“A good book is never exhausted. It goes on whispering to you from the wall.” – Anatole Broyard
That quote is on a bookmark I just got with the purchase of a book at the lovely Elliott Bay Book Co. I include it here because of how well it describes Kazuo Ishiguro’s remarkable novel, Never Let Me Go
There are simply some books that haunt me long after I put them down, the feelings and the characters take root deep inside and refuse to be finished with me when I’ve read the last page. This is the epitome of one of those books. I find myself, at random points in my day, feeling again the tragedy and profundity of this bizarre and ordinary story.
It was a book I purchased as a result of my attempt to find the best books of the last decade, which I describe in more detail here. It’s been on my ‘to read’ shelf for a while, but then my friend Kj saw the new movie adaptation and recommended via twitter that everyone go see it. Thus, wanting to read the book first, I pulled it off the shelf. It was the best decision I’ve made in some time, thanks to Kj for the assist.
The story is narrated by Kathy H., who refers to her occupation as a ‘carer,’ and relates to the reader the story of growing up at a secluded boarding school, Hailsham, in Great Britain. The novel follows the coming of age of Kathy H., and the two people closest to her, Tommy and Ruth.
Ishiguro takes a science fiction premise and makes it painfully commonplace, if you absolutely detest sci-fi, you’ll still love this book. I don’t want to spoil what the premise is, although you’ll probably figure out what’s going on pretty early on in the novel. It’s not some sort of twist that enjoyment of the novel hinges on or something, I just don’t want to ruin anyone’s ability to go in fresh.
You really should read this book. It ripped my heart out, but quietly, without melodrama or fanfare.
This was my first encounter with Ishiguro, I assure you it will not be the last.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, penned by Carson McCullers in 1940, is a book I just happened to cherry pick off of The Modern Library’s 100 Best novel list. I had no previous knowledge of the book aside from the title. I had no clue who Carson McCullers was. If you had mentioned the name, I would think she were a man. I found her to be a brilliant writer.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is equal parts bright and dim, uplifting and wrenching, healing and wounding. The story follows five characters living in a small city in Georgia in the 1930s. It explores human relationships. Friendships, marriages, parent/child relationships, racial and social tensions of the time. How people interact with each other. It is a jarring narrative full of very real people and real conversations. Richard Wright, black author whose works include Black Boy and Native Son, reviewed Ms. McCullers book, and had this to say in the August 1940 issue of the New Republic,
“To me the most impressive aspect of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is the astonishing humanity that enables a white writer, for the first time in Southern fiction, to handle Negro characters with as much ease and justice as those of her own race. This cannot be accounted for stylistically or politcally; it seems to stem from an attitude toward life which enables Miss McCullers to rise above the pressures of her environment and embrace white and black humanity in one sweep of apprehension and tenderness.”
At first, most of the attention is given to the first character we are introduced to, a deaf-mute named John Singer. Soon thereafter, we are introduced to Mr. Singer’s best friend, another deaf-mute by the name of Spiros Antonapoulos. Slowly, we are introduced to a small cast of main characters, all from different walks of life, that all feel drawn to Mr. Singer for one reason or another.
The plot takes a few turns that I did not necessarily see coming, and that if mentioned here, would ruin the story, so I will keep this short and sweet. The themes in the story resonated intensely with me. The lonely heart will always be hungry for understanding … for companionship. We all long to be understood. We all yearn for people to listen to our heart’s concerns and love us. But not everyone can understand us. This is sad, but the truth. We can just try our best to live with one another, and love one another. Because when it really comes down to it, we are all on the same boat.
Alan Arkin starred in the big screen adaptation in 1968, which garnered a handful of nominations, including one for Arkin (Best Actor in a Leading Role). I would certainly give the movie a try after reading the book … and I certainly recommend the book.
I just finished World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. It was hugely entertaining! Written by Max Brooks, son of legends Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft, the work is obviously modeled after Studs Terkel’s The Good War: An Oral History of World War II. The book is a series of “interviews” done by a UN researcher ten years after humanity’s victory in the Zombie War.
Clearly, there is a great risk that the book will be pure genre blood and gore with little or no compelling narrative, or it could become so tongue and cheek that it loses all meaning. Brooks manages to avoid both of those potential pitfalls, creating a really engaging read. It is in turns hilarious and moving and there is real humanity to be found within the gore.
Brooks did some amazing research, and thus his narrative is tight. WWZ works really well as an imaginative exercise in how actual global socioeconomic and political realities would shape a real zombie apocalypse. Brooks also does a great job keeping his zombies consistent. Often, a book like this can grow to have too many moving parts and the zombies would manifest whatever traits needed for the story at a given moment. This happens constantly in film, television and fiction. Brooks seemed to set a clear physiology of his zombies first, did loads of research about various nations, economies and governments of the world, and then imagined what would happen if Z-Day were to arrive.
Each of his interviewees, from scattered locales all over the world, told stories that felt like genuine fragments of the larger story he had created outside of our view. Brooks did the work so well that many reviewers have favorably compared it Orson Wells’ “War of the Worlds.” Much of what Brooks did worked as a skewering of bureaucracy, militarism and institutions, showing how each was practically organized to fail at any attempts to prevent letting the zombie outbreak turning into a worldwide apocalypse. The fact that he never left the ground level, always letting the characters truly tell their own stories, was what kept it from feeling like there was an agenda.
If I would make a critique it would be that there were times where characters seemed to lose an individual voice, instead sounding more like Brooks himself. This was especially true in that all of his true heroes shared his disregard for faith of any kind, something that would simply be impossible in the actual religious make-up of the world, thus it comes across as a short-sighted misunderstanding of the reality that not all people of faith are extremist Muslim terrorists and lunatic Pat Robertsons or Glenn Becks. Most likely, as it has been for every single calamity in world history, faith would be a part of the problem and a part of the solution in responding to WWZ. Yet, as I write that, understand that this is a tiny critique of a book which truly was a genuine pleasure to read.
The zombie genre can be quite a bit of fun, and this book would be a great introduction for those interested in entering the zombie milieu. It is a remarkably unique sub-genre in which we can explore our fears of the end of the world, can wrestle with the reality that when the world ends it will probably be humanity that pulls down our own curtain, and where we can engage in a hodgepodge of other fun little mental games. I could go on talking about how much I love the zombie genre for a while, so I will end that conversation here… for now.
This book is a fast, engaging read, and I recommend it to all you great folks out there in the internets.
Marty: “Okay, she looks like she is about 11 or 12 years old, but…”
Todd: “I can wait. I solemnly vow to save myself for her.” *
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Chloë Grace Moretz. Where the hell was she when I was 13? Had she been around, I certainly would have had the largest crush in the history of 13 year old boys. I think the 13 year old deep down inside actually does have a crush on her.
As it stands, I am not 13. However, I think it may be possible that, in an unprecedented perfect storm of talent, charm and the fickle circumstances necessary for good filmmaking, that Ms. Chloë Grace just may be my favorite actress before she can legally drive. Seriously.
It started when she played the knowing, no nonsense little sister in (500) Days of Summer. It was a good start, and set a strong foundation in my movie-watching experience of her. Yet, had that been followed up with nothing more than her performance in Diary of a Wimpy Kid, I probably would have forgotten she existed, (In large part because I will never see that movie and all accounts I have read make it sound like it should have been more accurately titled Diary of a Selfish, Unlikeable, Manipulative, Lying Little Asshole).
Had her career following her turn in (500) Days resulted in the all too common relegation to the typical little kid roles, of which she has done plenty, I would have thought of her only in terms of the hopes that she become one of the child star success stories and not one of the horrifying tales we so often hear.
Fortunately, her role in Diary was more a sign of her range than a true sign of what every role she took would look like. Instead, as mentioned above, there is very good reason to think that Chloë Grace Moretz is going to be entertaining the hell out of us for many years to come, and equally good reason to think that, if things fall the right way, she may be my favorite actress by the time she can get her Learner’s Permit.
Scott, that is a pretty bold claim, what are these reasons of which you write? Well, I’m glad I asked myself that, here is my answer.
First is the primary reason I decided to write this post. It is the fact that she stole every single scene in which she appeared in Friday’s remarkably fun Kick-Ass. In a film filled with immensely entertaining characters, she flat out ran away as the most entertaining. Her performance as an actress simply felt older than she was. Her sense of the moment, of the scene, of what makes a line funny or poignant simply reaches beyond her years. Most young folks deliver lines, Moretz acts. This is something that is quickly becoming a common theme for her.
So far, she is my favorite character in my favorite movie this year. That might change thanks to upcoming movies like Inception and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Still, the fact that it is true at the moment is crraaaazzzyyyy!
<As a brief aside, I LOVED Kick-Ass!
I completely understand where some people are coming from in their arguments that the film sexualizes teenagers while placing them in the midst of unbelievable violence and profanity, they are right. However, the reason I still loved the movie is because of my experience when I was a teenager. The film wasn’t a false sexualization, it wasn’t profanity you wouldn’t hear every day at every school in America, and it was a violence fantasized and role-played by every boy and some of the girls I knew. It was indicative of what the brains of America’s youth are really like.
Thus, if the content of Kick-Ass disturbs you, don’t rail against the film. Instead, hug a kid (yours or one you know well enough to hug), take them out for ice cream, become a mentor, tutor a kid, listen to a teenager as they talk about the overwhelming anger and helplessness some of them feel in the face of bullies and circumstances they can do nothing to change, which the movie nailed.
Also, if us adults can learn to fight our own bystander apathy, then kids won’t have to feel like they are the only ones who might change things. However, to go into more detail would require another post, so, back to Chloë Grace.>
Second-of-ly (to quote Tobias Fünke), another reason that I think Ms. Moretz will continue to rock out with her socks out, is great roles on the horizon. Hit Girl was that special confluence of a great role/character and exciting talent. This is something that can be fickle, plenty of great actors and actresses have been cast in doomed roles that make them look like utterly awful actors (the first example that jumps into my head is Gene Hackman in Behind Enemy Lines).
We know Chloë Grace has the talent, but she needs to land the right roles too, and there are some pretty fantastic roles that she has already been cast in, increasing the chances that the future looks bright.
Most obviously, there is her role in the next Scorsese film, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. This will mean a starring role, in an adaptation of strong source material (the book only takes about an hour to read for those interested), in a Martin Scorsese Picture. Hello! That sounds like a hanging curveball just waiting to be knocked out of the park by Moretz.
There is also Let Me In, the American adaptation of the amazing Norwegian film Let The Right One In (if you haven’t seen Let The Right One In, stop reading my stupid post and go watch it RIGHT NOW, it is available on the instant queue through Netflix. [If you don’t have Netflix… well, I don’t really know how to help you]).
Originally, Moretz being cast in Let Me In wouldn’t fill me with any sort of hope, because Let The Right One In is a movie that should be left alone in its original form. Usually, Americanizing a foreign “horror” film results in gore, stupidity and schlock.
However, like Homer Simpson’s urge to kill, my urge to hope is rising. The Departed proved that an Americanization can be smart and well-crafted. More importantly, a fairly recent interview with the adaptation’s director over at Cinematical gives significant reason to believe he really gets it!
This could mean that her role as the little girl damned to exist eternally as a terrible predator in the form of a child will present another source of dark, poignant, troublingly entertaining material to let Moretz flex her acting muscles. That may be a wonderful prospect.
So much can happen in the next few years. Chloë Grace may decide she doesn’t want to act anymore, or these roles could hit production problems and go the way of The League of Extraordinary Gentleman or At World’s End. However, if her perfomances as a precocious young orphan and a lonely vampire go as well as they could, thus leading to even more great job offers for her, then Chloë Grace Moretz just may join Leonardo DiCaprio, who is probably my favorite actor, as the actress most likely to get me to the theater based purely on her presence. I must admit, I’m rooting for it to happen.
