Book Review: Fooling Houdini

Fooling Houdini: Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks, and the Hidden Powers of the Mind by Alex Stone (New York: Harper Collins, 2012. 291 pp)

Alex Stone has written for Harper’s, Discover, Science, and the Wall Street Journal. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in English and has a master’s degree in physics from Columbia University. He grew up in Wisconsin, Texas, and Spain. He currently lives in New York City.

Magic and Me

I’ve always loved the art of deception. I had a small magic kit as a child, complete with a card deck and plastic magic wand. I, however, lacked the patience to learn the dexterity of sleight of hand or even a decent shuffle. To this day, I still have trouble shuffling cards for a poker game. But, I still value the medium, and enjoy watching stars like Blaine, Copperfield, or even Penn and Teller. My love story, however, pales in comparison to Alex Stone’s, a tale he recounts in Fooling Houdini.

The Magic Olympics

Photo by Steven Depolo

Fooling Houdini begins with Alex Stone competing in the Magic Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. Yes, the Magic Olympics. Already a member of the oldest magical fraternity, The Society of American Magicians (once headed by Houdini himself), Stone simply wishes to showcase his skills in competition. He, however, is humiliated, getting “red-lighted” during his act, disqualified for dropping a deck of cards, and putting his hands beneath the table. 

In a quest to redeem his failure at the conjurer’s art, and even fool the masters, he studies with anyone and everyone he can. The first person he meets is Jeff McBride, leader of the Mystery School. McBride holds three Guinness World Records for his card handling abilities, and was crowned magician of the year by the Academy of Magical Arts. He’s a big deal. So, Stone goes to school.

“McBride likes to call his school ‘Hogwarts for grownups,’ and what happened on the first day was straight out of Harry Potter. To begin with, we were asked to congregate around a flame burning at the center of the room atop an iron pedestal. The shutters had been drawn against the January light, and it was murky inside. As we rose to our feet the flame trembled, casting a ripple of shadows on the walls. Contorted by the shifting play of light, the masks seemed to flicker awake in a momentary flash of borrowed life” (35).

Magical Archetypes

Here, Stone learns of four archetypes of the magician: Trickster, Sorcerer, Oracle, and Sage. Stone sadly realizes that he has remained in the cycle of Trickster for quite some time, but that only renews his fervor to continue his journey as a magician. Stone, then, decides to find someone under which to apprentice, discovering master illusionist Wesley James, now retired. Wesley basically lives at a pizzeria.

“One weekend turned into many. Saturdays at the pizzeria became my newest ritual—harking back to the one that began in my early childhood, when my father would take me to the magic store on the weekends. My friends and family soon learned not to call me on Saturdays; I observed the magic Sabbath more faithfully than the Hebrew one. (I may be half Jewish, but I’m all magician)” (52).

Breaking the Code

Photo by Steven Depolo

On his journey of magical education, Stone learns to read minds (or fake it), to count cards, and then, he does the unthinkable. He breaks the magician’s code: the promise by working magicians not to reveal the basis of their tricks, or else risk getting blackballed by fellow magicians.

“Keeping a magic trick secret clearly isn’t the same thing as hiding a childhood trauma or an extramarital affair. Nonetheless, the double-edged nature of secrecy goes a long way toward explaining what makes magic, and the people who practice it, so unusual” (135).

Stone describes the mechanics of wristwatch stealing, cardsharping, and finger calisthenics within the book. But, what’s worse is his first attempt at exposing trade secrets occurred in a Harper’s magazine article, a mainstream magazine for the laypeople. 

Stone was shunned from the magical community altogether, had he written for a magical magazine, the punishment wouldn’t be harsh, but alas he plays his cards (pun intended) foolishly. Few have forgiven him, and even his mentor Wes found it hard to do so. But, the truth is this kind of thing happens all the time. Stone cites magician Val Valentino, known for his television special Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed. So, the magical community has moved on, somewhat. If they can forgive Val Valentino, why not Stone?

Fooling is Bliss

Nonetheless, Stone continues on the journey to become a master, and finds a way to fool his mentors (I won’t tell you how). After all, 

“[T]he biggest draw is that it’s just plain fun to fool people. Anyone who claims otherwise—that fooling people isn’t one of magic’s central joys, one of its primary pleasures—is being dishonest. To truly astonish someone, to freak them out so badly they can’t sleep at night, to blow their mind and make them question their sanity—that, to me, as to all magicians, is heaven. It’s one of the chief upsides to becoming a magician, aside from the fact that black is very slimming” (172).

If you want a journey from failure to discovery to magic tricks and mentalism, Fooling Houdini is a fantastic memoir. Alex Stone proves himself to be a great story teller of magical proportion.

Verdict: 4 out of 5
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Posted by: Andrew Jacobson

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Film Review: The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises directed by Christopher Nolan; written by Johnathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan, and David Goyer (Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Entertainment, and Legendary Entertainment, PG-13, 164 Minutes)

Starring Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, and Anne Hathaway

The Trilogy Phenomenon

I’m forever dubious of the trilogy phenomenon. Whether it be The Hunger Games, the dreadful Twilight phenomenon, or even something wonderful like The Lord of the Rings, I find myself stepping foot into the movie theater ready to undergo some form of disappointment. Why? Once the second or third movie is made, the filmmakers all too easily assume it’s a sure thing that people will see the movie, as they are already invested in the franchise’s past. As a result, the filmmaker (or even author) will normally put less effort into the storyline, and the story ends up flat-lining.

However, with the Dark Knight trilogy, I’m happy to say I didn’t find my worries to be the case. In the last installment of the Christopher Nolan series, The Dark Knight Rises succeeds where so many other trilogies fail only because it holds the key: redemption.

Dark vs. Light

Redemption is what makes the story flourish. In the wake of the Aurora, Colorado shooting, it would seem as though redemption is hard to find in The Dark Knight Rises. And, in such a darkly made film, one would assume redemption would be the last thing to find. However, I think Nolan intentionally uses the darkly lit screen and the depravity in the storyline to intentionally illuminate this single theme.

In the final installment of the Nolan trilogy, we find Batman/Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) secluded in his mansion, unaware of the city around him. Peacetime has entered Gotham City, and while Gotham rejoices, Bruce Wayne lingers in endless depths of remorse. 

Simply, Wayne is a defeated man and suffering a loss of a dead lover, Rachel (Maggie Gyllenhall from The Dark Knight) when a thief (Anne Hathaway) enters his mansion stealing his fingerprints. This simple act spurs Wayne out of inaction and into saving his city from a new threat, Bane (Tom Hardy).

Torture of the Soul

Avoiding any major spoilers, Bruce Wayne eventually finds himself in a prison with a way out: to climb. Put there by the villain of the movie, Bane, Batman is now worse off than he was before. Feeble, broken, and damaged he wallows in prison as the guards slowly work to bring him back to health. The question is, “Why?”

Bruce Wayne: “Torture?”Bane: “But not of your body...Of your soul.”

A television screen dimly lights the prison where Wayne recovers. It shows footage of a broken Gotham falling into anarchy. Wayne can’t help but watch, knowing he is stuck in prison.

Bane explains there is no worse torment than to see and grasp hope and not attain it. Eventually, Wayne gets better and stronger than before. He tries to climb out with a safety rope, but can’t make it. 

Why? He isn’t afraid; he is simply angry. Bruce fails time and time again, unable to make the jump. The prison’s physician reminds Wayne that fear is good, and fear is healthy. The right kind of fear motivates, and the proper fear is even redemptive. Wayne finds his fear is ultimately for others: it is a sacrificial kind of fear.

Wayne must become like a child (akin to Matthew 18:3) in order to get out. A child ascended before, without the rope, and made it. Wayne is forced to do the same in order to reach out to his devastated city and save the day as the Dark Knight. 

Wayne’s past and brokenness is redeemed because he is forced to be like a child. More to the point, an entire city discovers redemption because one man was forced to realize his ardent love for his city and reconcile with the truth of the situation. 

As Alfred (Michael Caine) puts it in the movie: 

“It’s time for truth to have its day.”

Christopher Nolan finds a way to make truth have its day. He puts forth the theme of redemption throughout the entirety of the movie, making The Dark Knight Rises a fitting end to the trilogy. If you haven’t, I sincerely recommend seeing the movie now.

Verdict: 4.5 out of 5
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Posted by: Andrew Jacobson

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Book Review: The Queen's Lover

The Queen's Lover: A Novel by Francine Du Plessix Gray (New York: Penguin Press, 2012. 259 pp).

Francine du Plessix Gray (b. 1930) is a Pulitzer-prize-nominated writer and literary critic. She is most known for her works, Them: A Memoir of Parents, and At Home with the Marquis De Sade: A Life. For the former, she received the National Book Critics Circle Award.

High Society Problems

When I was in high school, we, as a class, were forced to read the dreaded Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I didn’t connect with the book at all, and didn’t care to. I never liked the novel because it was both dry and boring in my opinion. I didn’t care enough of aristocratic high society problems to even give the novel a chance. Similarly, The Queen's Lover by Francine Due Plessix Gray explores some of those same problems in a work of historical fiction, and I found myself running into the same problems I had with Pride and Prejudice.

A Masquerade

Told in memoir-type format, the novel reads more like a journal—so realistic I found myself wondering how much of it was true. The Queen’s Lover begins at a masquerade ball in Paris in 1774, where Swedish nobleman Axel Von Fersen meets a dashing young woman.

Photo by Mark Sebastian

“My new friend also had grown aware, quite suddenly, of the band that had gathered about her; and without saying good-bye, as impulsively as she had begun our conversation, she wheeled around and swiftly walked away, briefly lifting the gray velvet mask off her face with an exasperated gesture, as if it were smothering her and she needed to inhale a deep breath of air. It was in that split second that I realized who she was—that I recognized her as Marie Antoinette, Archduchess of Austria-Hungary, beloved daughter of the mighty Empress Maria Theresa, and now the wife of the notoriously timid, reclusive Dauphin Louis-Auguste, who might at any moment become the king of France” (16).

An Affair and a Revolution

Photo by Panoramas

Marie Antoinette soon becomes Queen of France, and the encounter at the masquerade ball launches a life-long affair spanning the course of the French Revolution. Fersen, through his ties with Antoinette, becomes close with King Louis XVI, and the entire royal family. Fersen would like nothing more than to stay at the side of his beloved Marie-Antoinette, but the American Revolution tears him away. He is one of the first to enlist in France’s group of militiamen to fight for America’s independence. Much changes while Fersen is gone, as in 1789 the Bastille is stormed. At this point in the novel, it read less like the dry Pride and Prejudice of my youth, and more like exciting historical fiction. 

The revolutionaries hate the king,

“He was indeed witnessed to have eaten, for breakfast alone, four veal cutlets, a chicken, a plateful of ham, half a dozen eggs, and a bottle and a half of champagne. It is at this point that the king’s enemies began to refer to him as ‘the fat pig’” (79).

However, Fersen provides a different portrait of the king, Fersen shows the king to be loving and compassionate, and holds deep affection for his lover Antoinette's husband. As a result of this compassion, Fersen devises an escape for the family and their young children (who are suspected to be Fersen’s children). The attempt, however, fails, and Fersen is forced into captivity while he waits for the King and Queen to face the guillotine.  

While the novel started out in aristocratic, high-fashioned prose akin to that of the famed Jane Austen novel, I found that The Queen's Lover ended up being much more dramatic, more exciting, and more riveting for me in the end. Francine Due Plessix Gray did a fantastic job writing a memoir of historical fiction, where it was believable in every way.  She did so well crafting the novel that I may even give Jane Austen a second chance.

Verdict: 3.5 out of 5

Posted by: Andrew Jacobson

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Album Review: By the Horns

By the Horns by Julia Stone (Nettwerk Records, 2012. 38 minutes)

Julia Stone (b. 1984) is an Australian singer and songwriter. She is most known for the work with her brother in the band Angus & Julia Stone, which began in 2006. By The Horns marks her second solo record.

Airy and Light = Good or Bad?

Julia Stone’s voice airily permeates her newest solo album By the Horns, with a light and easy quality which is hard to ignore. But, I wish I could ignore it. Her voice grates on me, I think. It’s frankly hard for me to tell, as I love the music, the melodies, the mixing, and everything else on the album. The question has become for me, can I take Julia Stone one her own without the more mellow voice of her old counterpart, Angus Stone?

A National Influence

Steeped in the influence of The National, Julia Stone’s newest album By the Horns is even produced by Thomas Bartlett and has a guest appearance from drummer Bryan Devendorf, both from The National.  In a cover of The National’s “Bloodbuzz Ohio”, Stone sings the all-too-familiar lyrics.

“Lay my head on the hood of your car, I take it too far”

By The Horns

The title track, “By The Horns” shows duality in the album. Strewn with mellow tones from a Rhodes, strings providing a simple texture in the background, and an easy groove from the drums, the song sounds beautiful. Then you add Miss Stone’s voice and you’re forced to listen to emotional lyrics. Her voice is so aggressive and nasal, yet light and easy. I hate to admit it, but it works.

“I believe in love / No, darling, you can’t take that away from me”

It’s All Okay

The final track of note is “It’s All Okay”. The track to me suggests that Julia Stone’s solo career may in fact be all okay. A simple piano riff starts the song, while a drum beat creates a toe tapping atmosphere. Guitars swoon in the background in semi-Explosions-in-the-Sky style. And the lyrics; they’re fantastic.

“The story is different now the records are playing in the living room / And you might say you’re wounded, and I might say I’m hurt / But, we knew the difference then between the fire and the earth / And we may say we’re broken, we may say we’re weak / But, we knew before we started oh the secrets we would keep”

So, the more time I spend with By the Horns, the more I like it. I think Julia Stone may have a promising solo career ahead of her, and I urge you to try out By the Horns. You may not like it at first, maybe like me due to the quality of her voice, but let it marinate, and the album may grow on you.

Verdict: 3 out of 5
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Posted by: Andrew Jacobson


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Book Review: The Yard

The Yard: A Novel by Alex Grecian (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2012. 421 pp)

Alex Grecian is the author of the long-running and critically acclaimed graphic novel series Proof. The Yard is his first novel.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from G.P. Putnam’s Sons. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

Victorian Murders

“Nobody noticed when Inspector Christian Little of Scotland Yard disappeared, and nobody was looking for him when he was found” (1).

The year is 1889, and a wave a murders has swept across Victorian London. The culprit? None other than Jack the Ripper. Jack the Ripper has concluded his murdering spree, but the police’s inability to actually apprehend him results in an unnerved public. Scotland Yard, newly created, has twelve inspectors known as “The Murder Squad” that investigate thousands of murders every month. The Yard captures the dark, gritty nature of Victorian England, and the murders therein.

Walter Day, the protagonist of the novel, has recently been appointed as an inspector. But, he has a rough first day on the job when his colleague Christian Little was found in a trunk, stabbed repeatedly. The last thing the newly created Scotland Yard needs is another serial murder, but it looks like this one is targeting police officers. Walter, in Holmesian fashion, is joined by Dr. Kingsley, a forensic pathologist. With his help they work a few clues to try to prevent another murder of a fellow policeman.

Meanwhile, another murderer is on the loose, targeting men with beards and slicing their throats. In addition, a chimney sweep is buying little boys only to allow them to die under his care. Jack the Ripper has inspired a plethora of serial killers, creating a new genre of crime for the Scotland Yard detectives to try to solve. The strange murders are known almost immediately to the reader, but Grecian takes special care to cultivate a story where the protagonists take a while to catch on, only causing the reader to get more and more aggravated. The question is, will the policemen actually solve the case, or will the face another epic failure similar to the Jack the Ripper case?

Villainous Perspective

The reader regularly follows the villain’s perspective, thereby knowing the inner-workings of the murders themselves. The reader discerns the guilty parties not that far into the book. Meanwhile the police are under great stress trying to rebuild the reputation of The Yard, while not being able to solve new cases. The reader is rooting for the team to make a good name for themselves, while knowing more than the protagonists do. The narrative grips the reader.

The fast-paced nature of the book also kept the reader entertained, wanting and waiting to know more. Though it may not be the best literature out there, it’s a good read due to the thriller-like nature. Alex Grecian has found a James Patterson-esque formula in which corpses keep turning up, the reader knows more than the book’s protagonist. If you enjoy Sherlock Holmes, or perhaps once treaded the pages of The Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew, this fast-paced literature is for you. At the same time, however, if you’re looking for some historical fiction to stimulate your brain, perhaps this one might be a little disappointing.

Verdict: 3 out of 5
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Posted By: Andrew Jacobson

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Film Review: Prometheus

Prometheus directed by Ridley Scott; written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof (Brandywine Productions, Dune Entertainment, Scott Free Productions, R, 124 minutes)

Starring Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, Logan Marshall-Green, Michael Fassbender, and Guy Pearce

Ridley is Back

Ridley Scott’s Alien trilogy is now over three decades removed, but nearly everyone knows it in reference at least. I still am completely freaked out by the original trilogy, as I watched it in my teenage years. A lasting scar emerges in the franchise’s wake. Ridley Scott blended space travel and horror in a unique way, forever enshrining himself into the media hall of fame. Prometheus is the famed director’s attempt to continue the franchise by explaining its origins. But, the movie falls short.

In the prologue, set sometime in Earth’s past, an alien that looks somewhat human drinks some black ooze on the edge of a high precipice somewhere in Scotland in the planet’s distant past. The alien falls into said water, and his DNA is reassembled—presumably seeding the human race. Later, in the year 2089 at the same location on earth, we meet biologists Elizabeth (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie (Logan Marshall-Green) when they find a cave painting supposedly pointing to the origins of the human race. Enthralled that they may have finally answered the question, “where did we come from?”, they embark on a scientific voyage to a distant planet (drawn in the cave paintings of course) that may hold an answer to who engineered the human race.

Elizabeth and Charlie are joined by a somewhat lugubrious android (Michael Fassbender), a corporate crony (Charlize Theron), a badass captain (Idris Elba), and some people that barely take up fifteen seconds in the movie. On the spaceship Prometheus they journey in stasis, and once arrived begin the scientific expedition. Meanwhile, they are located in one of two places: either the ship or a dark-lit cavern where the alien race is supposedly found. Much like the Alien movies of old, the team hopes to find answers but soon they find more than they bargained for. No real plot surprises within. It’s an entertaining film, and visually stunning. But, the music throughout the movie kept playing, and I found myself more and more distraught.

Seeing Versus Hearing

Prometheus looks claustrophobic and gloomy. But, the soundtrack inside is a hopeful, modal tune repeated over and over...and over. The music doesn’t align with the striking visual effects.

Marc Streitenfeld, composer for the movie, has worked in such films as Hannibal, Kingdom of Heaven (another Ridley Scott flick), and Mission: Impossible II. So, his resume is stocked. In talking to a film-scoring buddy of mine, what Mark Streitenfeld has done is write something a little outside of the film-scoring norm, and in order to talk about the norm, I need to go back in time.

Leitmotif and Film

Richard Wagner is specifically known for his work in Opera and Drama. His most famous opera is a cycle of four operas, Der Ring des Nibelungen (or The Ring). If one goes to see The Ring, it lasts for a grand total of four days with a playing time of fifteen hours (I've been. It's even longer than it sounds).

But, it isn’t the length that is important, it’s the concept he developed in the cycle called leitmotif. In leitmotif, there is a Grunthema (basic idea), as well as several other ideas that accompany various characters. It’s usually a short melody or chord progression that is altered every once and a while.

The best known example in film is by the great John Williams. Think back to the Star Wars films of old. What music comes to mind when you think of Darth Vader? Luke Skywalker? The songs that come to mind were specifically written for every time you saw the characters, and they’re memorable. The song for Darth Vader has become synonymous with evil.

Back to Disappointment

Now, to link the music back to Prometheus. In a dark, cavernous world with doom ever looming on the horizon, one would expect something like this to occur: Man goes into tunnel, creepy music plays; man meets alien, creepy, but different music plays; android tries to muck about in the scientific expedition and screw everything up, music designed for the android plays.

But instead, what the listener finds is a beautiful modal melody played with an oboe (many times during the movie), strings gently backing, and eventually horns loudly blaring. When both the plot line and visual effects point to something harrowing, the music is epic and hopeful. Take a listen.

So, in closing, my main problem with the movie wasn’t the plot (albeit farfetched) or even the acting. My problem was that my visual senses were seeing things with which my auditory senses weren’t agreeing. A film is good based on what it does to all the senses, not just the visual ones. The movie could have been much more memorable, and much more frightening had the film score gone along with the visual sense. Prometheus was a fantastic film, in all ways but one: the music frankly sucked to the point of distraction.

Verdict: 3.5 out of 5
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Posted by: Andrew Jacobson

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Book Review: The Age of Miracles

The Age of Miracles: A Novel by Karen Thompson Walker (New York: Random House, 2012. 269 pp)

Karen Thompson Walker is a graduate of UCLA and has received the 2011 Sirenland Fellowship as well as a Bomb Magazine fiction prize. She is a former editor for Simon & Schuster. The Age of Miracles is her first novel.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Random House Publishing. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

The End is Nigh!

The year is 2012, and, as many have heard, the world is going to end, or so the Mayans predicted. Nostradamus also proclaimed something similar, didn’t he? When you think about it, some Bible-thumping nut far too “knowledgeable” in the ways of eschatology is predicting the end of the world seemingly every five minutes. Even crazy zealots once predicted that the end was nigh when the the Hale-Bopp comet graced the night skies. But, we will never really know when the end of the world is going to occur—a thought perhaps more frightening for some than the end itself. Karen Thompson Walker, in her first novel The Age of Miracles documents the tale of a young eleven-year old girl and what happens as the world begins to end.

On a seemingly ordinary sunny day in a small Californian suburb, eleven-year old Julia is encountering the pains of growing up. Coping with the everyday disasters and transformation of the teenage years, she struggles with her parents’ marriage, her emergence into adulthood, and her own first love. But, her life isn’t the only thing transforming, so is the world around her.

“We didn’t notice right away. We couldn’t feel it. We did not sense at first the extra time, bulging from the smooth edge of each day like a tumor blooming beneath skin” (3).

A Slow Change

Photo by NASA

The rotation of the earth has begun to slow. The days become longer and longer, and if that shift wasn’t disturbing enough, the social and ecological ramifications are many. What piqued my interest in the novel is that the author chose to focus deeply on how the world would change socially if the earth slowly stopped rotating. She describes the change in such harrowing, sorrowful detail in a way that makes the story feel strikingly real.

“In the hours that followed, we would worry and wait. We would guess and wonder and speculate. We would learn new words and new ways from the scientists and officials who paraded in and out of our living room through the television screen and the Internet. We would stalk the sun across our sky as we never had before. My mother drank Scotch over ice in a glass. My father paced in the living room” (17-18).

Unnoticed Changes

Photo by Justin Berger

As the hours slowly and painstakingly add themselves onto the earth’s day, the effects of the slowing are many. Some however, are unnoticed. Some around her, including her own mother, begin to suffer from an unnamed illness called the syndrome, a byproduct of a change in gravity. As the world constantly changes, the old earth seems like a thing of fantasy to the eleven year old girl, something that could never exist outside of a dream.

“Some say that the slowing affected us in a thousand other unacknowledged ways, from the life expectancy of lightbulbs to the rate at which ice melted and water boiled and human cells multiplied and human cells died. Some say that our bodies aged less rapidly in the days immediately following the start of the slowing, that the dying died slower deaths, that babies took longer to be born...All the while, the clocks continued to tick. Wristwatches went right on beating faint beats. My grandfather’s antique clocks chimed their ancient chimes...How quaint the old twenty-four-hour clock began to look to our eyes, how impossibly clean-cut, with its two twin sets of twelve, as neat as walnut shells. How had we believed, we wondered, in such simplistic things” (69-70).

Unnerving Prose

As little Julia grows up through the novel, the reader experiences her world; she goes to soccer practice, meets boys, and goes through moonlit strolls at the “noon” hour. Though The Age of Miracles is a coming-of-age story, it’s only so in the simplest sense. More than a girl growing up, the novel acts as a requiem for a lost world, a thing of memory. The author juxtaposes the pains of growing up with the pains of a dying world, and the unknown in both circumstances.  

Karen Thompson Walker truly takes the reader on a fantastical journey, so fantastic that the reader is unnerved at every turn. The prose is so poetic and poignant that you are forced to lament with Julia as the requiem unfurls throughout the book, pointing the reader to a future that is frighteningly realistic. The Age of Miracles hits shelves today, and you should get a copy very soon.

Verdict: 4.5 out of 5
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Posted by: Andrew Jacobson

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Book Review: The Lacuna

The Lacuna: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver (New York: Harper Collins, 2009. 507pp)

Barbara Kingsolver (b. 1955) is an American novelist and essayist. Her best known works are The Poisonwood Bible, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. All of her published books have been on The New York Times bestseller list, and she has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner award.

Expectations

Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible has often been described as a book club classic. Ten years later, Barbara Kingsolver has released The Lacuna. As a piece of historical fiction, I expected something behemoth, something filled with wonder, something akin to the masterpiece that is The Poisonwood Bible. The Lacuna came close, but it left something behind for me. Perhaps my expectations were too high based on Kingsolver’s past.

A Nobody in the Presence of Somebodies

Photo by Fisita

The Lacuna documents the journey of a young boy, Harrison William Shepherd from 1929 to 1951. When we first meet him at twelve years of age, he’s living on a hacienda with his over-dramatic mother who is a gold-digger, to say the least. Ever on the prowl for a richer husband, she is never content. His father is American, and is the dull-witted type we’ve come to know in sitcoms like The Simpsons or Family Guy.

Harrison is an accidental onlooker to some important history—he runs into Frida Kahlo at a market, and returns home with her to help her with his baking skills. Frida’s husband is the famed muralist, Diego Rivera, and their marriage is somewhat volatile. Soon, Harrison becomes a baker and typist for the household, leaving his own capricious home behind.

“It was like mixing the flour for pan dulce: how could it be so different? The powder they called cal has the same fine grind, floating up in white clouds around the boys when they dumped bags of it into the mixing buckets. Their eyelashes and the backs of their hands were white, and the edges of their nostrils, from breathing it. They were dumping powder into water, not the other way around” (71).

Using his baking skills, Harrison begins mixing plaster for Diego Rivera’s murals. Soon after  establishing himself as a plaster mixer, who joins the household? None other than communist Leon Trotsky. If you know your history, Trotsky finds an untimely end by one of Stalin’s agents. Harrison witnesses the murder. Throughout all the history-in-the-making scenarios of which Harrison is a part, he keeps a journal. His journal (you guessed it) becomes the novel, The Lacuna, which he tries to publish as an adult later in the book.

Disappointment

Photo by Luiz Fernando

Now comes the point where my disappointment surfaces. I completely understand Kingsolver’s motive in wanting a fictional “onlooker” to be the narrator and “writer” of the novel. However, the experiences of a fictional, shy, boring-as-watching-paint-dry, loner child are hard to merge with the experiences of famed artists and communist leaders. 

Should the novel have utilized the famous artists as main characters, perhaps even narrators, I would have found much more enjoyment in the novel. Harrison is frankly too dull to tell the tale. Moreover, juxtaposed against such vibrant, larger-than-life characters of history past, he fades into the background.

Though it would be easy to completely toss Harrison into the literary garbage can, he does supply some wonderful thoughts on connecting history. Through his eyes, we see richly imagined history in an epoch where circumstances and people were viewed in black and white. Kahlo was known to be unstable bi-sexual, and her husband a womanizer. As Harrison says, 

“What we end up calling history is a kind of knife, slicing down through time. A few people are hard enough to bend its edge. But most won’t even stand close to the blade. I’m one of those. We don’t bend anything” (360).

The point Kingsolver is trying to make is that the most unimportant people do affect history. Harrison Shepherd assuredly did make an impact (albeit fictitious) in the lives of the painters and communist leader. However, I have to agree with Harrison; he is unimportant and boring. He didn’t stand close to the blade from my perspective. 

While The Lacuna does recount some important history with larger than life people, perhaps the vessel telling the story could have had a bit more of a commanding presence. Harrison falls into the shadows. 

If you enjoy historical fiction, I still highly recommend this novel as it is illuminating to say the least. But, if you like compelling main characters, perhaps it’s best to try something else.

Verdict: 3 out of 5
What do you think? Does Harrison really fall into the background? Did you enjoy the history present within the novel? Share your thoughts below.
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Posted by: Andrew Jacobson

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Book Review: Uncorked

Uncorked: My Journey Through the Crazy World of Wine by Marco Pasanella (New York: Clarkson Potter, 2012. 224 pp).

Marco Pasanella is the proprietor of Pasanella and Son Vintners, which opened in south Manhattan in 2005. The shop has been included in top-ten lists in New York Magazine, Food & Wine, and Elle. He has written for Esquire, GQ, Vogue, and The New York Times.

Pretentious or Accessible?

Photo by Derek Gavey

Most often, wine is viewed as the beverage of choice for the snobby and elite. You can picture an Italian scoffing at lesser folk while he sips a nice chianti. Or worse, a Frenchman who fails to admit that any other country could possibly produce a good wine. However, as of late, wine represents the beverage of the everyman. 

Wineries give tastings to all who come in an attempt to educate people about the glorious world of wine. Myself, I was bitten by the wine bug several years back, and absolutely love the stuff. Marco Pasanella, in his memoir Uncorked, describes how he fell in love with the beverage and how he chose to open a wine shop appealing to the masses.

Marco Pasanella decided in his early forties to open a wine shop with his wife. But, unlike so many wine shops, Marco wanted to do something different. 

“Wine, I also realized early on, appeals to people who like secrets. Whether it’s hedge funders determined to be more inside than their peers or the people who like The Da Vinci Code, wine aficionados tend to like mystery. And whine seems to demand a special knowledge. But the truly devoted seek more: the want to be clued into the stories behind the labels...Think Thomas Pynchon with a little Umberto Eco thrown in. It’s a seductive brew of fact, legend, and gossip” (8).

The Mystery and Setup

Photo by Angela Rutherford

Realizing the mystery of wine, and the vast gamete of people it attracts, Marco and his wife brutally labored over the operation of their shop. Should they do something traditional, or different? The couple tried a wine library, a wine “museum”, and a handmade/homemade feel.

“I didn’t want the store to feel like a museum lesson or an elegant warehouse. I wanted it to evoke the part of my life that I remember from my summers at Villa Cannizzaro, our family’s seventeenth-century stone house in Camaiore, a small town outside of Lucca in Tuscany” (31).

Once the theme was set, the next step became supplying the wine. There is a three-tiered distribution system in New York. Officially, wine can only be sold through wholesalers in New York, which caused a problem for the small wine shop. They had to find a way to actually sell the wine. After the selling kerfuffle, with a little insider decoration help from some famous folk (Martha Stewart) and some random tips from folk that love wine (a cheese seller from a local grocery store) the wine shop became a hit. Well, it wasn’t that simple, far from it.

Why It’s Good

Photo by Andreas Levers

But, it isn’t the frantic, fast-paced evolution of his shop that makes for a good read, though the risks he and his family took financially do compel. Marco tells of the various people that came to work with them in the throes of wine-selling battle. He tells of dinner parties with ample amounts of wine. 

Marco also details, quite painstakingly, the wine making processes, the theories of what makes a good vintage (or a good vintner for that matter). As the book progresses, you’ll find yourself loving the world of wine, and lamenting alongside Marco as hard times fell across the shop. 

If you’re a complete newcomer to the world of wine, you’ll find informative tidbits that don’t come across as demeaning or pretentious (like random recipes lining the pages of the book). If, however, you’ve been a wine lover for some time, you will find the book equally accessible. Uncorked provides a spectacular journey through to the world of wine, and if you’ve been bitten by the wine bug, you’re sure to enjoy it.

Verdict: 4 out of 5

Have you been bitten by the wine bug? Do you love the mystery of wine? Or is it just a beverage for you? Did you enjoy Marco's book of his tiny, yet successful wine shop? Share your thoughts below.
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Posted by: Andrew Jacobson


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Album Review: Strangeland

Strangeland by Keane (Island Records, 2012. 45 minutes)

Keane is a piano-driven pop band lead by front man Tom Chaplin. Formed in 1997 in East Sussex, England, the band has achieved wide acclaim. Their most successful album is Under the Iron Sea, which topped charts and peaked at number four in the Billboard 200 in 2006.

Melody Is Dead

Melody is dead. Extinct. No more. It’s pushing up daisies. Melody takes up residence in the great musical beyond. The culprit? You. That’s right, you are solely responsible for grossly mangling melodic content to the point where it simply gave up and breathed its last.

It’s sad really—mostly because you had no idea you were doing it. The current shift in quality melodic content—what I’m going to call the “pop snippet”—has been so glacially paced you never noticed. In fact, you rather like the poppy tunes of late don’t you? 

In all truthfulness, melody isn’t dead. Melody, however, is a rarity. Melody, as I’m choosing to define it, is a musical phrase or motif which stands out at the forefront of a song, and has considerable shape, distinction, and length. Pop tunes only have the former part of the definition: a motif which stands out at the forefront of a song. Without the latter part of the definition, it’s just something that’s catchy. The “pop snippet” has no substance. 

The pop snippet emerged because record companies wanted the radio quickly to court you to love a song. Think of Katy Perry or Rhianna and how catchy their tunes are. However, there is no lasting substance. When you think of it, there is one little part of the song that repeats over and over again in repetitive motion. A good melody, however, lasts for a while, takes up considerable real estate in a song, and even though it’s long, you could sing it back. There is substance. If you want an example of a current good melody, think Gotye. If you want an example from longer ago, think Stevie Wonder, or better yet, Elton John.

There is no substance in Keane’s Strangeland. How do I know this? It’s boring as hell.

Silenced by the Night

Here’s a classic example of why this Keane album is awful: “Silenced by the Night”. In taking a listen to the verse structure of the band’s latest single, the melody does the same thing over and over. If you assign the melody numeric value representing distinct tones within a key, it goes like this: 2-3-2-1 (repeat ad nauseam). In listening to the chorus melody, it’s slightly more interesting! 6-4-2-3-2-1, (once again, repeat). In truth, you will never forget the “melody” of the song, because it’s terribly repetitive. Notice that both the verse and the chorus melody end in 2-3-2-1. 

At this point, it must be noted that I’m not trying to discredit the musicianship of the band, but rather of their compositional style. Keane has phenomenal musicians, to be certain. However, the lack of variation and substance on the album isn’t sustainable for a lasting future as a band.

You are Young

To the band’s merit, they have interesting hooks. However, that’s where the pleasantries end for me. At the band’s conception, I was intrigued by a fully-keyboard-driven band, and the lead vocals are quite good. In the song “You are Young”, the listener once again runs into the same barricade. The verse repeats one theme constantly, as does the chorus. The vocals, however, carry the track well; they are powerful and meaningful. The keyboards, however, only do the same percussive quarter note rhythm the whole time, and the drumbeat has little variation. 

Now, in the end, if it’s catchy, you can feel free to have a listen. I cannot dissuade a listener from what they like, or what they perceive as quality. Music is somewhat relative, but I firmly believe that a good melody makes a good song. Little pop snippets don’t make a good song, and songs made up entirely of said snippets do not make a good album. I’ve found a lack of quality in Keane’s Strangeland especially in regard to melody, and I urge you to find a better record with which to spend your time if at all possible.

Verdict: 2 out of 5
What do you think?  Is melody truthfully dead or dying?  Is there a difference between melodies of old and current ones?  Conversely, do you still like Keane, or like me have you become less enamored over time? Share your thoughts below.
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Posted by: Andrew Jacobson

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Book Review: Started Early, Took My Dog

Started Early, Took My Dog: A Novel by Kate Atkinson (New York: Reagan Arthur, 2011. 371 pp)

Kate Atkinson (b. 1591) is an English author. She won the Whitbread Book of the Year award for her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Her most recent novels, Case Histories, One Good Turn, and When Will There Be Good News?, feature her most renowned character Jackson Brodie. She lives in Scotland.

Psychological Crime Drama & Mystery

A fan of psychological crime drama, at least in regard to film, I rarely read the books of the same genre. That’s mainly because I enjoy the fast paced nature of film when it retells a story related to crime, partially because the mystery is always alive. In novels, however, I find mystery somewhat lacking. J.J. Abrams, director of the famed Lost television series famously stated in a TED talk,

“Mystery represents infinite possibility. It represents hope, it represents potential. Mystery is the catalyst for imagination. There are times where mystery is more important than knowledge.” 

However, I’ve always been a fan of Kate Atkinson, as she uses legitimate, nearly poetic prose with her stories, as well as ample amounts of mystery. Her novels are normally witty, suspenseful, and a combination of both literary brilliance and a crime drama. This is no less true in her most recent novel, Started Early, Took My Dog. Perhaps more to the point, Atkinson uses each character in a way that further enriches the mystery within. Each character is related to the others, in ways that are fairly mind-bending. For this reason, and with a desire not to remove the blindfold to reveal the mystery, I’ll introduce you to the main characters of the crime drama.

Character #1: Tracy Waterhouse

Newly retired from the police force, Tracy Waterhouse works at a shopping mall. She’s over 50, overweight, and unhappy.

“Tracy had retired with a shell so thick that there was hardly any room left inside. Vice, sexual offenses, human trafficking—the underbelly of Drugs and Major Crime—she’d seen it all and more. Witnessing the worst of human behavior was a pretty good way of killing off anything soft and fluffy” (16).

While performing her routine, extremely boring patrol, she notices a thug from her police days, someone she doesn’t trust carrying a screaming child.

“Kelly Cross was the reason for the screaming child. No surprise there. Kelly Cross. Prostitute, druggie, thief, all-round pikey. A scad-end of a woman. Tracy knew her. Everyone knew her.  Kelly had several kids, most of them in care and they were the lucky ones, which was saying something” (21).

What happens, however, is not completely normal, nor does Tracy expect it. She offers to buy the screaming infant, named Courtney, for £3,000. Even stranger, the woman is happy to unload the child. Now desirous of a new future, Tracy begins to make plans to leave the country, change her name (along with her new acquisition), and vanish into a brilliant new beginning. Tilly, an out-of-work actress, is a witness of the acquisition. So is Jackson Brodie.  Their lives begin to intertwine.

Character #2: Tilly

Tilly is a superannuated actress who is fighting the effects of old age. The mother in a TV soap opera, she has recently learned that her character will be killed of soon due to her senility.

“They’d brought Tilly in to play Vince Collier’s mother because they wanted to make the character ‘more human,’ more vulnerable. Tilly had worked before with the actor who played Vince Collier, when he was a teenager, and she kept calling him by his real name—Simon—instead of Vince. Seven takes today just to say good-be to him on a doorstep” (28).

Now completely befuddled and depressed, the narrative frankly and beautifully talks of her path down old age, losing a job, and senility.

Character #3: Jackson Brodie

Jackson Brodie is a private eye, now fifty years of age. His current job is to find the parents of Hope McMaster, an adopted woman living in New Zealand. During his investigation, he uncovers an unsolved crime from the 1970s. As he investigates, he begins to learn that the past never really stays in the past. Also, while investigating, he acquires a small dog (hence the name of the novel). Ever the scruffy gentleman, Brodie rescues the dog from a man who is abusing it.

“The dog was still cowering in the boot. He could hardly leave it there, so he picked it up and was surprised to find that it was warm even though it was shivering all over as if it were frozen...He turned round the tag on the dog’s collar so that he could read it. ‘Let’s see if you’ve got a name,’ he said. ‘The Ambassador?’ Jackson said, looking doubtfully at the small dog. ‘What kind of a name is that?’” (41).

Jackson is an appealing sleuth, especially to women. He has a scruffy, chiseled look about him, with a smile that will melt a woman at forty paces. His love of the poet Emily Dickinson certainly doesn’t dissuade the kinder gender away from his pursuits.

The Characters Intertwined

Now, if you’ve ever read a Kate Atkinson novel before, you know that she has a penchant for connecting random characters in the most unusual of ways. Atkinson intertwines the characters in a tincture of romance, melancholy, and whimsy in a way that is near impossible to describe without providing a whole manuscript of the novel while ruining the mystery at the same time. The author employs both the past and present of the character’s lives as well as the crime scene of the 1970s to pull off a mind-bending plot line.

The peripeteia within Started Early, Took My Dog completely surprises, much like film genre of the psychological crime thriller. If you enjoy the type of movie that surprises, and enjoy mystery, Started Early, Took My Dog is assuredly for you.

Verdict: 4 out of 5

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Posted by: Andrew Jacobson

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