The Cue Card: Books, Movies, Music and More

I’ve been busy with life away from the computer lately but did enjoy the novel and film below.

“The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry” is a novel that I read for my book club this month and one that I wanted to read because it was so popular after its release in 2012. It made the long list for the Man Booker Prize, too. Not bad for a debut novel!

Many know by now it's about a retired man (Harold) in his 60s who, upon receiving a letter from a former work friend (Queenie) informing him of her terminal cancer, impulsively leaves his wife (Maureen) at home and undertakes a walking journey across England to visit her. He tells Queenie to wait for him and somehow thinks his walking will save her.

Along the way Harold meets various characters who help him on his difficult, ill-prepared 600-mile journey (in yachting shoes no less!), in which he reminisces about his life, pondering over his many regrets, namely that he wasn’t a better father to his only son. We also find out his marriage is just about completely broken and he’s been a total couch potato for a long, long time. But during the arduous journey he comes to be transformed as does his wife, who’s waiting for him at home. Towards the end, a dark part of the family’s past is revealed, which both come to grips with in a new and more understanding way.

The book seems to have a simple premise about an ordinary character I wouldn’t normally care much about, and yet the novel pulled me in from early on. I didn’t think I’d like it, but I was pleasantly surprised. It had a lot of weighty themes, such as loneliness, despair, regret, fear, as well as hope and transformation. I enjoyed spending time with Harold on the road and those he meets along the way, and I thought the novel was beautifully written, both heartfelt and visually capturing.

One of my book club members said its pilgrimage reminded her a bit of “The Canterbury Tales,” which I thought was rather astute. It slightly reminded me of “Forrest Gump,” when Forrest runs across the country, thinking upon his life. The author Rachel Joyce said she wrote the story when her father was dying of cancer and that it was her escape. “My way,” she says, “of making sense. And somehow also my way of finding the flip side to my complicated, wild grief.”

“The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry” is a touching gem and one that I’m glad not to have skipped over.

The movie “Mud,” too, is quite enjoyable. It’s a coming-of-age story about two 14-year-old boys (Ellis and Neckbone) who befriend a fugitive named Mud (played by Matthew McConaughey) that they come across hiding out on a small island, where an old motor boat sits lodged in a tree.

It’s set in a poor Arkansas town near the Mississippi River, where Ellis lives on a houseboat and helps his father sell catfish door to door. Secretly, the boys try to help Mud evade some bad-guy bounty hunters after him and reunite with his old trampy girlfriend, played, I thought, by a miscast Reese Witherspoon.

Ellis, in particular, steals the movie as the idealistic kid who believes in the fugitive Mud and life and high school love along the Mississippi, only to be crushed when things turn out not so rosy. The cinematography of the river and community along its shores also makes the story come alive, and it’s got a strong supporting cast that includes the iconic Sam Shepard and Michael Shannon of 2011’s “Take Shelter.” With some decent suspense and nice script twists, the movie is pretty entertaining. The only trouble is you have to suspend your disbelief quite a lot. How can they not find this fugitive when he’s right there in the open? The ending, too, gets pretty crazy and unbelievable, but still the boy’s story along the Mississippi for the most part is well worth the price of admission.

The screenwriter and director Jeff Nichols was apparently said to be inspired for the film “Mud” by Mark Twain’s works. And in seeing it, you can imagine that Ellis and Neckbone are sort of like a modern-day Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. I was slightly reminded, too, of the 1986 film “Stand by Me,” which has a similar coming of age, outback feel to it. It seems like Tye Sheridan who plays Ellis could well have a future in movies after his indelible performance in “Mud.”

April has flown by and now May is almost upon us. After spending the past month in the States, I will be headed back to North Country (or Canada as some call it) on Monday to rejoin the husb (who enjoyed part of the time in Florida with me) and our dog Stella, pictured here.

Oh Stella, how I can't wait to see you! It should be good to be back. The weather has finally gotten nice at home (the snow is gone!) and I'm looking forward to summer.

There’s some new releases to look forward to as well. If you look at the list at the right, you'll see some strong authors with new books coming out. I’m definitely curious about Khaled Hosseini's new novel “And the Mountains Echoed,” which I think is another story of his partly set in Afghanistan but I don’t know much about it yet. I’ve read his other two novels and really was transported (as were most) by “The Kite Runner” back in 2003. “A Thousand Splendid Suns” followed, which was quite grim but good as well.

Also the award-winning author of “Half of a Yellow Sun” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has a new novel coming out called “Americanah.” I’ve always wanted to read “Half of a Yellow Sun,” which won the Orange Prize in 2007, or for that matter her first novel “Purple Hibiscus” from 2003. Her books are typically set in Adichie’s home country of Nigeria and have received a lot of recognition. I’ll have to play catch up and read all of them, pronto. Have you read her?

Another pick for May books also takes place overseas: Chechnya of all places. Set during the Chechnyan conflict, “A Constellation of Vital Phenomena” is a debut novel by Anthony Marra that has been receiving quite a bit of high praise. Ann Patchett calls it “simply spectacular” and T.C. Boyle says it’s hard to believe it’s a first novel. Apparently it’s about a resilient doctor who risks everything to save the life of a hunted child, and it unravels the unexpected ties that bind us together. Hmm, sounds powerful.

But if that’s not your cup of tea, you might check out Gail Godwin’s new book “Flora” set during the final months of WWII, or Philip Meyer’s multigenerational epic of the American West called “The Son,” which Kate Atkinson calls “stunning” and Charles Frazier says is “remarkable.” Perhaps it’s in the similar vein of Larry McMurtry’s “Lonesome Dove” if you liked that.

Moving on to May movies (see list at the left), it’s all “The Great Gatsby” as far as I can tell. Apparently the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic has sold buckets this year in anticipation for this adaptation by director and co-screenwriter Baz Luhrmann. I plan to reread it myself before the Big Day. The movie’s set during the Roaring Twenties but looks to have a contemporary feel and soundtrack to it. It’s going to be a bit different than the several other Great Gatsby film versions over the decades. You might recall the 1974 version of it with Robert Redford as Gatsby and Mia Farrow as Daisy but that might seem tame after this new version with Leo DiCaprio as Gatsby and Carey Mulligan as Daisy. I'm keeping my mind open about it and of this classic coming to life.

Lastly, for May albums, there’s some strong releases for this month, see list at the bottom right. I’m definitely enticed by new ones from Pistol Annies and Natalie Maines. I plan to check out those along with my pick of Patty Griffin’s new album “American Kid.” I don't plan to miss hearing Patty’s gorgeous vocals and new songs. She hasn’t put out a new album since 2007 so this is a big treat.

How about you, which new book, movie or music releases are you most looking forward to in May?

Ryan Gosling is good at those gritty roles where he’s a down-and-out, drifter-type guy trying to make good but who ends up doing something bad. His latest crime drama “The Place Beyond the Pines” is sort of like his 2011 film “Drive” in which he makes his living as a stunt man and mechanic but moonlights as a getaway driver in heists, and has a girlfriend with a baby he tries to help. Similarly in “The Place Beyond the Pines” he’s a motorcycle stunt rider who takes to robbing banks to support his lover and their newborn son. Seem familiar?

But “The Place Beyond the Pines” goes in a different direction when Gosling’s character Luke has a showdown with a cop played by Bradley Cooper who similarly has an infant son like Luke’s. The second half of the film is mostly about the cop, his guilt over what transpired, and the sons each have had. Cut to 15 years in the future, and all comes to a head when Luke’s son crosses paths with the cop.

The movie could’ve been more of an engrossing character study about fathers and sons with themes of guilt and redemption, but it bungles a bit in the second half, going on too long with a detour into police corruption and seemingly being too implausible and coincidental at times, especially with the sons’ chance relations. It’s a bit predictable, too, and yet “The Place Beyond the Pines” has enough going for it -- some good acting, shots, and twists -- that make it an entertaining crime drama. The parallels between the characters, their fates, and the themes, provoke enough thoughts that it'll likely go through your mind for quite awhile after it’s done.

Have you seen this? And what do you think of Ryan Gosling and the films he's been in?

Elizabeth Strout’s latest novel “The Burgess Boys” follows up her 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winner “Olive Kitteridge,” which I liked quite a bit along with her novel “Amy and Isabelle” from 1998. So I jumped to read this one about two middle-age brothers, Bob and Jim, both lawyers in NYC, and their sister, Susan, who still lives in their hometown of Shirley Falls, Maine. “The Burgess” family reunites in Maine after Susan’s teenage son, Zach, pulls a senseless prank at a mosque that eventually leads to a hate-crime charge. Jim, who’s a hotshot corporate attorney,works to get the charge on his nephew dropped, while Bob, the hapless brother who’s always idolized Jim, goes to lend support to their sister Susan, who desperately needs their help.

“The Burgess Boys” is a bit of a departure for Strout, whose past books have mainly been about women and children, not brothers. This one seems a bit more accessible than quirky “Olive Kitteridge,” and is propelled by the topical issue of immigration and the prejudices surrounding the era after 9/11. But like her other books, “The Burgess Boys” focuses mainly on family relationships, which Strout writes so adeptly about, and involves New York and Maine, which might make you think Olive Kitteridge is going to pop out of the story briefly, but alas she doesn’t.

Strout writes masterfully about the Burgess siblings and I got drawn in to the Jim-Bob-Susan dynamic of the story along with their spouses and exes. There’s a hierarchy, disfunctionality and grievances towards one another that feels very real, all shaped by the guilt of their father’s accidental death when they were young. Towards the end of the book, a secret about this is revealed that blows the story into another gear.

“The Burgess Boys” is a book that’s both subtle yet charged. I’m sure I especially won’t forget about Bob or Jim for a while. They conjure a complexity about brothers that seems to hit a nail on the head. With “The Burgess Boys,” I felt for a time like I had stepped into a siblings' world and how they had grown up in Maine with the weight of their childhood on their shoulders. Perhaps because of this they seem to hang on to each other despite their troubled relations, and the book is more touching than a downer.

It might be a departure from "Olive," but "The Burgess Boys" is a solid follow-up.

Enjoying some sunshine in Florida with plenty of beach reading. More to come ....

I guess the big news for bloggers this past week was that Amazon bought the social media/book review site Goodreads, which depending upon how you look at it could be bad or good. I use Goodreads a bit infrequently but liked that it was an independent entity and source for recommendations. Now that it’s owned by the conglomerate Amazon, which owns LibraryThing and Shelfari too, I can’t help but think there’s a wee conflict of interest at hand, which I find troubling. Amazon now is capable of publishing books, selling them and reviewing them. It can target you based on your reviews or spotlight what it wants sold. It owns much of its competition and dominates the industry. Do you see any of this as troubling, or do you feel it’ll be beneficial?

Meanwhile, spring has sprung in many areas, and new releases are raining down in April. Quite a few notable authors are included on the book list at the right.

I've picked about five April releases that I think seem good. First, there’s Kate Atkinson’s much acclaimed new one, “Life After Life,” which appears to be an interesting departure from her Jackson Brodie books, and is about the successive lives of Ursula Todd.

Then there’s Meg Wolitzer’s latest, “The Interestings,” which follows a group of artsy friends from their teenage years through to adulthood. It’s been touted by the likes of Jeffrey Eugenides among others.

Not to be overlooked is Claire Messud’s new novel “The Woman Upstairs” which Daphne Merkin calls a “psychological suspense story of the highest sort” and “the first truly feminist ... novel I have read in ages.”

Another intriguing one perhaps is “The Flamethrowers” by Rachel Kushner, which is the story of a young artist and the elite and underground worlds she encounters in New York and Rome during the mid-1970s. Booklist calls it a " propulsively dramatic tale of creativity and destruction."

Lastly is a debut novel called “Dear Lucy” by Julie Sarkissian that has garnered a lot of positive praise for creating an unforgettable new heroine with an original voice that lingers apparently long after the book’s final pages.

So check these out, along with the new books by veterans James Salter and Isabel Allende.

Meanwhile, in April movie releases (see the list at the left), I will go ahead and pick the Matthew McConaughey film “Mud,” which competed for the Palme d’Or award at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. I’m not usually a big McConaughey fan, but this one about a fugitive on the run looks pretty decent and received warm praise apparently at the festival. I’m a bit curious, too, about the film “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” about an ambitious Pakistani man in America post 9/11. Mira Nair, the same director who did “The Namesake” also directed this one.

Lastly, there’s a lot of strong album releases in April (see the list at the bottom right), but perhaps I’m most interested in singer/songwriter Kim Richey’s new one called “Thorn in My Heart.” She’s a bit of a country artist who possesses a heavenly voice. I’ll be eager to check out her latest “Thorn.”

These are just some of my picks this month. Which April releases are you most looking forward to?