A literary and cinematic Evening

Rarely do I read books and watch their cinematic adaptations as closely together as I did with Evening. I saw the movie a few weeks ago with my mom and Caryn and followed up almost immediately by reading the novel, which has been sitting on my shelf since an impulse purchase at the Goddard Community Center book sale in November of 2005.

Neither the novel nor the film are perfect, and much of what fails in one fails in the other. Both follow the same basic storyline but differ significantly in almost every detail and subplot. In both, family members gather around a dying matriarch’s bedside. Their waiting is interspersed with her memories of one fateful weekend. Like every flashback-driven tale, one story is inevitably more compelling than the other; in this case, Ann Lord’s attendance at her friend Lila’s wedding, where she has a life altering but short-lived love affair, is, by far, the more interesting of the two stories, and it’s easy to get antsy wading through the the present day filler. In the book, this filler most often takes the form of Ann’s other recollections. Contrasting her memories about the weekend surrounding Lila’s wedding, which are crystalized, detailed, and acute, all other memories are hazy, half-forgotten, and run together. This impressionistic approach creates a useful juxtaposition and offers enough to outline the rest of her life. Unfortunately, it becomes increasingly irritating to read long stretches of only partially-articulated narrative, where sentences, like Ann’s memories, run together and amok. In truth, I started skimming these passages about half way through the book and skipping them all together by the last quarter.

The movie, on the other hand, uses the present day segments as an opportunity for some predictable and cloying self-growth among Ann’s daughters, and, again, the flashbacks were far more affecting. Truth be told, the reviews for the movie have been pretty unkind, which surprised me a little. Admittedly, the film is slow moving, but not every movie needs to be Live Free or Die Hard action-packed. The movie has everything to do with waiting and anticipating and deserves to be meandering and lyrical.

The film has one of the finest ensemble casts ever assembled and my hat is off to whoever got all these amazing women in one film: even the small and somewhat thankless parts are filled with actresses of outstanding caliber (Eileen Atkins, Glenn Close). I also appreciated seeing Patrick Wilson in another film (and finally one having nothing to do with pedophilia!). On the way out are the days when only my theatre friends and I knew him, and it’s exciting to see someone who has only been known within a small community growing into a recognizable name, if not a bona fide star (yet). Really, I think he, Claire Danes, and Mamie Gummer have Meryl Streep to thank for their appearances in Evening. Wilson and Danes have both played Streep’s children before (Angels in America and The Hours) and Gummer is her real-life daughter. Nepotism (both real and fictional) is serving them all well. A shout out is also due to Hugh Dancy, who, in a part greatly changed from the novel, plays Lila’s brother with heart-breaking humanity.

I can’t give either the novel or the movie an unqualified recommendation, but I’m glad I read and watched each. I found the love story at the heart of both moving, even if the surrounding material hindered it from touching me as deeply as it should have.

Randomness in all its glory

You all have Laura to thank for today’s post. She’s tagged me for this 8-random-tidbits thing. Here are the rules:

1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own post about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Here goes:

1. My bookshelf organization is partially autobiographical. For instance, Written on the Body and Stone Butch Blues have to be next to each other in the bookcase for the rest of time because I read them together in college.

2. I have a voyeuristic streak that compels me to look in the windows of every apartment I can when I’m walking around.

3. Ok, so this one isn’t really about me, but it’s about my day-to-day life at work. My boss wears a toupee and thinks no one knows; we ALL know. And we mock it. The other day I told my colleague (when said boss was being particularly wussy), “John needs to grow a pair.” My colleague responded with, “What did you say? John needs to grow some hair?” Good times.

4. That officially gross cheese food product that goes on nachos and pretzels at the mall? Sometimes it really hits the spot.

5. Alice in Wonderland = Creepy. How do kids watch that and not get scared? That freaky Cheshire Cat? No, thank you. The Queen of Hearts and her hideous, “Off with their heads!”? The drunk “A Very Merry Unbirthday” mouse? Ugh! I hate it all.

6. I like watching rats in the subway. I know they’re gross and disease-ridden and whatever, but down in the tracks they are far enough from me that I can watch them with an anthropological fascination. And when you’re waiting forever for the train to come, sometimes you need a little something to keep you entertained.

7. I really want to learn how to ride a motorcycle. And snowboard. And sky dive.

8. I’m terrified of having isolated Tourrette’s like attacks where I say all the inappropriate things that I’m usually thinking during meetings at work.

There you have it. You all know me a little bit better now. I don’t know eight other bloggers, but I’m tagging the few I do know: Shannon, Veronica, Anne, Josh, and Jen.

Battling the heat through inappropriate attire

I think the heat is going to people's heads. Seriously, it seems to be affecting people's fashion sense. Walking to work this morning, I saw not one but two women wearing skirts so thin and light-weight that I could see their undies through them. I'm all for beating the heat through summer-weight clothes but not at the cost of flashing the entire Upper West Side. On the other extreme, I also saw a woman wearing pantyhose under her skirt. Her brain must have really been fried when she was getting dressed this morning.

And the award for best performance in a totally disappointing show goes to...

Audra McDonald.

I recently took in a performance of 110 in the Shade, which I'd been wanting to see mostly for its cast. I didn't know much about this revival, but I did know that leading lady Audra McDonald has never disappointed. To give credit where credit is due, she is an amazing actress and singer and did absolutely all that could be done with the material. Unfortunately, there are just some limitations that can't be overcome. Set in Texas in the 1930s, there are two main plot points in 110: McDonald's character, Lizzie, can't land a man, and the town folks are desperate for the drought to end. Lizzie is on the brink of officially becoming an old maid and, like the land around them, is drying up. Yes, that's the musical's big metaphor. Both Lizzie and the land need to get a little wet.

Lizzie is quite intelligent and unwilling to flirt and giggle like an idiot. Even worse: She's plain. A not-pretty smart girl? No wonder she's an old maid! Even if you can get past this premise (which is especially hard given how lovely Audra McDonald really is. Just look at that poster!), the show still disappoints. I'll forgive a lot if I'm entertained, but 110 in the Shade was just boring. It ran about 2 1/2 hours and only a few of the songs had emotional resonance; the rest, frankly, were vapid. I'm glad I got to see Audra McDonald's performance, and ever since Urinetown I've had a soft spot in my heart for John Cullum. I'll happily see either of these two in future performances—just not future performances of 110 in the Shade.

Random celebrity sighting: two rows ahead of us were Tony winner David Hyde Pierce, Debra Monk, and Edward Hibbert from Curtains. I choose to believe that they weren't impressed either.

The Yiddish Policeman's Union: Mixed Feelings

I wrapped up Michael Chabon's latest over the weekend, and I have to confess: It didn't live up to my very high expectations. I've loved so many of his previous outings that I really expected to be taken with The Yiddish Policeman's Union, too. Even after I started it and wasn't immediately pulled in, I took solace in the fact that two friends who had read it before me told me that it was a slow start for them, too, and that by the end they couldn't put it down.

Technically, the book is successful. The central mystery is both personal to the protagonist—giving it an emotional core—and global enough to capitalize on the author's alternate history concept. The writing style took me a while to adjust to; this is my first foray into hardboiled fiction, and I can't say that I loved it. That said, from what I do understand about the genre, it seems that Chabon has successfully adopted the tone, traits, and characteristics of the style. I admire his determination to break down the artificial segregation of genre fiction and literary fiction, but any author who dabbles in such a variety of writing styles will really please each of his readers only some of the time.

With some writers, you go in knowing exactly what you're going to get (Amy Tan, anyone?), and it takes courage to try something different with each book. I didn't love The Yiddish Policeman's Union, but I appreciated it. Chabon is an extremely talented writer, and I'm excited to see what he does next. My anticipation won't be for the guaranteed pleasure that comes from always ordering the vodka sauce at Nino's and knowing that it will fully satisfy; instead, it will be the anticipation of trying something new and hoping to discover a new and exhilarating flavor all together.


Side note: I do continue to be intrigued by the alternate history genre. I can imagine The Yiddish Policeman's Union and The Plot Against America as the foundation to a very interesting college course…

Second Time Books

I just got back from a long weekend at Mom’s house over 4th of July. We had all sorts of grand adventures planned, which were partially thwarted by a torrential downpour on the 5th. Luckily we had driven by a previously undiscovered used book store on the way home from the train and decided to check it out. Given my book addiction, it was an absolutely perfect rainy day activity. The store, Second Time Books, has only been there for a few months, and is absolutely adorable. Mom and I, in our book-lovin’ way, were exclaiming over every great book we found on the shelves, and the owner started really loving us. It was a mutual admiration society, as we were impressed with his selection, prices, and the very good condition of all his books. I bought 8 books for only $28!

I want independent and used book stores to succeed, and in the age of Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble, that’s no small feat. My favorite local small bookstore, Ivy’s Books, was shuttered last time I walked by, and it broke my heart a little. And though most of you have no reason to be in Mt. Laurel, NJ, I can’t stop myself from shilling for them a little: if you find yourself in that neighborhood, please check out Second Time Books!

A cheesy good time

Saturday night marked the belated celebration of Jen's recent birthday. Three of us took Jen out to Artisanal for a heart-stopping meal of cheese fondue, shared appetizers (including their signature cheese plate), and chocolate fondue. As good as all that cheese was--and believe me, it was good--just as fun was spending the evening with Jen and her friends. The four of us have hung out a bit together before, but this was the first time we all really spent an evening together. Not since the heyday of my publishing group right after college have I had a real circle of friends. I have wonderful, amazing individual friends, but too many of them don't know each other. I should try to do more joint activities, but it's always tricky trying to bring different groups together. I was pleased and surprised at how effortlessly we all clicked.