Girl Detective

#6 in my 2007 book challenge was The Easy Way Out by Stephen McCauley, recommended by a member of my writing group. Though the plot meanders, it has outstanding characters, sharp writing, and some very funny, believable and poignant insights on relationships. Patrick, the main character, can’t seem to dump his boyfriend. One of Patrick’s brothers is engaged, but seeing another woman. The other brother is separated from his wife and living in their parents basement. Published in 1994, some of the material is dated, such as the perception of the threat of AIDS, and the details of the travel industry. Yet the travel details are so hilarious that they inspire nostalgia rather than disdain. (Remember using travel agents to book flights? Remember meeting people as they got off planes?) Sharon, the main character’s best friend and co-worker at a travel agency, takes great pleasure in subverting the travel system, among other things. She is one of the best and funniest characters I have read in a long time.

Bad news courtesy of Neil Gaiman: Dreamhaven Books, the independently owned book/comic/ephemera shop in Minneapolis, was burgled and trashed last weekend. Visit their site, buy a book and help them out.

My husband G. Grod has enjoyed these books lately:

The Android’s Dream by John Scalzi

Dzur by Steven Brust

#5 in my 2007 movie challenge was Kung Fu Hustle, which my husband thought I would enjoy. He was right. This is a strange, fun, darkly funny kung fu movie that wasn’t off-puttingly violent. I’m sure I got only a fraction of the references. Things kept happening that I didn’t expect; I was amused and entertained. This was a good mental palate cleanser after Pan’s Labyrinth. The clueless, overweight buddy in the movie reminded me more than a little of the character of Randy, from My Name is Earl.

One recent night the kids were in bed, and there were any number of things I should have done: resting, reading, writing, etc. Yet what I really wanted was to go to a bookstore. And when I tried to talk myself out of it (don’t need to, don’t want to buy books, what about the new book vow, etc.) I realized that I didn’t want to go book shopping; I wanted to browse.

Aimless browsing (aimless anything, really) is one of the casualties of this parent’s life. Trips to Target, the grocery store, the library, or anywhere else, are constrained by my kids’ short attention spans and my often depleted reserves of patience. But to browse? To wander hither and yon, with nothing to lead me on but my own whims? I went out directly.

With just over an hour till closing time, I browsed fiercely. I looked at all the Hemingway titles, trying (vainly) to figure out which collection of stories I read in college (turns out it was In Our Time.) I checked out the editions of To Kill a Mockingbird, since I’ll want a new one before I re-read it, and I don’t like the photo-cover TPB they sell at Target. I scanned the new-release tables, with their alluring covers and blurbs, but I was immune to their siren calls. Then I spent a good long time in the kids section going through the maddeningly subdivided board-book section. (Alphabetically by author! What’s so hard about that? I don’t need to look through Disney/Basics/Things That Go/Colors/etc.) I found so many gems in the paperback picture-book section that I had to take home a few. I Stink and Farmer Duck came home with me, but Mr. Gumpy’s Outing, It’s My Birthday, and Fables all went back to the shelf, amid much regretful sighing. I went to the register at the fifteen-minutes-to-closing announcent, and got a dollar off the price of one of the books because it was banged up, and because I asked. So yes, I did buy some books. But I didn’t go book shopping. I went book looking. And that was much more rewarding.

#4 in my 2007 movie challenge was Pan’s Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro’s horror fantasy. It’s mesmerizing to look at, so much so that I often had trouble dragging my eyes to the subtitles. There is a great deal of violence, and I sometimes had to turn my eyes away, too. It mixes history with fantasy, but with a darkness that is decidedly adult, even though the heroine is a young girl. I was reminded strongly of one of del Toro’s earlier films, The Devil’s Backbone, as well as the films of Hayao Miyazaki. It is not for the young or faint of heart, but it’s bittersweet and rewarding.

I’m a frequent user of the library reserve system. My favorite of the three nearby library systems has a great site with a good search function. I’ve been true to my 2007 vow to use the library less for books, but I am still using it to reserve and borrow new DVDs and CDs. There’s a high demand for these, so the lists are long. I am often flirting with the upper limit allowed of reservable items, since some take months to come in. But last time I went to reserve items, I saw a notice that the library was limiting reserves to twenty items, down from fifty.

My first response? How can they do this? (Disbelief; I think it’s the Kubler Ross first stage of loss.) Then I was angry, then I was defiant. I went online and put several more items on reserve, pushing myself very close to the previous limit of fifty. Ha, I thought. Whatever this new limit is, it isn’t working yet.

I wondered if I should get a card for 3yo Drake so I could double my reserves. Then I realized, who am I fooling? Mightn’t I have a problem if twenty reserve items isn’t nearly enough? Are there support groups for library ab/users?

The next time I tried to reserve something, I got this message: There is a problem with your account. Please see a librarian.

I don’t need to see a librarian. The gig is up.

I know, from experience and professional training, that unrealistic and vague goals are destined to fail. In defiance of this, I have decided 2007 will be the year I get my sh1t together.

Deluded? Probably. For purposes of this delusion, I define my sh1t as: disorganized finances; blowing and drifting piles of paper; teetering piles of magazines; unopened boxes from the last x? moves; bookshelves crammed with unread books purchased long ago; random stashes of junk throughout the house (why, yes, I do think I should keep these seven keychains, because I never know when I might need this exact one.)

I have to stop there. I’m just depressing myself.

In preparation for this unrealistic and amorphous goal, I’ve done a little acronyming. The 2007 goal is hereby named CMP. Take your pick what it stands for: Crap Management/Minimizing Program, or Clear the Crap, Manage the Money and Purge the Paper.

See, all those years spent in corporate America weren’t for nought. Now if only I could get a budget for snacks and authorization to conscript a team:

Drake, Guppy, it’s time to clean house. Put your toys away! Pick up those crayons! Get that train out of your mouth! If you do, we’ll have a post-mortem meeting with Cheddar Bunnies, Veggie Booty, and juice.

John Knightley only was in mute astonishment. That a man who might have spent his evening quietly at home after a day of business in London should set off again, and walk half a mile to another man’s house for the sake of being in mixed company till bed-time, of finishing his day in the efforts of civility and the noise of numbers, was a circumstance to strike him deeply. A man who had been in motion since eight o’clock in the morning, and might now have been still–who had been long talking, and might have been silent–who had been in more than one crowd, and might have been alone!–Such a man to quit the tranquillity and independence of his own fireside, and on the evening of a cold sleety April day rush out again into the world!–Could he, by a touch of his finger, have instantly taken back his wife, there would have been a motive; but his coming would probably prolong rather than break up the party. John Knightley looked at him with amazement, then shrugged his shoulders, and said, ‘I could not have believed it, even of him.’ Emma

I just finished re-reading Jane Austen’s Emma, #5 in my book challenge for the year. It was a joy; the nearly 500 pages flew by. I laughed out loud at passages like the one above, because I found the book consistently funny. This was not the case the first time I read it, just over two years ago. I enjoyed it, but didn’t love it, and found it slow to read.

I’m not sure what made the difference. I’m reading at the same time of year, and with about the same level of parental fatigue. It could be that I read the book previously, and several other Austen books recently. I was reading for enjoyment, not to find out what happened. Since there are several plot points that are kept hidden till near the end, this allowed me to savor the careful hints that appear throughout the text. Reading the other Austen novels Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion, has made me more fluent in Austen’s prose style. As I find with Shakespeare, reading more is the best way to be able to read more because I learn the customs and rhythms of the language. In any case, I found Emma a delight, even though Austen acknowledges some of the inherent difficulties of her tale, like Frank Churchill’s behavior, Emma’s failed attempts to improve poor Harriet, and a grown man falling in love with a thirteen-year-old girl. I found a few other things bothered me in the book. The racism in a scene with gypsies, and the classism and snobbery that may not be tongue-in-cheek. Yet in the end I was happy because everyone was, whether they deserved to be or not. I’ll take my cue from Emma’s thoughts about Frank Churchill, and not be severe:

Though it was impossible not to feel that he had been wrong, yet he had been less wrong than she had supposed; and he had suffered and was very sorry; and he was so grateful….and so much in love…., and she was so happy herself, that there was no being severe Emma, Chapter LI

#4 in my 2007 book challenge was Mockingbird, a biography of Nelle Harper Lee. I read both To Kill a Mockingbird and In Cold Blood last year, and this was an interesting and informative companion book. This is the first and only bio of Lee, so Shields has the good fortune of no competition, as well as the good timing to publish in the wake of the films Capote and Infamous. Exhaustively researched in spite of Lee’s refusal to participate, the book did not feel tight and polished. I saw a number of typos (e.g., “the” left out of “on other hand”), usage errors (e.g., another thing coming, rather than the lesser known but correct “think”), and unwieldy sentences. The strength of the book is the exhaustive research of the author, particularly around the time that Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird and helped Capote research In Cold Blood. There was good evidence of her writing habits, her strengths and weaknesses, and her family ties. It also gave different views into certain aspects of In Cold Blood. Shields attempts to answer the obvious question of why Lee never wrote another book as early as the introduction. I wasn’t sure why he would want to give away his conclusions so quickly after he did all the research that follows. The detailed intro also made a lot of what followed feel repetitive. The subject was fascinating, but the book itself would have benefited from more thorough editing, both of copy and in structure.

I have begun work on my second novel in longhand rather than on my computer. This didn’t start consciously but rather circumstantially. I found myself without my machine, so I grabbed a journal and started to write. Ever since, I’ve continued in longhand, typing up passages later for my writing group. This works well for me, since baby Guppy doesn’t nap often or for long. Though the computer seems like it would increase efficiency, it’s a false economy. By the time I boot up the computer, open the programs, and attach the mouse, precious minutes have gone by, and my resolve to work has lessened.

#3 in my 2007 movie challenge was The Queen. Mirren conveyed a lot of emotion with great economy. I loved the strength and independence of the queen, and enjoyed her wardobes of pearls and scarves–the queen has really good accessories. I was also reminded of what a terrible deal Diana got–bad marriage, divorce, then hounded literally to death by paparazzi. Too many overlook the irony of romanticizing princesses while also mourning her tragic death.

#3 in my 2007 book challenge was Hemingway’s Sun Also Rises. Long a favorite of my husband, it was more what I was expecting from a Hemingway book than A Moveable Feast: dark, bitter and depressing. The female character had no redeeming aspects, and left a trail of wrecked men in her wake. I felt sorry for all the characters in the book. The writing illustrated a technique Hemingway wrote about in AMF: deliberately leaving out critical detail. We never find out what Jake Barnes’s accident was, how it happened, or any details of its aftermath. This novel is in stark contrast to the remembered sweetness and joy in AMF of his early years in Paris. The ending sentence is powerful and enigmatic, and illustrates the writing advice Hemingway noted in AMF: All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know.

#2 in my 2007 movie challenge was the 1944 film Jane Eyre. I consulted Time Out, so I wasn’t expecting much, and wasn’t disappointed. I wanted to watch in advance of the Masterpiece Theater Jane Eyre, part I of which is airing in the US this Sunday, 21 January 2007. The 1944 film is worthwhile, but uneven. A very young Elizabeth Taylor is Jane’s childhood friend Helen. Jane’s Aunt Reeves is played with cruel glee by Agnes Moorehead, better known as Endora from the TV show, Bewitched. The adult Jane is played by Joan Fontaine, too pretty and moist eyed for me to accept as pale, plain, indomitable Jane. Orson Welles seems to have a good time as Rochester, and was more convincing to me in that role. I didn’t care for the movie’s combination of text and voiceover. The last part of the book, with St. John Rivers, was deleted from the film version, and made for a more conventional, and less interesting, story than the book.

#1 in my 2007 movie challenge, Brick was from the library, so I broke my vow of borrowing less right away. It’s a noir thriller set in high school. The humor is dark, and the dialogue fast, jargon-y, and often hard to follow. It’s entertaining, and I like Joseph Gordon Levitt, and thought he did a credible job as the bitter loner trying to find his ex. But I found the movie as a whole faintly absurd, often purposely so, as in the kitchen scene with a character’s mom. The heavy dialogue and the often brutal actions (only one of which was shown, and then not closely) hung strangely on the young actors, as if they were playing dress-up in a movie beyond their years.

#2 in my 2007 book challenge was A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. Like Demian, AMF was named by a friend (are you out there, JS?) as one of his favorite books. I bought it and it sat on my shelf. This book is one I regret having waited so long to meet. It is a memoir of Hemingway’s early writing career in Paris, and of his first marriage. It’s literary history, but I also read it as an apology to his first wife, Hadley, and an extended, elegiac suicide note. Having read only a little Hemingway long ago (a book of short stories, in college), I was expecting A Moveable Feast to be well written. I was not expecting a gentle book of humility, love, and sadness. This is one I will gladly read again.

#1 in my 2007 book challenge was Demian by Hermann Hesse. Years ago, a friend said it was his favorite book, so I picked up a copy and it sat on my shelf till now. Emil Sinclair feels different from his family and at his school. After meeting Max Demian, he becomes more aware of difference. After a brief struggle to fit in, Sinclair begins a program of self-education. While Sinclair does evolve, it’s not into the social structure, the typical end of a coming-of-age novel, but rather to someplace beyond it. Nietzsche is a clear influence. The homo-eroticism is barely veiled. This was intriguing to read so soon after I’d read Catcher in the Rye and King Dork. Sinclair and Caulfield have a lot in common. In contrast, King Dork ends with fairly predictable social and familial acceptance.

I’m going to continue with book and movie goals of fifty apiece, with three clarifications.

One, I want to read and watch more of what I already have than I did in 2006. I’ll need to continue the reined-in book buying, and be more selective about what I put in my library reserve queue.

Two, I want to read better books. There weren’t many “wow” books for me last year, even including the four I liked enough to purchase after borrowing them from the library. I read a lot of books that made me go “meh” last year. To do this, I’m going to try and worry less about how many books I’m reading, since fifty seems to be an attainable goal.

Three, I’m going to try not to make lists in advance. They spoil some of the fun of seeking out a new book, whether it’s from the library, store, or my own bookshelves.

My vague goal for 2007 is to get organized–clear the crap, purge the paper, detox from magazines, curb impulse buying at Target–but I was reminded of this article from the Onion.

I’m doomed.

I watched 58 movies in 2006, averaging nearly 5 a month. Apologies for no italics or links, but all are linked in the 2006 Movie Challenge category on the right. I saw only ten in theaters, but I enjoyed all of them. I was more selective this year about what films I saw in theaters, and this made them worth the effort and cost of childcare, movie snacks, and non-matinee prices:

Brokeback Mountain
Capote
Cars
Casino Royale
Good Night, and Good Luck
Lawrence of Arabia
New World, The
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Thank You for Smoking
Walk the Line

Eighteen were from our home library, either on DVD or Tivo. I often skip over what we have unwatched at home in favor of something new from the library. As with books, I’m going to try and improve on the ratio, because there were fewer disappointments (Alfie, The Quiet Man, Sense & Sensibility) than delights (Happy Accidents, The Palm Beach Story, Triplets of Belleville, Wuthering Heights):

Alfie (1966)
Happy Accidents
Lady Eve, The
Nausicaa
Palm Beach Story, The
Pride & Prejudice (1940)
Producers, The (1968)
Quiet Man, The
Ref, The
Sense & Sensibility
Silverado
Spellbound (2002)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Triplets of Belleville
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
What’s Cooking
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Wuthering Heights (1939)

I borrowed thirty-two from the library, but only finished thirty of them, since I couldn’t stay awake for either Ong-Bak or Hero. There were a lot of disappointments here (13 Conversations About One Thing, The Family Stone, Junebug, Made, Nicholas Nickleby, Rumor Has It, Sky High, and The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill), especially compared to the few I thought were really good (The Constant Gardener and Inside Man). It’s further reason to be more selective about reserving items from the library. Just because they’re free doesn’t mean they’re worth my time.

13 Conversations about One Thing
40 Year-Old Virgin, The
Anchorman
Broken Flowers
Bruce Almighty
Constant Gardener, The
Crash
Family Stone, The
Fever Pitch (2005)
Graduate, The
Grizzly Man
Hustle & Flow
In Her Shoes
Inside Man
Junebug
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Last Holiday
Lord of War
Made
Matador, The
Millions
Mysterious Skin
Nicholas Nickleby
Proof
Rumor Has It
Sky High
Syriana
Upside of Anger, The
Wedding Crashers
Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

#58 in my movie challenge, Spellbound, the documentary not the Hitchcock film, was my last movie of the year. I finished watching just after midnight. It focuses on the kids, and doesn’t take cheap shots at them or their parents. It shows them all as complex people and does a fair job at showing why spelling is important to each of the kids. While the variance in economic background of those who made it to the finals was wide, it narrowed significantly as the spellers moved to the finals.

I went to the state spelling bee in 7th grade. I can’t remember if I got beyond the first round, but I will always remember the word I missed: jacamar. It’s a type of bird.