Friends, I’m taking two days off for the winter holiday. Wish you all the joy, love, family & friends, book reading and bike riding that I am planning on enjoying myself!
Filed under: miscellaneous | Tagged: personal | 2 Comments »
Encounters from a Kayak: Native People, Sacred Places, and Hungry Polar Bears by Nigel Foster
Posted on December 21, 2012 by pagesofjulia
One man’s reminiscences of flora, fauna and miscellanea encountered while paddling the globe.
For decades, Nigel Foster has been kayaking the world’s oceans, lakes and canals–as well as teaching the skill, designing the equipment and writing about his experiences. Encounters from a Kayak collects more than three dozen of his articles in a single volume, many of them never previously published. Each examines a moment in time in which Foster–sometimes alone, sometimes with fellow enthusiasts–interacts with the natural world and its inhabitants from his small craft. It is one of the strengths of the collection that not even the oldest pieces (extending as far back as the early 1980s) feel dated.
The stories are organized thematically around creatures, people, places, and flotsam and jetsam; the diversity and scope of Foster’s contacts in all these categories are impressive. In his encounters with historic artifacts in Scotland, local police in Shanghai and monkeys in the Florida Keys, Foster brings a sense of humble wonder to his environment. Naturally, he considers issues of ecology and conservation in his travels, but he never lectures. Rather, in unadorned prose, he delivers the experiences themselves: the glow of bioluminescence, the ordeal of a Dutchman’s flight from Nazi occupation by kayak, the history of a sleepy Minnesota town and the real-life Scylla and Charybdis of Scarba and Corryvreckan, just off the Scottish coast. Foster’s unassuming consideration of his surroundings is charming, simple and occasionally poetic. Natural history, human history, birds, jellyfish, thunderstorms and more come together to entertain and educate in Encounters from a Kayak.
This review originally ran as a *starred review* in the December 14, 2012 issue of Shelf Awareness for Readers. To subscribe, click here, and you’ll receive two issues per week of book reviews and other bookish fun!
Rating: 5 campfires.
Filed under: book reviews | Tagged: nature, nonfiction, Shelf Awareness, starred, travel | 1 Comment »
Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
Posted on December 20, 2012 by pagesofjulia
Strangers on a Train was Patricia Highsmith’s first novel, and deservedly received a good deal of attention (although never as much as one might expect in her native United States) and is admired as one of her finest. It’s a quietly frightening story about two men, strangers, who meet on a train, and find that each has a person in his life who he would rather were not. Guy Haines wishes he were rid of his adulterous and manipulative (and estranged) wife Miriam, so that he might marry the lovely and wealthy Anne. Charles Bruno hates his father, who limits Bruno’s access to his own money. It is Bruno’s idea that they could trade murders: each could have an alibi for his own acquaintance, and would never be suspected in the murder of the other’s, because there would be no detectable motive. Guy is disgusted by Bruno and his concept, and leaves the train without saying goodbye.
SPOILERS FOLLOW.
Bruno proceeds to murder Miriam without his consent. Guy suspects it may have been Bruno but can hardly believe in such a strange action on the part of a stranger. And then he begins to hear from Bruno. Guy’s relationship with Anne, and his work as an increasingly acclaimed architect, both suffer as he feels guilt for his involvement in Miriam’s death; and Bruno’s harassment increases, as he now feels Guy owes him the returned favor of killing Bruno’s father. Put very simply, Bruno succeeds in driving Guy a little crazy, until he carries out the murder; but they don’t get away with the second as easily as they do the first, essentially because Bruno (clearly a psychopath, and a raging drunk to boot) can’t leave Guy alone. He’s obsessed. I will interject here that I think the “perfect crime” conceived by Bruno would have worked if he could have remained a stranger to Guy; but he can’t. I will lay off the spoilers here, mostly, and tell you that they both meet unpleasant ends, in rather different manners.
The structure of the book is worth noting. The early tension of the two strangers’ meeting, and Bruno’s excited murder of Miriam, go by rather quickly. And the final action that resolves the fates of Guy and Bruno also happens in a rush. The middle section of the book is all interior: we see some of Bruno’s thought processes and degeneration, but him being the psychopath makes him rather less interesting than Guy, who was an essentially good and “normal” person when we met him on page 1. Most of the psychological drama takes place inside Guy’s head, where much more change takes place, and he goes slowly… crazy? Or, to look at it another way, slowly gives in to some nasty impulses. I’m rather in the first camp, but I think there’s room for debate.
Highsmith has done a fine job here of what I believe she set out to do: she creates a creepy-crawly atmosphere of fear that the worst lies within each of us, that we don’t really know our friends or family like we think we do, that the worst is only an obnoxious phone call or two away. The inside of Bruno’s head is a nasty place to be, but it’s Guy’s inner workings that are truly frightening. It is a very effectively executed novel.
That said, it won’t be for everyone. Even as I found myself admiring Highsmith’s craft, and riveted to the page, I was not always entirely enthused. For one thing, the extended psych-drama of the lengthy middle section of the book was a little slow-paced for me. And while she does an excellent job of putting me inside that scary brain of Guy’s, I’m not so sure that I wanted to be there. Thus, call this a well-executed novel that I did not really want. And part of that is Highsmith’s victory and (perhaps) her intention: to make her reader uncomfortable. But I think part of that, too, is just that psych thrillers are not my favorite things.
Exquisitely done, but not my cup of tea. Still interested in The Talented Mr. Ripley; and the Hitchcock movie version of this one.
Rating: 7 imagined stranglings.
Filed under: book reviews | Tagged: thriller | 2 Comments »
two-wheeled thoughts: Frances Willard (part 2)
Posted on December 19, 2012 by pagesofjulia
Tens of thousands who could never afford to own, feed and stable a horse, had by this bright invention enjoyed the swiftness of motion which is perhaps the most fascinating feature of material life.
–Frances Willard, suffragette and author of How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle.
Frances Willard lived before automobiles were common and well before our roadways were designed with cars in mind, but her concept here can easily be translated to the modern world.
[See an earlier Willard two-wheeled thought here.]
Filed under: two-wheeled thoughts | Tagged: bikes | Leave a comment »
Rain Gods by James Lee Burke (audio)
Posted on December 17, 2012 by pagesofjulia
James Lee Burke is best known for his series of mysteries starring Detective Dave Robicheaux, who makes his home in New Iberia, Louisiana and whose adventures mostly take place there (or in New Orleans, or – in one case that I know of – in Montana). But he does write other books: I read a western a while back. Rain Gods is the first Burke I’ve read that stars Hackberry Holland, sheriff of a small Texas border town that I am pretty sure remains unnamed.
As the book opens, Hack has just discovered a shallow grave filled with illegal immigrants behind a church, and a young man named Pete Flores, a veteran of the war in Iraq, flees town with his girlfriend Vikki. They fear the team of professional criminals that were involved with the shooting, but the threads of the case are quickly so thoroughly intertwined that Pete himself doesn’t know who they’re running from. Between a New Orleans crime boss, a bumbling Texas strip club owner, a psychopathic hit man who thinks he’s the left hand of God, and a couple of young lackeys whose loyalties are yet to be tried, Hack and his deputy Pam Tibbs have their hands full in trying to solve the murder and protect Pete and Vikki. And they may still be working out the relationship they share, to boot.
As in any good mystery story, some subplots come out sooner than others. The man they call “Preacher,” who somehow thinks God is supportive of the mayhem he creates, is an enigma of pure evil; but he’s not the only one whose motives are unclear (or irrational). The romance that Pete and Vikki share is a welcome sweet note; and Hackberry’s storied past and accumulated guilt are a familiar but still satisfying facet. The fact that both Pete and Hack are still processing their experiences in war (Iraq and Korea, respectively) is a sobering note of reality that draws the two generations together effectively.
I don’t feel that Rain Gods is Burke’s finest work; I found it a little bit slow-paced. But it had all the hallmarks that I come to Burke for. Our hero is damaged and has committed great wrongs, but is essentially good. The setting is strongly evoked – and I liked it particularly, as the plot mostly takes place in West Texas borderlands, a location I’m fond of and fairly familiar with. And Preacher’s character is quite frightening – as he was intended to be.
The audio narration by Tom Stechschulte is excellent. I love the different voices he does – especially because there’s such a collection of characters featured here, with different accents and tones of voice that express emotions and pain and insanity. This audio format deserved a fine portrayal, and it got one.
I will be reading more James Lee Burke. But I may prioritize the Robicheaux novels.
Rating: 6 delusions.
Filed under: book reviews | Tagged: audio, James Lee Burke, mystery, sense of place | Leave a comment »
book beginnings on Friday: The Lady and Her Monsters by Roseanne Montillo
Posted on December 14, 2012 by pagesofjulia
Thanks to Rose City Reader for hosting this meme. To participate, share the first line or two of the book you are currently reading and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.
The Lady and Her Monsters: A Tale of Dissections, Real-Life Dr. Frankensteins, and the Creation of Mary Shelley’s Masterpiece is a fascinating title, isn’t it? I was attracted immediately. It begins:
Camillo’s footsteps echoed loudly as he crossed the empty cobblestone streets of Bologna toward his uncle’s house. The afternoon was hot, and the scorching heat, coupled with that lazy midafternoon spell between noon and evening, allowed him to go by virtually unnoticed.
Although this is a work of nonfiction, I think these atmospheric opening lines are appropriate, since its subject is something of a gothic ghost story.
Happy reading to you this weekend!
This quotation comes from an uncorrected advance proof and is subject to change.
Filed under: book beginnings | Tagged: classics, history, nonfiction, science | 5 Comments »
movie: The Perfect Storm (2000)
Posted on December 13, 2012 by pagesofjulia
You may recall that I listened to the audio version of Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm a few months back, and loved it. I think it was my father who mentioned that the movie was quite good; and I’ve been meaning to see it. I was actually a little sleep-deprived when Husband found it the other night and put it on, a little late; I was worried that I would find myself nodding off (often a problem with movie-watching for me). But no such danger with this film.
The movie was made in 2000, based on the book of 1997. An all-start cast bodes well: George Clooney, John C. Reilly, and oh my goodness, Mark Wahlberg, for whom I have a real weakness. Also William Fichtner, whom I knew by face but not by name. I’ll go light on the plot summary (you can see my book review for that) and instead concentrate on the impact of the movie and its relationship to the book.
I had no trouble staying awake to watch this movie with clenched fists and jaw, because it is ceaselessly suspenseful, dramatic, action-packed. My adrenaline pumped as I watched men and women fight for their lives; and having read the book and thus knowing (in a general sense, movies not always being entirely faithful to the book) what happens did not relieve my nerves at all. In this way it was true to the book, which is also edge-of-the-seat thrilling. For that matter, the book takes forays into various supportive details: boat design, the physics of wave dynamics, meteorology, the history of Gloucester, Mass. as a fishing village, etc. I don’t recall that I ever felt bored or impatient with these digressions; they supported the story and were interesting in themselves. But (and perhaps this is obvious, as it’s a Hollywood film) the movie never went there. The movie cuts out some of the action and lots of the details, and this supports its different goal. Where the book is both awesome and scientific, the film is all high-energy drama. They’re both great, but a little different.
I found the emotional impact of the movie to be significant. I asked Husband about his feelings while we watched, and he didn’t seem to understand the question; we could speculate about the traditional gender role responses to questions about feelings, or we could assume that he would have been more emotionally affected if he’d also read the book, but I don’t need to parse that issue here. *I* felt that the scenes of homecoming, leave-taking, and mourning were greatly moving.
The greatest strengths of the movie were some of the greatest strengths of the book: emotional impact, thrilling action, consideration of the awe-inspiring power of natural forces. I’m not sure that this is always true of movies and books that are both effective, so I wanted to make that observation. A further strength of the movie was visual effect: giant waves and lives hanging in the balance make for some impressive images. Not to mention, the handsome cast allows for some sweet shots as well:
And although I haven’t pictured her here, Diane Lane makes a lovely Christina (Bobby/Mark Wahlberg’s girlfriend), and their relationship is every bit as sweet and endearing onscreen as on the page. I give full marks to all the cast. This was a very enjoyable and riveting movie to watch. I did miss some of what the book gave me that the movie didn’t, but I think the film did as much as a film can do with a book, and utilized the format’s strengths (like stunning images) to best advantage. Great stuff.
And in closing, I would like to point out that it is always a pleasure to watch Mark Wahlberg do anything.
Rating: 7 swordfish.
Filed under: musings | Tagged: movies | 1 Comment »
two-wheeled thoughts: JFK
Posted on December 12, 2012 by pagesofjulia
Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride.
–John F. Kennedy
Filed under: two-wheeled thoughts | Tagged: bikes | Leave a comment »
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