Stranger Than Fiction

Wow, two winners in a row — my faith in Hollywood’s about to be restored or something. Definitely go see this movie. The cast is uniformly great and understated (and this includes Dustin Hoffman!). It’s smart and plays against expectation and especially traditional Hollywood movie expectation. It is not, I repeat NOT, a comedy; that’s some bait and switch they’re trying with the trailer. Although, maybe it ultimately is a comedy, in the larger sense. I’m still thinking about it, but it does a goodly number of things right. And, as C said, it feels like the people making it cared.

Plus, beautiful ’70s homage eye candy set dressing.

Stranger Than Fiction Read More »

Friday Hangovers

Friday Hangovers Read More »

Celebratory Goodies

In recognition of some small measure of sanity on the part of some people, I’m gonna give away some books over the next week. Today, I’ve got two copies of the new paperback edition of Kelly Link’s second short story collection Magic for Beginners.

The first will go to the first person who responds with some creditable hint of a possible defense to zombie (or undead) attack. The other will go to the first person who accurately guesses the solution to the first arc (the campus rapes) on Veronica Mars this season* either in this thread or one of the VMT threads.**

*Somebody will. But if nobody does, I’ll choose the most entertaining objection to the culprit reveal.
**Yeah, this one will take a little while (but not sooo long!); and there’s a pretty good chance any of the regular commenters on VM already have the book, so they can also have it sent to another person-a of their choice.

Celebratory Goodies Read More »

VeronicaMarsTalk

Yeah, I know we’re all watching returns, but we’ll need a break. Tonight’s ep:

Hi, Infidelity. Veronica (Kristen Bell) is accused of plagiarizing her paper for Professor Landry’s (guest star Patrick Fabian, "Joan of Arcadia") criminology class. In trying to clear herself, she discovers that her mentor is not who she thought he was.

Wallace (Percy Daggs III) is pardoned by Dean O’Dell (guest star Ed Begley, Jr., "Arrested Development") for cheating on his exam, but makes a decision that could affect his college career. Piz (Chris Lowell) invites Veronica to a night of bowling and she decides to bring Logan (Jason Dohring) and Parker (Julie Gonzalo), unaware Piz wanted the evening to be more of a date. Enrico Colantoni, Ryan Hansen, Francis Capra and Tina Majorino also star. Michael Fields directed the episode written by John Embom.

VeronicaMarsTalk Read More »

Wake Up, People

WacoverIf you’re looking for some appropriate reading material for Election Day, I suggest David Levithan‘s Wide Awake. It’s an excellent, zippy, funny, insightful and above all else political YA novel set in the a (sort of distant but) not so distant future Here’s a snippet from the opening (longer excerpt here):

"I can’t believe there’s going to be a gay Jewish president."

As my mother said this, she looked at my father, who was still staring at the screen.  They were shocked, barely comprehending.

Me?

I sat there and beamed.

p.s. Hunter S. Thompson fans may want to check this out (note: not pretty), but a rousing post. Sentiment heartily agreed with. Although, I think you’re allowed to complain no matter what. It’s in the Bill of Rights.

p.p.s. Local report junkies may want to keep one eye here.

Wake Up, People Read More »

Last GG Woe

Writing in the NYT, Virginia Heffernan nails the badness of Gilmore Girls this season:

For all these years, Lorelai in “Gilmore Girls” has been painful and surprising and exciting to watch — a marvelous high-wire act. How cruel that the new writer of the show wants to rub her face in conventionality, strip her of the speed that was her reason for being and transform her into another banal television lead.

The whole piece is great. Now: Go VOTE. I’m heading there now.

Last GG Woe Read More »

This Just In

Encouraging, yes? From The Watcher (where, natch, I get all my TV info these days):

There’s a bit of good news regarding “Veronica Mars.” According to a source at the show, the Tuesday-night CW drama has received an order for three additional scripts, and directors have been hired for those scripts. As is standard with most TV shows, “Mars” got an initial order for 13 episodes in the spring, when it was picked up for a third season. However it is not yet known if “Mars” will get the additional episodes it would need to fill out a 22 episode season, or the “back nine,” as its called in TV parlance. The CW is expected to make a decision regarding back nine for “Veronica Mars” this week.

This Just In Read More »

Dreaming Oddities: “Map of Dreams”

Mapcoverscan3In his lovely introduction for M. Rickert’s debut story collection Map of Dreams, Chris Barzak shares an anecdote from a letter about process she wrote him. She said:

And, I had forgotten this, but in about fourth grade, fifth grade? I don’t know but I was young, and basically fairly unpopular and a skinny, cross-eyed girl with cat-eye glasses and I wrote this story that I decided to perform for the class as a monologue. So the whole thing is about how nobody likes me or plays with me and I don’t know why, and how alone I am, and how I try to fit in. The last line is something like, "Then she turned and walked away dragging her tail behind her."

So I’m the girl with the tail. One of the hardest parts of my life as a writer was figuring that out.

And if that doesn’t make you want to read this collection more than anything else I’m going to say, well, what’s your deal?

Mary Rickert is one of the best short story writers working today. The first story of hers I read was "Bread and Bombs," side by side with a George Saunders story, "The Red Bow," exploring similar thematic territory–her story more than held its own. (Yes, I know technically Ben’s "The Valley of the Giants" separates them, but I’d already read it.) I thought: who on Earth is this writer? Which is what Chris says he also felt when he first encountered Rickert’s work. I have a feeling there’s an army of people (small, but growing) out there with similar stories. "The first time I read an M. Rickert story, I sat up and said, Who is this amazing writer and where did she come from?"

So, the collection. It collects all sorts of her fantastic (in multiple senses of the word) previously published stories–I’ll particularly recommend here "Bread and Bombs," "Cold Fires," "Anyway," and "Leda." But there aren’t any bums in the lot; there are stories I don’t love as much or that maybe don’t rise to quite the same level, but every story in the bunch is worth reading. Every story is thoughtfully, beautifully constructed and has something specific to say. Often collections can have a samey quality that undercuts them; by the same token, you want a collection to feel unified. Each story here is different, its own thing, but Rickert’s voice unites them. Concerns echo, but don’t repeat.

I’ll finish by saying that the title novella, published here for the first time, is as wonderful as anything else Rickert has written. Novellas frequently seem awkward to me. Often, they seem like fat short stories, plump on extraneous detail. Or, conversely, like too-short novels, with the story smushed and abbreviated, thinned out. "Map of Dreams" feels just right. As if it could never have been anything else, as if there’s not a stray word in it. It’s such a satisfying story. A woman witnesses her daughter murdered by a sniper, then discovers she might be able to travel back in time to change things through an intersection of physics and the Aboriginal Dreaming. Her journey is fascinating and surprising, and the combination of odd elements never feels forced. It would be worth buying the collection just for this.

And, more than that, it makes me want a novel from Rickert so so so badly. In fact, I’d try to start a Make M. Rickert Write a Novel movement, except her bio says she’s already working on one. I could start a Make M. Rickert Finish Her Novel movement instead, but you don’t want to rush a writer like this. The wait will be worth it.

Dreaming Oddities: “Map of Dreams” Read More »

Scroll to Top