Fourth Quarter 2021 - Books and Movies

[fauxklore]

Books: Only 7 this quarter, bringing me to 37 for the year, short of my goal of 52.

1. Alexander McCall Smith, A Promise of Ankles. I always enjoy spending time at 44 Scotland Street. In this installment, Cyril has uncovered what may be a Neanderthal skull in a local park. Stuart’s incipient romance falls apart when Katie falls for Bruce of all people. Pat is going off to Paris. Mathew and James rescue the Duke of Johannesburg from a Gaelic immersion imprisonment. And Bertie and Ranald Braveheart McPherson go on an exchange program to Glasgow. It’s all just as charming as ever and a cozy way to spend a few hours.
   
   
2. Connie Willis, Fire Watch. This is a collection of short stories with the author’s brief commentary on them. The title story involves history students being sent back in time without any real guidance on what they are supposed to do. In “Samaritan,” Willis takes the Biblical description of Esau as “red and hairy” to imagine him as an orangutan. “Mail Order Clone” is an amusing twist on a confessional story, of the sort my mother used to read in cheap magazines. My absolute favorite was “And Come From Miles Around” about aliens coming to earth to see a total solar eclipse. Given some of the unlikely places that umbraphilia has taken me, I completely related to this. All in all, it’s a fun collection.
   
   
3. Audrey Niffenegger,Her Fearful Symmetry. This was for book club. The story involves a pair of twins who have inherited a flat in London from their aunt. The other residents of the house are her aunt’s much younger lover and a crossword constructor with crippling OCD. Well, that’s the other living residents. The aunt’s ghost slowly makes her presence known and begins to manipulate things. There are some interesting questions about identity and the influence of place, but I didn’t like the direction that the answers to those questions took. And I hated the ending.
   
   
4. Tracy Kidder, Strength in What Remains. This was also for book club. It’s a remarkable book, telling the (true) story of a young man who escaped the genocide in Burundi, made his way to New York, lived in Central Park, and, via an encounter with an ex-nun he met while delivering groceries, met a couple who took him in and helped him resume his education. He was obviously smart and went to Columbia University, then to Harvard’s School of Public Health and entered Dartmouth Medical School, before leaving to start clinics back in Burundi. Kidder accompanied him to Burundi (and Rwanda) and was able to hear more of the horrific details of what he endured. This was thoroughly absorbing (albeit disturbing) reading and Dio’s story is truly inspiring. Highly recommended.
   
   
5. Bill Simmons, Now I Can Die in Peace. I wouldn’t have thought it was possible to write a dull book about the 2004 Red Sox, but I was wrong. This was a total slog, which took me ages o get through. While there were some amusing bits here and there, there are too many digressions full of sexism, beer, movie analogies, and inside jokes. Terrible.
   
   
6. Mary Janice Davidson, Unwed and Unreturnable. Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor is planning her wedding, but Eric Sinclair is less than cooperative. There are also issues with her step-mother and her half-sister (who is, as you may recall, the daughter of the devil). On the plus side, the fiend in the basement has improved his skill at crocheting. And then there’s the serial killer out there and the ghost of one of his victims, who expects Betsy to help her. In other words, this is light and silly and a perfect antidote to the gloom of winter.
   
   
7. Edward E. Fry and Miranda McClintic, David Smith: Painter, Sculptor, Draftsman. I guess my parents (or at least my father) had gone to an exhibit of Smith’s work at the Hirshorn in 1982 and liked his work enough to buy this book. It has plenty of plates and I do like some of the sculptures. More significantly, it has a lot of background on Smith’s evolution as an artist, his influences, and his work beyond the sculptures he is primarily known for.
   

Movies: 7 this quarter, largely because I saw 4 of them as part of Yiddish New York.

1. Fauci: National Geographic had a free screening (on-line) of this documentary about Anthony Fauci. I thought it did a good job of explaining his background, including controversies about his work, starting with his interaction with AIDS activists. It also didn’t paint him as a saint, with his own admission that he neglected his family for the sake of his work. I found it absorbing and well worth watching.
   
   
2. Belfast: AARP had a free on-line screening of Kenneth Branagh’s movie about his childhood experiences in Belfast during The Troubles. Nine-year-old Buddy doesn’t really understand the turmoil. His father, who works in England, is being pressured to join in the riots, but he is staunch in his refusal. He wants to leave Belfast, but Buddy’s mother and grandparents (and Buddy himself) want to stay, providing the fundamental conflict. There are less grim moments, like an excursion for the family to watch Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It’s a good history lesson mixed with a believable family drama. Recommended.
   
   
3. West Side Story: Stephen Spielberg did a good job with this reworking of one of the greatest musicals of all time (and a fairly good earlier musical version). Tony Kushner’s screenplay provides somewhat more depth for the characters. In particular, both Riff and Bernardo are humanized. The added character of Valentina, played by Rita Moreno, was particularly notable. My one quibble is that I thought that most of the characters seemed older than I usually think of them. If Maria is supposed to be 18 and one of the youngest characters, why are they all going to a high school dance? Also - bring lots of tissues.
   
   
4. Solomon and Gaenor: This was part of the Yiddish New York film festival. The story is set in early 20th century Wales where Solomon, a young Jewish man, is a “pack man,” i.e. door-to-door peddler of fabric. He meets Gaenor, a Welsh girl whose family is a member of a strict Christian fellowship. They fall in love and, before long, she is pregnant. The catch is that he hasn’t told her he’s Jewish. And, oh yeah, her brother is fiercely anti-Semitic. There’s a powerful portrayal of life in a rural coal mining community of the time. There’s a lot of brutality, but it feels realistic. But, mostly, what makes it work is the fine acting of Nia Roberts as Gaenor and Ioan Grufford as Solomon. (And, as a bonus, he is yummy.)
   
   
5. Brussels Transit: This is the story of the director/writer’s parents (or, possibly, grandparents - I got confused on that) who fled Poland after World War II and ended up in Brussels. They struggled to adapt, having trouble learning French, failing to get their situation legalized, etc., but eventually have a successful clothing business. Frankly, I didn’t find this particularly interesting, though there was one powerful scene where the mother goes from bakery to bakery trying to find one that will let her use their oven to bake her pastries and, when failing, throws the whole baking pan into the river. But, overall, I thought there was too much left out of the story to make us care about these particular people.
   
   
6. Five Brides: This is a bit of Soviet agitprop from 1929. Members of a Ukrainian nationalist detachment terrorize the Jews in a small village, killing an old woman who smiles at them and demanding 5 brides in exchange for not slaughtering the whole village. The last reel is missing, but we learn enough to tell that the Red Army is going to defeat them and rescue the girls. I found this hard to follow, probably because I don’t know a lot about the specific history involved.
   
   
7. When Tango Meets Klezmer: This short documentary discusses the life and work of Ernesto Honigsberg, a composer and orchestra leader from Romania. He survived World War II by living on trains in the Soviet Union, where he entertained Russian soldiers. That’s also where he met his wife, Rosa, who was a Polish singer also working on the trains. After the war, they emigrated to South America, ending up in Brazil and continuing to perform. The music is wonderful and I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.
   
   

Goals: I’ll tackle that in my year-end wrap-up, coming soon(ish).