Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith

I will admit to finding Patricia Highsmith only after The Talented Mr. Ripley became a movie, but I have been slowly but steadily buying her books used very since. Strangers on a Train is her first novel, and it is a remarkable one. Most first novels you read end up being iffy, with promise but that certain tinge of not quite polished prose. Strangers on a Train had so little of that feel that I struggle to even remember it. Mr. Hitchcock liked it so much he felt compelled to make a movie out of it and we know Hitch knows his suspense.

In SoaT, Guy is just a guy (heh) who would really like to get a divorce from his poorly chosen first marriage so he can marry the sweet, rich girl of his dreams. (He really loves her; it's not a money thing.) He is taking the train back to his hometown to finally file the papers, and on this trip he meets Buddy, a spoiled rich kid who has it all but thinks his father is in between him and happiness. Buddy invites Guy back to his train compartment to have dinner and a drink, and Guy reluctantly accepts. It's probably the worst decision he ever made. You see, Buddy is a sociopath who feels he has hatched the fool-proof plan for murder. He tells Guy you kill my dad, and I will kill your medlesome wife. No one will ever know. It'll be great. Guy is horrified, and what follows is one of the tautest thrillers I have read.

Highsmith really knows how to show a man completely dissolve all of himself. She shows him lose everything that is pure and hopeful, and makes it so real you know it could happen to you. That's why I love her work. The heroes in her stories aren't perfect; they are everyman. You could be there; you could be that person, clinging desperately to sanity and hope but all the while knowing it is over. She starts that path in Strangers on a Train. It is an excellent one.

Rating: 5 Purrs for a brilliant first novel

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick

I never read a lot of PDK before this year. I read some of his short stories, which I liked well enough, but I didn't like them enough to really pick up a full book and give it a whirl. That was until my friend John recommended Ubik. Then I fell into serious lust. I believe I went right out and bought another 5 PKD books the very next day after finishing that one. I was told to pick up Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? next. I have to admit, I loved it, but not as much as Ubik. Not that Androids wasn't exceptional, trust me. It was. But Ubik was such a mind fuck, I don't know that anything will top it.

I loved the movie, Blade Runner, so I fully expected to find many similarities between the two, but as most book adaptations go, it was not meant to be. Actually, I didn't mind that at all, which is unusual for me. Androids focuses on Rick Deckard, an android bounty hunter, his pursuit of some escaped androids, and his desire to own a real animal, which is some sort of status symbol/religous thing in this story's universe. Really, though, the whole story focuses on the question of what it is to be human, as many of the androids Deckard hunts maintain that he himself is more android, more machine, than they are, and what happens to our humanity once we rely on technology so much that we have to own a real animal just to feel a bond with another living thing.

I love the ending, which I can't go into here because it is really worth reading for yourself. Other than that, I must say Androids is definitely work reading, although Ubik is still my favorite. Of course, I think I have about 4 other PDK books to read, so something else might knock Ubik out of its number 1 spot. Maybe.

Rating: 4 Purrs

Horrorfest 2009 - How many horror movies can I watch? Part 4

So I skipped out last night on the movie viewing, and read a whole bunch instead. So tonight I am back on track, especially since I am off work for the next few days and I can stay up late.  Never fear, I am trying really hard to meet my sister-in-law's expectations of 25 movies while the spouse is out of town I'm on 15 now, for those who are counting). So tonight is a night of classics rather than  B-Movies. Tonight I watch the good stuff. (I don't think I have Suspiria in me tonight, but it's on the list.)

• The Shining: God, I love this movie. I remember reading the book when I was in high school and being overwhelmed with how terrifying the story was and yet also how beautiful. Kubrick takes Stephen King's vision and makes it his own without ever really losing the essence of the story that King created.  Jack Nicholson is damn frightening, the kid is so cute and creepy, and Shelly Duvall is terrified. You can tell she is totally stressed out by working with Nicholson and Kubrick. 
• Jaws: I watch this movie even if it's showing on regular TV with commercials and all the good stuff chopped out. Stephen Spielberg makes good movies, but I think this is one of his best. It seems sometimes crap happens for a reason, so I can't help but be happy that Bruce the Shark was such a pissy creature that they could only show him towards the end. It certainly makes that first appearance a shocker, even on the 100th viewing. Plus, that opening scene is downright scary, no matter how many times you watch it. Jaws did the ocean for me like Psycho did for some and showers. I still can't get in the water much more than hip deep without thinking about this film., and to me, that says perfection. That says true horror - forget all the slash, slice, dice and naked teenagers (not that I don't like watching those too of course). 

Recent Acquisitions to the Library

My most recent haul from Half-Price Books.

• Severance Package by Duane Swierczynski
  
• The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
  
• Just After Sunset by Stephen King
  
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling
  
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling
  
• Underworld by Don DeLillo
  
• Clandestine by James Ellroy
  
• The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs: A Novel by Irvine Welsh
  
• Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney
  
• The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Other Stories by Charles Dickens
  
• A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle
  
• Transformations by Anne Sexton
  
• Filmmakers Series - Fellini's Films by Burke
  
• The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston
  
• The Penultimate Truth by Philip K. Dick
  
• Death Is a Lonely Business by Ray Bradbury
  
• Metamorphosis and Other Stories by Franz Kafka
  
• Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain
  
• Next by Michael Crichton
  

Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski

I never would have picked up Charles Bukowski on my own if it weren't for 3 different people waxing poetic about him, so I threw in the towel and tried him out. Wow. I wasn't sure about him because although I understood the significance of On the Road, I just didn't fall in love with it, so more Beats, well, I wasn't interested. But damn if Mr. Bukowski didn't blow me away. Technically, he's not a Beat, but he has a similar style. So far I have read Post Office and Ham on Rye this year, and I have several more queued up in the library to read. I am parsing them out so I don't run through everything too quickly; that's how much I like Bukowski. He is reaching Vonnegut proportions for me.

Ham on Rye is set in Bukowski's younger years and man if the guy can't create a vibrant visual image using like, 3 words. 

If you are interested in an author who can write using concise, simple language to create images that stick with you, beauty out of the ugly. gilding out of the sow's ear so to speak, then check him out. He runs up there with my e.e. cummings, Kurt Vonnegut, and (new) Philip K. Dick obsession. 

Rating: 5 Purrs so far...there's still so much to read!

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

I picked up Lonesome Dove because a friend told me that it was his favorite book. I don't meet many people who love to read, so when someone tells me that a book is his favorite, and he is able to defend it when I respond, "Seriously? A Cowboy book?", I figure I really should give it a shot. I stand corrected. Lonesome Dove is much more than just a cowboy book.

Lonesome Dove is about a cattle drive and the people who participate in it or are affected in some way by it. You have my favorite character, Augustus McCrae, former Texas Ranger and current easy-going drunkard, who follows Woodrow Call, his former Captian and best friend, on the drive up to Montana. Jake Spoon shows up in Lonesome Dove, TX one day and tells his former Texas Ranger pals that the real paradise is Montana. The undiscovered, ungrazed country, so to speak. Call decides it's an opportunity not to be missed, and hires a bunch of local boys to drive a huge herd of cattle up to Montana to start one of the first cattle ranches before the wilderness is lost. He misses the urgency, the spectacle, the danger of his former days in the Texas Rangers. (Many times Gus & Call discuss the comfort of the area they have helped civilize, with Gus wondering why anyone would need to leave it.) Jake, however, has his own problems, and never really intends on joining the boys on the drive. Jake is a man of appetities, of luxuries, gambling, and using up women. When he meets Lorena, he thinks he's got it made, until she holds him to his promise to get her out of Lonesome Dove. (Lorena is another one of my favorite characters. I didn't like her much at first, but her character really grew on me. You start off thinking she will just be the hooker with the heart of gold type character, but instead she ends up being so much more complex.) Lorena joins them on the drive, along with lovesick Dish, the top hand, Newt, the youngest of the crew, and others. They face the difficult, long drive to Montana, driving the cattle across rivers, on the look out for Indians, protecting their horses and their own skin, and battling the weather.

What I liked most about this book was from the moment I started reading, I knew I was in Texas. You could almost feel the swagger, the hitching of belt buckles, the chewing of tobacco. Gus is a wonderful character, on the one hand so easy-going, and on the other, so cruel and exacting when rescuing Lorena. Lorena's whole storyline tore me up. Her grief was almost too close to home. I could see it in my head so vividly. But what I loved the most was despite the epic scale of the cattle drive, the growth of the characters, even the interplay of all of the characters, McMurtry never says this is epic. This is historic. This is significant. In fact, he leads you to question whether the whole thing is simply folly, an old man catering to his needs of danger, heroism, and valor, and whether the cost of it is too great. It's mythic and tragic all in one. You are left to question whether any of it really made any difference, even at the cost of so many and so much.

When you think of Lonesome Dove, don't think cowboy book. Yes, it is a Western. You can't deny that. But it can be so much more if you look beyond the cover.

Rating: 4 1/2 Purrs

Barber's Adagio for Strings

I was listening to my iPod, The DoctorPod, this morning while getting ready for work and heard the most amazing song. I had to take a moment and just listen while Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings played. It is possibly one of the most hauntingly beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard. I swear my heart broke listening to this piece, the way the strings slowly build and descend, build and descend, until you feel like your heart will burst, and the things get quiet, and then build again. Wow.

I like a lot of classical music; a lot of pieces make me really, truly, emotionally respond, but this one, well, it's a cut above. It's up there with Bach's Toccata and Fugue, Air on the G String, Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring. It's up there with Mozart's Moonlight Sonata, Haydn's Emperor's Hymn, Debussy's Clair de Lune, and pretty much any version of Ave Maria. It's just amazing. I can't tell you how much, you need to go listen yourself.

Theater of Blood

I love old Vincent Price movies. You can imagine how excited I was when saw this one was on my Monster channel (before I lost it – phooey on you DishNetwork), I was very, very excited, because outside of the Dr. Phibes movies, Theater of Blood is my favorite Vincent Price movie. 

In Theater of Blood, Vincent Price plays Edward Lionheart, a very egotistical actor who all he really wants for Christmas is an award usually given by the Critic's Circle for the best actor in the theater. Unfortunately, he's overlooked, shunned, and critically flamed by the Critic's Circle, so he decides to attempt suicide after confronting the harpies. Too bad his suicide is just one other thing that doesn't seem to go right in Lionheart's life. He survives his swan dive into the Thames and  is rescued by the crazed tramps living in the area. Cue the revenge. (I love Vincent Price's revenge movies - they are always so dramatic.) This time, instead of the plagues or some such like Dr. Phibes, Lionheart's revenge follows the many grisly deaths that took place in the Shakespeare plays in which he starred. He slowly takes out the critics who denied him his just reward while the police are helpless to stop him. 

Vincent Price really hams it up and Diana Rigg is just amazingly beautiful. You know what else makes me really love this movie? The fact that they both consider this one of their best and favorite films. They have very good taste, if I do say so myself. 

They just don't make them like this anymore, and I hope beyond hope no one gets it in their craw to remake this anytime soon. Theater of Blood is very much a movie of its time - it has just the right amount of camp and buckets of bright red theater blood to make a perfect pie - even if it is stuffed with poodles. 

Rating: 5 Purrs  - it' s my favorite Vincent Price movie ever. How could I not give it all 5 Purrs? 

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marissa Pessl

I heard so much about Special Topics in Calamity Physics before I bought it that I had very high expectations. There was so much buzz about this book that it could have been disastrous, but really it was a pretty good book. It had its moments of feeling a little too gimmicky, but overall it was a good story with entertaining characters and a nice mystery to boot.

In Special Topics in Calamity Physics, you meet Blue Van Meer, very studious and very smart daughter of a self-absorbed scholar. Blue and her dad travel from college town to college town, her father working his way through girlfriends and Blue working her way through schools. Eventually they end up in Stockton, North Carolina at the very preppy St. Gallway school where Blue becomes entangled in a mystery, in a small group of the “elite” students, and in her first true romance. Blue’s experiences with this group of kids, the “Blue Bloods,” and their mentor, Hannah Schneider, the electric and odd film teacher, change her forever. Blue’s relationships with these new people divert her from fawning over her father, but also bring her deep into a mystery – why do they even involve her at all, why is Hannah so interested in her, and who is the man who drowns in Hannah’s pool? Blue and to some degree, the BlueBloods, try to decipher the truth behind Hannah, and eventually behind Hannah’s death.

The shtick here is that Blue Van Meer is writing this story as a report in one of her college classes, and thus annotates it madly with references to books real and imagined, includes drawings, and even has a final exam at the end. Blue writes this way, mostly due to her father telling her once to “exquisitely” annotate her works. It can be fun to follow along with the literary and pop culture references she includes, but if you don’t like footnotes and that sort of thing, just stay away.  Occasionally, Pessl uses these affectations to hide the fact that some of her secondary characters are thinly written as well. It occasionally leaves you wanting more meat and less fluff.

Overall, I can see why the book got such good reviews – the idea, the gimmick are fresh and those literary types love to be able to laugh and think – ha I got that lit geek reference (I’ll admit it, I did it once or twice myself. ) It’s a fun read, and Blue Van Meer is a character that sticks with you for a while.  It’s a very good first novel, and I hope Pessl continues to grow and write even more.

Rating: 4 Purrs for some truly creative and bittersweet moments and some fairly memorable train wrecks as the Blue Bloods.  

Recent Acquisitions to the Library

Here's the latest haul from Half Price Books:

• The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
• A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
• The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
• The Night Country by Stewart O'Nan
• The Ring art by Misao Inagaki, original novel by Koji Suzuki
• Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan
• Light on Snow by Anita Shreve
• Skylight Confessions by Alice Hoffman
• Origin by Diana Abu-Jaber
• Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
• Ten Days in the Hills by Jane Smiley
• The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
• A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

On the Road is really my first real introduction to the Beats, other than some poetry reading here and there during college. It’s a shame to think I graduated from college with a degree in Literature without more of it under my belt, but you know how those classes go – and to be honest, I did tend to focus more on those women’s studies and contemporary lit classes than post war literature. On the Road wasn’t quite what I was expecting, and I read it mostly because Pandabob has delved into his Beat era interest and he handed it over to me.

In On the Road, Sal Paradise (or Jack Kerouac, since this is a thinly veiled autobiographical work) chronicles his travels back and forth across America and into Mexico after the war. His pal, Dean Moriarty, has inspired him to hit the road to expand his horizons. He takes you on the journey with him, but it’s a journey of the days where you drive cross-country, pick up hitchhikers or become one yourself. You live free, have very little if any money, and eat cheap sandwiches made from the bread and meat you snatch from the roadside gas stations while the owner isn’t looking. There is a naiveté about it, a gleeful freedom, an energy and drive that still captures the itchy feet anyone gets sometime in their lives – the desire to break off from the known and head out to somewhere, anywhere that is different to see what there is to see – to live abundantly and honestly and free in the world at large. There is all of that, but I also felt there was also an underlying unhappiness, a feeling of drifting, with few ties to anyone or anything.

I understand the place On The Road has in American literature. It’s an important work. It’s bohemian, it’s raw and full of honest, simple language, much like you would expect. I understand that it’s highly influential. I just had a very hard time getting past just how much of an asshole Dean Moriarty is. So even though I can respect the feel of the work, what Kerouac was doing, his purpose in writing it and the movement he spawned by doing so, I also want to reach into that damn book and slap that fool Moriarty around for being such a jerk. But you know, maybe that’s just me. Part of me wanted to get in the car right then and drive, and every time we get in the car and drive to New Mexico, maybe I'll carry some of that spirit with me. 

Rating: 4 Purrs for being a great work of art, and for Kerouac for being honest enough to show the warts on himself and the people he knew