August 2017 book and film review

Welcome to this month's media blog. Apologies for my reduced number of posts: life has intervened, and I am concentrating more of my energies on writing a book. There has still been time, however, to read some books and see a few movies.

BOOKS

GUERRILLAS, by V.S. Naipaul
In an unspecified (though it has to be Trinidad), newly independent island in the West Indies during the 1970s, an idealistic white man and his girlfriend work with the locals to make a better life for them. But the place is something of a tinder-box: all it needs is a little spark and the whole country might descend into bloody revolution against the corrupt government. Our hero fears he might be the unwitting spark himself, as he is manipulated both by the establishment and the radical elements.
           V.S. Naipaul is that unusual animal: he has earned his living exclusively by writing all his adult life. And he has done that by being a master of his chosen discipline. This tale of lust and betrayal amongst the palm trees and slums of the Caribbean shines with truth and beauty on every page. No one creates such believable characters as Naipaul, and no one expresses the feel of the place, its heat, its humidity and the atmosphere of fear as well as he does. Splendid stuff.

ANGELA'S ASHES, by Frank McCourt
A family of Irish emigrants finds life in New York intolerable, so make the unusual step of returning to their homeland. There they find the poverty and opportunities for advancement even less than in the Land of the Free, and hover on the edge of starvation as Dad drinks the meagre money he makes and his family go hungry. The boy Frankie knows only one thing: there is no future for him in Ireland, and his only chance is to get back to America as soon as he can. He does have one thing: an American passport (he was born there, you see) but very little else.
           Frank McCourt set new standards in the genre of "creative nonfiction" and the book has been a smash across the world, especially in the US where, having achieved his great ambition, he lived out his life. His descriptions of the grinding life of poverty lived by the majority of the Irish population in the 20s and 30s are graphic and often horrifying. There has been some criticism of the amount of creativity in his nonfiction, not least by his own mother, but nonetheless there is a loud ring of truth to his writing. One thing. At no point in the narrative is there any mention at all of Angela's ashes, as Frankie's mum, Angela, is very much alive by the end of the book. Perhaps I'm just being thick...

THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, by Stephen Crane
At the height of the American Civil War, a young man, in truth scarcely more than a boy, decides it would be a great lark to join up and fight for the Yankees. He is soon revelling in his exciting new life with his new friends- until the fighting starts. Suddenly his comrades begin dropping around him and he realises with horrific force that war is dangerous: you could get a leg blown off, or half your face. You could get killed. With a display of logical thinking few of us could fail to identify with, he turns tail and runs. Then, away from the cannon-fire and musket bullets zinging past his head, he starts to have second thoughts...
          The Red Badge of Courage is one of the most famous novellas ever to come out of America, and is without doubt an outstanding portrayal of the psychology of fear under fire. It was made into a highly successful film, starring Audie Murphy, who in real life was a fully paid-up war hero. Could he identify with the protagonist of this book? He never ran away from a fight, so it must have been something of a challenge. This notwithstanding, he makes a pretty good fist of it, and I recommend both the book and the film for your scrutiny.

See next blog for movies...