Due to life circumstances, we’re pretty much done here until the 4th. We’re also still behind on our email. So apologies to all on that score. We’ll get back to all of you when the DSL kicks in at the new place. (In fact, we’ve already started on the replies.) In the meantime, check out this latest John Barth interview and feel free to visit some of the fine folks on the left.
[UPDATE: And before I poof away completely for a week or so, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Terry's self-reflective essay on living day(s) with nothing to do, an existential state that the Reluctant hungers for, but that seems a far off day to dream about.]
[ANOTHER UPDATE: Since people apparently want to know, my take on Fahrenheit 9/11 is this: It doesn't present a solution. If you've been following the news, it doesn't present much in the way of new information. The marine recruiters are creepy. The singular trooper governing Oregon is sad. It makes great satirical use of found footage, but if it's meant to serve as agitprop, then why doesn't the film have the conviction to lobby for Kerry? I found the story of the conservative Democrat who lost her son to be heartbreaking, but I felt as if this interesting side story was lost within Moore's deliberate pandering. Three stars. Joe Bob says check it out, regardless.]
The Call by Yannick Murphy: The always interesting author of Here They Come and Signed, Mata Hari returns with a novel that whips up a worldview from a rather quirky set of limitations: namely, the call logs that a veterinarian maintains as his son is unexpectedly put into a coma and an unforgiving economy denies him work. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic, often funny, and very moving account on how one family uses acceptance and forgiveness as a way to atone for hard knocks. (
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber: Forget Franzen and Eugenides. If you're looking for a social novel that counts, Diana Abu-Jaber is the author you're looking for. Building from the free-form exploration of consciousness and identity in Crescent and the gripping procedural structure of Origin, Abu-Jaber's latest novel is her finest, equally fluent with gutterpunk culture and smarmy real estate men. It has been suggested by The Washington Post's Ron Charles that you will likely gain some pounds while reading this novel. This is certainly true. Abu-Jaber's description of food is so precise that it often made me want to do more cooking. But I very much admired the way in which Abu-Jaber presents all her characters as unwitting victims of rough capitalism, which permits them some dignity even as they perform terrible acts.
The Last of the Live Nude Girls by Sheila McClear: This memoir isn't so much about the decline of the Times Square peepshow, as it is about one young woman's efforts to pull herself up by by her bootstraps when presented with few economic options. Filled with self-introspective candor and a quiet dignity, McClear's story is one that might befall any of us in these volatile times. While McClear does get back on her feet, her book leads one contemplating the terrible fates of other young women now moving to New York and falling into deadlier vocations. (
How bout that Good Burger, eh?
“why doesn’t the film have the conviction to lobby for Kerry?”
According to Page Six, Moore hates the Dems as much as Bush. Some choice excerpts:
* He bashed the Democrats as “a miserable, pathetic party that can’t win an election even when they win an election.”
* He bashed Al Gore: “Nobody counted on him losing Tennessee, nobody counted on him forbidding [Bill] Clinton from campaigning for him in Arkansas, and certainly nobody counted on him – and Gore is a smart man – losing 3 debates to the dumbest man to ever run for president.”
* He “posted a petition on my Web site, which I signed, that said I won’t vote for anybody who voted for the war. And Kerry voted for the war.”
And, irony of ironies: * He trashed Nader because, “he doesn’t give a [bleep] about anybody but himself.”
Pot, meet kettle.
Actually, “Good Burger” is just a fun-loving film about a couple of kids trying to make their way in the world. It was put out by Nickelodean. It lobbys for nothing more than a good time.