Just gorgeous. This, the first of three volumes (the last chapter of volume two should be out before too long) covers about nine months in Berlin in 1928, with flashbacks to 1918. Conflict. Tension. Brutality. Beauty. In tone, and to some extent in artistic style, it reminds me quite a bit of Satoshi Kon’s film, “Millennium Actress”. The snow. The groundedness in place. The sharp edge of tradition.
February 2008
Monthly Archive
Mon 25 Feb 2008
“Berlin, Book 1: City of Stones”, Jason Lutes (2001) [Graphic Novel]
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Mon 25 Feb 2008
This one is set in the same setting as “Light”, but it was much more readable for me. “Light” did something weird to my head and I had a terrible time following where it was going. This book was much gentler on the brain without ever leaving the territory of strange. The only real problem I had was with the very long denouement, where a minor background character steps to center stage and gives a poignant final act that wanted its own book. In fact, the entire plot line is littered with half seen paths not taken in this story. My brain kept wanting to wander off to color in the lines and pencil in new lines where there were only tantalizing smudges. Nicely done.
Mon 25 Feb 2008
The usual Disc World fun. It didn’t fall flat and even had some laugh out loud cleverness, but. It wasn’t great and the whole conceit is wearing thin. Luckily these are quick and low investment cost entertaining reads, so I don’t mind.
Mon 25 Feb 2008
Scientist encounters alien… then gets to be the alien. Things I like: 1) Strong female characters 2) Aliens that are alien and 3) Things are not what they seem. Dislike the title. Intensely. Like the book a lot.
Mon 11 Feb 2008
A down on its luck shoe factory finds a new niche in catering to transvestites and drag queens. But it’s Chiwetel Ejiofor who makes this movie. Just gorgeous. But nothing terribly deep.
Mon 11 Feb 2008
This three part miniseries is delightful fun. A coming-of-age oyster girl falls hard for a cross-dressing female thespian, and a crazy life takes off.
Mon 11 Feb 2008
Tue 5 Feb 2008
Back to the alternate history world of “Farthing”. Whether or not you liked that book will be a good predictor of how you’ll feel about this one. Dry and mannered with a bit of an edge, there’s still plenty going on. I liked the previous book and I like this one too, in spite of not being a fan of alternate history, and doubly so for alternate history in this particular post-war period. But there are two emotional turning points for our heroine that don’t quite ring true for me. I just wasn’t convinced that she was truly in fear for her life when threatened. And again, when she changes her mind and decides to cooperate with the plan for her own reasons, the notes don’t quite ring true. I feel as though we’re missing a sense of her visceral reaction underlying the intellectual shift.
Mon 4 Feb 2008
Yes, lots of throat slitting and gushing, spurting, spraying blood. And dropping corpses on their heads. Crazy people everywhere, but this is Sweeney Todd after all. Mrs. Lovett was a little too visually Burtonesque cartoonish for my taste. Over-the-top-ness? Oh yes. Laugh out loud moments? Yes, yes. A great film? No. But good. I so much wanted just a little more humanity to peek out of these characters. Which is not to say there wasn’t any, but the humor and gore always seemed to come first.
Mon 4 Feb 2008
“On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft”, Steven King (2000) [Audiobook]
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I’m not a huge fan of Steven King’s books, but I enjoyed this one and found that it lived up to the reputation it’s amassed. Half memoir, half writerly advice, minimum bullshit. And it’s entertaining as hell. And touching. As a bonus, the audiobook is read by Steven King himself, and he does a good job of it.