Posted by Lou. The time is 2.30pm here in London, UK.


Quelle horreur! Neither Bel nor I have posted in 11 whole days! Lucky I've seen a few films, read a few books, and seen a couple of musicals in that time... okay I'll spare you the musicals...

***

The Road... and The Road. Read the book... then went to the film. The book is brilliant - Cormac McCarthy centres his story on a father and young son, trying to survive in a barren apocalyptic future. The intimacy of the story is all the more engaging for the simple and identifiable nature of this apocalyptic world: no zombies, techno-wars, or aliens - just dead trees, highways, and the occasional shell of a contemporary American city.

The story becomes even more human in the film, with Viggo Mortensen injecting the character of The Man with startling tenderness - further engaging the audience's emotions with their quest to survive. He is absolutely perfect casting: the sort of guy you think would survive the apocalypse and find a way to live without losing his humanity. And my visual imagination was once more shown up by a filmmaker, with the gray dead landscapes and cityscapes far exceeding my ability to envision such devastation.


Both highly recommended, though I will caution that I personally found that reading and watching very closely together detracted from the impact of the film.

***

Inglourious Basterds. Some really great stuff in there - iconic character performances (I refer to a couple of the Nazis, NOT Brad Pitt's horrific southerner), stunning imagery, the sort of magnificent dialogue that only QT can do, superb moments of tension surrounding the ultra-violence - but. Well. I couldn't switch off that this is a film set amidst the Holocaust. That dehumanises all members of the German army in a way that - as better commentators on the subject have put it - turns Jews into Nazis. All done by a non-Jewish, non-German filmmaker. Primarily to advance his own sense of ego and cinema. Maybe one day I'll view it differently, but for now there is a lingering feeling of discomfort that overrides the brilliance. But I still love QT so I guess didn't find it too objectionable. Maybe.

***

I started reading Michael Chabon's Werewolves in Their Youth a long time ago, but set it down partway into the second chapter (I guess not such a great advertisement for it), only recently remembering about it. I finished that chapter, got onto the next one, and thought "there's something funny about this". Happened to glance at the back cover and realised... ooops. It was a set of short stories. Not a novel. Now that is why the characters seemed to have nothing to do with each other and I just couldn't get into the story...

I'm not hot on short stories - it's not a genre I love, and it's a genre I only just know enough about to know that I don't know enough to judge short stories. But this collection had enough Chabon magic to keep me engaged, and is actually gosh-darned interesting for how much it drips with his real-life. You just know reading this that it was written by a man going through the experience of Becoming A Father.

Most interestingly for me was the running thematic of vaginas - implying the discovery by a heterosexual man of a vagina other than the sexual vagina: the vagina as a bearer of life, and the completely asexual vagina of a child. (Ugh, that sounds so wrong written like that - I guess that exposes the certain amount of bravery it takes to write a short story that broaches the subject. I can assure you it's not in any way whatsoever creepily done.) I'd never really thought of what that must be like for the guys who - until fatherhood - only know the vagina as something they want to fuck.

***

George. Oh we love George. He's so immaculate. So pristine. Perfect. I just think he and I would be so good together, living in his villa on Lake Como and discussing news, politics and literature over cappuccinos and croissants while the water laps gently against the terrace.

Okay I just needed to get that out of my system.

In describing Up in the Air the thing that comes first to mind is that it's a film for grown-ups: it's about grown-up relationships and grown-up lives. It is a very smart, sleek and contemporary film - but far from being "important" or "serious" it is actually quite frivolous with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. George is a guy who spends his life in the air, flying from city to city to fire people. He meets a woman with a similarly transient life, and also finds himself lumped with an ambitious young graduate to show the ropes.



While yes, this is another film about a middle-aged guy, the female characters are actually brilliantly unconventional and remain unjudged for career, sex or life decisions. I guess you could say that the dialogue and story explores ideas of how relationships should or could be in a way that judges neither tradition nor departures from. Another plus is that it provides another showcase for Our Melanie Lynskey's ability to be the character everyone wants to give a hug. And at the centre of it all it showcases George at his best doing what he does best.

Aside: I'm really, really curious as to how much of the film was funded via corporate partners, with the loyalty programmes of companies such as American Airlines, Hertz and Hilton getting extensive screentime. Clever, and very, very savvy in the current film climate.

Posted by Lou. The time is 1.45pm here in London, UK.

Title by Bel, book review by Lou.


I love Michael Chabon. I have Bel to thank for this, as it was here who urged me to read his Pulitzer-winner The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Since then I've gotten through half of his brilliant contribution to contemporary literature, and enjoyed every minute. Of them all, this is definitely one of my favourites. His prose is absolute perfection - every sentence is like a mini work of art. You don't read his books for the plot - you read it for his words, his vivid characters (that you really think he cares for - none of this "convenience to the plot" shit), the world of the story, and glorious pleasure of reading the best-of-the-best (of-the-best-of-the-best) of contemporary writing. He is witty, self-deprecating, empathetic, sympathetic, and so very intelligent, but intelligent in a way that makes you think he's probably a loveable, down-to-earth guy who just wants you to like his writing... and happens to be a fucken genius. I love him.

This novel features three cathartic days in the life of some particularly eccentric characters - even by Chabon standards - but characters that nonetheless feel real. Our primary focus is Grady Tripp (oh God, that is such a great name for a protagonist!), a novelist who has been writing the difficult "follow-up to a success" book The Wonder Boys for seven years - as you can imagine it has run out of control into the thousands of pages and he knows underneath it all that it'll never be finished, but he just can't quite give it up. His editor/ best friend arrives in town wanting to see the novel, on his arm a transvestite he met on the plane, somehow a tuba becomes involved, his love-life explodes in several different ways, he finds one of his students about to top himself, and things rollick along from there.

The whole thing - of course, how else could it be so witty and wonderful? - emerged from Chabon's own experiences of writing the follow-up novel (to his successful Mysteries of Pittsburgh) Fountain City, which over 5-years spiralled out of control. Let's allow wiki and Chabon to elaborate:

At one point , Chabon submitted a 672-page draft to his agent and editor, who disliked the work. Chabon had problems dropping the novel, though. "It was really scary," he said later. "I'd already signed a contract and been paid all this money. And then I'd gotten a divorce and half the money was already with my ex-wife. My instincts were telling me, This book is fucked. Just drop it. But I didn't, because I thought, What if I have to give the money back?" ... "I used to go down to my office and fantasize about all the books I could write instead.

When he finally decided to abandon Fountain City, Chabon recalls staring at his blank computer for hours, before suddenly picturing "a 'straitlaced, troubled young man with a tendency toward melodrama' trying to end it all." He began writing, and within a couple of days, had written 50 pages of what would become his second novel, Wonder Boys. Chabon drew on his experiences with Fountain City for the character of Grady Tripp, a frustrated novelist who has spent years working on an immense fourth novel. The author wrote Wonder Boys in a dizzy seven-month streak, without telling his agent or publisher he'd abandoned Fountain City. The book, published in 1995, was a commercial and critical success.

Read this book. If you haven't read any Chabon, why not start chronilogically and fit in the short and sweet Mysteries of Pittsburgh (quickly, before the film comes out - and don't look up the cast, just read it), then move on to this glorious creature. After that you'll be ready for the big one - Kavalier and Clay.

A note on covers:
I buy most of my books on Amazon so have limited control over the covers, but if you do actual-physical-shop-buying I would recommend looking out for this range of Chabon covers because they are truly the most exquisite book covers you will ever see. I am the proud owner of three of them (unfortunately not Kavalier and Clay, darnit). They are embossed and absolutely gorgeous. Bel also gave me a gorgeous Mysteries of Pittsburgh in another brilliant style, but I haven't seen any of its companions so aren't sure if it's a series or was a one-off. Either way, just don't buy the frickin' film version or both of us will hunt you down and throw it into a fire.