Neverwhere Neil Gaiman

Reviewed by Gerti

The book “Neverwhere” by popular author Neil Gaiman did not disappoint. I thought when I finished “The Ocean at the End of the Lane” that the rest of Gaiman’s works would be too “science fictiony” for me to enjoy, but I was wrong. While “Neverwhere” does rely heavily on fantasy for its plot and setting – there is a hidden world under the streets of London, populated by angels, monsters and rat-speakers – it was a convincingly real and well-fleshed out place that left me staring at subway maps of London for a long time after I was done, wondering if it was all possible.

The protagonist in this book is Richard Mayhew, a boring young man engaged to an even more boring, but beautiful young woman. She is rushing him to dinner with her wealthy boss when Mayhew stumbles upon an injured girl on the sidewalk. As opposed to his ambitious girlfriend Jessica, Mayhew can’t just step over a bleeding person and carry on with his plans. He picks her up and takes her back to his apartment, which starts the entire adventure in motion. The girl is the Lady Door, who is supposedly the surviving member of a noble family in the Below London world, and she strives to avenge their deaths and solve the mystery of why they were murdered, even though she is currently being hunted by two dangerous characters by the names of Mister’s Croup and Vandemar.

Although Mayhew turns the two killers away from his apartment, they know Door is inside, and cut Mayhew’s phone line. It’s the first and most literal “cut” from the real world that he suffers, although soon his ATM card doesn’t work, taxis won’t stop for him, and people at work fail to recognize him and are busy cleaning out his cubicle. After a rental agent shows the apartment while Mayhew is still taking a bath, Richard realizes he needs to pack up and find Door in order to get his real life back.

Pretty soon, Mayhew is in underground London, travelling with a young rat-speaker named Anaesthesia to a Floating Market where he hopes to find Door. Like an innocent abroad, he asks dangerous questions of everyone he meets and is often in peril. He spots the Lady Door auditioning body guards to help her stay safe. She is soon joined by “The Hunter,” a mythical figure underground who secures the job protecting her from Croup and Vandemar. What no one knows at this point is who hired the killers, and that revelation is at the heart of who killed Door’s other family members from the House of Arch.

There is betrayal, mystery, and lots of adventure among very strange people in fantastical places as Mayhew comes into his own in the underground world, becoming there the hero he can’t be in modern London. Almost a “coming of age” novel, Mayhew does in fact grow up as he meets every challenge he faces, including his fear of heights, as a member of the troop of characters helping Door stay safe. Like in classics of literature like “The Hobbit” and “The Wizard of Oz,” this group of misfits faces monstrous evils in order to reach the truth, never knowing whom to trust or what will emerge around the next corner.

I can’t praise Gaiman highly enough, as he created this world around the underground system of London, using even obscure and closed Victorian train stations to set his scene and create characters like “The Black Friars.” “Neverwhere” is so good, and Gaiman’s language and style so easy and accessible to even this reader (who dislikes fantasy books as a rule) that I look forward to reading more by him, and thank him for the pleasure it’s been to read the two (this and “The Ocean at the End of the Lane”) that I have already read. Gaiman creates a world that is both wonderful and terrifying, and that almost makes me want to lift a metal sewer cover and start exploring the world below. I can see why he has gained such a rock-star reputation among modern writers of this genre. Like Joss Whedon, he makes you want more of each world he crafts.

The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett

Reviewed by Gerti

I saw many of the “Thin Man” movies when I was young, and thoroughly enjoyed them. Who wouldn’t love Nick Charles, the dashingly sauve detective, and his lovely wife Nora? And of course, their little dog Asta was always comic relief. The plot was never as important as the chemistry between the couple, and the humor found in the dumber-than-dirt cops and convicts who peopled the movies. So when I started reading Dashiell Hammett books a few months ago, I knew I eventually had to read the novel that started it all.

Unlike “The Maltese Falcon”, the book that Hammett will be remembered for, and its famous protagonist Sam Spade, whom I found terribly sexist, I really like Nick Charles, but I didn’t realize till reading this book that he was supposed to be Greek! Wonder if they left that fact out of the black and white movies for a reason? In this story, Nick is wealthy because he’s married a wealthy woman, Nora, and now spends his time drinking and visiting with friends in the Big Apple. Oh, and he solves mysteries even without being paid for it. He’s just in the know about crimes because he knows so many people of all social classes.

There is no point even talking about the plot here, because it is really just window-dressing to the charming banter and hectic lifestyle of the Charles couple. They have friends who drink too much, who fool around too much, and friends who shoot them, but are very apologetic afterwards. The book is terribly sophisticated, and even dead bodies are hardly worth a mention in the urbane circles in which the Charles’ move.

I think “Red Harvest” is the best Hammett novel I’ve read, but “The Thin Man” is by no means his worst. While it is still a time capsule of an era in which women occupy a certain place in society, I find Nora Charles to be a very modern heroine, and love how she tries to keep up with the sharp chat and sharper deductive skills of her husband. Other female characters in this book are more stereotypical – the grasping ex-wife who fell for a gigolo who will leave once her money runs out; the sad wife who puts up with her wealthy husband’s affairs because she likes the lifestyle his money buys, and of course, the mutton-headed daughter who does nothing but cry and run around hysterically.

Still the novel is quite interesting to read, and it isn’t until the end (once Nick has uncovered the real killer) that it gets a little tedious. Hammett has to explain everything that has happened in the last 200 pages in quick order, and that is a little rushed for me. I guess I don’t really care whodunit as long as the writing is enjoyable and the characters interesting. This books has those things, but I still think I’m gonna go back and see the movies again to see how closely they follow this plotline.

Movie review: The Last Picture Show

Reviewed by Gerti

I stumbled upon this 1971 movie while watching a TV segment on Cloris Leachman, an actress with a reputation for comedy. She is far from a comic figure in this black and white classic movie by director Peter Bogdanovich. Rather, she is the wife of a high school coach with no time for her who falls into an affair with a sympathetic teenaged boy, played by the movie’s protagonist, Sonny, played by Tim Bottoms.

The film centers around his life in a small Texas town called Anarene during that time of his life, senior year in high school, where he’s seemingly surrounded by women. He’s in love with a fellow senior named Jacy, played with innocent allure by young Cybill Shepherd in her first acting role. Other now famous actors play important parts in the movie too, including Jeff Bridges, who plays Sonny’s best friend (and Jacy’s first boyfriend), Duane. Also sharing screen time are Ellen Bustyn, as Jacy’s mom, a lady who’s made some bad life choices, and Randy Quaid, a rich kid who takes Jacy to a nude swimming party. This film is very hot-blooded, and is not afraid to show the bodies and desires of young American teenagers.

Sonny dumps his girlfriend on their one-year anniversary because he’s just not that into her, and he gets advice from the lady at the local diner, sultry Guinevieve. She says his old gal wasn’t nearly nice enough for him, but she also tries to get Sonny to forget Jacy, saying she’s nothing but trouble. G is certainly spot-on in her assessment of the teenaged beauty, as Jacy sure brings trouble to Duane. She wants him to take her virginity, but when he is unable to perform, she ends up on a pool table with one of her mother’s stud muffins, an oil man named Abilene. Her career as a heart-breaker is well on its way. Jacy gets jealous when she learns that Sonny is satisfying middle-aged Ruth Popper, the coach’s wife, and so she seduces him after Duane leaves town.

Sonny cruelly dumps Mrs. Popper for Jacy without a word to let her know its over. Jacy agrees to marry him after he and Duane have a public fight, but the cops catch them and the marriage is annulled before the honeymoon. The end of the movie shows a repentant Sonny going back to Mrs. Popper’s, despite her anger at his betrayal. His doe-eyed goodness wins her back, for after all, what other happiness has she had? The documentary after the movie says her husband is gay, but I didn’t get that sense from the film.

Larry McMurtry wrote the original book and worked on the script with the director, but Bogdanovich wrote the scenes that didn’t work for me. Still, the black and white format is gorgeous and the story is equally sharp and stunning in its realism. It was filmed in Archer City, where McMurtry grew up, so the sets (the streets of town) are authentically his vision. This movie shouldn’t be seen by kids or even late teens, as there is a lot of ‘70s style nudity, but the story will be appreciated by older adults who want to remember young romance and the often unpleasant lessons of growing up. 

Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us

 by Michael Moss

Reviewed by Gerti

“Salt Sugar Fat” is the second book this year I’ve read by journalists, and the second non-fiction “issue” book that has impressed me. It’s penned by Pulitzer-prize winning writer Michael Moss, and is impressive on many levels. This work is thoroughly researched and Moss did an amazing job compiling this information and laying it out for readers in a form that doesn’t leave us asleep! There are facts aplenty, and interviews galore, but some of the most interesting parts of the book are where he talks to the scientists who did the studies on sugar, for example, and the folks who came up with the terminology needed to describe taste perfection, like “bliss point” or “mouth feel”. These are wild things to me – that there are labs and office buildings filled with people who study what amount of sugar, salt or fat in a certain food product will best satisfy a hungry public.

But what I find life-altering about the text is the conclusion that I reached, more than Moss. That every household which buys processed food, and has done so since the ‘50s, has been manipulated to some extent by those scientists, by those admen, and by the corporations behind all of it which fight for every consumer dollar. I never understood how I gained weight without being a snacker, and without drinking soft drinks. Now having read Moss’ book, I get it. Everything I buy has more carbs, sodium and fat in it than I think.

I do have several issues with the text, however. I quibble over the sequence of nouns in the title, since the sequence of items described in the book itself goes in the order sugar first, then fat and salt. Still, that is my problem and not his. But unfortunately, the level of in-depth data also peaks with Sugar, then lessens and gets even trimmer at salt. I understand how this can happen, as I’ve seen it many times with student term papers. They start strong on a topic, but if several subjects are being compared, the work falls off over time. I always attribute it (in student papers) to their getting tired as the evening goes on. (Is there a student alive who doesn’t write a 5-page paper with research the night before its due?) However, I’m sure with Moss that wasn’t the case, since there is no way he wrote a 347-page book in one day! Still, less research done on the second two items leaves me with the same feeling – that there was a deadline involved and Moss just rushed through the second two items, since the first had taken so long!

I am not by any means casting aspersions on Moss for this. I never read a book without reading its end notes, and Moss has an impressive collection of them. He’s researched all kinds of corporate archives, including info from meeting notes and unpublished studies. The research time spent must have been astonishing and the depth of study reveals his commitment to the truth. A brilliant text despite it’s small flaws, “Salt Sugar Fat” will leave you thinking about every item you put in your shopping cart, and every bite you put in your mouth. This book will change how you feed your family and yourself, if you let it.

Movie review: Magic in the Moonlight

Reviewed by Gerti

I have ignored Woody Allen movies over the last few years, ever since the scandal about his “daughter” came out, and the only reason I was interested in this film was because it stars the inimitable Colin Firth. But I have to admit, all the things that thrilled me decades ago about Woody Allen’s films are still evident here – the clever dialogue, the lovely sets, the time-specific costumes. “Magic in the Moonlight” has a magical quality, and I was like a kid in a candy store while ogling the beautiful cars, the stunning chateaus, and most of all, delightful Colin Firth, even while clad in ridiculous suit jacket/ vest/ tie combinations.

In this film set in the 1920s, Firth plays Stanley Crawford, who opens the movie with his act as an oriental magician. We are first astounded at his skills on the Berlin stage, and then an old boyhood friend of his arrives at his dressing room with an interesting proposition – help him debunk a young psychic who is bamboozling some friends. Crawford is unable to resist, since like the real-world magician Houdini, he’s made it his life’s work to show up fraudulent spiritualists who claim to talk to the dead.

So he joins his pal on the French Riviera to meet psychic seductress Sophie Baker, played here by the somewhat miscast Emma Stone. She immediately gets impressions that he has been to China, but Crawford discounts them. In fact, he is so much of a cynic, that she has to work for weeks at convincing him that her talents are real, and of course in that time they fall in love. Crawford gamely holds a press conference to tell the world she is a real psychic anyway, although she is promised to the son of the wealthy woman she is currently doing readings for. Awash with brilliant writing, Firth’s marriage proposal here will remind many Jane Austen fans of his clumsy attempt at proposing in “Pride and Prejudice”, the production that made the actor a household name. And the plot twist in all this film will come as a surprise to most viewers.

Still, my head is spinning as though I’ve had too much champagne after watching this bubbly comedy. The witty repartee will remind people of George Bernard Shaw’s plays, or even Noel Coward. Firth is perfect for the part, and in his role here he reminds me once again of how talented a creature he is. He takes a suit of clothes that would be absolutely laughable hanging on the racks at Goodwill and turns it into the height of British style. He is a gentleman through and through, but his excellence only serves to highlight Stone’s awkwardness in her role, but I can well imagine it’s difficult to play the romantic partner of a man twice her age. The other actors are spot-on in their depictions, even to the off-tune, stomach-churning singing that accompanies some ukulele playing. This movie is a charmer, and some of the witty lines are worth remembering. I join in with movie critic Rex Reed who declares on the cover, “I loved it madly.” It is well worth watching if you’re a Firth fan.

Movie review: An Education

Reviewed by Gerti

In contrast to the 2014 Woody Allen’s “Magic in the Moonlight”, comes this 2010 film called “An Education” by director Lone Scherfig. The movies have a lot in common – they both star lovely young actresses who fall for witty older men. But while the Woody Allen flick comes off as mostly charming, “An Education” takes us on a creepy journey of Lolita-esque proportions which ends badly for the main character Jenny, played convincingly by the brilliant Carey Mulligan.

“An Education” takes place in 1960s Britain, and begins with middle-class school girl Jenny getting a rainy day car ride from a dashing man named David, played with slimy conviction by Peter Sarsgaard. The two engage in some witty banter, and slowly but surely, David draws Jenny into his world of upper-class diversions, first taking her out to a show with his friends. The disparity between Jenny’s school girl attire at the concert and that of David’s pal’s girlfriend is pathetic. Jenny looks (and is) utterly out of place. But gradually, the older girl helps her out with smashing clothes & a different, more mature hair style. Soon Jenny is making overnight trips with David, whose silky charms convince her parents that this June/December relationship is not somehow wrong.

The director allows the viewers, and Jenny, to see beneath David’s shiny façade, and the sense of unease about their romance begins to grow. David lies to her parents about knowing CS Lewis, he lies about having gone to Oxford (which Jenny hopes to attend), and of course, he lies to her about being unmarried. So even though he proposes marriage to the 17-year-old, Jenny tracks down his current wife (with child) and that lady tells her of David’s taste for young girls, grateful that at least Jenny isn’t pregnant like one of the others.

The storyline lives up to the title, for Jenny’s adventure is indeed “an education” in becoming an adult. David is such a coward, he leaves Jenny alone to explain to her parents why there won’t be a wedding and why he can’t date her anymore. To her credit, at least Jenny cuts David off when she realizes he’s married. Then she tries desperately to get back into school so she can take her college entry exams, but her hard-nosed headmistress, played by Emma Thompson, won’t give her a break since Jenny burned that bridge with some cruel but accurate comments while leaving school. Luckily, another teacher helps Jenny succeed so her life isn’t totally ruined, and the movie ends as she enters college, hiding this past misadventure and the hard lesson learned about the way the world works.

Written by Nick Hornby, the dialogue is at times comical and at other times sad. I wanted to scream at the TV when Jenny refused to see the warning signs of David’s shady character, but she emerges smarter and stronger after the affair, even able to see the goodness in her pedestrian father, played effectively by Alfred Molina. “An Education” is a “coming-of-age” movie that every teen who’s “14 going on 40” should see to get an education of their own about evil adults. 

 

Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham

Reviewed by Gerti

“Rogue Lawyer” is John Grisham’s newest offering, and while I love the author, I couldn’t help finding it derivative. Another author in the genre named Michael Connelly created a character called “The Lincoln Lawyer” who’s shtick is that his office is a Lincoln Continental. That’s similar to what Grisham has going on with his protagonist, Sebastian Rudd, a defense attorney driven around (at the start) in a customized black van. They are not the same, but they are very close.

Both protagonists are criminal defense attorneys who have problems with their ex-wives (both ladies also attorneys), and have a hard time seeing their children, who live with the women. Both men use the excuse of “someone has to defend them” to describe why they go to bat for serial killers, rapists, cop killers, etc. And they are right, of course. But taking those clients to court comes with a price, so both protagonists have to deal with flak from their families, as well as the general public. And they both sometimes fear for their lives.

In this book, Grisham has Rudd defend a guy whom everyone thinks is guilty because he has been framed by the cops, and another guy who is just guilty as hell. So guilty, even Rudd is afraid of him. The first client is Gardy, a punk kid accused of doing terrible things to a pair of sisters. Rudd goes the extra mile (of course breaking a few laws) to prove that Gardy’s not guilty, and then implicates the true pervert. In the process, Grisham shows how his super lawyer manipulates the legal system by making nice with the clerks who decide which judges get which cases, so Rudd can get his adjudicator of choice.

A second major storyline involves a small-time mobster named Link who is angry when Rudd can’t set him free. Of course, Link has killed a judge, and as Rudd explains to him, other judges don’t take kindly to that behavior. As a result, Link is on death row, but just hours before he’s supposed to get the needle, bombs go off, one every hour, at locations Link would naturally resent, like the courthouse where he was convicted, or the appeals court which refused to grant him a reversal. These events scare the folks at the US Supreme Court, but by that time, the prison riot has started. Link is one of the most interesting characters in the book, and I know it will please you when I say the state does not put him to death. You’ll have to read the book to see how Link escapes, though.

Several other major cases swirl into the plot, including one in which a man is put on trial for defending his home against cops who think he’s dealing drugs, and another where a cop’s daughter has been abducted by a sex trafficking group. Through it all, Rudd is the guy in the know, and that makes him an interesting fellow to read about, even if you’ll get the feeling you’ve read it all before. “Rogue Lawyer” is a fun read, easy to digest, but Connelly’s “Lincoln Lawyer” is more memorable, charming and original.