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Post by stephen on Apr 17, 2020 12:17:52 GMT
This was awesome ... think I enjoyed it even more than The Devil All the Time. Great characters, concise and evocative prose, and all-around wonderful storytelling that layered one bizarre vignette atop another to decorate the background of its already captivating central narrative and it was just a delight to read. Such an impeccable streak of black humor throughout this thing. Felt like reading a great Coen Brothers flick. Welcome to the Pollock train! It's my dream that The Heavenly Table be adapted not as a film, but as a full HBO series, transplanting it to Knockemstiff so we can avail ourselves of Pollock's rich and despicable characters from his short stories and The Devil All the Time.
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Post by Mattsby on Apr 17, 2020 23:53:41 GMT
Woody Allen's Apropos of Nothing (2020)
Easy read, written with a lot of his usual wit. Comedy, sports, jazz, moviemaking - he springs thru 'em all, with self-deprecation and digressive references and praise for others. Also uses nearly 1/3 of the book to lay down all the facts and thoroughly tell his side of the Farrow scandal.
Some trivia I never knew - Malle approached him for Wallace Shawn's part in My Dinner with Andre. After a very rough cut of The Front, Columbia Pictures let Allen recut and complete the movie. Also loved when he was listing his favorite comic talents - Elaine May, Groucho, WC Fields, SJ Perelman, he adds a mention to Walt Kelly's Pogo
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Post by jimmalone on Apr 20, 2020 9:17:59 GMT
Tried two italians lately.
Blameless by Claudio Magris is very interesting, especially if you are into history, well written, but a bit too fragmentaric for my taste.
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante was a bit disappointing, when you consider all the acclaim it gets. The story could be quite good, but it's full of reocurring elements and even sentences and some of the characters are very irritating. Most of all though I thought the style was very simple and not my taste. Maybe would make sense if you say that it's a little girl that writes it, but it's an old woman looking back on her experiences, when she was a child.
Now started Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, which is great so far.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2020 15:31:20 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2020 12:58:11 GMT
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Post by pacinoyes on Apr 22, 2020 13:41:44 GMT
How has this not been legitimately filmed? It's an amazing story/book - in its own way it's The Black Dahlia of its day.........(different crime but similar eerie pull to it). The real life case inspired a fictional reworking for one of my favorite directors - Claude Chabrol - (the underrated, misunderstood) "A Girl Cut In Two" but that wasn't this at all.... Somebody needs to make it into a straight up movie.
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Post by stephen on Apr 22, 2020 14:00:02 GMT
How has this not been legitimately filmed? It's an amazing story/book - in its own way it's The Black Dahlia of its day.........(different crime but similar eerie pull to it). The real life case inspired a fictional reworking for one of my favorite directors - Claude Chabrol - (the underrated, misunderstood) "A Girl Cut In Two" but that wasn't this at all.... Somebody needs to make it into a straight up movie. Be careful -- Ryan Murphy might hear you.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2020 15:15:19 GMT
How has this not been legitimately filmed? It's an amazing story/book - in its own way it's The Black Dahlia of its day.........(different crime but similar eerie pull to it). The real life case inspired a fictional reworking for one of my favorite directors - Claude Chabrol - (the underrated, misunderstood) "A Girl Cut In Two" but that wasn't this at all.... Somebody needs to make it into a straight up movie. When I picked up the book and read the back cover, I was like, they had 100 years for good material just waiting here
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Post by DeepArcher on Apr 23, 2020 21:55:20 GMT
Finishing up my third reading of Blood Meridian -- this time for class -- and no matter how many times I will never not be astounded by McCarthy's prose. In fact, it only gets better with age.
The way he is able to describe the simplest of images in the most breathtaking ways is masterful like nothing else I've read ... just gonna drop this one right here (and hell this might not even crack the top ten for most beautiful passages) ...
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Post by wilcinema on Apr 29, 2020 16:56:04 GMT
I just finished Middlesex and all I can say is FUCKING MASTERPIECE.
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Post by DeepArcher on Apr 29, 2020 20:45:45 GMT
Rabbit, Run by Updike ... I know "white male in crisis" is essentially the bedrock of most of the canon 20th century literature but this was just too annoying to do anything for me. I hated the main character way too much to care and it wasn't funny enough to work as just a piece of satire either. Maybe I wasn't fair enough to the book since I skimmed large chunks of it, but that was really the only way I could get through it, which somehow I did in the end.
Glad I finally gave Updike a shot, but what I learned is maybe he's just not for me.
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Post by mikediastavrone96 on Apr 29, 2020 21:09:02 GMT
Rabbit, Run by Updike ... I know "white male in crisis" is essentially the bedrock of most of the canon 20th century literature but this was just too annoying to do anything for me. I hated the main character way too much to care and it wasn't funny enough to work as just a piece of satire either. Maybe I wasn't fair enough to the book since I skimmed large chunks of it, but that was really the only way I could get through it, which somehow I did in the end. Glad I finally gave Updike a shot, but what I learned is maybe he's just not for me. Check out The Witches of Eastwick if you wanna give Updike another shot.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2020 21:48:46 GMT
Finishing up my third reading of Blood Meridian -- this time for class -- and no matter how many times I will never not be astounded by McCarthy's prose. In fact, it only gets better with age. The way he is able to describe the simplest of images in the most breathtaking ways is masterful like nothing else I've read ... just gonna drop this one right here (and hell this might not even crack the top ten for most beautiful passages) ... It's so good McCarthy power ranking - Blood Meridian > No Country for Old Men > Suttree > The Road
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Post by DeepArcher on Apr 29, 2020 23:09:05 GMT
It's so good McCarthy power ranking - Blood Meridian > No Country for Old Men > Suttree > The Road Interesting, The Road is easily second for me. It's brilliant, if brilliant in a different way than McCarthy usually is. Have you read the Border Trilogy? All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing are two of my favorites of his ... and I'll probably get to Cities of the Plain one of these days...
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2020 1:39:09 GMT
It's so good McCarthy power ranking - Blood Meridian > No Country for Old Men > Suttree > The Road Interesting, The Road is easily second for me. It's brilliant, if brilliant in a different way than McCarthy usually is. Have you read the Border Trilogy? All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing are two of my favorites of his ... and I'll probably get to Cities of the Plain one of these days... I've currently only read those 4 - my Mom read Pretty Horses though and liked it a lot IIRC
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Post by urbanpatrician on May 10, 2020 23:59:01 GMT
I am awed and captivated. This book is the reason I have not decided to go back to part-time work for the last week. Sex, booze, and loss of innocence. Feels like Lana Del Rey, mixed with a little bit of Natalie Wood, with a little bit of the edgier side of Old Hollywood 1940. Basically the types of people who enjoy Spring Breakers and James Dean and movies like that might enjoy this. The characters are so varied and the catalogue of all-walks-of-life placed into one book. I don't think it's necessarily this board's cup of tea tho, maybe one or two might enjoy it. (the more modern minded people if I had to guess) A film version is already in the works. I have no idea how to get started imagining the casting - I know it's probably not going to live up to the quality of the book.
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2020 18:17:38 GMT
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Post by DeepArcher on May 11, 2020 22:10:28 GMT
The Boatman's Daughter by Andy Davidson: I think stephen had posted about this one here a couple months back and shortly after that it caught my attention in Barnes and Noble (remember those? the good old days!) and picked up a copy for myself. Davidson's prose is really great, straightforward and clear yet full of vivid, evocative imagery. I love what he does with setting here, essentially merging magical realism with Southern Gothic to create his own world that never needs to be "established" with exposition yet we still understand it, and he conjures such a potent haunting tone that makes it richly atmospheric. There were some things I didn't like about it (some of the fantasy elements later on got a bit "out there" for me, the villains were pretty one-dimensional) but it was a damn entertaining read.
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Post by stephen on May 11, 2020 22:11:43 GMT
The Boatman's Daughter by Andy Davidson: I think stephen had posted about this one here a couple months back and shortly after that it caught my attention in Barnes and Noble (remember those? the good old days!) and picked up a copy for myself. Davidson's prose is really great, straightforward and clear yet full of vivid, evocative imagery. I love what he does with setting here, essentially merging magical realism with Southern Gothic to create his own world that never needs to be "established" with exposition yet we still understand it, and he conjures such a potent haunting tone that makes it richly atmospheric. There were some things I didn't like about it (some of the fantasy elements later on got a bit "out there" for me, the villains were pretty one-dimensional) but it was a damn entertaining read. Have you read Davidson's first novel, In the Valley of the Sun?
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Post by DeepArcher on May 11, 2020 22:14:38 GMT
The Boatman's Daughter by Andy Davidson: I think stephen had posted about this one here a couple months back and shortly after that it caught my attention in Barnes and Noble (remember those? the good old days!) and picked up a copy for myself. Davidson's prose is really great, straightforward and clear yet full of vivid, evocative imagery. I love what he does with setting here, essentially merging magical realism with Southern Gothic to create his own world that never needs to be "established" with exposition yet we still understand it, and he conjures such a potent haunting tone that makes it richly atmospheric. There were some things I didn't like about it (some of the fantasy elements later on got a bit "out there" for me, the villains were pretty one-dimensional) but it was a damn entertaining read. Have you read Davidson's first novel, In the Valley of the Sun? Nah, but I'll definitely be checking it out now!
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on May 12, 2020 20:55:47 GMT
finished The Devil in the White City. Very interesting narrative, though I wouldn't have expected that the most engaging portions would have involved the fair itself. The chapters dealing with Holmes's crimes and activities are somewhat illusory. That's always the trouble in capturing the essence of a person so shrouded in mythic notoriety. The idea of a Holmes narrative I think will always be more titillating than any Holmes narrative can ever be, and I can't say I learned that much more about the man from reading this book than from that cheap made-for-TV doc I watched on Hulu a few years ago. Larson acknowledges some of this himself in the afterword. I think he specifically mentioned that the rushed trial/sentencing period greatly diminished the availability of firsthand witness testimony, so there will always be gaps that keep the man somewhat at an arm's length even when put to extensive research.
In contrast, Larson's detailing of the Herculean effort (and hubris) required in erecting the fair itself was fascinating, enlightening and extremely educational, and felt more "lived-in" if that makes sense. That is to say that next to the elusive Holmes, Daniel Burnham, Frederick Law Olmstead and the rest of the gang felt like fully-realized characters in a novel because more is known about them.
Also read The Gunslinger, the first book in the Dark Tower series. Excellent world-building. It was good but so short!
Next on the docket, the Hitchens autobiography Hitch-22, published a year before his death. What a loss that was.
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Post by stephen on May 12, 2020 23:47:33 GMT
Also read The Gunslinger, the first book in the Dark Tower series. Excellent world-building. It was good but so short! The next three books are top ten King, with The Waste Lands (Book 3) being Top 3. I'm super-stoked for you to get on those. Also, it's my dream to make The Gunslinger as a standalone Sergio Leone throwback.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on May 13, 2020 7:07:37 GMT
Also read The Gunslinger, the first book in the Dark Tower series. Excellent world-building. It was good but so short! The next three books are top ten King, with The Waste Lands (Book 3) being Top 3. I'm super-stoked for you to get on those. yeah I'll get to the others at some point. This was definitely the best long-form King I've consumed so far (and it's narrated by legend George Guidall whose voice makes everything 150% better). Already have so much in Audible library though so it may be awhile.... I still have to finish Tom Jones for chrissakes I think you saw the 2017 film with Elba/McConaughey... thoughts? I barely remember the trailer but remembered thinking it looked pretty silly and I understand now how difficult that adaptation must have been. I wonder how a story like this could possibly translate to the screen well, with such a vivid and established world. Maybe animation?
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Post by DeepArcher on May 13, 2020 23:13:10 GMT
I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid -- The basis for the upcoming (but when?) Charlie Kaufman Netflix film starring Buckley and Plemons. Read this kind of obsessively tbh, finished it in just a couple of sittings. Insanely intense, and very, very creepy at a lot of points -- and I never get scared by books but this one got under my skin. So many great details that create that eerie suspense that makes you not want to put it down. I know the ending is ... divisive ... but it kinda worked for me. Not at all what I expected or really wanted the story to go, but I think "it's not what I wanted" is a lazy criticism, and it still "works" within the logic of the book I think. Still hard not to feel a bit cheated though ... and the tension kinda petered out in that last section for me which is definitely not the intent. When the danger gets closer/more obvious it feels less threatening somehow, at least less creepy and mysterious.
Still, really dug this, at least as a purely entertaining read. There's great potential in how it could translate to the screen that I'm really looking forward to seeing.
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Post by jimmalone on May 14, 2020 9:07:46 GMT
I re-read Tad Williams' "Memory, Sorrow, Thorn" like I do every couple of years. Took me again a few weeks (while parallely still on Dante's "Divine Comedy" and Dostoyevsky's "Posessed"), but enjoyed (nearly) every minute. Still maybe my favourite novel ever. And looking forward to read the new second part of it's follow-up saga.
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