A potpourri of stuff I’ve looked at and read recently, in order to entice or warm against (listed with most recommended first, least recommended last)…
The Sisters Brothers, by Patrick DeWitt. A picaresque of the American West. Two brothers, Charlie and Eli (the narrator) Sisters, have little to recommend except for Charlie’s sociopathic bent. So they hire out as hit men in a not very historically accurate Northern California at the time of the mid-19th century gold rush. Eli is a little chubby, and has a persistent soft spot for wayward animals and travelers. However, in thrall to his elder brother, he has no compunction and little conscience about the violent swath they leave along the trail from Oregon City to San Francisco, and then up the the gold streams.
The simple plot line and characters sound harsh and forbidding. But DeWitt has used Eli’s voice in the stylized manner of True Grit, and the brothers emerge as insightful, at times eloquent observers of their time. Like the recent Jeff Bridges movie, there is a constant undertone not only of violence, but more often humor and humanity. Eli finds love with a doomed ex-call girl, money in the oddest places, and finally a bit of alchemy yielding easy prospecting.
This is a breezy read, in the manner of Kurt Vonnegut. Meaning the seemingly simple sentences and terse action often illuminate strangely modern themes. Corporations, money corrupting politics, self-improvement, and bullying are front and center here.
Recommended; 4.5/5 stars
Lost in Shangri-la, True Story of Survival, Adventure, and The Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II, by Mitchell Zuckoff. On May 13, 1945, A DC-3 loaded with 24 Army AIr Force personnel, took off for a sightseeing trip from Hollandia, New Guinea. Only 3 returned. Zuckoff weaves his extensive research, including diaries, first person recollections, and service records into a compelling saga. This is just one more reminder about the mindset of the millions of young Americans who went off to war in the early 40s, and returned with an indomitable innovative capacity.
Most of the story unfold in as high rain forest valley now called Baliem, but then referred to as Shangri-La. A huge expanse (ten by thirty miles) isolated from the outside world, at 8,000 feet surrounded by 10-14,000 jungle covered mountain, Shangri-La was home to at least 100,000 stone age tribes men and women. They had lived completely apart from the rest of the world for centuries, maybe millennia. Their diet: sweet potatoes and pigs. Their dress: for men, and penis sheath made from a gourd, and for women, a G-String with grass fronds attached. Separated into clans and tribes, living in grass huts in small villages of 10-50 people, they engaged in perpetual revenge driven warfare, stylized, but with real killing.
Dropping into here were the three survivors of the DC-3 crash: Margaret Hastings, a petite blond WAC secretary, Lt. John McCollum, who lost his twin brother in the crash, and emerged as the least injured, and Kenneth Decker, a draftsman in the engineering dept. Decker and Hastings suffered significant burns, which quickly started to fester and threatened to turn gangrenous in the humid jungle. McCollum managed to get his little party to a relatively flat, clear area, where they quickly made contact with some local hunters, and a recon plan flying overhead.
From their, the story quickly unfolds on a twin path. First, how to get to the survivors to salvage their lives, and then get them out of a place without any roads, much less an airstrip, so isolated no one has ventured in since who knows when. And second, an anthropological study of a primitive but resourceful people about to be engulfed by modern society.
Zuckoff is a journalism professor, so his research and documentation is impeccable, But he surprises with his sensitive reconstructions of conversations and encounters among the varied cast of characters, leading to full-bloodied personality portraits usually only found in a novel.
Recommended; 3.5 stars out of 5
The Ides of March, directed by George Clooney, starring Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Paul Giamatti, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Marisa Tomei. One thing I loved about this political drama: it’s set in Cincinnati, where I grew up. The bridges, the barely changed skyline, the grey winter days – I felt right at home.
Gosling has the lead here as a whiz kid media consultant on Clooney’s presidential campaign. Clooney plays a liberal governor, seemingly pure and idealistic but revealed to be just as flawed as, oh, say Bill Clinton. Hoffman and Giamatti are rival campaign managers, and Tomei is a cheeky NY Times reporter, friendly, but headline and deadline driven.
Clooney mixes up this stew with a straightforward tale of campaign infighting, and horse-trading for the nomination. The mix gets spiced with a young female lead, attracted to Gosling, who turns out to be more of a problem then he bargained for. In the end, we’re encouraged to resign ourselves to cynicism.
Plus/Minus, plus for the actors and the high gloss Hollywood production, minus for being too much like reality. 3/5 stars.
Next up: a few TV reviews