend to go after the greats of an earlier age, the dead novelists society, you might say, the French, the Ruskies, that sort of thing, and I am not about to apologize for that. I want real class in my writing, and there are very few writers alive today who can do it: Will Self, perhaps, or Andres Neumann. Other than them, you're hard put to find anything current that will stand comparison with Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, or EM Forster. And until you've explored those geniuses and others in some detail, you can afford to leave Tessa, God bless her, on the shelf.
FROM PUSHKIN TO BUIDA: AN ANTHOLOGY OF RUSSIAN SHORT STORIES, edited by Robert Chandler.
Being what it says on the label: a collection of the greatest short stories to come out of Russia in the last 200 years, collected by Robert Chandler, who has himself provided a fresh translation for many of them. From The Queen of Spades, perhaps one of the most famous short stories in any language, to more modern offerings by Buida and Solzhenitsyn, you can dip in and out wherever you please, which is perhaps the editor's intent. With all due respect to la Hadley, this is what I call writing.
Please see next blog for movies of the month.
COP KILLER, by Maj Sjowell and Per Walloo.
A divorcee goes missing in Skania, southern Sweden, then is found strangled and half buried in a muddy pond. Now promoted to commander of the National Murder Squad, Martin Beck is called in from Stockholm with his assistant and old friend, Lennart Kollberg. Evidence appears to point to a recently released murderer who lives nearby, and his superiors would love him to wrap the case up in a neat little bundle, but Beck isn't convinced the man is responsible. The investigation continues, with agonizing slowness. But Martin Beck is never a man to hurry...
I began reading the ten-book series of Martin Beck stories in 2008, and I've been taking one a year away on holiday ever since. Now I'm on number 9, and I congratulate myaself on my restraint in not devouring them more quickly.
Sjowell and Wahloo's books have been immensely influential since they came out in the 60s and 70s, with Jo Nesbo, Henning Mankel and innumerable other crime writers around the world acknowledging their debt to their calm, if sometimes horrific, procedural-based crime thrillers. Their brand of world-weary socialism is not quite as fashionable as it was, but more's the pity for that. The co-writers deconstruct the brave new world of modern Swedish society and its militarised, centralised and inefficient police force with devastating insight and humour. Terrific.
THE PAST, by Tessa Hadley.
A middle-class family from the Smoke descends on their holiday cottage in the West Country for three weeks of bucolic life. But with such a potentially explosive mix of disparate personalities living in each other's pockets for so long, something has to happen. And it does...
Tessa Hadley is widely respected both here and in America, where she regularly contributes to the prestigious New Yorker magazine. And that she can write there is no doubt. This is certainly superior to, say, Up Close, by Shelagh Weeks (see last month's review), even though it covers quite similar territory, but oh dear, this is not what I call great writing. Intelligent members of the chattering class winding themselves up a treat over the minutiae of their individual brands of existential angst is not what I really look for in a book these days, if it ever was.
I have said in the past I tend to go after the greats of an earlier age, the dead novelists society, you might say, the French, the Ruskies, that sort of thing, and I am not about to apologize for that. I want real class in my writing, and there are very few writers alive today who can do it: Will Self, perhaps, or Andres Neumann. Other than them, you're hard put to find anything current that will stand comparison with Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, or EM Forster. And until you've explored those geniuses and others in some detail, you can afford to leave Tessa, God bless her, on the shelf.
FROM PUSHKIN TO BUIDA: AN ANTHOLOGY OF RUSSIAN SHORT STORIES, edited by Robert Chandler.
Being what it says on the label: a collection of the greatest short stories to come out of Russia in the last 200 years, collected by Robert Chandler, who has himself provided a fresh translation for many of them. From The Queen of Spades, perhaps one of the most famous short stories in any language, to more modern offerings by Buida and Solzhenitsyn, you can dip in and out wherever you please, which is perhaps the editor's intent. With all due respect to la Hadley, this is what I call writing.
Please see next blog for movies of the month.
Sunday, 23 April 2017
Trump: now it begins
Yesterday President Trump tweeted the following:
"Economic growth is the best way to protect the environment..."
These are not just empty words. In support of this thesis, he has authorized the building of an enormous oil pipeline in Alaska, which has been successfully stymied by environmentalists for the last 8 years. He plans to revive the ailing coal industry in the US by re-opening scores of uneconomic coal mines. And to make sure any opposition to his plans withers on the vine, his appointee as boss of the EPA has been shutting down office after office within the organization and laying staff off. Sure, we all want clean water and clean air, says Trump, and the best way of securing it, apparently, is to start using coal again big time, and to remove all the environmental protection the US has enjoyed in the past.
Saying economic growth is good for the environment is like saying the best way to protect elephants and rhinos is to keep a few in zoos and kill all the rest. Or that Brexit is the best way to ensure the unity of Europe. I could keep going, but I think you get the point. Trump could do more damage to the environment in 4 years that was done in the 200 years preceding it, and there seem to be few voices crying out in protest. Or if there are, they're shouted down as peddling fake news. Poor America. You're in deep shit right now, and it's going to get worse.
"Economic growth is the best way to protect the environment..."
These are not just empty words. In support of this thesis, he has authorized the building of an enormous oil pipeline in Alaska, which has been successfully stymied by environmentalists for the last 8 years. He plans to revive the ailing coal industry in the US by re-opening scores of uneconomic coal mines. And to make sure any opposition to his plans withers on the vine, his appointee as boss of the EPA has been shutting down office after office within the organization and laying staff off. Sure, we all want clean water and clean air, says Trump, and the best way of securing it, apparently, is to start using coal again big time, and to remove all the environmental protection the US has enjoyed in the past.
Saying economic growth is good for the environment is like saying the best way to protect elephants and rhinos is to keep a few in zoos and kill all the rest. Or that Brexit is the best way to ensure the unity of Europe. I could keep going, but I think you get the point. Trump could do more damage to the environment in 4 years that was done in the 200 years preceding it, and there seem to be few voices crying out in protest. Or if there are, they're shouted down as peddling fake news. Poor America. You're in deep shit right now, and it's going to get worse.
Wednesday, 5 April 2017
Want to find fake news? Listen to the BBC
Yesterday Ken Livingstone was suspended from the Labour Party for 1 year for his "anti-Semitic" remarks. Seems he wouldn't stop banging on about Hitler being in favour of a Zionist state. Personally I wish he would shut about about this non-sequiteur, because there are much more important, and topical things he could be saying if he believes, as I'm sure he does, that the Palestinian Arabs are being to subjected to injustices very similar to the ones inflicted on the black population of South Africa under Apartheid.
Of course if he did say that, he would still be labeled as an anti-Semite. That's what anyone who criticizes the Israeli state is called. A spokesperson from the Labour Party Friends of Israel group (no vested interests there, then) was on the BBC today saying how it was disgraceful Ken wasn't kicked out the party altogether for his "hate-filled words". I didn't hear anyone being invited on to explain or support Ken's views. Such people are "non-persons" as far as the Beeb, and indeed the vast majority of mainstream media in Britain is concerned. People complaining about the treatment of the Palestinians get very little media coverage- because they are the enemies of Israel, and we are Israel's friend. I'm afraid it's that simple.
The tragedy in Syria and the struggle to dislodge IS from Iraq has pushed the Palestine issue from the back burner, where it has been for years, to somewhere behind the cooker altogether. So. Ken, shut up about Hitler for God's sake and start telling the truth about the situation out there today. Right now.
Of course if he did say that, he would still be labeled as an anti-Semite. That's what anyone who criticizes the Israeli state is called. A spokesperson from the Labour Party Friends of Israel group (no vested interests there, then) was on the BBC today saying how it was disgraceful Ken wasn't kicked out the party altogether for his "hate-filled words". I didn't hear anyone being invited on to explain or support Ken's views. Such people are "non-persons" as far as the Beeb, and indeed the vast majority of mainstream media in Britain is concerned. People complaining about the treatment of the Palestinians get very little media coverage- because they are the enemies of Israel, and we are Israel's friend. I'm afraid it's that simple.
The tragedy in Syria and the struggle to dislodge IS from Iraq has pushed the Palestine issue from the back burner, where it has been for years, to somewhere behind the cooker altogether.
Tuesday, 4 April 2017
March 2017 book and film review, continued
FILMS
MOONLIGHT (2016) D- Barry Jenkins and Mahershala Ali.
A teenage boy hides from his bullies in an abandoned house, where he is discovered by the local drug dealer. Something about the boy touches something in the dealer, who decides to protect him. He takes him home, which is clearly an improvement on the lad's own home, where he gets little help or support from his crack-addicted mother.
The boy grows into a young man, and, with only one real role model available, decides to become a dealer himself. And he starts pumping iron, transforming himself from the class nerd to one serious dude you wouldn't dream of messing with.
Made for less than $2 million, Moonlight achieved the feat of (allowing for inflation) becoming the cheapest film ever to win best picture Oscar. The accolade is well deserved. This is a brilliant film, well written in a way that avoids all the cliches (no one gets their head blown off, for instance), sensitively acted by everyone and thoughtfully directed. There's a lot of hand-held work at the beginning, which is a bit dizzying, but it soon settles down into a moving and powerful movie.
DR MABUSE, SPIELER (1922) D- Fritz Lang. In post-war Germany, a master criminal manipulates everyone around him by a process of trickery, fakery and hypnosis on his quest to become the greatest criminal mind of his age.
The German word spieler has three meanings: "player", "gambler" and "puppeteer", and all three of these meanings are needed to encompass this extraordinary character, brought to life by Fritz Lang in his first feature film. What emerges in this 4 1/12 hour extravaganza is an expressionist masterpiece, beautifully designed by one of Germany greatest auteurs. I hate to make any criticism of a film of this stature, but it is too long, by anything up to an hour. Hang in there though. You won't be disappointed, though you might want to see it in two parts, as we did.
THE TESTAMENT OF DR MABUSE (1933) D- Fritz Lang
A detective is assauted by a gang of thugs and admitted to hospital. There he notices his doctor appears to be preoccupied by another patient, a certain Dr Mabuse (Rudolph Klein Rogge, reprising his role from the silent film of 11 years before). But then inspector Lohmann (Oscar Berger) starts wondering if this mysterious man might be connected to a series of crimes on the outside. He begins to investigate, only to find Dr Mabuse is in fact dead. Or is he?
11 years on from the expressionist classic that made Fritz Lang's name, cinema has entered the era of the talkies. But the strange, claustrophobic atmosphere that characterized the original is as strong as ever in this classic of German film. The plot is convoluted and contains many false trails, but holds your concentration as we go on a marvelous, mad-cap ride into the mind of fiction's cleverest and most evil super-villain.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA (2011) W/D- Nouri Bilge Anadolu'da.
As night falls in the Turkish hinterland, two police cars drive around the remote roads searching for a buried body. Aboard are two handcuffed prisoners who can't remember where they buried it: they were blind drunk at the time. Maybe it was near a water fountain. Why they don't wait for daylight to make their search is unclear. But they don't: they journey from one water tap to the next, finding nothing.
As they drive from one possible burial site to the next, the policemen discuss various subjects: children and how they let you down, the problems of urination as one grows older, whether suicide is a legitimate life decision, even which is the healthiest yoghurt.
Finally day breaks and hopes rise that soon they will find the right fountain and dig up the body in question.
This is a strange and intriguing film. The nighttime segment of the movie is deeply fascinating, but the pace changes as day breaks, as of course it does in real life, but here the effect is to weaken the impact of the piece. Which is such a shame with a film that promised so much. Still worth a watch though.
MOONLIGHT (2016) D- Barry Jenkins and Mahershala Ali.
A teenage boy hides from his bullies in an abandoned house, where he is discovered by the local drug dealer. Something about the boy touches something in the dealer, who decides to protect him. He takes him home, which is clearly an improvement on the lad's own home, where he gets little help or support from his crack-addicted mother.
The boy grows into a young man, and, with only one real role model available, decides to become a dealer himself. And he starts pumping iron, transforming himself from the class nerd to one serious dude you wouldn't dream of messing with.
Made for less than $2 million, Moonlight achieved the feat of (allowing for inflation) becoming the cheapest film ever to win best picture Oscar. The accolade is well deserved. This is a brilliant film, well written in a way that avoids all the cliches (no one gets their head blown off, for instance), sensitively acted by everyone and thoughtfully directed. There's a lot of hand-held work at the beginning, which is a bit dizzying, but it soon settles down into a moving and powerful movie.
DR MABUSE, SPIELER (1922) D- Fritz Lang. In post-war Germany, a master criminal manipulates everyone around him by a process of trickery, fakery and hypnosis on his quest to become the greatest criminal mind of his age.
The German word spieler has three meanings: "player", "gambler" and "puppeteer", and all three of these meanings are needed to encompass this extraordinary character, brought to life by Fritz Lang in his first feature film. What emerges in this 4 1/12 hour extravaganza is an expressionist masterpiece, beautifully designed by one of Germany greatest auteurs. I hate to make any criticism of a film of this stature, but it is too long, by anything up to an hour. Hang in there though. You won't be disappointed, though you might want to see it in two parts, as we did.
THE TESTAMENT OF DR MABUSE (1933) D- Fritz Lang
A detective is assauted by a gang of thugs and admitted to hospital. There he notices his doctor appears to be preoccupied by another patient, a certain Dr Mabuse (Rudolph Klein Rogge, reprising his role from the silent film of 11 years before). But then inspector Lohmann (Oscar Berger) starts wondering if this mysterious man might be connected to a series of crimes on the outside. He begins to investigate, only to find Dr Mabuse is in fact dead. Or is he?
11 years on from the expressionist classic that made Fritz Lang's name, cinema has entered the era of the talkies. But the strange, claustrophobic atmosphere that characterized the original is as strong as ever in this classic of German film. The plot is convoluted and contains many false trails, but holds your concentration as we go on a marvelous, mad-cap ride into the mind of fiction's cleverest and most evil super-villain.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA (2011) W/D- Nouri Bilge Anadolu'da.
As night falls in the Turkish hinterland, two police cars drive around the remote roads searching for a buried body. Aboard are two handcuffed prisoners who can't remember where they buried it: they were blind drunk at the time. Maybe it was near a water fountain. Why they don't wait for daylight to make their search is unclear. But they don't: they journey from one water tap to the next, finding nothing.
As they drive from one possible burial site to the next, the policemen discuss various subjects: children and how they let you down, the problems of urination as one grows older, whether suicide is a legitimate life decision, even which is the healthiest yoghurt.
Finally day breaks and hopes rise that soon they will find the right fountain and dig up the body in question.
This is a strange and intriguing film. The nighttime segment of the movie is deeply fascinating, but the pace changes as day breaks, as of course it does in real life, but here the effect is to weaken the impact of the piece. Which is such a shame with a film that promised so much. Still worth a watch though.
March 2017 book and film review
Welcome to my latest media review, with apologies for late posting.
BOOKS
UP CLOSE, by Shelagh Weeks
A family takes a holiday cottage in north Wales, but while there the husband admits he's been having an affair. Everything falls apart. He goes home by himself and shacks up with his paramour, while she rebuilds her life as a single parent. The children grow up, the son into a very young parent, while the younger daughter gets involved in a Christian cult.
Shelagh is a tutor on our masters in creative writing course, so obviously I needed to see how a professional does things. And as we might expect, it is well written and plotted, (though I found at least six typos, and Shelagh says there are several others I missed) though compared with some of the other books I read last month (which perhaps, when you see which ones, isn't completely fair) it's pretty thin gruel. Even she says it isn't her best work. I'll have to try the others...
THE BEGINNING OF SPRING, by Penelope Fitzgerald
A British expat living in Moscow in 1913 runs a printing press. One day his wife disappears without a word and goes back to the home country, taking the two children with her. Then, a day later, the children arrive back in Moscow by themselves. Turns out she put them back on the train in Germany, while she continued on alone. Now, effectively a single parent, he has to re-organize his life, while hoping and praying she'll change her mind and come back. He employs a nanny, and perhaps under the influence of severe stress, finds himself falling for her. Not that he'd dare say anything...
Penelope Fitzgerald is known for two things: the exquisite purity of her prose, and her exhaustive research. How does she know so much about Moscow life prior to the breakout of the Great War, and how does she know so much about the print industry of the time? Research, stupid, long, deep and thorough research. And what comes out of this is a beautiful piece of writing, humane, funny and mysterious. Highly recommended.
SEIZE THE DAY, by Saul Bellow.
Tommy Wilhelm is having a bad day. His ex-wife is bleeding him white, he's making unwise decisions on the stock market, and his wealthy father refuses to give a helping hand- not a red cent. He got himself into this mess, his Dad argues, and he can get himself out of it.
When Seize the Day came out in 1956 it was almost immediately hailed as a masterpiece of the "new writing". It's easy to see why. Bellow takes us on a journey deep into his protagonist's psyche, and there we find all his broken dreams, hopes and fears for the future. Tommy is a lot like us, he's had some bad breaks and this day isn't about to let up on him. What emerges is an extraordinary profile of a man in crisis, let down by those he would trust, and not even trusting himself to make a good decision- this is a man on the edge. Remarkable.
A MEAL IN WINTER, by Hubert Mingharelli.
It is winter in Easter Poland, 1943. Three German soldiers, desperate to avoid another day as part of an assassination squad, volunteer to venture into the woods to catch any stragglers from the army's sweep of the area to root out all the Jews. But one of them has other things on his mind: he has just heard his teenage son has taken up smoking, and although he and his comrades are all chain smokers themselves, he is mortified. How to persuade him to quit?
The temperature is well below zero, though at least there is no wind. They have gone out before dawn, and thereby missed breakfast. As the day wears on, they're getting famished. What they need is a hot meal. But how to manage it here, in this god forsaken wilderness? Then two strokes of luck: they find a Jew, and then an abandoned hut with a stove. If they can get a fire going they can cook up their meagre supplies to make a hot stew...
Novellas are all the rage at the moment. It's the hot new format, it seems. And if you're wondering which novella to sample next, you could try any of those reviewed already (except Up Close, which you could probably leave out) and especially this one. Translated from its original French so perfectly it appears to have been written in English, this is a wonderful tale, told with the subtlety and apparent simplicity of a true master. Rarely have I encountered such an intimate portrait of men at war. Terrific.
Please see next post for the film review.
BOOKS
UP CLOSE, by Shelagh Weeks
A family takes a holiday cottage in north Wales, but while there the husband admits he's been having an affair. Everything falls apart. He goes home by himself and shacks up with his paramour, while she rebuilds her life as a single parent. The children grow up, the son into a very young parent, while the younger daughter gets involved in a Christian cult.
Shelagh is a tutor on our masters in creative writing course, so obviously I needed to see how a professional does things. And as we might expect, it is well written and plotted, (though I found at least six typos, and Shelagh says there are several others I missed) though compared with some of the other books I read last month (which perhaps, when you see which ones, isn't completely fair) it's pretty thin gruel. Even she says it isn't her best work. I'll have to try the others...
THE BEGINNING OF SPRING, by Penelope Fitzgerald
A British expat living in Moscow in 1913 runs a printing press. One day his wife disappears without a word and goes back to the home country, taking the two children with her. Then, a day later, the children arrive back in Moscow by themselves. Turns out she put them back on the train in Germany, while she continued on alone. Now, effectively a single parent, he has to re-organize his life, while hoping and praying she'll change her mind and come back. He employs a nanny, and perhaps under the influence of severe stress, finds himself falling for her. Not that he'd dare say anything...
Penelope Fitzgerald is known for two things: the exquisite purity of her prose, and her exhaustive research. How does she know so much about Moscow life prior to the breakout of the Great War, and how does she know so much about the print industry of the time? Research, stupid, long, deep and thorough research. And what comes out of this is a beautiful piece of writing, humane, funny and mysterious. Highly recommended.
SEIZE THE DAY, by Saul Bellow.
Tommy Wilhelm is having a bad day. His ex-wife is bleeding him white, he's making unwise decisions on the stock market, and his wealthy father refuses to give a helping hand- not a red cent. He got himself into this mess, his Dad argues, and he can get himself out of it.
When Seize the Day came out in 1956 it was almost immediately hailed as a masterpiece of the "new writing". It's easy to see why. Bellow takes us on a journey deep into his protagonist's psyche, and there we find all his broken dreams, hopes and fears for the future. Tommy is a lot like us, he's had some bad breaks and this day isn't about to let up on him. What emerges is an extraordinary profile of a man in crisis, let down by those he would trust, and not even trusting himself to make a good decision- this is a man on the edge. Remarkable.
A MEAL IN WINTER, by Hubert Mingharelli.
It is winter in Easter Poland, 1943. Three German soldiers, desperate to avoid another day as part of an assassination squad, volunteer to venture into the woods to catch any stragglers from the army's sweep of the area to root out all the Jews. But one of them has other things on his mind: he has just heard his teenage son has taken up smoking, and although he and his comrades are all chain smokers themselves, he is mortified. How to persuade him to quit?
The temperature is well below zero, though at least there is no wind. They have gone out before dawn, and thereby missed breakfast. As the day wears on, they're getting famished. What they need is a hot meal. But how to manage it here, in this god forsaken wilderness? Then two strokes of luck: they find a Jew, and then an abandoned hut with a stove. If they can get a fire going they can cook up their meagre supplies to make a hot stew...
Novellas are all the rage at the moment. It's the hot new format, it seems. And if you're wondering which novella to sample next, you could try any of those reviewed already (except Up Close, which you could probably leave out) and especially this one. Translated from its original French so perfectly it appears to have been written in English, this is a wonderful tale, told with the subtlety and apparent simplicity of a true master. Rarely have I encountered such an intimate portrait of men at war. Terrific.
Please see next post for the film review.
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