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Monthly Archives: December 2012
The Darlings and Les Miz
I finished my year in reading with Cristina Alger’s financial thriller “The Darlings,” which is a quick, entertaining novel about the reverberations surrounding what turns out to be a Ponzi scheme at a large hedge fund in New York.
It begins as the manager of the fund has apparently jumped off the Tappan Zee Bridge right as the SEC has started to close in on him, leaving his business associates reeling as the far-reaching sham is ultimately revealed. The fund’s founder, billionaire investor, Carter Darling pleads ignorance of the scheme and tries to keep his wife, two daughters and sons-in-law together in its wake. But chaos and questions abound, notably, will his son-in-law, Paul, the firm’s general counsel, stand by the family patriarch or cut a deal to save his own skin, and who in the end who will be left standing.
“The Darlings” is a story of a rich New York family’s undoing, where bonds and loyalties are put through the ringer. It definitely reminded me of the Bernie Madoff scandal and family, and vividly sets the scene of a New York in crisis, around the time of the financial crash in 2008 when Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns went kaput and thousands lost their jobs. The characters are all seemingly both good and bad and the lines get blurred between who’s guilty, responsible or a victim, which makes for a good thriller-type book. I found “The Darlings” slick and well-done but ultimately I was glad to leave behind the unsettling, Madoff-like moneyed atmosphere it conjures.
Meanwhile, I was able to see the musical film “Les Miserables” this week with eight of my relatives, which was a bit fun. Most of them had seen it before as the Broadway musical or as the 1998 film starring Liam Neeson, but this was my first time seeing it. While I liked some of the songs, music and performances in it, I found that as a musical it wasn’t exactly my cup of tea; I’m not a true fan or follower of musicals generally. Yet I appreciated “Les Miz’”: its history, the book, its period of revolutionary France and its story of redemption. It was epic in scale no doubt and I was curious to see it. But I didn’t feel it was exactly for me, and some parts seemed to drag, while others were more interesting. Perhaps I just need to dive into the soundtrack. What did you think of it? Continue reading
Posted in Books, Movies
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Silver Linings Playbook
Just a short post today as Christmas is near and we are enjoying the holidays with my family in Southern California. It is so nice to be here! I plowed through my Christmas shopping all in one day yesterday, which must be some kind of record for me.
Although quite busy, I did manage to see “Silver Linings Playbook” this past week, which is about a guy named Pat (played by Bradley Cooper) who goes home to live with his parents after getting out of a mental institution as he attempts to get his life back together. He’s bipolar and coping with treatment but is driven to get his old teaching job back and reunite with his separated wife though both seem sort of far-gone and out of reach. Then he meets Tiffany (played by Jennifer Lawrence) who has mental issues of her own but seems to see through to Pat. They embark on a rocky friendship as they come to grips with their own difficulties and the road ahead.
Though there’s seemingly a lot of yelling in “Silver Linings Playbook,” it’s quite a feel-good movie by the end. Tiffany gets Pat to enter a dance competition, and the father, a bookmaker, has the whole family into the Philadelphia Eagles. So there’s football, dance, family and mental issues along the way.
I enjoyed the movie enough and think Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence did a good job in it. I guess I didn’t LOVE the movie, but thought it was worth seeing. It’s a bit over-the-top or unreal in places, like the football or dance competition etc. I guess it’s not exactly a harrowing view of the mental aspects or impoverished situations that many mentally ill people or their families face but it doesn’t totally duck the hardships or illness either. It seemed a bit careful in that regard. I liked “Silver Linings” but wasn’t overly caught up in it.
So for big end-of-year movies: I’ve now seen “Lincoln,” “Life of Pi,” “Argo” and “Silver Linings Playbook.” But yet there’s still “Les Miz,” “The Impossible,” “The Hobbit,” “Zero Dark Thirty” and perhaps “On the Road” to see. “Les Miz” has got to be the most talked about film of the year so I’m most curious to see that, as well as the gritty “Zero Dark Thirty.” I find it a bit hard to choose my favorite so far between “Lincoln,” “Life of Pi” and “Argo.” What is your favorite film so far this year?
Happy Holidays. Continue reading
Posted in Movies
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Life of Pi
Finally, “Life of Pi!” Yea. I did it, saw it, lived it. Well not actually, but you know what I mean. Director Ang Lee’s film is visually gorgeous and a feast in 3D. For some reason I was skeptical that it would be any good or not a letdown of Yann Martel’s wonderful 2001 novel. But instead I was pleasantly captivated by the film, which should rank among my top ten of the year.
A lot of people read the book and know it’s about a teenage boy, Pi, from India who becomes shipwrecked at sea and loses his family. He’s stranded on the ocean in a lifeboat with a few zoo animals that were among the ship’s cargo. Soon though it’s just Pi and a Bengal tiger, named “Richard Parker,” who are left to fend for themselves to survive.
It’s quite a survival adventure tale, and is told by Pi as an adult many years later to a writer who’s interested in his story. At the end there’s a reckoning or plot twist in Pi’s tale that changes the perspective on the shipwreck and what has happened on the lifeboat. If one looks, there is religious symbolism along the way. I’m still wondering a bit about the odd island of trees that they find and have to leave toward the end. Does it really represent the Garden of Eden?
The layers of “Life of Pi” make it quite interesting. And for a book that supposedly couldn’t be made into a film, this adaptation does quite well. (Truth be known: I need to revisit the book as it’s been a long time.) In the film, the animals and adventure look very vivid and real thanks to the filmmaking and 3D technology. The screen comes to life amid the sea and might leave you feeling a bit seasick during the scary storms, in which the waves toss the lifeboat all over the place. I also liked that Ang Lee kept to an international cast and didn’t use actors recognizable from Hollywood. “Life of Pi” has an authentic feel to it, which helps it succeed.
If you get a chance, see it this holiday season on the big screen (the 3D is worth it). And though, fans of the book may quibble with it I don’t think they’ll leave disappointed. Continue reading
Posted in Movies
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Two Books in Brief
I enjoyed the two books pictured in this post this week. You wouldn’t think they would have any similarities in common, other than their short length. Yet both include some vivid sentences and wisdom.
As for “Ru,” I was drawn to it after I heard the author Kim Thuy talking about it on NPR a couple weeks ago. Her first page, which was read on the radio, snapped me to attention:
I came into the world during the Tet Offensive, in the early days of the Year of the Monkey, when the long chains of firecrackers draped in front of houses exploded polyphonically along with the sound of machine guns.
I first saw the light of day in Saigon, where firecrackers, fragmented into a thousand shreds, coloured the ground red like the petals of cherry blossoms or like the blood of the two million soldiers deployed and scattered throughout the villages and cities of a Vietnam that had been ripped in two.
I was born in the shadow of skies adorned with fireworks, decorated with garlands of light, shot through with rockets and missiles. The purpose of my birth was to replace lives that had been lost. My life’s duty was to prolong that of my mother.
“Ru” is an autobiographical novel that parallels Thuy and her family’s boat journey out of Saigon after the Vietnam War to a crowded Malaysian refugee camp for four months and eventually to a new life in Quebec. It’s told in a series of vignettes, the memories of which usually encompass a page each in the book and are shuffled back and forth between the various times of her life.
On the good side, the novel made me feel what it was like for the “boat people” who came over from Vietnam, their risks, fears and struggles. It also showed a glimpse into Vietnamese families and their culture, and especially expressed the feelings of living in a place of war and peace. “Ru’s” quite lyrical in the way it’s written, the passages evoke poetry in places, which I found both evocative and moving.
Just sometimes I got a bit lost in “Ru,” not knowing exactly who or what she was talking about, and maybe I couldn’t understand everything because of a cultural gap or perhaps the book’s back-and-forth structure. But still “Ru” left me with an impressionable picture of the boat people and of a survivor who seems grateful to have come through the hard sides of both war and peace.
“Good Dog. Stay.” from 2007 by Anna Quindlen was another pretty impulsive read this week. (Who knew she wrote a dog book?) It arrived in a package of dog books from my sister-in-law who was giving her collection away to us because we had recently gotten a puppy. The book is actually about Quindlen’s older dog, Beau, who is in the last stages of his life. In her usual wise and witty prose, Quindlen tells stories about Beau’s life and what she has learned from him along the way. Interspersed throughout it are lovely photos of a wide variety of dogs.
For anyone who appreciates canines or has lived through the passing of an old dog, “Good Dog. Stay.” is quite a soothing and touching quick read. It makes me want to read more dog stories, as well as other titles from Anna Quindlen. I think we can relate. Among other things, she knows the value of a dog’s life well-lived. Continue reading
Posted in Books
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December Preview
It’s Christmas season and that means lot of big movies are coming out this month, see the list at the top left.
Of course the biggest ones, Peter Jackson’s film of the JRR Tolkien novel “The Hobbit” and Tom Hooper’s film of the Victor Hugo novel “Les Miserables” are must-sees. I will be ready and planted for those. But there’s also a few good dramas I want to see, too, notably “Zero Dark Thirty” about the search for Osama bin Laden, “The Impossible” about the 2004 Indonesian tsunami, and “On the Road” Walter Salles’ film of the Jack Kerouac novel. I won’t be missing any of these.
If you need lighter fare though, check out the comedies; perhaps Judd Apatow’s “This Is 40” might be suitable with your eggnog.
As for books out this month, see the list at the top right. I’m not sure if anything grabs me in a huge way, but Sebastian Faulks is often an author I have liked in the past. His latest novel “A Possible Life” involves five characters in different time periods. There’s also Nick Tosches’ dark narrative “Me and the Devil,” which both Johnny Depp and Keith Richards hail, which scares me perhaps a bit about this one.
For a debut novel that’s getting good press, check out Juliann Garey’s “Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See” about an executive whose life unravels from bipolar disorder. It sounds like a good yarn but maybe better after all the holiday festivities pass by.
In albums out this month — see the list at the bottom right — I pick Bruno Mars’ new one “Unorthodox Jukebox” to jump up the charts. He was a funny host on “Saturday Night Live” not long ago and is one talented dude.
These are just some of my picks. Which December releases are you most looking forward to? Continue reading
Posted in Top Picks
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