Woman Around Town’s Editor Charlene Giannetti and writers for the website talk with the women and men making news in New York, Washington, D.C., and other cities around the world. Thanks to Ian Herman for his wonderful piano introduction.
What was it, Goldah wondered, that was so appealing in the living? What was it he was meant to reclaim?
In 1947, former journalist and concentration camp survivor Yitzhak Goldah comes to Savannah, Georgia to live with his only remaining family; Abe and Pearl Jesler two pillars of local the Conservative Jewish community. As they drive him back to their home they inform him that in order to assimilate better in the States, from now he’ll be known as “Ike” for the general since Yitzhak is too exotic. His identity is fundamentally changed before he even gets out of the car.
Among the Living by Jonathan Rabb (Rosa, The Second Son) tells a story about a man who’s literally been to hell and back and now struggles to rebuild. Significant tensions exist between Conservative and Reform Jews in Savannah; something that seems almost ludicrous to Yitzhak/Ike who no longer even attends service having lost all faith. He becomes entwined with the African-American family who work for the Jeslers with whom he realizes he actually shares a disturbing amount in common; yet he’s considered apart from them and is warned never to be seen shaking hands with a black man in public.
As his identity is split between Yitzhak and Ike his heart becomes torn between lovely young widow Eva (considered forbidden because she’s a Reform Jew) and his old love Malke who’s emerged from the camps physically scarred and emotionally shattered. And if all that isn’t enough Abe’s illicit business dealings brings criminals to Savannah’s sunny streets. Even in the New World senseless violence and brutality cannot be escaped. Rabb weaves a complicated narrative of historical detail and rich psychological insight as Yitzhak/Ike realizes his future path is thornier than he ever imagined.
It’s that special time of year again. The nights get longer. The temperature drops. Candy corn is everywhere. The pop-up costume stores appear. And once again, my dear readers, I compile a list of books to give you the creeps. Yep it’s my latest collection of Halloween reading! Enjoy.
Off Season (1980) By Jack Ketchum, who’s been described as “the scariest guy in America” by Stephen King. A New York editor rents a cabin for her and her friends in Maine during the off season. Unbeknownst to her a savage clan of inbred cannibals happens to be living in the area as well. This one when it originally came out was considered so visceral and controversial that the original publisher withdrew support. It has since become hailed as a cult classic, and a 35th Anniversary edition including unexpurgated material has just been released.
The Bridesmaid (1989) By that master of psychological crime novels Ruth Rendell. Philip Wardman is a perfectly ordinary young man with two notable traits. Firstly, he abhors violence of any kind. Secondly, his ideal of the perfect woman is based on a Greek statue of Flora in the family garden. At his sister’s wedding, Philip meets Senta Pelham; an extraordinarily beautiful but strange young woman who is one of his sister’s bridesmaids. They have a torrid affair but Senta shocks him with an evil idea; that they prove their love to each other by each committing a murder.
Asylum (1996) British novelist Patrick McGrath delivers us this tensely plotted gothic tale of psychological suspense narrated from the POV of a psychiatrist. The beautiful Stella Raphael is the bored wife of Max, a deputy superintendent at a maximum security psychiatric facility. She becomes intimate with one of the inmates, the artist Edgar Stark who killed his wife. Stella’s passion for Edgar has horrific consequences for her and everyone around her. A movie adaption was made in 2005 starring Natasha Richardson, Ian McKellan, and Hugh Bonneville.
Blood Harvest (2010) By S.J. Bolton. The Fletcher family moves into a beautiful house into the seemingly idyllic community of Heptonclough. But soon after their arrival things start to go wrong. First with silly pranks and then with increasingly ominous threats. The eldest child Tom Fletcher is convinced that someone is always, ALWAYS watching them. And then there’s the matter of the mysterious accidental deaths of three toddlers over the last ten years. It soon becomes that the beautiful village hides a very ugly and very dark secret. Blood Harvest was short-listed for the Crime Writers Association’s Gold Dagger Award.
Those Across the River(2011) This debut novel from Christopher Buehlman is set in 1935. WWI Veteran and failed academic Frank Nichols and his wife Ava move into a house in Whitbrow Frank’s inherited from his aunt; despite her having warned him by letter never to do so. Frank plans to write a history of the Savoyard plantation and an cruel ancestor of Frank’s who drove his slaves to murder him. Unfortunately, Frank’s presence helps stir something in the town. There’s an old blood debt to be paid. And there’s a reason the people of Whitbrow never EVER cross the river. Nominated in 2011 by the World Fantasy Awards for Best Novel.
September 25 through October 1st is Banned Books Week according to the American Library Association. One of the things I’ve often found most ridiculous about those people who try to ban or challenge books is that they never realize that this only makes the material in question more enticing. After all, who doesn’t wanna taste the forbidden fruit? Furthermore, would-be censors have a knack for attacking the books that are often those most worth reading.
Consider the following.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn(1884) By Mark Twain Why It’s Been Banned: Coarse language, racial stereotypes and frequent use of the n-word. Why It’s A Must Read: It’s universally considered one of the Great American Novels and one of the first works in American literature to use “colloquial style.” Aka written in vernacular English, with regional color thrown in. It is lso a scathing satire of certain entrenched attitudes, particularly racism. Is essentially the first, original, American “buddy-buddy” road trip story.
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) By Zora Neale Hurston Why It’s Been Banned: For coarse language and explicit sexuality. Why It’s a Must Read: This gorgeously written novel is now widely recognized as being a seminal moment for African American literature AND Women’s Literature. Zora began what Toni Morrison would continue.
The Grapes of Wrath (1939) By John Steinbeck Why It’s Been Banned: Contains profanity and sexual references. Moreover, people were shocked by its depiction of the poor. Steinbeck later admitted his descriptions were sanitized versions of what really went on within such communities. Why It’s a Must Read: Besides winning the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and being a key reason Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize, its widely considered one of the best English Language novels of all time. It has incredible historical context and one of the most discussed books in college classrooms and critical essays ever.
The Handmaid’s Tale(1985) By Margaret Atwood Why It’s Been Banned: It has occasional profanity, a lot of sexuality, and for purportedly being offensive to Christians. Why It’s a Must Read: Atwood’s vision of a United States being taken over by a totalitarian, theocracy remains as terrifying and vital as ever.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (1997) by J.K. Rowling Why It’s Been Banned: For promoting witchcraft Why It’s a Must Read: The entire Harry Potter series has become a worldwide cultural phenomenon and anyone who can read this book and not fall in love with Hogwarts is a hopeless Muggle.
“Would it surprise you to learn that one of the top fantasies for women is a prolonged hospital stay?”
Of course as Leave Me by Gayle Forman, notes this only works as a fantasy. In real life illness and hospitalization just make things even more stressful. With a demanding job as a magazine editor and a pair of four year old twins, multitasking Maribeth Klein is so overworked that she doesn’t even realize she’s having a heart attack. The fact that she delays seeing a doctor for a whole day inevitably causes major damage and Maribeth barely survives the ordeal. All this would be dramatic enough but Maribeth’s story really begins with her recovery as she faces the fact that she has become a burden to the people she cares about. Sick, depressed, and anxious, Maribeth does the unthinkable; she packs a bag and takes off, leaving her husband only a “Dear John” letter with no idea when she’ll return.
It soon becomes apparent from her choice of destination (Pittsburgh! My hometown!) that Maribeth’s near brush with death has brought out old questions and insecurities. Especially about the fact that her biological mother made an adoption plan for her in Pittsburgh over 40 years ago. Maribeth settles in surprisingly well to her new incognito existence which is in fact the first extended vacation she’d had in well…forever. She explores the joys of Pittsburgh, makes friends with a couple of college kids in her building, and even begins a flirtation with her new cardiologist. But the ugly fact remains that Maribeth has abandoned her family and the longer she stays out of touch the harder it will be to re-connect. Forman has made a reputation as a great author of YA fiction; most notably her #1 Bestseller If I Stay. Leave Me is her first entry into ‘grown-up’ novels, and it’s a very promising and engrossing debut. I can think of no better praise than to say I ended up finishing the whole book (340 pages) in one day without intending to.
With Oliver Stone’s Snowden in theaters (read our review), now seems like a good time to remember some other cinematic entries about other people who chose to blow the whistle on their employers-no matter the cost.
Serpico (1973) Directed by Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men, Network) and starring Al Pacino in the title role, it tells the true story of how NYPD officer Frank Serpico went undercover to expose corruption in the police force. It covers twelve years; 1960-1972. It was successful commercially and artistically receiving Academy Awards for Best Actor for Pacino and Best Adapted Screenplay. It also routinely comes up on lists of the best crime movies AND best movies of the 20th century period, as well as being considered a high mark to Lumet and Pacino’s careers.
The Insider (1999) Directed by Michael Mann (The Last of the Mohicans, Collateral) and based on Marie Brenner’s Vanity Fair article, “The Man Who Knew Too Much.” 60 Minutes did a segment on Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe in one of his best performances) a whistleblower in the tobacco industry. His efforts to come forward were championed by CBS producer Lowell Bergman (played by Al Pacino) despite efforts by the Brown & Williamson tobacco company to silence and discredit Wigand. It wasn’t a big hit commercially but highly lauded by critics and was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009) Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith directed this documentary following Daniel Ellsberg. Ellsberg released the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times, which detailed the military’s secret history in Vietnam. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary. It won prizes at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, the Boulder International Film Festival, the Sidney Film Festival, as well as snagging a Peabody Award.
The Whistleblower (2010) Directed by Larysa Kondracki (The Walking Dead, Better Call Saul) and starring Rachel Weisz as Kathryn Bolkovac an American police officer recruited by the United Nations to be a peacekeeper for DynCorp International in post-war Bosnia in 1999. Bolkovac discovered a sex trafficking ring that catered to and was facilitated by DynCorp employees while UN peacekeeping forces looked the other way. Bolkovac went public. It was nominated for three Genie Awards and won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at both the Whistler Film Festival and Palm Springs International Film Festival. Warning – because of the subject matter, this one is extremely violent, graphic, and incredibly dark.
War on Whistleblowers: Free Press and the National Security State (2013) Directed by Robert Greenwald and Brave New Foundation it clocks it at just 66 minutes. War on Whistleblowers highlights several cases where government employees and contractors took cases of fraud and abuse to the media. All of them were penalized for it professionally and personally. It has a fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes with Variety magazine calling it “a sobering picture of a national security state.”
Did you know that September 22, is National Elephant Appreciation Day?!? Neither did I. But now that we do know, I think we can all agree that it’s an excellent day to take a day to appreciate these gentle giants with one of the following films.
Dumbo (1941) The fourth animated Disney film based on the children’s story by Helen Aberson revolves around Jumbo Jr. a young elephant cruelly nicknamed “Dumbo” by his peers for his big ears. But it turns out these ears can also help him fly! Even despite the advent of WWII, Dumbo was still the most financially successful Disney film of the 40’s, and today holds a 97 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and in 2011 was named one of ‘The 25 All-TIME Best Animated Films” by Time Magazine. It’s titular character has also become an internationally recognized icon.
White Hunter Black Heart(1990) Directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, the film is based on the Peter Viertel novel of the same name; which was in turn a thinly disguised account of Viertel’s experiences working on the 1951 film The African Queen. Filmmaker John Wilson (Clint Eastwood) travels to Africa in the early fifties for a shoot bringing along young scriptwriter Pete Verrill (Jeff Fahey of Wyatt Earp and The Seventh Scroll). But once on location, Wilson neglects film preparations for his new obsession with hunting down a big tusked elephant -a goal he even acknowledges is sinful. It has an 88 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes and has been described as Eastwood’s best work before Unforgiven.
Born to be Wild(2011) David Lickley directed this nature documentary short about orphaned orangutans and elephants and the people who rescue them. It has a 98 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes for the movie’s heart-warming story and nature footage that is both charming and really, really cute.
The Eyes of Thailand(2012) Windy Borman directed and produced this documentary about Soraida Solwawa who opened the world’s first Elephant Hospital. The Friends of Asian Elephants Hospital in Lampang, Thailand took in two elephant landmine survivors Motala and baby Mosha who had lost their legs. Solwawa and her team developed the first elephant prosthesis to help them walk again. Besides celebrating elephant’s the film’s also a cautionary tale about landmines and won the Ace Documentary Grant.
When Elephants Were Young (2015) This French-Canadian documentary was directed by World Elephant Day (a separate holiday from Elephant Appreciation Day) co-founder Patricia Sims and narrated by Will Shatner. Twenty six year old Wok in Thailand has been caring for his elephant Nong Mai since she was three. Nong Mai was one of thirty five captive elephants in Wok’s village as part of a (now rapidly fading), tradition of elephant keeping. The family’s business is street begging with Nong Mai in Bangkok. The film follows how the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation offers to buy Nong Mai to reintroduce her to the wild. The film had its international premiere at the Palm Beach International Film Festival where it won Best Documentary Feature.
An hourglass could serve as a reminder and quantifier of time, but also as an escape.
Young Spanish landscape architect Beto has an unusual fixation with hourglasses to the point where his proposal at a conference in Munich is a forest of hourglasses or ‘sand clocks’ that people can turn over to give them a measured amount of time to devote to their thoughts. Because one of the main themes of David Trueba’s novel Blitz is time and its passage; how there always seems so little and so much especially in our current ultra-fast paced society and the importance of learning to grasp onto the moment and appreciate it while we can.
Beto’s life changes in a single moment on the first page when he receives a text from his longtime flame Marta that wasn’t meant for him. Heartbroken in a strange land with an empty bank account, he falls quite unexpectedly into the arms of conference volunteer Helga; an attractive, intelligent, warm-hearted divorcee, who happens to be sixty three and whose grown children are older than Beto. On the surface it seems an improbable romance but Trueba sells it in a way that makes it seem almost inevitable for both parties as he examines their personal histories, psychology, and even their genitalia in the inevitable sex scene. (Some VERY graphic, detailed, and er…anatomical imagery is to be found here.) The cross-generational lovers discuss everything from landscaping, to perfectionism, to mimes, to Otto Dix and his famous nude paintings of imperfect and even unattractive women. These paintings by the way can be seen in Blitz which contains pictures and illustrations to help illuminate its text. The text and pictures measure out to 160 pages. As a novel, Blitz is intended to be a miniature but as miniatures go, it’s darn near perfect.
As we enter the final days of a presidential campaign that has been both historic and unusually ahem interesting we are more aware than ever of the vital need to engage in politics, (however distasteful it can sometimes be.) Here are some movies dedicated to examining how the sausage making of electing political leaders actually occurs.
The Best Man(1964) Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner (Planet of the Apes, Patton) and written by Gore Vidal was based on his own play of the same title. Starring Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson, Edie Adams, Margaret Leighton and Lee Tracy this drama details the sordid maneuverings behind the nomination of a presidential candidate. Tracy was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in what was to be his final film.
The Candidate (1972) This satirical comedy drama was directed by Michael Ritchie (The Bad News Bears, Fletch) and written by former Eugene McCarthy speechwriter Jeremy Larner. Political specialist Marvin Lucas (Peter Boyle) needs a Democratic candidate to oppose a popular Republican incumbent (Don Porter). Since no serious candidate will enter such an unwinnable race Lucas seeks out Bob McKay (Robert Redford) the son of a former Democratic governor who wants to use the campaign solely as bully pulpit to spread his idealistic platform. Things don’t go as planned. It was widely acclaimed for Redford’s performance and Larner’s script, and the latter won an Oscar.
Bob Roberts (1992) This satirical mockumentary was written and directed by Tim Robbins who also starred in the title role as a conservative Republican folk singer who becomes the challenger against a Democratic incumbent for one of Pennsylvania’s Senate seats. Shot through the perspective of Terry Manchester (stage star Brian Murray) who’s doing a documentary on Roberts’ campaign while a young reporter Bugs Raplin (Giancarlo Esposito) attempts to expose Roberts as a fraud. It currently has a 100% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Wag the Dog(1997) This hysterical black comedy produced and directed by Barry Levinson kicks off with allegations of sexual misconduct on the part of the President and an adorable firefly girl…less than two weeks before the election. Trouble shooter Conrad Bean (Robert DeNiro) is brought in to save the situation and he concocts an elaborate scheme to distract the public by creating a fake war with Albania. To that end he recruits legendary Hollywood producer Stanley Motts (Dustin Hoffman) and then things get very, VERY complicated. Besides Hoffman and DeNino we also get Anne Heche, William H. Macy, Denis Leary, and Woody Harrelson all at the top of their game as well. Small wonder it has an 85% rating at Rotten Tomatoes as well as Oscar nominations for Dustin Hoffman for Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Primary Colors (1998) Based on the novel of the same name, directed by Mike Nichols (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Silkwood) and starring John Travolta as a charismatic Southern governor trying to win the Democratic Party nomination for President. (Three guesses who this is based on.) Besides Travolta we also get winning turns by Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy Bates, and Adrian Lester. Bates was nominated by the Academy for Best Supporting Actress and screenwriter Elaine May (Ishtar, The Birdcage) also received a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Among the Living by Jonathan Rabb (Rosa, The Second Son) tells a story about a man who’s literally been to hell and back and now struggles to rebuild. Significant tensions exist between Conservative and Reform Jews in Savannah; something that seems almost ludicrous to Yitzhak/Ike who no longer even attends service having lost all faith. He becomes entwined with the African-American family who work for the Jeslers with whom he realizes he actually shares a disturbing amount in common; yet he’s considered apart from them and is warned never to be seen shaking hands with a black man in public.
