Film & BooksIssue: Scorpio 07
On Chesil Beach
This book rests in your hand with a comfort and ease that makes it one that cannot be put down until finished. Though it is literally small in shape, McEwan’s literary talent is large in capacity. His plot is tight, and his technique is so riveting that it is difficult to review this title without giving away the juicy parts. Really, you will read the book faster than I can write this review.
On Chesil Beach By Ian McEwan. 203 pp. Doubleday c. 2007. $22.
Set in England during an era when sex was a taboo topic of discussion, the bulk of the novel consists of one single sex scene. The disastrous outcome of a wedding night explores the impossibility of sustaining love while evoking profound sympathy for the characters. McEwan writes with an authority that makes you feel as if you are a fly on the wall, observing every move and feeling all the tension front row and center.
It pained him [Edward] tremendously that their wedding night was not simple, when their love was so obvious.
Edward and Florence are likable, and their difficulties are understandable. Their love for each other is palpable; because of this the complexity of their childhood experiences becomes evident to the reader but not to them.
Their courtship had been pavane, a stately unfolding, bound by protocols never agreed or voiced but generally observed. Nothing was ever discussed – nor did they feel the lack of intimate talk. These were matters beyond words, beyond definition. The language and practice of therapy, the currency of feelings diligently shared, mutually analyzed, were not yet in general circulation. While one heard of wealthier people going in for psychoanalysis, it was not yet customary to regard oneself in everyday terms as an enigma, an exercise in narrative history, or as a problem waiting to be solved.
Film & Books Archives (total entries: 28)
Sagittarius 08 & Honest Self Expression
Scorpio 08 - The Money Issue
Honestly, I have never been one for self-help books, but what I liked most about "How We Choose to Be Happy" is that it celebrates the wisdom of a variety of literary greats balanced by the stories of ordinary people.
This book won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction for good reason. I started the “The Great Man” on Saturday morning and had to finish it by lunch the next day. When it started to rain I traded my lawn chair for the couch and kept on reading. This novel is fabulously funny, mischievous, and easy to read.
A quirky look at boyhood and film-making in the 1980s, “Son of Rambow” is a welcome diversion from the current deluge of blockbuster remakes and super hero epics in theaters this summer. Written and directed by Garth Jennings and produced by Nick Goldsmith, I like the way this film spins a standard, winning movie formula at a slightly awkward angle.
Although “The Maytrees” by Annie Dillard is marketed as a novel, it reads from beginning to end as a poem. Like body surfing, the poetry will move emotions in directions that the mind may not understand. When this wave brought me to shore, I needed air and I wasn’t quite certain where I had been or where I had landed, but I was, in the truest sense of the word, in awe of the experience I just had.
April and May are notoriously bad months to go to the movies. The Academy Award hopefuls of 2008 won't be released until the fall, and the summer blockbusters won't be out for a few months. So what is a film reviewer to do when all the movies in the theaters are lame? This reviewer is going to suggest that you catch up on the best movies of 2007!
After an unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, Greg Mortenson stumbled into the village of Korphe in Pakistan’s Karakoram Himalaya region. The generosity and hospitality of the Korphe villagers inspired Mortenson to establish the Central Asia Institute (CAI). Since the establishment of CAI ten years ago, the organization has built 55 schools serving Pakistan and Afghanistan’s poorest children, especially girls.
Based on Marjane Satrapi's books, the film “Persepolis” tells the poignant story of a young girl coming of age in Iran in the midst of revolution and war.
This book grabs the reality of life with two hands and shakes it upside down. Those who appear to be physically beautiful and those whose eloquence is often over-beautified, are the most repulsive characters. “On Beauty” is about being real, about dealing with life, and about the need to reexamine what “living” really means.
