The Cue Card: Books, Movies, Music and More

Greetings to a new month. Summer is cruising along so it's time to step up the summer reading, which has been in slow motion here. This month's new book releases (see list at right) perhaps don't look as full as June did, but still there are some to look for. Notably, Deborah Harkness is back with her follow-up to her blockbuster "A Discovery of Witches" with "Shadow of Night," and Tana French returns with her fourth novel of the Dublin murder squad in "Broken Harbor." I am also looking forward to

Chris Cleave's third novel "Gold" about track cycling and the 2012 Olympics, which comes nicely before the London Games. I'll tear through it like I did his first two books, "Incendiary" and "Little Bee," but there are plenty of others. Which July books are you looking forward to?

If you need an onscreen diversion this month there's always Spider-Man and Batman (see movie list at left). The caped crusader is looking for a massive box office haul with "The Dark Knight Rises," but will it come up short of "The Avengers" opening weekend? Or will Christian Bale's final turn as Batman lure people out?

I'm guessing probably "The Avengers" will edge "The Dark Knight." But if super heroes aren't your thing and you're looking for something a bit more artsy, then you might seek out the British drama "Trishna," which is based on the Thomas Hardy novel "Tess of the D'Urbervilles," and is opening in the States mid-month.

As for July album releases (below at left), I can't say anything thrills me too much. I'll just have to dabble and see what I come up with. But there's plenty of concerts and musicians on the road this month. So let me know if there's any you see or like, or better yet, tell me your July book, movie, music picks or what you're looking forward to. Cheers. And happy Sunday.

Shortly after marrying a Canadian and becoming a Canadian resident, my sister-in-law thrust a book into my hands by Alice Munro, one of her favorite authors. I had known about Munro, the acclaimed Canadian writer who had won many awards for her short stories (including the 2009 Man Booker International Prize), but I am embarrassed to say before now I had not read any of her collections. Her stories were often in the New Yorker and I might have read her there, but I knew living in Canada that her books would be essential reading for my own cultural introduction to my new country.

Her short-story collection “Too Much Happiness, ” which is her most recent from 2009, didn’t disappoint but rather exceeded my expectations from the praise that preceded her. I guess I don’t often read short stories (though I have liked Raymond Carver’s, Jhumpa Lahiri's and Somerset Maugham’s) but delving into hers were easy and absorbing, like falling into a world that sweeps you up. I was a bit surprised that this genteel author (78 years old at the time) from rural Ontario wrote about characters that drew you in so completely to such ominous or unsettling predicaments. Murderers, deviants and misfits pepper the stories of “Too Much Happiness,” which reminded me a bit of the dark aspects of Flannery O’Connor’s or Joyce Carol Oates’s stories.

In “Child’s Play,” two summer camp friends live with the repercussions of a terrible crime they commit, while in “Face,” a boy deals with the taunts from a birthmark that covers half his head. In “Deep-Holes” a family loses touch with a son involved in a cliff-falling accident, and in “Free Radicals,” an old woman saves her neck by telling a violent burglar of her own past crime. All 10 stories in “Too Much Happiness” are quite affecting; they grab at your lapels and shake you good. But perhaps the creepy “Dimensions” and “Wenlock Edge” are the collection’s most unnerving. It’s in “Dimensions” that an incident jars a wife to finally overcome her ties to her abusive jailed husband, and in “Wenlock Edge” where a student’s sexual violation steers her to turn in another.

It’s hard not to give too much away, better just to marvel at Munro’s mastery of these potent stories. Interestingly, her last story, “Too Much Happiness,” is quite a departure from the others. It’s based on a real person Sophia Kovalevsky, who was a prominent Russian mathematician in the latter 1800s, and deals with her life in the days before her death. Though interesting, I thought the other more contemporary, Canada-set stories pulled at me more. But regardless, I’m going to add Munro’s other collections to my reading list, particularly “Runaway” from 2004 and “The View From Castle Rock” from 2006. She's definitely a writer to be treasured and one I'm so glad, no matter which side of the border, not to have missed.

I caught director Ridley Scott’s 3-D film “Prometheus” last Friday on opening night. It’s quite a visual feast as are some of his other movies such as “Black Hawk Down,” “Gladiator,” and “Thelma & Louise.” It’s his first return to sci-fi since “Blade Runner” in 1982, and a quasi-prequel to “Alien” in 1979, so I wasn’t about to miss it.

The film is a bit mysterious and I’m still gathering my thoughts over it. What is clear is that it’s about a team of scientists who are sent off into deep space on a corporate project to find clues about the origins of humankind. Their spaceship lands on a planet with some kind of large installation built on it, filled with tunnels and caves. It seems promising, but once the scientists start to poke around inside ominous things begin to happen. They find a prototype corpse and an arsenal of weapons deserted by their owners. Slithery creatures pop up and apparitions run past, what the heck are those holographic like things?! I wish they’d make a dash back to Earth, but a sample from the corpse yields a human DNA match, enticing the scientists further that it might be from our Creator. But if so, what happened at this desolate place?

I won’t give any more away, but suffice it to say, what follows after is not exactly tame or pretty. You might not want to see this movie if you’re pregnant because it pretty much outdoes the stomach scene from “Alien” and is on par with a scene from “The Fly.” “Prometheus” is a movie that starts gradual but shifts into a fast pace of destruction toward the end. Noomi Rapace, who was terrific in the Swedish version of “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” is quite good as the scientist, who follows a bit in the footsteps of Sigourney Weaver, the heroine who made her mark in the “Alien” series. Charlize Theron, who plays the corporate chief in this, seems a bit flat or misplaced to me, but Michael Fassbender as the deviant robot David is wonderful in his role. I still don’t trust him!

The ending of “Prometheus” leaves open various questions and plenty of room for sequels. Why for instance does the Creator seem to hate us so? I guess that’s for next time. But while the film doesn’t exactly match the classic “Alien,” it’s still a visual treat that raises thoughts about the vast universe and our origins in it. For a sci-fi summer blockbuster, it’s well worth its weight in popcorn and admission.

To read more on actress Noomi Rapace check out the NYT's recent profile of her.

I coincidentally was reading Hilary Mantel’s historical novel “Bring Up the Bodies” around the same time as I was watching the “Diamond Jubilee” celebration, commemorating Queen Elizabeth II’s amazing 60 years on the throne of England. Perhaps there’s not a direct correlation, but I’m definitely getting my fix of English royal history lately, with its influential monarchs and their reigns of power, accomplishments, struggles and scandals. It’s fascinating material to be sure.

Mantel’s latest novel about Thomas Cromwell, the court of King Henry VIII and the destruction of Queen Anne Boleyn has received unanimous gushing reviews as did her previous book of their earlier years, “Wolf Hall,” which was awarded the 2009 Man Booker Prize. The print critics love her, with Janet Maslin of the New York Times going as far to say that “Bring Up the Bodies” is “this year’s best beach read” and the “one must-read of the season.”

Best beach read? Hmm, I had to read it. But now that I’m done, I can tell you, if you like “War and Peace” or Shakespeare on the beach then perhaps you will definitely like this one. Otherwise, I’d stick to something lighter and easier to sink into. “Bodies” definitely has the elements of a beach book, with power plays, intrigue, rumors, gossip, revenge, adultery, violence, but it swirls around for quite a while, muting its impact. Its narrative language though beautiful by Mantel is a bit of a challenge for the beach; it’s not Olde English but it’s not exactly contemporary either. You’ll have to work a bit to get the array of characters and who is speaking when and what is being said. At times it can be a bit confusing or even a slog to read, but I did successfully plow through it and came away with a more vivid picture of the poisonous atmosphere at the court during Anne Boleyn’s last months.

You don’t have to read its predecessor “Wolf Hall” to understand “Bring Up the Bodies”; I went right to the latter one, which is meant to be the second in a trilogy -- all told from Thomas Cromwell’s point of view. Cromwell was King Henry VIII’s right hand man, his secretary and power broker, who comes to believe he must destroy the Queen before she destroys him. Mantel paints him as more human than just ruthlessly evil, which is how he is often portrayed, though he’s still cleverly shrewd and harsh in the end.

The book takes place over nine months from 1535 to 1536. As it begins, Queen Anne Boleyn has replaced King Henry VIII’s first wife Katharine of Aragon with much ado, leading the King to break with the Catholic Church in Rome. All is momentarily at peace. But after three years, the king grows restless as Anne is unable to produce a male heir and he begins to favor Jane Seymour. Thereafter the Queen’s days are numbered. Cromwell uncovers a web, eventually arresting her along with five men on trumped up charges of adultery and incest (with her brother). Whether she is actually guilty as charged is a mystery preserved in the book, though it sides with it being unlikely. In an interview, Hilary Mantel has said the Queen gives the impression of being guilty, whether or not she really is, is not known.

Surely the book is quite dark; everybody’s out for themselves and trying to gain their advantage with the King and the court. It seems Machiavellian. Some have sympathies with the last Queen, while others are aligning with the future, Jane Seymour. The plot gangs up on Anne Boleyn, and it is quite chilling to read about a woman’s place then and the abuse of the court’s power -- all because Henry VIII wanted a new wife. There’s not really a redeeming character in the book to latch onto, and despite what it’s about, not a lot of action. I was hoping for more. It’s mostly filled with the verbal sparring, court gossip and posturing amid its unseemingly cast. I took away quite a bit from it but not without considerable persistence and effort -- something that I don't hope for in my next (real) beach read.

“Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” ignited a firestorm last year, which I successfully steered clear of until my book group picked it to discuss this week. I can tell the book group moms are ready to sink their claws into this memoir and tear it apart, knowing good and well it’s about a “tiger” mother who uses harsh parenting practices to raise and gear her two daughters for success.

No TV for them, or sleepovers, or playdates, or computer games, or grades less than an A; these girls must be fluent in Chinese and practice endless hours of piano and violin after school and even on vacations. To their mom, childhood is less about having fun than being “a training period, a time to build character and invest in the future.” The Chinese parenting approach, she says, is very different from the Western way, which values independence, creativity and questioning authority. Western kids are allowed to follow their "passion," which just turns out, she says, to be 10 hours on Facebook which is a total waste of time and eating digusting junk food.

For the Chinese, she says, authority is always to be respected and kids’ self-esteem isn’t a concern; parents regularly criticize their kids (she refers to her daughter as garbage at one point) and expect more from them (she rejects their inadequately made birthday cards). Chinese parents also decide all their activities and what’s best for their children. Kids, in turn, obey and don’t talk back. They owe their parents everything.

Author Amy Chua sets up “Tiger Mother” as a “clash of worldviews”; there’s the weak, easy Western way of child-rearing, she seems to say, and the stronger, harder to follow Chinese approach, which she does her best to adhere to with her daughters while living in Connecticut, where she's a law professor at Yale. Her husband, a law professor there too, plays only a small peripheral role in this memoir.

In many ways her book is like stomaching the world of a type -A drill sergeant who pushes her kids as prodigies and family to the brink. It’s insufferable in parts what she believes and how she acts. And yet I was surprisingly glad to have read it (I didn’t hate the book. It’s even well told and isn’t heartless). I don’t believe the West has all the answers on child-raising, nor by this account does the East either. Her book raises valid questions about parenting. Perhaps there’s some kind of middle ground or hybrid approach worth exploring or trying, which Amy Chua herself concedes towards the end, though she doesn’t seem ready to reconcile to that way of thinking.

She says her memoir has been greatly misunderstood; that it’s really “supposed to be funny, partly self-parody” about her own transformation as a mother. Throughout the book, she seems to know she’s an overbearing, controlling fanatic to her kids, but that doesn’t seem to stop her any; only the possibility of losing her daughter seems to affect her path, which is a bit sad. You feel for the kids, no doubt. It would be comical perhaps if it weren’t all so borderline true to what she’s like. I did laugh some because she really is a piece work, this tiger lady.

I thought the Be Good Tanyas had broken up years ago and were done for good, but apparently they’re baaaack! I saw them in concert last evening, and they have other tour dates planned as well. The Vancouver folk-bluegrass trio had gone on hiatus around 2007/2008, after touring extensively behind the group’s three popular indie albums: Blue Horses (2000), Chinatown (2003) and Hello Love (2006). After that, the girls burnt out and opted for individual projects. Last night they seemed back in old form: Trish on the banjo and guitar, Samantha often on the mandolin and Frazey at the vocals helm (they were backed by a bass player and a drummer as well). The girls were a bit disorganized between songs, but played old favorites soulfully and as if they were happy to be back. I recognized most of their songs, though it had been a while. They produce a folky cool sound, though you often can’t understand all their words because of their impressionistic, mumbled renderings, but nonetheless the songs' feelings shine through. Here is the set list from their May 17 concert in Calgary:
1) In Spite of All the Damage
2) Only in the Past
3) Reuben
4) Ootischenia
5) Colorado Girl (Townes Van Zandt song)
6) The Littlest Birds
7) Human Thing
8) One More Cup of Coffee (Bob Dylan cover)
9) Dogsong (aka Sleep Dog Lullaby)
10) Horses
11) Birds (Neil Young cover)
12) Waiting Around to Die
13) September Field (new song)
14) For the Turnstiles
15) Song for R.
16) Here Comes the Sun (Beatles cover)
17) A Thousand Tiny Pieces
18) Light Enough to Travel