by China Mieville
A recent post by Isabella of Magnificent Octopus brought China Mieville to my attention for the first time. Her review of his newest book, Kraken, made me immensely curious, so on my next trip to my local library I checked to see if they had any of his work in the collection. To my mild surprise, they actually did – but the discovery that it was Un Lun Dun made me hesitate for a long moment.
I’ve looked at this book before – nearly checked it out three or four times even. It’s cover, which depicts a slightly creepy looking girl with huge dark eyes holding a book, while a hazy cathedral rises behind her and a double-decker bus crawls by on four thick amphibian type legs, is definitely intriguing. The idea of a “Wonderland of strange delights where all the lost and broken things of London end up”, and a 12 year old girl on a quest to save it didn’t sound bad. I’ve been having trouble with books targeted at YA and middle-school aged kids lately though, which is not shocking considering that I am no longer that age myself and my reading horizons have expanded in recent years. I have repeatedly put this book back on the shelf with a vague sense of nostalgia, and an awkward unease. If I took it home and read it, would it be awesome, or would I be underwhelmed by something that was no longer fulfilling?
Faced by these fears (not as silly as they sound, given the precious amount of reading time I have – and even with all the time in the world I couldn’t read all the books I want to!) I decided to give it a go, even though the great review of Mieville’s work refered to his adult fiction, and Un Lun Dun was his first book for “young readers”.
To my extreme relief and great pleasure, this book was good! Certainly its protagonist was 12 and her reactions to circumstances were simple, full of wide-eyed wonder, but I found it easy to relate to Deeba, and she wasn’t at all annoying or (more importantly) too know-it-all arrogant. It was kind of amusing that the bad guy in the book is basically pollution – smog evolves and becomes conscious, then schemes to take over the world of Un Lun Dun, where it has escaped after the “weather witches” of London kicked it’s arse. The story seemed original and wildly imaginative. The world that Mieville came up with was amazing, populated by quirky and bizarre characters (friends and quest companions of Deeba’s include a half-ghost, a tailor whose head is a giant pin-cushion, and a yappy affectionate empty milk carton). Visually I was reminded of worlds like the one Neil Gaimon created in MirrorMask (as portrayed in Dave McKean’s movie version actually), and Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth. At the same time though, this world was new and different. Well crafted and entertaining, and not too complex, this book was a treat. I’m glad I finally read it – and I am beyond eager to read more from Mieville.
by Kenzaburo Oe
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Niels Arden Oplev-Swedish-2009) was the first really good movie I saw in June. An incredibly well made thriller, with a mystery that kept me guessing the entire time (no, I haven’t read the book…), and an astonishingly good performance from Noomi Rapace. Dealing with subject matters that gave me the chills, but always coming from a direction that I hadn’t expected, this movie left me shaken but totally stoked. The performances, delivery, pacing, use of color and angle, music – everything came together to present great, if uncomfortable, movie making. The Swedish title of this movie is “Men Who Hate Women” and that hints pretty powerfully at some of the more gruesome aspects of the story – if you can take it, then I highly recommend this. 
Everyone should see No One Knows About Persian Cats (Bahman Ghobadi-Iran-2009). It’s an amazingly sad/hopefully look at the underground musical culture in Iran. Following a few 20-somethings for a month or two as they write and record and practice and perform their music, all the time in secret, all the time risking arrest or worse, this movie is a collection of story bits and music videos – fiction based on real life, interspersed with musical performances and footage of Tehran. I loved the music so much that I bought the soundtrack almost immediately. The story itself is heartbreaking, shocking, frustrating, but somehow still hopeful. I highly recommend this one.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Mike Newell-USA-2010) was tons of fun. Something about mellow Jake Gyllenhaal going all kick-ass totally worked for me. I snicker as I say that, and recall him half naked in the desert battling off…whatever was attacking him at the time…mmm. Anyway, it was also funny to see Gemma Arterton again, so soon after playing a similar (but less snarky) role in the recent Clash of the Titans. I really like her, but I hope she returns soon to the type of roles she played in things like St. Trinian’s and (even though it was hardly more than a scene) RocknRolla. Incidentally, RocknRolla‘s actual rock ‘n roller Toby Kebbell is also in The Prince of Persia as one of Dastan’s (Gyllenhaal) brothers. And his other brother is played by Richard Coyle, who was one of my favorite characters on the British TV show Coupling. I could continue to play this game, but suffice it to say that this is a fun movie in quite a lot of ways!
With my viewing of The Shining (Stanley Kubrick-USA-1980) and Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick-USA-1999) I have seen all of Kubrick’s well known work, as well as some of his more obscure stuff. I watched these as a double feature, and wow, that was an experience! The Shining was SO freaky, and Eyes Wide Shut was SO bizzare. I liked them both, although compared to the excruciatingly nerve shredding spookiness of The Shining, Eyes Wide Shut was merely an interesting thriller. I’m terrified of Jack Nicholson on a regular basis, and he was amazingly scary in The Shining. What an atmosphere the genius of Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick created! The images rip out of the screen. I didn’t even realize I was getting nervous until all of a sudden I noticed that I was crunched in my seat, wide eyed and barely breathing. Brilliant writing and movie making. Eyes Wide Shut had a lot going for it too, but I never really got into it. Maybe my emotional detachment was merely a coping mechanism after the intensity of The Shining. I may have to come back to that one some day.
I’m here to talk about books today though. I’ve been sticking to short ones – beach read length, although not really beach read topics. So far this July I’ve read The Thief and the Dogs by Naguib Mahfouz (trans. by Trevor Le Gassick), Henrietta’s War by Joyce Dennys, A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oe (trans. by John Nathan), and Death In Spring by Merce Rodoreda (trans. by Martha Tennent).
Death In Spring has got to be one of the strangest books I’ve read in a long time. Almost fairy tale like, but brutal in a way that your average fairy tale just hints at, it is the story of a young boy struggling to come to terms with the culture he lives in. And what a culture…! His nameless town is governed by bizarre and violent rituals, anything from painting the houses pink every year, to pouring cement into the mouths of the nearly dead so that their souls won’t escape, to forcing a young man to swim under the village every spring in order to make sure the river isn’t going to wash the village away – a feat which often leaves the man maimed or worse. Whoa. My mind is still reeling from the onslaught of images and weirdness…! Not an enjoyable book, but written with such an interesting and compelling style that I was completely mesmerized. While the possible metaphor for Franco’s Spain went pretty much over my head, I was wowed by Rodoreda’s use of language and rhythm. I will have difficulty forgetting the mysterious and seriously twisted society that Rodoreda created, and meanwhile I will definitely be looking for more work by her.
My viewing of St. Trinian’s a few months ago led me to Another Country (Marek Kanievska-UK-1984), which paired Rupert Everett and Colin Firth as boys approaching their last year in a strict British prep school. Firth is a budding Communist and Everett is gay, so their lives are made equally hard by the head boys and “gods” (even better than being head boy!) who keep order for the adults at the school. Based on a play by Julian Mitchell, the movie was simple and heart-wrenching, with moments of dark humor that kept it light enough to be fully approachable. And the young Firth and Everett are gorgeous, I must add, and their acting talent is already in full swing. Good stuff.
After that weirdness, I went through an easy movie phase: Everybody’s Fine (Kirk Jones-USA-2009), which in spite of it’s large A-list cast couldn’t save itself from its mediocre storyline; Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau-USA-2010), which wasn’t as good as the first one, but had plenty of great one-liners and definitely set the board for a whole string of other comic book hero movies; Major League (David S. Ward-USA-1989), my favorite baseball movie, with my all-time favorite sports announcer Harry Doyle, and the awe-inspiring use of The Troggs’ song Wild Thing!; and after a particularly hard day at work I laughed myself silly over I Love You, Man (John Hamburg-USA-2009) and have joined the ranks of the mad ones who get a kick out of quoting obscure lines from it at inappropriate times…! Ah yes. Easy movies. Although it’s out of order, I’ll tag Failure to Launch (Tom Dey-USA-2006) onto this set. It’s a ridiculous romantic comedy with Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker as the guy who still lives with his parents and the professional “launcher” whom his parents hire to help get him moved out of the house. Of course anything that also stars Zooey Deschanel and Justin Bartha, among others, is sure to not be all bad. A goofy, great comfort movie. 🙂
The last four movies I watched in May were all brilliant in their own way. Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars (Italy-1964) staring Clint Eastwood has been on my TBW list forever. It took me three days to get through it, but it was worth every minute. Like Leone’s The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, I was completely mesmerized, even though the action is sometimes very slow. Slow action is a weird concept, but Leone manages to make two gunmen standing in the street eying each other incredibly suspenseful! Love the score by Ennio Morricone. I’ve been hearing that music for much of my life, and now I’ve finally seen where it originated from. Completely satisfactory.
Back when I was watching Carlos Saura’s trilogy of music and dance films last year, someone (Richard?) mentioned Cria Cuervos (Carlos Saura-Spain-1977) and I put it on my TBW list. Richard mentioned it again recently, and I made sure that this time it went to the top of my Netflix queue. Glad I did, because I liked it SO MUCH. Absolutely riveting. It tells the tale (backwards and forwards and sideways) of a watchful ten year old girl whose father has just died, due (she believes) to the poison she put in his milk. She feels his death by her hand was justified, since his womanizing certainly helped her beloved mother into her own deathbed. I could not take my eyes off the amazing Ana Torrent. Her portrayal of the character Ana was so creepy yet tormented yet adorable. She’s a troubled, imaginative child, whose big eyes take in everything that goes on around her. How she copes with both the present and the past makes up the content of the movie, but her performances makes it a thing of wonder. Easily one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.
I watched La Pointe Courte (Agnes Varda-France-1954) immediately after watching the Saura film, and this made for an amazing double feature. After seeing The Beaches of Agnes in April, I was very interested in seeing Varda’s first film, La Pointe Courte, the location of which she revisited in The Beaches of Agnes. It was both a portrait of a fishing village at a point of crisis, and the relationship of a couple at a point of equal crisis. The waters around the small French village have been declared contaminated so the fishermen are not allowed to fish. They still have to feed their families though, so on the sly they continue to fish. An inspector is snooping around, and arrests are eminent. Meanwhile, a native of the village comes back from Paris with his pretty wife for a vacation. Their tranquility is marred by her unease with how their relationship is progressing, and they discuss their life and love at length as they take long walks around the village. Both story lines are compelling, and due to the lovely cinematography even the long conversations between the lovers are not boring. In fact almost every frame of the movie is worth putting on your wall. Kind of a day-in-the-life story, with no real resolution, but plenty to think about and enjoy. I’m looking forward to watching more from Agnes Varda.
by Gabriel Josipovici
I finished this month’s Non-Structured Book Group read – Moo Pak by Gabriel Josipovici – this morning and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for a great pick 
by Margo Lanagan
I’ll post a picture or two from my Weirs Beach adventure when I get a chance, and I’ll just add quickly, since a proper review seems unlikely, that I liked Samuel Johnson is Indignant by Lydia Davis, but not as much as I had expected. Some of the stories were really good – In a Northern Country was my favorite. It had so much atmosphere and mystery, and the writing was lovely. I also liked some of the tiny little stories, such as They Take Turns Using a Word They Like:
from the collection The Garden of Forking Paths
what we have here is a failure to communicate 