The Cue Card

Lately I’ve been averaging finishing one book, one audiobook, and a movie per week, which seems to suit me fine as my thoughts are kept a flutter amid the three. Note: this is the last week before the Academy Awards airs next weekend, so if you’re trying to see something before then, the time is drawing near. Luckily I’ve seen a bulk of the nominees, which I hope to talk about sometime next week in my Oscar post. Meanwhile my husband and I are leaving for our “spring break” trip next Saturday, so there’s a lot to do before then. For now, I leave you with a few brief reviews of what I finished last week.

Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis, published by Coach House Books, 2015, 175 pgs 

This short novel won the Giller Prize in 2015, Canada’s top literary award, and I’ve been meaning to get to it for a long while, especially since it includes dogs. But it’s not your typical dog story; oh no, this one seems to have quite a bit to say about the human condition, perhaps it’s a bit reminiscent in this way to George Orwell’s book “Animal Farm.” “Fifteen Dogs” is about what happens to a group of dogs overnighting at a Toronto vet clinic who are granted human intelligence and language by the gods.

The dogs of course escape the clinic and make a beeline for the beach and park, enjoying their newfound freedom and lives. But things aren’t exactly rosy amid their pack. Some of the dogs want to resist their new awareness and consciousness and go back to their old dog ways, while others want to embrace the change and form their own language. There’s a struggle over this, and it gets hairy! Some of the dogs become exiled, while others are attacked and killed; it’s truly a dog-eat-dog world for them. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to follow all of the cast, but soon the story focuses on a few of the dogs, notably Majnoun, an exiled black poodle who becomes close to a human couple who takes him in; Bengy the conniving Beagle who wanders from house to house; and Prince, a mutt who’s exiled from the pack for composing poetry.

It’s an interesting construct of a story, which unfolds with you waiting to see whether getting human consciousness has doomed these dogs. The interactions within it, too, are revealing in what they have to say about language, happiness, and love. It made me think about consciousness in new ways and I wondered this week what my own dog was really thinking. While I found the story interesting and cleverly done, I can’t say it was exactly a pleasure read. Its view of the dogs is quite grim and dark (except for a couple of them) and not nice and sweet like you normally think of these animals. The story had a little “Lord of the Flies” quality about it, but it made its point for me: dogs are much better off without our own baggage apart of them. But what does this story say about us?

The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore, published by Random House, 2016, 368 pages

This is quite a wild tale — it’s historical fiction that’s based on true events — which I listened to as an audiobook on long walks this past week. I had first heard about the novel from Judy over at the blog Keep the Wisdom who had a lot of great things to say about it. Though I wasn’t sure as I started it, if I would be kept truly interested in a story about the legal battle between Thomas Edison vs. George Westinghouse over the light bulb patent in the late 1880s. Come again? What did I care about following the main protagonist, a young lawyer (Paul Cravath) as he tried to win the patent case for his client Westinghouse? Wasn’t it just two bigwigs battling for prominence?

Sure enough I didn’t know anything about this and had a lot to learn. It didn’t take long before I was engulfed in Paul’s story and all of its particulars. There is so much more to it than I ever imagined — and of how high the stakes were — more to the rivalry of Edison and Westinghouse, more to the science and the times, more to what it was all about. Along the way, there’s interesting glimpses of inventors Alexander Graham Bell, financier J.P. Morgan, and the introduction of the electric chair, which is simply grisly in what happens as depicted in the book.

“The Last Days of Night” brings the history and real characters wonderfully to life. Who knew, about the maneuverings and alliances, the backstabbing and betrayals, and the turns and twists of fate that accompanied the powering of light. It’s like a consuming soap opera. Surely I did not know, nor did I know much about the inventor Nikola Tesla, who plays a quirky and major role in the story. He seems to hold the key for Paul in defeating Edison, or does he? There’s also Paul’s love interest, Agnes Huntington, an opera singer, who is also not all what she appears to be.

Will the case be won, or lost, or will all go bankrupt? You have to stay tuned to the end to find out. The novel has quite a bit of science in it (about alternating currents versus direct currents), yet it’s written for laypeople to understand, which helped me get by. The chapters are short and snappy, which keeps the pace moving. I thought the storytelling was superb, though it didn’t surprise me that an award-winning screenplay writer, Graham Moore, who won an Oscar for “The Imitation Game,” wrote this novel, as it seems written a bit like a screenplay. And sure enough, apparently Eddie Redmayne has signed on to star in the adapted movie of it in 2018. So we will see if “The Last Days of Night” translates well to the big screen. For now, go for either the book, or the audio; both are — shall we say — pretty illuminating. 🙂

The Crown — TV series on Netflix

We finally finished watching the first season of this series. Duh. It took me a while. I liked seeing how the reigns of power passed from King George to Queen Elizabeth, and the behind-the-scenes interactions within the royal family and with Winston Churchill are particularly interesting to watch.

The performances of Claire Foy as the Queen and John Lithgow as Churchill are excellent, though at times I thought the pace of the episodes was a bit glacial and a few times I fell asleep. I kid you not. “The Crown” did wonders for me catching up on a few zzzzs.

I know it’s terrible of me, but I woke up for the parts about Princess Margaret, who seemed to have more life about her than the rest of them put together. It was enraging that the Queen gave her word twice, and yet Margaret was foiled from marrying Peter time and again. Good grief, what torture. Let Margaret be!

Despite my small gripes, I look forward to Season 2 of this six season show, which apparently will cover from the Suez Crisis in 1956 through the retirement of the Queen’s third Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, in 1963.  Claire Foy will be back to star as the Queen once again.

Hidden Figures — based on the book by Margot Lee Shetterly

I’m glad I finally got to see this movie about a team of African American women mathematicians who worked for NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program. Despite all the obstacles they faced, including racism and sexism, they persevered and contributed to helping NASA win the space race. It’s an uplifting and inspiring film based on true events and real people whose lives and jobs were not well known about before Margot Lee Shetterly’s 2016 book came out about them.

After the movie, I picked up a copy of the book, which I’m interested to see how closely it correlates to the film. I particularly liked the photos at the end of the movie of the real women whom the three actresses portray. They seemed amazing in their talents and diligence and it brought it all home for me, as the photos similarly did at the end of the movie “Loving.” These were real women, who made a real difference in the 20th century. Kudos to their efforts, I’m glad they have been honored with their story in this way.

What about you — have you read these books, or seen these films and if so, what did you think?

We had brisk temps all week, but it now looks to be improving, and by Valentine’s Day on Tuesday, it could reach 50F. How heartwarming! That will trigger a massive melt off of snow here.

I’m traveling this weekend and will be having a reunion of sorts, with a couple friends in the San Francisco area, which I’m excited about. So I will leave you with a few brief reviews of what I finished last week. Oh, and many of you know my trusty book assistant and walking partner by now, Stella, pictured at left. She was almost attacked by a coyote this week while we were walking in the hills. Luckily she got away from it after a scuffle and ran back to me. It was a scary situation — and I didn’t know what would happen — but thankfully she is okay and in one piece. Gave me a slight heart attack at the time, but we have learned from this, I hope.

The Dry by Jane Harper: published by Flatiron Books, Jan. 2017, 320 pages

What it’s about: (culled from the publisher’s synopsis and me)

Federal agent Aaron Faulk returns to his small, struggling farming town in Australia for the first time in decades after the apparent murder-suicide of his best friend Luke and his family. Only things don’t add up when Faulk begins poking around, and he begins to wonder if Luke’s death is connected to something that happened twenty years ago when they were both teenagers. Set amid severe drought conditions, the novel follows Faulk and the local detective as they try to piece together what happened to Luke, his wife, and son.

My thoughts:

This is a slow burn of a murder mystery that despite the time it takes developing never seems to wan. I was interested in the story and the main character Falk’s unraveling of it the whole way. It starts with the gruesome deaths of three family members at a farm house, which the police conclude was a murder-suicide, but was it? Falk begins to poke around, while his thoughts become infused with the days he spent there in his youth with his father and friends. He starts having flashbacks, which are intermingled and italicized frequently throughout the story. I know some readers didn’t care for this, but it didn’t put me off too much, as some interesting things, linked to the present case, are divulged amid the flashbacks; it’s just the italics that  got a bit annoying.

But there’s not really a break in the murder case until quite late in the novel. I guess I was expecting more of a “thriller” type pace to the story, though the developments in it kept me engaged. It has a great Australian setting too. I could feel the dryness and the farming town’s struggles from drought, which are evocatively rendered in the novel. I thought I knew who the killer was long before the end, but it takes a turn and I was wrong about who it was. “The Dry” is well done by debut author Jane Harper, and it has an intriguing storyline. I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.

Benediction by Kent Haruf — published by Knopf, Feb. 2013, 258 pages

This novel, which I listened to as an audiobook, is set in the same small town of Holt, Colorado, as were the author’s previous novels “Plainsong” from 1999, and “Eventide” from 2004, but this one involves different characters. I had read “Plainsong” long ago and this is my second of Kent Haruf’s books, though I’d like to eventually read them all. Unfortunately he passed away in 2014 and will be greatly missed. His last novel “Our Souls at Night,” published in 2015, was well liked across the blogosphere and one I hope to get to.

What it’s bout: (culled from the publisher’s synopsis and me)

This novel is centered around Dad Lewis, a 77-year-old hardware store owner who’s just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. He and wife Mary work to make his final days comfortable, while their daughter Lorraine returns home from Denver to help care for him. But Mary and Dad can’t locate their estranged son Frank, to let him know, and his presence is sorely missed. The story also involves a young girl next door, who is being raised by her grandmother after the death of her mother, and the town’s newly arrived minister, who faces disdain after a particular sermon doesn’t go over well.

My Thoughts:

I felt for the dying Dad Lewis in this book and his family, friends, and the community of Holt. He is a codger and sort of a grump, but it seems to be because of his life and how he grew up. As he comes to grips with his diagnosis, you sense the realizations he’s going through and his regrets in life — why he wasn’t a more loving person, particularly to his children, neighbors, and employees.

“Benediction” is a story about life and death, people’s regrets, and the ties that bind us. Although it’s a quiet and relatively simple story (and may not be for everyone), I got caught up in its cast of characters, who seem very real and are all going through different things and emotions. Kent Haruf is a master of writing about small towns, families, and communities— and seemingly can do it perhaps better than anyone else. I’m slightly reminded of author Alice Munro, who’s books are often filled with similar kinds of towns and people. Also the small town feel of “Benediction” made me think a bit of Elizabeth Strout’s “Olive Kitteridge,” but perhaps it’s less quirky than that. Listening to this story was another winner for me, and I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.

Lastly this week, I saw the movie “Lion,” which is a Best Picture Academy Award nominee, and I must say it is quite excellent. I wonder if it surpasses “Manchester by the Sea” for me in terms of which one I liked better, though I know both are high on my list. “Lion” is based on a true story about a five-year-old Indian boy who gets lost from his village and winds up thousands of miles from home. Eventually he is adopted by an Australian couple and grows up there. Then 25 years later he sets off to find his biological Indian family.

This is a powerful movie and will pull at your heart strings along the way. It’s an amazing story, and I actually have the book, which the movie is based on, that I was hoping to read first. But Oops! I got to the movie first. The cinematography is also pretty great, as well as the actors in it. Might “Lion” win Best Picture? Or is it not hyped enough as the others?

What about you — have you read these books are seen this movie — and if so, what did you think?

I flew from Canada to Denver on Friday evening to participate in the Women’s March on Saturday, one of many marches around the country. I didn’t want to miss it and I’m glad I didn’t. It was a very unifying, uplifting, and nonviolent, peaceful experience in support of human rights, social justice, civil liberties, equality, the environment, and women’s reproductive rights. I’m totally stoked by the response around the world and how many women, men, and families of all backgrounds participated. In Denver alone more than 100,000 people marched through the downtown streets, and across the world more than a million. I hope it will do some good in this political climate. I know the experience as positive as it was will stay with me for a long, long time, and I will continue to fight over the next four years at every turn for our rights and those of others!

Since I’m on the road at the moment, I will leave you with a few brief reviews of things I finished last week.

“The Hopefuls” by Jennifer Close, 2016, 310 pages, Knopf

I always love a good Washington, D.C.-set, political novel and “The Hopefuls” has a lot of enticing things about it. It’s about a young married couple (Beth and Matt) who move for Matt’s new job in the Obama White House from N.Y. to D.C., where Beth has a lot of trouble adjusting. She deplores their new D.C. life, and all the political hacks and wannabes they go out with, but then eventually they meet another married couple they like — the charismatic White House staffer Jimmy and his wife Ashleigh from Texas, and the four become inseparable friends. Life is fun there for awhile, until Jimmy’s career takes off and the four spend a year together working on Jimmy’s campaign in Texas. Therein, things begin to crumble.

I kept waiting for the shoe to drop big time in this story, but it simmers along for quite awhile before a small reckoning occurs at the very end. There seems to be an inordinate amount of time spent on the characters’ daily lives, and I wondered if something was ever going to happen. It’s a story more about the relationship of the four characters and the jealousies, competition, and rumors among them.

I liked how it started off pretty funny, poking fun at things in D.C. I worked in the area for 15 years and had to laugh at some of the details the character Beth disdains about life there, where it’s all about who you work for and what you’re doing, and is filled with political nerds. The author did a good job making that life feel authentic. The second half of the novel is less humorous as the characters’ lives take a turn and working on the campaign becomes exhaustive and claustrophobic. I liked parts of the novel but just wish the shoe or something had dropped earlier. It’s not as light or breezy a read as I thought it was going to be.

“American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst” by Jeffrey Toobin, 2016, 368 pages, Doubleday

I listened to this as an audiobook and was pretty riveted to it the whole way. I gave it 5 stars on Goodreads. The book is packed to the gills with information about the incredible Patty Hearst saga and the context and various radical groups of the Bay Area during the 1970s. Holy smokes, I had no idea about some of the details of the crime spree and the Symbionese Liberation Army. I remember the trial of Patty Hearst being on the morning news when I was 10 years old, but I didn’t realize all the places the S.L.A. hid out, or the shoot-out in Los Angeles, or the re-grouping on the farm in Pennsylvania, and how long it all lasted. But Toobin does a fantastic job of putting it all together — so many different people were involved — with some insightful analysis along the way. He leaves it open for you to draw your own conclusions about Hearst, though the evidence of her role is pretty overwhelming. I was amazed how she changed so dramatically from young student fiance to ardent revolutionary then back to a cop’s wife within a relatively condensed time span. It spun my head around twice over. These were extraordinarily tense times, and Toobin brings it all back home.

“Loving” — This movie recounts the story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple who were arrested in Virginia in 1958 for being married to one another, and whose case went all the way to the Supreme Court. It’s an alarming and touching movie (Judy at the blog Keep the Wisdom was right of course. I could have used a Kleenex by the time the credits rolled). The actors, Ruth Nigga and Joel Edgerton are terrific and the director/writer Jeff Nichols, who’s made such films as “Mud” and “Take Shelter,” is always one to follow. I still want to find and watch the documentary about the Lovings, which this movie is based upon. They were quite an inspiring pair!

“Elle” — This French film is quite controversial. I had no idea before I saw it what I was in for. All I knew was that Isabelle Huppert won the Golden Globe for her performance in it, and that it had subtitles. But in reality it’s about a businesswoman who plays a cat and mouse game trying to find the man who raped her. I found it disturbing and crazy (unreal), and I can’t say I would recommend it. There’s too many other better things to watch. My husband is still angry that I took him to see this. It’s a bit hard to erase in your mind once you have.

What about you, have you read these books, or seen these movies, and if so, what did you think?

We had a great time in Southern California visiting with my family over Christmas (see photo at left) and now we are back to the cold of Canada, which is a brisk re-introduction. But it isn’t all gloomy, we did go cross-country skiing yesterday with our dog, Stella, and that was fun. It helps to get out and about despite the winter temps here. I hope everyone had a lovely holiday and will ring in the New Year tonight with plenty of good cheer.

While on break I finished Brit Bennett’s debut novel “The Mothers,” which received a lot of hype before it came out in October. The author was selected as one of the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” honorees, along with Yaa Gyasi, who wrote the novel “Homegoing.” And indeed Bennett is young, just 26 years old. Apparently she started writing the book while in high school in Oceanside, California, then finished it after going to Stanford, and getting an M.F.A. at the University of Michigan.

Set within a contemporary black community in Southern California, Bennett’s novel “The Mothers” is about an unwanted teen pregnancy that affects those involved — as well as others — and reverberates throughout their lives. Particularly it’s a coming of age tale of two teenage girls and a boy who become close and are all struggling to overcome hardships. The two girls bond over trying to come to grips with being abandoned by their mothers, and the boy, a star athlete, dates one of them while healing from a career-ending injury. It’s their relationship with each other — as well as the secrets surrounding the unwanted pregnancy — that form the gist of the novel, set against the backdrop of the tight-knit church and military community in which they live.

It’s a book that kept me reading to find out what would happen to the lives of these three entangled characters, though I didn’t end up totally liking any of them. They continued to make bad choices — one betrayal in particular — which sort of confounded me and I couldn’t really get over for my appraisal of the book. So while I thought the author had some good writing in it, and the book was a worthwhile read, I liked but didn’t overly love “The Mothers.” It was just some things that didn’t fully resonate or work for me that made me like it a bit less. Too bad, I had heard so much glowing praise about it. Still I will continue to watch for what the author writes next.

Meanwhile last week, I saw the movie “La La Land” with Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. I rarely ever see musicals, but I was curious about it since it also received such positive hype. It’s about a jazz pianist who falls for an aspiring actress in Los Angeles. Surprisingly I found the movie quite entertaining. Gosling and Stone share an enticing charisma and chemistry, and I liked how — though set in contemporary times — the film pays homage to the heydays of Hollywood, harkening back to the movies of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, as well as “Rebel Without a Cause.” It’s neat too to see such landmarks in the film as the Griffith Observatory, the Rialto Theatre, and the movie star murals on the city’s streets. It includes some musical numbers, but the storyline becomes more spoken as it goes on — it’s not totally filled with singing and dancing numbers. With the themes in it, “La La Land” celebrates the artists and dreamers of the world — and there’s nothing wrong with that.

What about you, have you seen this movie, or read the novel “The Mothers,” and if so, what did you think?

P.S. Please stay tuned for my post later in the week previewing new January releases and my Best Of 2016 list. Thanks, and Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is staying warm. Argh, did your area get the dreaded “Arctic blast”? Well it was quite brutal here, but now it seems to be leaving, and this week we should see temps back in the 30s F (+3C), hooray. That’ll be easy and good for when we board our flight to California later this week. Christmas is almost here, and the reading days for 2016 are coming to an end. My reading has slowed a bit amid the holiday rush and festivities, but still I’m getting to some great books. I hope to squeeze in a couple more before the year’s end.

This week I finished Imbolo Mbue’s debut novel “Behold the Dreamers,” which was mentioned to me by my sister, who had read it for a book club group. Wow, what a great book it would make for a discussion. It turned out to be one of my favorite reads of the year. It’s neat when that happens — when you’re not expecting to come across a Favorite Book of the Year and then sometime during your reading of it a light goes on in your head and you think: “Whoa, this is one of them.” Have you had that happen? Well, I had the light go on with Imbolo’s “Behold the Dreamers.”

I guess I didn’t know much about it when I picked it up, but the story hooked me right away. It’s about an immigrant family from Cameroon that tries to make ends meet living in Harlem New York. Jende and his wife Neni love America and want to give their 6-year-old son the opportunity for a better life, but they need decent-paying jobs while working towards getting their papers for a more permanent status in the States. So all is good when Jende lands a job as a chauffeur for a senior executive named Clark Edwards at Lehman Brothers. In time, Jende gets to know the wealthy Clark and his family, and Clark’s wife Cindy offers Neni a job at the Edwardses’ summer home in the Hamptons. Things seem promising for Jende and Neni’s all-consuming dreams of staying in the U.S. — that is until Lehman Brothers collapses and the lives of all four are upended.

Yes, this novel is set amid the troubled times of the global financial crisis of 2007-2008. It’s not your average immigrant tale I can assure you. It grabbed me by my lapels so to speak and had me racing through it. I liked how the story delved into the lives of both the immigrant family’s and those of the white executive’s. Neither is all good or all bad. The novel paints a more realistic, complex picture of both couples, each wanting the best for their kids. And under the strains, the marriages of both are put to the test.

I felt for Jende and Neni who struggle so desperately to get their U.S. residency papers. I remembered when I came to Canada — it’s not exactly easy living in another country; there’s a lot of procedures, application paperwork, and hassles. It’s a long, long process, believe me. For the immigrants in this story, it was far worse. Among other things, they didn’t marry into it like I did.

“Behold the Dreamers” is pretty gushy about “America” and all of its opportunities. It felt a bit weird reading about it like that — I’m sure I take too much for granted being from the U.S. and perhaps don’t see it so unblemished as the characters in the novel do. But by the end, the story also reveals the high price people can pay for living in the land of opportunity — not only in terms of financial obligations and how much people have to work but also in terms of stress and other things. Each of the characters in the book is pushed to a breaking point, and you wonder along with them: at what cost is it worth it?!

It reminded me slightly of T.C. Boyle’s 1995 novel “The Tortilla Curtain,” which I also read this year and loved. That novel about a Mexican illegal alien couple and a white yuppie couple whose lives collide in California suburbia was more satirical than this one, but this novel has little of that in it. I’m totally impressed that “Behold the Dreamers” is a debut novel, which it didn’t seem like, by an author from Cameroon who came to New York in 1998. I watched an interview of Imbolo on video talking about the book and she seems like a breath of fresh air. If you have time, check it out here.

Also this past week, I saw the movie “Allied” with Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard. For some reason, I was preparing not to like it — as if it had a high bar to clear, but then I liked it quite a bit. So I’m glad I went. It’s fun too that Pitt plays a Canadian intelligence officer in the film who says his dream place is Medicine Hat, Alberta, which is just a few hours away from here. That got a few guffaws from the audience.

Anyways, the movie is set in WWII and Pitt’s character meets a French resistance fighter played by Marion Cotillard on a mission behind enemy lines. Later they meet up in London, and you are led to wonder whether one of them is betraying the other. Both Pitt and Cotillard are pretty good in this, and the screenplay by Steven Knight, who also wrote “Eastern Promises,” “Locke,” and “Pawn Sacrifice,” moves fairly quickly. I wouldn’t say “Allied” is an award winner, but I did find it entertaining. And who doesn’t want to look at the magnetism of these two stars?

What about you, have you read “Behold the Dreamers” or seen “Allied,” and if so, what did you think?

Also I want to wish everybody who reads my blog Happy Holidays and a very Merry Christmas. Thank you for stopping by and for making it such a great year at The Cue Card. I really appreciate all of your comments and insights and think very highly of all of you. It’s been great this past year getting to know my regular readers.