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Masterful

Revisado: 12-11-24

Lots of people don’t like reading sci-fi novels - well, for anyone missing out on Dune for that reason, I can only pity them. Dune is epic, superbly crafted, packed with iconic characters, as suspenseful as it is philosophical - and it is world-building at its best. If this was isn’t your genre - get over it and pick up Dune, you will be bountifully rewarded by Mr. Herbert.

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A dreary well-told downer

Revisado: 12-04-24

Any story by Graham Greene is worth reading, alas, much as I get the story and the priest’s dilemma, torn between saving himself and upholding his Catholic faith and duties, I found myself not caring. Read it for the second time now and I dislike it just as much as I did the first time. Religion’s one of humanity many crutches and in this story you’re taken on a traumatic journey that doesn’t help anyone - the fears, the guilt, the self punishment, none of that would need to happen … if this religion didn’t rely on fear and guilt. So, well told byMr. Greene, of course, but it is one long and dreary downer.

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We need more teachers like Mr. Chips

Revisado: 12-04-24

Well, it’s not Lost Horizon, but it was still time well spent thanks to Mr. Hilton and his Mr. Chips/Chipping. Chipping spends his life - uneventful one might think - as a teacher at a highly regarded - if not top tier - grammar school. As he goes from young to old, you realize that his life is far from ordinary as he gently, smartly, and with a pinch of humor, molds generations of boys. He takes time, he listens, he genuinely cares - the kind of teacher we would have all liked to have had. I’ve no doubt that John Williams’ novel Stoner found inspiration in Hilton’s tale - same as Mr. Holland’s Opus for that matter. Kindness and genuine care may not always feel rewarded by the giver, but they always, always make a difference. The world needs more teachers like Mr. Chips!

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If 'stream of consciousness' is your thing

Revisado: 07-02-24

Had heard about this novel and never read it. And probably never would have explored it it not for Audible. I think stream of consciousness novels are hard to read, whether its Faulkner or Joyce, or Virginia Woolf. Not a great deal actually happens in this novel - it's just musings from this person and then that, all of it flowing from the morning Mrs. Dalloway thinks about getting flowers for a party, to the party itself in the evening. It's not that she's blasé or in a funk or filled with an upper class ennui - she's actually quite a nice person, she thinks about things, she wonders, she cares ... but she can come across as terrible superficial at times. Woolf sprinkles good thoughts into the flow of things, uttered by or mused about by various people ... but all in all this novel still remains one massive ramble.

Here comes Audible to the rescue! Thanks to the narration by Juliet Stevenson it was time well spent. Would I recommend this novel to others? Not really. They'd likely be bored because, frankly, most people like an actual story with an actual plot ... these musings are not that.

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The better James Bond, Matt Helm

Revisado: 07-02-24

Donald Hamilton created a tough-as-they-come assassin/agent of a secret government organization. Yes, he absolutely does have license to kill - in fact, that is what he's usually brought in for. This time around he ends a South American rebellion with a few shots ... then things get more complicated. There's a Russian missile - and a Nazi - and, of course, a woman he finds himself attracted to. This time around it's actually quite interesting as she was severely abused and he brings her to safety - out of that circumstance a partnership grows - and grows stronger over time.

As for Stefan Rudnicki - by now he's the voice of Matt Helm for me, deep and dark and low and so calm that you'll never see it coming.

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Vonnegut and Malkovich - a good match!

Revisado: 07-02-24

As all of Vonnegut's work I've read so far, this, too, is quite a trip. Feels a bit all over the place, but in his inimitable way, the satirical mastermind that was Kurt Vonnegut pulls it all together. There really is no point in trying to explain neither plot nor characters - if you read this novel, you'll go on a trip into the author's uber-fertile mind and you'll be meeting just about every aspect of America along the way - and yes, Vonnegut puts in an appearance, too ... it's all metaphysically satirically insanely creative or, in short, Vonnegut.

John Malkovich narrates with understatement and subtlety - I quite enjoyed it!

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Not the Killing Floor

Revisado: 06-09-24

This is the second of the uber-successful Jack Reacher novels. The first one, Killing Floor, was crisp and felt real. With this second one it feels as if Lee Child felt the intense pressure of living up to the first novel and delivering something that would be even better. Well, he certainly tried - but in my view, by trying to do so, he kinda lost himself in a farfetched plot.

So Jack Reacher is right there at the start of the story, he just happens to be there when an FBI woman (young and attractive - oh, please) gets kidnapped. Instead of leaving him there, the kidnappers take him along. Instead of killing him and any time during the endless ride, they take him along. When they finally get to remote Montana, where a megalomanic militia-leader attempts to create a free state by getting the USA to bow to his will, well then they still decide to keep Reacher alive. It's all convenient, and it makes no sense. While everyone loves Reacher and his analytic mind and expert kick-ass action, here he's just given the chance to do this and that and get away with it time and time again. And still he isn't killed - the militia would have had ample opportunity. Then there's passion and a bit of sex and that, too, just feels so out of place with the realities on the ground. It's all well written, but it just all felt so wrong. I don't mind a random incident kickstarting such a story - but from that moment on it has to make sense - and there was just nonsensical galore.

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A challenging novel - mostly in a very good way

Revisado: 06-09-24

This is not an easy novel, not one with a hero or anti-hero one feels with, one wants to go along with and see what happens next. Howard Roark, the novel's protagonist, is a tough nut to crack. He is immovable, he doesn't give an inch, ever, when it comes to his principles. But there lies the crux of the novel - the theme of individualism vs. collectivism. The truth is that our species would have never flourished if we had not learned to collaborate, to compromise, to work together, to find common ground to get things done.

Roark stands there as a brilliant statue on a pedestal, proclaiming the virtues of his ideals, of his utter independence to anyone else. It makes for an intriguing character and I very much liked the novel, even if it comes with a few conveniently contrived coincidences that bring the hero and the heroine of the story together and together again.

I very much like this novel. Rand doesn't make it easy, she forces us to think, to go to uncomfortable places. And one such place is the rape scene which I'd say most definitely is a rape, but she always proclaimed and reasoned that it was not. Well, agree to disagree there. Overall, quite a read even if architecture means nothing to do - it makes you ask yourself a few questions about yourself, about humanity. Again, if humanity were as is Roark, we'd have gone extinct a long time ago. But as for what his independence means in terms of being an artist, I love that ideal.

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Tough and brilliant bastard

Revisado: 05-03-24

Matt Helm is nothing like the spoof spy movies that starred Dean Martin in the title role. Remember the early James Bond? The man who was a consummate killer, cold-blooded to the point where he’d strangle a woman with her own bra? Well, that’s pretty close to the Matt Helm of Donald Hamilton’s novel. He’s tough, he focused on the kill, he’s smart and savvy but there’s no hint of debonaire about him. Unlike Bond, Helm is American and more down to earth and wry-humored. This was the third book in the long-running series and here it gets personal as he has to protect his ex and the children - but remember, he’s a tough bastard, the objective always comes first. Frankly, I’d love to watch these stories as Netflix (or some such) miniseries!

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The ultimate private-eye noir classic

Revisado: 04-19-24

I mean, who hasn’t heard of The Maltese Falcon, right? And for most of us it’ll mean instant memories of Humphrey Bogart in the role of Sam Spade, the ultimate private eye. You’ll also remember Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, the fantastic plot, and the dialogue, man, that dialogue it’s, you know, the stuff that dreams are made of.

Well, there’s that film and, frankly, if that’s all you’ll ever know about The Maltese Falcon, you’re wonderfully served. But did you know, for example, that several Maltese Falcon films were made? But now about the novel. Dashiell Hammett wrote it in serialized form in the late 1920s, it was then published as a novel in 1930.

If you’re a screenwriter like me then this novel will feel to you like a screenplay. Screenplays are extroverted. In them you read what happens on screen, what is seen, what is said, what is heard. Novels, most often, are introverted. They’ll come with a lot of character musings, we get to be in their heads, read about their thoughts, get to know them beyond their external actions. Not so in script, there’s not a single line in a screenplay about what’s happening inside a character’s head - there is only what they say, what they do, how they act and react. In Hammett’s novel then, he does just that - there’s nothing about what characters feel or think. Made me feel right at home as a screenwriter and, frankly, John Huston (who directed and also wrote the screenplay) must have felt the same way.

Aside from the novel being very script-like, it was also startling to me just how faithfully the iconic film follows the novel. For much of the novel I could just see Bogie and Mary Astor and the rest of the amazing cast - the lines were there, word for word, the actions, the big things, the little things - seemingly all there. Obviously, a number of things had to be cut to pack it all into the film, but, again, faithful as can be.

However, that iconic line I mentioned in the opening paragraph? “The Stuff that dreams are made of” - that awesomely epic line - is not in the novel (legend has it that Bogie himself suggested that line). I’m sure Hammett didn’t mind that particular addition! Oh, since we’re on the topic of Humphrey Bogart - he was nothing like the Sam Spade Hammett had created in his novel. The original Sam Spade was a blond hulking pack of muscles with - get this - eyes that often appear yellow! The novel’s Spade is also a lot meaner, spiteful, occasionally petty, downright cruel. Bogart plays all of that to some degree, but he gave us a Sam Spade who’s tough as nails while, underneath, we can always feel that there’s a cool and mature soul with, ultimately, the heart in the right place.

Well then, should you ever feel like going down the Maltese Falcon rabbit hole, then know that watching the Huston/Bogart film is a great starting point. Now pick up the novel and know that it’ll be like watching the movie, but it still offers a few surprises - such as the “Flitcraft Parable” … at some point in the novel this feels like the author’s giving us a break, a time-out, an intermezzo from the twisted plot. Sam Spade hangs out with Bridget O’Shaughnessy and tells her the story of a man name Flitcraft, who, after almost being killed by a falling beam, just leaves his family behind and vanished. It certainly is an unusual element in The Maltese Falcon. Clearly, the story means something to Sam Spade, he likes that “He adjusted himself to beams falling, and then no more of them fell, and he adjusted himself to them not falling.”

And when you’re done reading the novel, then why not check out the other Maltese Falcon movie adaptations? The first was made in 1931 (10 years before the Bogie version) and pretty much vanished for many years because it censors denied approval as the film was considered to contain lewd elements. The second film followed in 1936 and was called Satan Met a Lady - it starred Bette Davis and was more of a comedic take on the novel. Another ‘funny’ adaptation came about in the seventies, a film called The Black Bird, starring George Segal as Sam Spade. I have to say, I haven’t seen these three films, but now that I’m writing about them, I really want to!

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