The State of Editing in America is getting on my nerves

.

I’m not mad at Ann Patchett. She is, in my limited experience, excellent. And while she should accept some responsibility for what I’m about to complain on, John McPhee has persuaded me that my ire is rightly directed to the publisher and their role in checking things, making them correct.

I have been moaning lately about editorial staffs failing to back authors up (example [17], example [44]), but this one is the most shocking. This is a collection of essays—

—by a major American author published by HarperCollins. And the essay I wish to speak about "(“To the Doghouse”) was previously published in the Washington Post. Now, that version was much trimmer, but I’m pretty sure that what’s published in These Precious Days is the original version, before the newsfolk cut it down to meet inches.

Anyway, that version, if you look at it now, includes this notice:

[CORRECTION: An earlier version of this essay incorrectly stated that, in one “Peanuts” strip, Linus asked if Snoopy could come out to play, and got a rejection letter. It was Rerun, Linus’s brother, who made the request.]

This is a correct correction.

The corrected sentence did not make it into the book version.

In fact, not only is that error not corrected, but elsewhere in the essay, Rerun is referred to as “Sidecar”

which, best I can tell, is not a name anyone else has ever given Rerun in the entire history of time. This should have been an easy catch.

Anyway, I didn’t track down comics for all the times Linus appeared in the essay, but I suspect up to three other times it is actually, once again, Rerun. (We need an online Peanuts concordance. I know you have one.)

And while I guess you can claim Snoopy wrapped his own doghouse, the strip sure makes it seem like Christo wrapped it himself.

Now maybe Ms Patchett hasn’t read Peanuts since she was a kid but that’s where a good editorial staff comes in. And the fact that one error WAS ALREADY FLAGGED BY THE WASHINGTON POST makes this panoply of failure all the more embarrassing.

American editors need to step up.

It’s your job to make writers look good.

Do your job.

The debut of Mormon Socrates

 

.

In my ongoing efforts to become selfpromotional, let me here announce the arrival of my first two Mormon Socrates dialogues. More are drafted or planned and may appear in the future. Let’s cross our fingers!

Alas, however, unless you subscribe to Sunstone, I’m not sure how you can read it. They haven’t offered individual paper issues online since 2019. In fact, I had thought the magazine had been phased out, but , the mail today proved that a lie.

Some selfpromotional photos:

The dialogues have been recorded and allegedly are at sunstone.org/mormon-socrates, so keep clicking on that. I’m excited to hear them myself.

I have sort of a mixed relationship with Socrates—I loved Gorgias but after reading several books of The Republic I finally realized that Socrates wasn’t kidding and I just couldn’t take it anymore. It’s been years now since I picked it up. (Although part of this is because it was on my Nook and I’ve given up on ereaders.)

Anyway, in these two dialogues (ABORTIA and TRANSKEPSIS—my naming conventions are not consistent) Mormon Socrates engages with fellow Saints on the topics of abortion and transsexuality. I have more written/planned and I’m hopeful they can also find a home with Sunstone. Perhaps someday I’ll have an entire book!

Anyway, this is my effort at selfpromotion. Sadly, I have no idea how you can get a copy if you’re not already a subscriber. (Ponying up the cash may be key to hearing the audio version as well. Let me know if you know! My subscription lapsed and I listen to podcasts so rarely, it’s hard to justify $75/annum. Which is a shame because I love Sunstone and want it to live forever.)

Anyway: Mormon Socrates!

Saying good bye to our friend Kinsey (plus: comics)

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It's been almost ten years of occasional bursts and gaps that I have been reading Kinsey Millhone's adventures. I sped up as she approached Z, but then her author died and I slowed way back down. And now, six years after Sue Grafton's passing, here we are. At the end.

But we'll get to that in a minutes.

Before then, you'll see two pairs of comics that I read together, momentum taking me from book one to book two twice, in two very different genres.

Books!

.

051) More Gross: Cartoons by S. Gross, finished May 9
052) I Am Blind and My Dog Is Dead by S. Gross, finished May 9

I just saw that Sam Gross died and so I sat down and read a couple of his collections off archive.org, from 1981 and 1977. The '81 collection in particular had a number of gags that I don't think he could sell today. We're a bit more respectful of taboos in this moment.

More frustrating however was that the scans caused a few jokes to get lost in the space between pages, sucked into the spine. Boo!

Anyway, Mr Gross. You had a good run. Thanks for the laughs!

as long as it takes to read this many cartoons


053) Batgirls: One Way or Another by Becky Cloonan / Michael W. Conrad / Jorge Corona / Sarah Stein, finished date

It's been years since I read Cass's origin and I don't think I've read any Steph before and haven't seen the walking-again version of Babs, which is to say I'm not reading DC like once I did. But I really dug this collection of the three Batgirls working together. I love seeing how Cass has evolved, I liked Steph, and while I was worried about the new Babs I love her in this mentor role and I'm glad that her past injuries (which should never have happened as they did) are not completely gone and influence her character still.

Diving into the updated mythos was at times headspinning, but at least only a couple times were there missing chunks from other titles. The mix of villains was heady and complex and overlapping in interesting ways. Not everything was developed to a level we'd want in a proper novel or film, but honestly I don't care. To me, the story ultimately was not about the villains or the mysteries or the resolutions—the story was about these three women and their relationships with each other. And that was excellent.

It's funny that the books quoted The Incredibles near the end, because I wanted to talk about capes. And I can't talk about capes without recognizing that the final word on capes came in 2004. That said, Jorge Corona's use of capes in this book is, ah, incredible. It's not about realism. The Batgirls' capes are TERRIBLE IDEAS in terms of "realism" or "practicality" but they are beautiful and they capture important aspects of character. They are a little symbol each Batgirl carries around with her, adding a layer to every image, some other truth that no other detail will express in the same way.

I mean—look at this:

It's not the best example of what I'm talking about, but it's the best shot of all three capes in one panel, and though I've told you nothing about their individual characters, don't you feel something about them, just from this image of them walking away?

two or three days
 

054) Batgirls: Bat Girl Summer by Becky Cloonan / Michael W. Conrad / Neil Googe / Robbi Rodriguez / Rico Renzi, finished date

Storywise, this one's much cleaner. Largely because the bulk of it is wrapping up the minor storyline from the previous volume.

Lots of different artists worked on this one. At first in particular I missed Corona, but some of the later styles worked better with the characters. I do appreciate that so many different kinds of art are finding home in mainstream comics. That's exciting. It makes me want to read more of them.

The new characters Cloonan and Conrad are writing into the story intrigue as well. This feels like real fertile ground. Sure, old hands like the Penguin, the Riddler, and Killer Moth make appearances, but the barely seen Mr Fun has potential and the normies Kyle and Maps* would be fun to see again as well.

What I like about this series (based on these twelve issues in two volumes) is how fresh and alive and free to innovate it feels. It's tied into DC tradition but doesn't feel fettered by it. That's the best of what these decades-old universes can provide.

* Oh: appears Maps was invented by Cloonan earlier.

immediately afterward
 

055) Y is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton, finished May 12

So that's it. Kinsey Millhone's adventures are over. Part of me was worried that the ongoing stories the author'd been compiling would go unresolved in a big way, but this was a pretty tidy conclusion.

Lotsa spoilers here, but I want to mention the following:

Jonah's finally getting divorced.

Grafton never found a way to reconcile Kinsey with the originally introduced surprised relatives (I suspect Sue lost interest in them the way Charles Schulz lost interest in Shermy), but the much more grating set of relatives from Bakersfield surprised by giving Kinsey just enough family to fill the gap. And it was with the surprisingly sweet person that sure seemed like a monster when she first followed her back to Santa Teresa. Kinsey's even getting a lil nibling and a hint that she could be some sort of Aunt Gin herself in the future.

Lots of good endings for recently introduced minor characters, one of whom gets some sort of girl-power line near the end that almost seems like a thesis statement for the entire series.

Henry made it through all twenty-five books without being murdered or anything! From book one I suspected that would be a fridging deemed necessary somewhere around N. But no: he's as healthy as every—and his pro-person attitude is shown to be correct in a big way.

We'll never get Z is for Zero, but I do hope her notes get published. This book's ending makes me suspect that, as she was writing/finishing it, Sue Grafton knew it would be her last. And I'm glad for Kinsey that her creator, apparently, always intended her to end well.

Satisfied sigh.

There is still Kinsey & Me to read (my mom bought be a copy) and I will certainly read it, but the novels strike me as the true canon. I will read it, but I think I may let the ending be the ending for a while, and leave Kinsey is this satisfied spot.

A B C D E F G H I 

J K L M N O P Q

R S T U V W X Y

 

 

a few weeks
 

 

read it on thubstack next time

 

Previously . . . . :

final posts in this series from

  2007 = 2008 = 2009 = 2010 = 2011 = 2012 = 2013
2014 = 2015 = 2016 = 2017 = 2018 = 2019 = 2020 = 2021 = 2022

___related___
UNFINISHED BOOKS
REJECTED BOOKS

 

 

Earlier in 2023

2023 is 80% comics

001) The Dark Room by Gerry Duggan & Scott Buoncristiano, finished January four
002) The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander, finished January 6
003) Rose by Jeff Smith and Charles Vess, finished January 10
004) Acting Class by Nick Drnaso, finished January 10
005) Red Scare by Liam Francis Walsh, finished January 11

Step right up and try your luck

006) The Short Reign of Pippin IV by John Steinbeck, finished January 18
007) Filmish by Edward Ross, finished circa January 20

HOW many times?

008) Maddy Kettle Book: The Adventure of the Thimblewitch by Eric Orchard, finished January 24 
009) Fantastic Frights: A Beginner's Guide to Scary Stories, finished January 24
010) Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary, finished February 2
011) Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, finished February 3
012) The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain, finished February 4
013) Is that all there is? by Joost Swarte, finished February 6
014) Edge Case by YZ Chin, finished February 7

If it weren't for a friendly sex talk, everything here would be miserable

015) Double Indemnity by James M. Cain, finished February 10
016) Sex Educated: Letters from a Latter-day Saint therapist to her younger self by Bonnie Young, LMFT, finished February 13
017) Unmask Alice: LDS, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World's Most Notorious Diaries by Rick Emerson, finished February 20 

A Bookful Bounty for thee and thine 

018) I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jeannette McCurdy, finished February 27
019–21) The Abominable Charles Christopher by Karl Kershl, finished March 6
022) Displacement by Kiku Hughes, finished March 6
023) The Many Deaths of Laila Starr by Ram V and Filipe Andrade, finished March 6
024) The Homeland Directive by Robert Venditti and Mike Huddleston, finished March 7
025) Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare, finished March 14
026) Last West: Roadsongs for Dorothea Lange by Tess Taylor, finished March 15
027) 22 Young Mormon Writers edited by Neal E. Lambert and Richard H. Cracroft, finished March 19
028 & 029) Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare, finished March 23 & March 27

Literarily solving for X

030) X by Sue Grafton, finished March 28
031) Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary, finished April 5
032) Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century by Dana Stevens, finished April 5
033) Abe Lincoln in Illinois by Robert E. Sherwood, finished April 8
034) Theology of Play by Jürgen Moltmann, finished April 12
035) The Male Animal by James Thurber and Elliott Nugent, finished April 12
036) Bluffton by Matt Phelan, finished April 16
037) Number One Walking: My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions by Steve Martin and Harry Bliss, finished April 15

From Lolly to Elias

038) Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner, finished April 17
039) The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson, finished April 19
040) Beware the Eye of Odin by Wager/Odland/Madsen/Dukeshire, finished April 19
041) The Complete Peanuts: 1965–1966 by Charles M. Schulz, finished April 20
042) A Wealth of Pigeons by Steve Martin and Harry Bliss, finished April 22
043) Elias: An Epic of the Ages by Orson Ferguson Whitney, finished April 23

Old Hollywood & Olden Times

044) Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, "The Fifth Marx Brother" by Chris Enss and Howard Kazanjian, finished April 25
045) Voices from the Radium Age edited by Joshua Glenn, finished April 26
046) The Ballad of YFB by Aaron Brassea, finished April 28
047) Reynaud's Tale by Ben Hatke, finished May 3
048) Superman: Up in the Sky by Tom King and Andy Kubert, finished May 5
049) Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary, finished May 5
050) Resurrection Row by Anne Perry, finished May 6

 

Zoey Abbott is a wonder

.

Hey, everyone!

So I recently picked up a free copy of Banana from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. (I don't use LibraryThing so much these days, but it is still a cool site that offers good things. I paid for a lifetime membership. This is me. You know. Should you wish to say hi.)

Anyway, Banana is a very cutting allegory that isn't really an allegory at all because its symbols will cut wherever you aim them. It's been marketed as a book about parental distraction, but it can talk about distraction of anyone from anything by anything. It's a solid picture book and a fun read and a great book to spark conversation with a six-year-old, but it . . . I don't even own a phone, but it might have cut a little close.

 

 

Still. I liked it enough that I immediately put every other Zoey Abbott book at the library on hold. They arrived and the six-year-old and I read them, and man alive is this woman a significant talent!

All three of these books are excellent, but I will take them in order from successful to brilliant. (Incidentally, I'd put Banana somewhere in the middle.)

Incidentally, these books—all the ones available which she has both written and illustrated—were all released in the last twenty-six months. So she's on a tear and I suspect her publisher shares my high opinion of her. Publishers, actually. Only the last two are from the same imprint.)

 

This wonderful little girl loves the oldfashioned world of stamps, of writing and mailing letters.

But she does not love Yolanda, the terrifying woman who works one of the counters at her local post office. (I could tell you which one, but the endpapers are filled with her letters and envelopes so why not let you enjoy learning for yourself?)

Eventually, things warm between them (thank you literature. and food. and literature about food.)

(I haven't read it, but the movie's great.)

It's a good book. It has a lot of heart and honesty. But it would not make me put someone's other books on hold. Even though I am becoming a great sucker for picture books and the last line made me choke up.)

 

 

The first half of this book I'm thinking about using as a writing prompt for my sophomores next year. Horse is trying to help Pig distract herself from her fears and anxieties.

Eventually, they invite her fears to tea and Zoey makes the choice to define them more specifically, which is probably the right choice for her target audience, but it's where I would end the book for my own pedagogic purposes.

Anyway, the book is lovely and useful. Horse is both a good friend and at times distinctly unhelpful. Pig is both brave and afraid—and models dealing with fears that are of debatable substance. It's good stuff.

 

Look: this is a book in the tradition of Grand Orphan Adventures and it happily checks boxes we know from fairy tales and Roald Dahl. Clementine is a delightful heroine and I love her lots.

But then the lion moves in. And the story does not go at all in the direction I expected.

Zoey Abbott has a knack for stories that feel allegorical but can actually be interpreted in plenty of ways, so when I tell you this is probably the best representation of marriage I've seen in a picture book, I do not at all expect you to agree with me. But that was my experience.

I loved it.

My guess is none of these first four entries is her Wild Things or Goodnight, Moon or Guess How Much I Love You. No one, no matter how skilled, is guaranteed a book like that. But my guess is she'll get one.

And it might not be better than what she's already given us.

Note: the images above all link to Amazon. These books are also available on Bookshop. Though so far, I am earned zero money from Bookshop clicks. Which I'm afraid might tell me something about my audience. Ahem. Here are the Bookshop links by publication order: I Do Not Like Yolanda, Pig and Horse and the Something Scary, Clementine and the Lion, Banana.)

Old Hollywood & Olden Times

.

This go-round, I check off another LDS writer I've never read, spend some more time in the black-and-white era, travel below ground, to midcentury suburbia, the depths of the music industry, the distant future, and a folkloric past.

It'll be a fun trip. Thisaway, friends!

.

044) Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, "The Fifth Marx Brother" by Chris Enss and Howard Kazanjian, finished April 25

So I really loved this book. I loved learning about Margaret Dumont's early years and behind the scenes with her and the Marx Brothers. Tons to enjoy here. That said, this is a really weird book.

 

The authors have done tons of research and it's not unusual to have pages of long quotations (a page or more) strung together, often redundantly, from period newspapers and the like. That's kind of weird. Fun and I liked it, but peculiar.

Once she starts working with the Marx Brothers, it's really more of a Marx Brother's biography with constant glancing over to see what Miss Dumont's doing. Literally, there are chapters that are about all the movies the brothers are making without her, then a page listing the titles of the movies she'd been in. I mean—I get it's probably the Marx Brothers that are gonna get people to pick up the book, but this is still supposed to be a book about Margaret Dumont. So that was weird.

The last chapter and a half was suddenly riddled with errors. Misspelling chaise longue is one thing (who among us has not?) but misidentifying an image as being from one movie when it's from another is a problem. Though, now that I think about it, perhaps not as big a problem as earlier in the book where in two pages they swapped whether "Duck Soup was the highest grossing film of 1933. It didn't do as well as Horse Feathers, but it performed well at the box office." (76) or "Duck Soup...was no as big a hit as Paramount hoped it would be. Horse Feathers had been the highest grossing film for Paramount in 1932. Duck Soup was sixtieth on the list of top income-earning motion pictures in 1933. Audiences weren't enthusiastic about the movie." So that was weird. And worrying.

In short, for all I dug about the book (which was plenty), it has some of the same variety of problems I complained about after reading Unmask Alice. Publishers aren't doing their job.

That said, I now know lots about Margaret Dumont (first Daisy Dumont) and I'm glad I do. She started in theater young; she was beautiful and had an astonishing singing voice and comedic chops. She was so skilled she made it into higher theater even given her low roots. She was happily married a rich guy for eight years until her father-in-law and his new young wife cut them off and her own husband died, sending her back to the boards.

Obviously, there are more details, but Margaretwise, her early decades were my favorite part of the book. Perhaps I enjoyed reading most about she and the Marxes traveling the country refining jokes and pratfalls, and perhaps I was most frustrated with the MGM years (the same MGM years that frustrated me while reading about Buster), but I signed up to learn about Margaret Dumont and that I did and I am glad.

a week or maybe more


045) Voices from the Radium Age edited by Joshua Glenn, finished April 26

Voices from the Radium Age is the first volume of a series being published by MIT. Editor Glenn has named the late 19th- / early 20th-century, pre-"Golden Age" range of science fiction the Radium Age and it's a solid name. And nothing works like naming something to bring it to life.

The stories here are uniformly terrific but engaged in very different tasks. Me, I found the book because someone on Twitter was asking for short-book recommendations and some one mentioned the story by E.M. Forster. A good friend of mine wrote his dissertation on Forster's fantasy, so I'm overdue to read some. Or, failing that, his one piece of science fiction. This collection was the only option at my library, so I picked it up. I doubted I would read anything else (I was uncertain I would ever read Forster) but I started with Glenn's introductory matter in a slow moment and he sold me. I was gonna read the entire thing. And so I have.

(Worth mentioning that the first thing that made me certain I would take the book seriously was its Seth cover. Covers do matter.)

Sultana's Dream (1905) — Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain : A decade before Herland, Ladyland. Ladyland is an Indian feminine utopia and more sciencefictiony than Gilman's. But it also takes place within a dream. I do love the idea of pipes carrying the heat of the sun, though.

The Voice in the Night (1907) — William Hope Hodgson : This feels like an episode of Suspense or something (surely it was adapted for radio?). Two men on a schooner approached by one man on a rowboat, unwilling to come into the light. One of the first fungus/human stories, so if you've been digging The Last of Us, you owe yourself this trip.

The Machine Stops (1909) — E. M. Forster : This is what I came for and it is startlingly current. People living homogeneous lives, engaged in meaningless media consumption. It's got a world-running A.I. Agoraphobia. Pride in ignorance, comfort in lacking courage. The story features a woman whose son is dissatisfied and this is barely comprehensible to her. Sure, it's a bit dated here and there, but with just a couple edits, you could easily believe this story is from this decade.

The Horror of the Heights (1913) — Arthur Conan Doyle : What if there are jungles of the air, far up above us, and we've been able to live in ignorance of them simply because we as a species have never flown above 30,000 feet? And the what happens when we finally do?

The Red One (1918) — Jack London : Glenn discusses this story as being racist beyond just having a racist protagonist, and no question that there are descriptions unpleasant to the modern ear, but London sticks with third-person-limited throughout. So it's hard to say for sure. My suspicion is that, like a lot of liberals, his feelings on race were corrupted by his embrace of eugenics. Anyway, racist guy is stranded on one of the Solomon Islands where the great god is a giant sphere of uncertain (but red) metal perhaps from space. It's lovecraftian stuff.

The Comet (1920) — W. E. B. Du Bois : This is the only story in the collection I'd read before, circa the summer of 2020, and my opinion holds. First, that it's a great mood piece and succeeds on both halves of its reckoning with both apocalypse and race in America. Second, that the ending makes no sense. Where did that woman come from?? And even if the text does provide an explanation I haven't found, it's still an absurd coincidence and DuBois shoulda looked harder for another ending. In my opinion. I just hate being thrown out of excellence at the last moment, even if the thing doing the throwing is thematically necessary to the author's moral.

The Jameson Satellite (1931) — Neil R. Jones :  (Jones was born the year Forster wrote "The Machine Stops," which may give you a sense of the amount of time the Radium Age fills.) The first in a long series of stories, in which Professor Jameson dies in the last century yet whose body outlives the earth, letting his brain be resurrected by passing aliens to a metal body. I enjoyed it but I'll be the later stories have more adventure to them. I will say there's something about his space coffin and resurrection that reminded me of the mode of travel in Burroughs's Mars stories.

under a week
 

046) The Ballad of YFB by Aaron Brassea, finished April 28

This is a comic from 2010. The art is  . . . simple. The writing is plain. It's an aesthetic.

It's about a crappy band that becomes a famous band which gets into a competition with a song-writing robot. The the lead singer gets back with his pre-fame girlfriend and . . . I think the robot kills him out of jealousy? I'm not sure.

two nights
 

047) Reynaud's Tale by Ben Hatke, finished May 3

Hatke's been hit or miss in my experience, but we can safely call this one a hit.

Each spread is a page of text and a page illustration. The illustrations are great, both now and folk, and the adventure has the calm forward momentum of myth.

The books seems to marketed as for kids but my library catalogued it as adult, and I think that's right. Nothing too scandalous, but some breasts and casual sexual relationship exist in fairy-tale matter-of-fact-ness.

An excellent book to sit down with and take a moment's pleasure.

one night
 

048) Superman: Up in the Sky by Tom King and Andy Kubert, finished May 5

I saw someone online call this the premier or greatest or best or finest or something Superman story so I thought I'd check it out. I get why people might thinks so. It has serious literary ambition. Although it holds together coherently as a standalone story, it's loaded with allusions to other takes on the DC mythos that will add resonance to those in the know. Some of those left me feeling a bit left out and also left me wondering if things I did not think were allusive might, in fact, have been. So although I appreciated the craft, the book left me feeling a bit cold, especially when other characters' appearances seemed purely gratuitous.

Until the final portion when this celebration about all that's great about Superman truly came together into evidence that what is great about Superman is truly great.

It's hard to let Superman actually embody all the things he's supposed to stand for and yet still tell a great story. How can someone both unbeatable and always good be made into an identifieable character? Haw can we be made to care about his quests?

And this story left out most of the plot, just showing us individual moments in great details. (Like I said, literarily ambitious.)

Yet somehow it all came together at the end into something genuinely moving and pure.

So kudos. Well done.

two days


049) Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary, finished May 5

The 6yrold says she likes how she turned happy at the end and that her father finds a job.

While Mr Quimby does play a larger-than-usual role in this book, he's more the mise-en-scene than player. Not to say he doesn't matter as a character—her certainly does—but the book is driven by him losing his job in the first chapter and not finding a new one till the last chapter (which he does not begin before the book run out of pages). His stress is also increased by the girls pressuring him to give up smoking. In fact, the whole emotional fabric of the book takes its cue from Mr Quimby, which is something Ramona feels and sees but cannot thoroughly understand.

Plus, this is another world, economically and culturally. And the 6yrold was so surprised that Ramona prays and goes to church, which got me thinking: secularism is the assumed reality for kids in American children's literature. Especially generically white children's literature.

That seems narrow.

several weeks


  050) Resurrection Row by Anne Perry, finished May 6

Anne Perry wrote a lot of books and they sold lots and lots of copies. I've never read one. But then she died and I came across this in a Little Free Library when I was without a book and so I figured the time had come.

This is the fourth in the Inspector Pitt series (1981) and, like them all, named after an actual London neighborhood. It's an apropos neighborhood to appear in the story as the mystery begins with disinterred bodies appearing and demanding an explanation.

The adventure takes us to high-end homes and to the most poverty-stricken corners of London. The story moves at a good pace and the era and location come to life.

I get why people like them!

I am curious how the good inspector and his wife came to be a match, but not enough to seek the book out. If I get lucky and an earlier volume falls into my lap, then we'll get our answer.

As it is, I have no read Anne Perry.

two or three weeks

 

read it on thubstack next time

Previously . . . . :

final posts in this series from

  2007 = 2008 = 2009 = 2010 = 2011 = 2012 = 2013
2014 = 2015 = 2016 = 2017 = 2018 = 2019 = 2020 = 2021 = 2022

___related___
UNFINISHED BOOKS
REJECTED BOOKS

 

 

Earlier in 2023

2023 is 80% comics

001) The Dark Room by Gerry Duggan & Scott Buoncristiano, finished January four
002) The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander, finished January 6
003) Rose by Jeff Smith and Charles Vess, finished January 10
004) Acting Class by Nick Drnaso, finished January 10
005) Red Scare by Liam Francis Walsh, finished January 11

Step right up and try your luck

006) The Short Reign of Pippin IV by John Steinbeck, finished January 18
007) Filmish by Edward Ross, finished circa January 20

HOW many times?

008) Maddy Kettle Book: The Adventure of the Thimblewitch by Eric Orchard, finished January 24 
009) Fantastic Frights: A Beginner's Guide to Scary Stories, finished January 24
010) Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary, finished February 2
011) Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, finished February 3
012) The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain, finished February 4
013) Is that all there is? by Joost Swarte, finished February 6
014) Edge Case by YZ Chin, finished February 7

If it weren't for a friendly sex talk, everything here would be miserable

015) Double Indemnity by James M. Cain, finished February 10
016) Sex Educated: Letters from a Latter-day Saint therapist to her younger self by Bonnie Young, LMFT, finished February 13
017) Unmask Alice: LDS, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World's Most Notorious Diaries by Rick Emerson, finished February 20 

A Bookful Bounty for thee and thine 

018) I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jeannette McCurdy, finished February 27
019–21) The Abominable Charles Christopher by Karl Kershl, finished March 6
022) Displacement by Kiku Hughes, finished March 6
023) The Many Deaths of Laila Starr by Ram V and Filipe Andrade, finished March 6
024) The Homeland Directive by Robert Venditti and Mike Huddleston, finished March 7
025) Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare, finished March 14
026) Last West: Roadsongs for Dorothea Lange by Tess Taylor, finished March 15
027) 22 Young Mormon Writers edited by Neal E. Lambert and Richard H. Cracroft, finished March 19
028 & 029) Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare, finished March 23 & March 27

Literarily solving for X

030) X by Sue Grafton, finished March 28
031) Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary, finished April 5
032) Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century by Dana Stevens, finished April 5
033) Abe Lincoln in Illinois by Robert E. Sherwood, finished April 8
034) Theology of Play by Jürgen Moltmann, finished April 12
035) The Male Animal by James Thurber and Elliott Nugent, finished April 12
036) Bluffton by Matt Phelan, finished April 16
037) Number One Walking: My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions by Steve Martin and Harry Bliss, finished April 15

From Lolly to Elias

038) Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner, finished April 17
039) The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson, finished April 19
040) Beware the Eye of Odin by Wager/Odland/Madsen/Dukeshire, finished April 19
041) The Complete Peanuts: 1965–1966 by Charles M. Schulz, finished April 20
042) A Wealth of Pigeons by Steve Martin and Harry Bliss, finished April 22
043) Elias: An Epic of the Ages by Orson Ferguson Whitney, finished April 23

April ends with what you see here

.

A fun little month of film. I should say that I watched more quality short films than usual, from Cops (and a bunch more Buster Keaton) to Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe to A Date in 2025 to more more more. But they don't get counted! No matter how many there are!

So on to the big ones.

.

HOME
library bluray

Easter Parade (1948)

So this is the number-one boxoffice smash of 1948. Which is wild to me. The story is barebones and the romance is dumb. I guess people just liked singing and dancing and accepted the big stars because they are stars and these are their roles? I dunno.

Don't get me wrong. The songs are Irving Berlin in the best way. I'll humming at least the title track for a while (and it wasn't even my favorite). But

Can we talk about the romance? Or romances, rather? Because they're dumb. I know that stars fall for each other in movies, but Fred Astaire's both a little weird looking and almost a quarter century older than Judy Garland. It doesn't make sense! Especially not when there's a really nice guy who is age- and face-appropriate who's also really rich right there pining for her. Why does that guy exist? It's not so he can marry Fred's former flame. He doesn't want that and we don't want it for him. It's like the movie was following some playbook and forgot how many plays they'd booked. So many complications are put into place and then the final couple scenes conveniently forget all about them. Love conquers all, I guess. Even love that makes no sense.

(This was, of course, the MGM way. Using playbooks, that is. Piles of writers all trying to do salary work on the same movie.)

I'm no musical expert, but I do wonder if this movie is either typical of the time (I suspect this is true) or extra-huge (I suspect this is also true), but sometimes it seems to be the direct target of Singin' in the Rain's satire. I wonder.

HOME
library dvd

Gates of Heaven (1978)

I largely know about this film and have wanted to see it because of Roger Ebert's enthusiasm for it. It's a fascinating time capsule, but that also makes it a bit more distant. I'm not sure I can experience or appreciate it as, say, Roger Ebert or Werner Herzog did in 1978. By which I mean it feels less about us and more about them. But maybe that's also an aspect of watching it alone, not sharing it with an audience.

The film has no narration and I find this a compelling technique. Every one just speaks for themselves. No one is between us and the subjects but the editor.

I'd like to attempt a film like this. Even before he mastered his technique (getting people to stare into the camera, for instance, see Fog of War), he knew how to let people talk and just share.

In other words: I will watch more.

HOME
Kanopy

Venus (2016)

Interesting to watch this one right after Gates of Heaven. The opening is all about the filmmakers and what they want. Part two is them interviewing women from Copenhagen about sex and sexuality, and the filmmakers are still doing a lot of talking. Finally we edge into more Errol Morris-y filmmaking with the women just talking with very little interjection from the filmmakers. Then the final portion is portraits of the women as nude as they are willing to get. This is silent. Like the marble nude in the opening shot. Which is a way to bookend, I guess.

Although this film was made by women, with and for women, and did foreground women's stories and left me, as audience, feeling like I had genuinely heard women, it also felt like a crass calculation: sex sells.

Also, may I say, Copenhagen is most certainly another country.

THEATER
Century Hilltop 16

Paint (2023)

I know Rotten Tomatoes is cold on it but if you liked the trailer, I say go for it. I liked the trailer; I liked the movie.

I'll agree that it's not one of the greatest movies in the tradition of the Hesses or Waititi, but it's a solid piece of work. It understands that no matter how your characters fail, you still have to love them and respect them. That's the secret of this kind of comedy. And so while there are a few stumbles, the care of the writer/director and the skill of the actors holds it together.

I wager the details about PBS are wrong to the point of silly and the throwback vibe likely creates a more absurd Vermont than Napoleon did Idaho, but seriously: if you love this kind of comedy, it works.

I also loved the old-school soundtrack (since I was utterly 100% alone in the theater*, I could sing along with Don Williams over the credits) and, yes, I was burned (delightfully and deservedly) by the bread-bowl joke. You see, we went to the Musée Mécanique today and, while we usually avoid such touristy things, before we walked back to the ferry, I got myself some clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. And it was delicious. Doesn't make Paint's burn any less worthy, but hey—well played.

* Watching a movie in a theater alone is kind of awesome! Especially since I could laugh at jokes that maybe no one else would find funny. And perhaps also especially since people on average are apparently not loving the film.

Their loss.

HOME
library dvd

The Mermaid (2016)

Stephen Chow never fails to amaze. No matter how bonkers he's been, he'll find a way to surpass your expectations. And although there is plenty of visual madness in this film, the funniest bit must be a series of simple drawings. You have to love it.

That said, I'm astonished this film was such an enormous hit. Americans aren't interested in such broad farce, even if they are also special effects extravaganzas. The film, in short, is utter nonsense with a series moral message delivered with gruesome, over-the-top clarity. I mean—we see people kiling mermaids with Taiji-like efficiency. That's not typical comedy fare, to my mind.

The movie is intensely entertaining, but it's mix of comic styles and interjections of brutally serious point-making turn it into something I'm just amazed did big box office.

Sad it took so long for it to become widely available, but now it is! Make your own judgments.

HOME
library dvd

Annie (1982)

Mike Nichols put this on Broadway so you might be surprised he didn't direct this as well. But I guess when John Huston is available, you go with John Huston? Did he do any other musicals?

The movie didn't do great critically in 1982, but it was on tv every year so I saw it plenty of times so maybe it, as much as Sound of Music or The Wizard of Oz, just forms my prototype and what I expect. Because I still enjoyed it.

It is true that Daddy Warbucks's bodyguards are a pair of racial stereotypes and that the choreography provides lots of glimpes of lady's underpants and Bernadette Peters's cleavage, but the movie's charming. There are enough good songs and Aileen Quinn's shall-we-say thorough performance (which is exactly right for the character) and strong supporting performances and just the right amount and variety of thrills for a kiddie-based audience come together for a fun musical ride.

I'm not embarrassed to discover I still like it.

HOME
library dvd

Last Days in the Desert (2015)

Somehow I completely missed this movie when it came out. Either that or the impression it made was washed away by the very next wave. So I only finally heard about it through a friend's top-100 list. I picked it up from the library last summer, but we never got around to watching it. So I put it on hold again, asking for it in time for Easter. And here it is, Holy Saturday, that this is what we are doing.

I guess I had expected an arty and drawn-out but ultimately literal take on those few verses of temptation at the end of Jesus's fasting in the wilderness. All I had picked up from my brief reading was that Ewan McGregor was playing both Jesus and Satan, so a one-hander. Or a two-hander starring one actor? Something. But no. It's doing something else.

I could string together an explanation of how this is the "actual" story that those verses are metaphor for (in fact, I have done so), but I think that's giving the ambition of the film short shrift. I'm not sure exactly what it IS trying to do, but the ambiguity doesn't feel like lazy substitution. The filmmakers are definitely up to something. I think it's supposed to be, sort of, a more intimate Tree of Life starring Jesus, but it's really a film that'll need to settle in my body for some time before I'm really sure what I think about it.

HOME
our bluray

Sullivan's Travels (1941)

Actually, I watched this twice, back to back. First alone with the commentary, then with my family and the proper audio track.

As the commentary began and Michael McKean and Christopher Guest introduced themselves while mentioning what was happening on the screen, I worried we were in for another pointless commentary. But not so! Noah Baumbauch and Preston Sturges expert Kenneth Bowser joined in. Bowser seemed to be the ringmaster, but it was choreographed well enough he either had little to do to keep things on the rails (even with Guest's improvised nonsense) or the four of them were just great at passing the mic. Regardless, lots of interesting observations and history. And also some utter nonsense whenever Christopher Guest opened his mouth.

The movie only gets better each time I see it. (The previous time.) And I'm left flabbergasted to realize I've still seen a mere three Sturges films.

HOME/ELSEWHERE
our bluray

Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer (1990)

Wonderful documentary catches several of Sturges's closest associates in their final years of life. It's a fine biography with solid insider insights and some good criticism. It's patient enough to include some longer samples of his work and the late-80s grain of the interviews really brings those old people to life.

It's just over an hour and a great introduction.

THEATER
Alamo Drafthouse
New Mission

Renfield (2023)

I knew for certain I was going to love this film when the info dump put Nic Cage and Nicholas Hoult into what appeared to be the actual film that brought us Bela Lugosi's Dracula. Such a good choice. And they pulled it off so well. Everything else was about what I expected from the trailer only a couple degrees finer and some nice social commentary and so so so much creative gore. In short, with the right audience, absolutely brilliant experience.

And while the cast is great, names on the other side of the camera that I already respect and clearly deserve credit are director Chris McKay and story-by-guy Robert Kirkham (and the writer proper whom I did not know but has a solid resume) and the whole team. Makeup, costumes, editing, sound, you name it. Just a terrific piece of entertainment.

ELSEWHERE
library dvd

Vernon, Florida (1981)

I have a suspician Stephen Root's O Brother accent was in part inspired by the turkey hunter.

It's hard to know what to think of the various dollar amounts you hear. A house for $2200? A possum for $1500? A van for $5000? Is that a real economy?

I tell you though, I can't watch these Errol Morris docs without fantacizing about making my own. What kind of mics do I need to do open-air interviews with my wife's iPhone, I wonder?

I read the liner notes about a month ago and so I was expecting at least a hint of the amputation brouhaha, but nope. It's a quieter movie than that. It doesn't need scandal. And it certainly doesn't need to tell you what to think. I imagine the movie plays like a rorschach test.

ELSEWHERE
library dvd

Paprika (2006)

I've been wanting to bounce this off a class for a long time and now that I've finally done it . . . I'm not sure it was worth it.

It's been a long time since I saw it and if I had remembered the nipples I never would have shown it. I mean—they're not a bit part of the movie and this is a cartoon, but still. But the bigger problem is that for kids with a lot of anime knowledge—most of it post-Satoshi Kon—the film just isn't as strange or remarkable as it was for me.

Even for me, while I still like it, I'm not certain it's as excellent as a first impression made it seem. That said, who knows what a sixth viewing might reveal. Regardless, it is still a wild and generous movie.

ELSEWHERE
my bootleg dvd

V for Vendetta (2005)

Weird how a movie can be a box-office disappointment yet have major cultural impact. It's now long enough since a bunch of internet was wearing Guy Fawkes masks that today's high-school student isn't touched by that, but the movie still works and it a solid piece of both entertainment and intellectual fodder.

And maybe it's just because I saw Renfield earlier this month, but it doesn't seem nearly as acrobatic or bloody as I remembered. Huh. #exposuretheory

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