Book and Movie Reports by Ed

It’s strange how often I have the experience of reading an “old” novel like this one, expecting it to be dry and boring, and find that it’s anything but. You’d think I’d learn, but no. There’s a reason these are called classics: people have been thinking they’re really good for a long time, and they’re still really good. This is the kind of book I would have gone out of my way to not read in high school, which is probably just as well. I wouldn’t have appreciated it then. One thing I noticed right off the bat is that this isn’t Jane Austen, which just goes to show that female British novelists of the early 1800s can be very different. Jane Austen is very funny and satirical. Emily Bronte is very serious. There are flashes of humor now and then, but she’s mining the human soul, and it’s dark work. This book was written in 1845, but describes fictional events that took place from the 1770s until 1801. I don’t know why she placed the events in the novel so far in the past. Mayb...

Movie report: Limitless Eddie (I love movies with characters named Eddie, although they are usually losers) is a loser. His wife divorced him. He lives in a sty of an apartment. He drinks too much. He somehow got someone to give him an advance to write a book, but he’s pissed that money away and hasn’t written a word. Then he runs into [SPOILER ALERT: many spoilers ahead] his ex-brother-in-law, who slips him a pill without much explanation. Eddie, being that kind of guy, takes the pill. The effect of the pill is amazing. Eddie becomes hyper-observant of his surroundings, able to access any information in his mind (not just the 10-20% we supposedly do), and sharp enough to put things together to solve any and all problems. He helps his landlord’s wife write a paper for law school, cleans his apartment, and writes half of the book he’s supposed to be working on. The movie looks different during these parts: enhanced colors, sharper, more focused, more energized. Eddie’s ey...

Book report: Life Itself, by Roger Ebert Roger Ebert, the famous movie critic, can no longer eat, drink, or speak, because of successful surgery for cancer and unsuccessful surgery to reconstruct his face afterwards. His only voice now is his writing: reviews, essays, blogs, and, now, his autobiography. I’ve always enjoyed reading Ebert’s writing. He is often insightful and often funny. Some of his most entertaining reviews are of the most terrible movies. He has a colossal knowledge of science fiction, and is often impatient with the illogic of movie situations. His memoir starts with a description of his parents and his childhood that I found fascinating, even though his life was utterly ordinary. His unfortunate medical recoveries have given him plenty of time to recall the past, and the details he gives to his early days are impressive. Most of the book is like this: rich in detail and meaning. I did hit a few bumps. The chapters on some of his personal friends I...

book report: Imperium, by Robert Harris “Imperium” is the Latin word for the highest official power in Rome: the power to command in the name of the republic. Those with Imperium were called Imperator, literally “commander”, from which we eventually get the word emperor. In the ancient Roman republic, the highest public office, the one with Imperium, was the one-year elected post of consul. As with the American presidency, this was the pinnacle of a political career. In this terrific historical novel, Harris traces the career of one real Roman who sought and achieved Imperium: Cicero. Many people have heard of the name Cicero, but don’t know who he was. He was a politician and attorney who lived in a time when the aristocrats – the nobility – of Rome dominated the Senate and the rest of the government. But Cicero wasn’t an aristocrat. He came from a fairly prosperous family, and got a good education, but was not wealthy or royal in any sense. Instead, he had to use his skill...

Movie report: The Dark Knight Rises I saw this movie at a drive-in, and I highly recommend this type of venue for watching superhero movies. The big screen, exposed to the night sky, with cars and kids and bottles of YooHoo: it’s just the right setting for this kind of adventure. This is a solid, dark, and atmospheric movie, as if carved from one of the stones that make up Wayne Manor. Batman has been absent for about 8 years. There’s a good reason for this: Bruce Wayne, Batman’s alter ego, is so banged up, in pain and walking with a cane – not to mention the emotional scars we can’t see – that he can’t even leave the house, and lives as a recluse, the subject of Howard Hughes-type rumors. Most of Wayne Manor is draped with furniture sheets, lying unused except for occasional society galas for charitable causes. Selina Kyle shows up at one of these, not to socialize, but to burglarize. She’s an enterprising and spunky young woman who steals things for clients, and escape...

Book report: Pyramids, by Terry Pratchett This is the 7 th of the “Diskworld” comedy fantasy stories by Terry Pratchett, but you needn’t have read any of the others to understand this one. It stands on its own, and then some. It starts with the main character, Teppic, going through his final trial to become a professional assassin, and a grueling trial it is. While he’s grappling up buildings, sneaking across rooftops, selecting knives, and avoiding the booby-traps set by his professor, we learn that he is the son of the king of Djelibeybi, which is Diskworld’s version of ancient Egypt, a land of pyramids and unchanging tradition. Teppic is trying to get away from all that and become a professional man. Unfortunately, his father dies and he returns to reluctantly take up his kingly duties, which include reluctantly sentencing the beautiful young hand-maiden Ptraci to death for not being willing to die in order to accompany the deceased king to the afterlife. Instead, Te...

Book report: The Map of Time, by Felix J. Palma It’s all my own fault. I couldn’t resist a book with a title like “The Map of Time.” Plus, the idea of [SPOILER ALERT!] H. G. Wells using his secret time machine to hunt down and defeat Jack the Ripper in Victorian London is wonderful. But, boy, does this book need pruning! For example, even before reading this book, I was aware that Jack the Ripper was a bad guy. I don’t need 84 pages about how the main character, who was in love with one of the murder victims, was affected by the crimes for me to come to the conclusion that preventing said crimes would be good. I also don’t need a complete biography of H. G. Wells from the age of 8. Nor do I need a thorough plot summary of The Time Machine, which I’ve read several times, and seen both movies of, and whose events don’t really pertain to the present story. And I really don’t need an exposition on how the main character’s father made his fortune by selling toilet paper. What...