Dead End Follies Book Club: BLACKBIRDS

Chuck Wending had to deliver. He didn't have a choice by to be better than the others. His website terribleminds became a landmark for writers-to-be over the last few years and his colorful but heartfelt and roadproofed writing advice showed to be more pragmatic and valuable than the pile of garbage advice usually available on the internet. He was in same position than Jack in the series LOST. He had to live up to his image of knight in shining armor. If BLACKBIRDS sucked, he would've had to find himself a job at a community college.

Fortunately for him and for us, BLACKBIRDS didn't suck. In fact, it was one of my favorite reads so far this year. Wendig's storytelling is second to none and as it takes most of the place in his novel, he doesn't neglect the stylistic aspect whatsoever. The short, sharp prose doesn't waste any words and the present tense gives the novel a sense of emergency that few other thrillers have. So really Chuck Wending is Jack Shephard, but with writing skills instead of a PhD in spinal surgery and a beard instead of daddy issues. You know what I mean.

THREE REASONS TO READ: BLACKBIRDS

1) Because it's written by a man and features a female protagonist and the said female doesn't have a chip on her shoulder about being a female, therefore making her cooler than any female protagonist (written by male or female) who does.


2) This is the kind of books that will bring tweenies back to literature. See it as a bridge between Harry Potter and Elmore Leonard. You think movies are more involving than books? Think again. BLACKBIRDS is like being caught up in an amazing action movie for about eight to ten hours.

3) Admit it, you want to see for yourself if Chuck Wendig is the real deal or not and whether or not I'm a sellout blogger.

THREE TOPICS ABOUT: BLACKBIRDS

1) Do you believe in determinism? Do you believe that if you know in advance that something will happen, no matter how hard you try to get in the way of fate, that fate itself calculated your reaction and your efforts to stop it?

2)  Would you say there is any kind of responsibility attached to the "gift" of seeing how people die?

3) Why do you think Miriam goes out of her way to save Louis, when she barely knows him?

Book Review : Richard Godwin - Piquant: Tales of the Mustard Man (2012)

Country: U.K

Genre: Bizarro/Horror

Pages: 153 kb (eOriginal)

Buy It Here

"Who are you?", Samms said, struggling to stand beneath the shadow of the Mustard Man.

"I am the ravaged dreamland of your mind and I have brought you a lather for I know all the things you have done, now open up. I am going to turn you to stew.

Richard Godwin doesn't have much to do, to get my attention. I thought his novels APOSTLE RISING and MR. GLAMOUR made him the first post-Thomas Harris author of serial killer fiction, but I was wrong. Hidden in Godwin's backlist of short stories was this very peculiar man, who has an undying love for both killing people and fine cuisine. The Mustard Man terrified the readers of Pulp Metal Magazine for the last four years, enough for editor Jason Michel to put together a collection of his most nefarious crimes. It's only six stories long, so it's a little short but it should only be another incentive to read this fantastic little tome. It's going to take you an hour and blow your mind harder than a sawed-off shotgun.

The Mustard Man comes from the mind of thriller writer Jack Laretto. Unfortunately for him, he's one of these characters that take a life of their own and in his case, he literally does. He doesn't jump from the page like in a children fable. No, he just happened to walk in one day, to help him solve a few personal and professional problems in the PICKLE PARTY story. Then the Mustand Man goes on tour across the United States, spreading horror, violence and his love for spices from State to State. Those stories, especially KENTUCKY KETCHUP, OKIE ONION and RAVENOUS RADDICHIO were particularly brilliant in their brutality and their chaotic intent. OKIE ONION, especially who had a very bold and surprising twist on the vigilante storyline and also puts in perspective the violence it proposes. I thought this story in particular had an amazing depth to it, while dealing with such a highly colorful character.

What The Mustard Man represents is really the fractal and chaotic nature of creativity. Its sheer power, also. While Godwin treats his character with the utmost serious, he always keeps an eye on satire and shows very good comedic timing. The relationship between The Mustard Man and his creator is particularly flavorful in this regard. Godwin's metafictional killer provides great insight on how he transcended the roadblocks that cluttered serial killer fiction since Thomas Harris put Hannibal Lecter on a page. The Mustard Man isn't as polished as the killers of his two novels, he is not meant to be. He is meant to be as blunt and as honest as he is presented. He literally disembowels the myths and spices up the recipe. Through him, you understand that Richard Godwin's recipe to convincing killers passes by fiction, by creation, rather than imitation of reality. You can only write Ted Bundy so many times.

"There are no Corn God sacrifices here. You are in the wrong house. Now you gonna eat bitch. These mushrooms are like human flesh", the Mustard Man said.

The Mustard Man stories are hard not to like. You have to have a stomach for Richard Godwin's gory scenes, but that's pretty much a perequisite to like the author. His descriptions of gore are second to none on today's market, maybe even in literary history (at least according to my culture on the subject). The contrast of this "comic-bookish", borderline funny character with its serious, driven author really highlight everything that's interesting about Richard Godwin's literature. The Mustard Man stories beg for a graphic novels adaptation. Godwin's visual style and the killer's colorful nature would be eye candy, if put on panels. Six stories, an hour of your time and a character you won't forget. That's a winning bet if there ever was one. PIQUANT lives up to its name, but more than that, it lives up to the author's legacy.

FOUR STARS

Movie Review : Freakonomics (2010)

Country:

USA

Recognizable Faces:

Steven Levitt
Stephen Dubner
Akebono

Directed By:

Heidi Ewing
Alex Gibney
Seth Gordon
Rachel Grady
Eugene Jarecki
Morgan Spurlock

*spoilers, I suppose*

I've taken interest in the Freakonomics phenomenon for a while now, but never took the time to sit down and read/view the damn thing. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, FREAKONOMICS was a book that came out in 2005, from University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Times journalist Stephen Dubner. Their point? Show a practical side of economics, reintroduce it as a tool that doesn't answer just the boring questions. FREAKONOMICS, the movie was indeed a very entertaining little piece of documentary, but made many questionable choices in its presentation, which dragged the movie version down considerably. I loved the concept, the boldness of Levitt and Dubner who never hesitate to provoke the well-thinking, but whoever came out with the idea of having six directors and whoever chose the chapters to introduce into the movie was terribly wrong. Turned what could've been a great documentary into something that didn't do justice to Levitt and Dubner.

There are six chapters to the book and four distinguishable segments to the movie. Some were downright fascinating. The socioeconomic pattern of naming children for example. Levitt and Dubner start from the idea that a parent will name his child something unique or classy or fierce, so he can have a fighting chance in life. That's a myth, because it's your environment that will ultimately determine what you name will be. It will give your parents variables to chose from. They give in example the African-American names before and after the civil rights movement, the Black Panthers ans the sixties. Black kids were named John, Michael, Greg, Jane or Rose back then, but it's the sixties that brought names like DeShawn, Shaniqua, Tyrone, Shaquille, etc.That's when the African-American identity took a life of its own. As a counter-example FREAKONOMICS relate the fascinating story of Robert Lane, who named his two youngest sons Winner and Loser. Crazy, isn't it? Well, believe it or not (I checked it up afterwards), Winner became a criminal and Loser became a cop and goes by Lou, now.

A more controversial argument was Levitt and Dubner's take on the radical crime drop in the 1990s. Many opportunistic politicians attributed this spectacular drop to their courageous struggle, but Levitt and Dubner went and dug deeper. They attributed half of the crime drop to legalization of abortion in 1973. Bold, indeed but their data is rather freaky. Their point is that by the time unwanted babies reached their prime age for crime, they just weren't there and according to their study, in states where abortion was easy of access and not just "legal" , crime dropped 30% lower. It's kind of a stretch to say abortion fights crime, but such a spectacular drop cannot be attributed only to fighting measures. It shows something on the structural level of society had changed. Does abortion fights crime? No. Did it had a role to play in the crime drop of the nineties? Probably. 

The biggest issue I had with FREAKONOMICS is the last segment, which is by far the bulkiest. It's directed by Rachel Grady (of the JESUS CAMP legacy) and follows a high school's experiment to bribe a kid into success. My problem is...IT DOESN'T WORK. Their results are unconvincing at best and the segment is stretched out really thin in attempt to make sense of it. Five directors spend about fifty minutes trying to build a strong argument for the Freakonomics approach and it just goes down the drain in the last stretch. The books offered other material to chose from, so why pick this? Why not chose the book's chapter about the Ku Klux Klan and real estate agents? That looked pretty darn cool. The six superstar director approach was meant to make the movie dynamic and fast paced, but it ends up feeling chaotic and disjointed. 

In the long run, I can only get behind that sort of thinking. I'm just disappointed it was poorly presented in a movie. Documentaries have been trending over the last decade and have become a powerful tool of communication, so it's a missed opportunity. Especially with such an all-star cast of directors. I can only command Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner for thinking outside the box and trying to use their knowledge to produce entertained, reachable data for the everyman. Fans of Chuck Klosterman like me shouldn't be in uncharted territory here. Levitt and Dubner treat of more serious subjects, but the approach in rather similar. I'd say read the book. The documentary is decent, but ultimately disappointing for all it promised.

SCORE: 72%

Book Review : Roger Smith - Ishmael Toffee (2012)

Country: South Africa

Genre: Noir

Pages: 481 kb (eOriginal)

Buy It Here

No, fear woke him, plain and simple. He's scared shitless of being out here, being what they call a free man. Doesn't feel like no free man, prowling this dark shack even a short-ass like him can't stand up straight in. Scared of the day ahead.

America is the last place on earth that doesn't know and love Roger Smith. His books had tremendous success overseas and were translated in many languages, including french (yours truly's mother language). He's a take-no-prisoners, make-no-compromise type of writers, with a vision darker than the deepest abyss. ISHMAEL TOFFEE is his latest release, an eOriginal novella. It's the second Roger Smith I'm reading, so it's difficult to compare, but this is very different from DUST DEVILS. Same dark vision, same infernal townships, but a much more intimate story than the sprawling, epic noir he released in 2011. With two novels being adapted to cinema, hopefully American audiences will shift gears and reading Roger Smith too. ISHMAEL TOFFEE would be another great reason to start following him.

As stated in the title, the novella is about Ishmael Toffee, freshly out of Pollsmoor prison after a twenty years stint, where he survived as an assassin for a gang. Ishmael Toffee is a career killer, ending one's life with a knife is what he does best. But then he loses his taste for blood. That brings some positive and negative. Fortunately for him, the warden takes him under his wing and teaches him gardening. He is soon paroled and sent to work for a lawyer in town. Ishmael quickly makes friends with the lawyer's six year old daughter Cindy, with whom he shares more than anybody would think. When he finds out Cindy is being molested by her dad, Ishmael faces a choice. Will he run away from the best thing he can possibly do in this world? Even if it means being that guy again. That guy he stopped being in prison.

Child abuse is a very difficult issue to depict in literature. Anybody can write a child abuse scene per se, but finding the right tone is difficult. There are a few courageous scenes in ISHMAEL TOFFEE that will dare you to read them and turn your stomach. It's not complacent, it's just enough to make you understand and feel the horror young Cindy lives in. The relationship between Ishmael and Cindy had its moments of beauty. The book she lends to Ishmael, how they share a similar experience with it, was beautiful. Although, I found it gets a little melodramatic by the end. Reminded me of GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES, a sacred monster of animation cinema that didn't quite reach out to me either. I understand the difficulty of writing a proper relationship in between an abused child and a streetwise but dispossessed man. The relationship between Cindy and Ishmael is very believable, but just a notch too emotional for me. This will be the reason why some people will love it though. 

He grabbed her shoulder, so hard it hurt. "Now you listen to me and you listen good. What your daddy done to you is nothing you could stop, hard as you could try. It's never your fault. Never. You understanding me, Cindy?"

The achievement of ISHMAEL TOFFEE is Smith's filter of the narrative through a poor man's vernacular. Smith' use of a chopped up syntax and a limited vocabulary gave his novella a life of its own. That's quite the trick, considering its a third person narration. If DUST DEVILS stood out by its stellar and ambitious storytelling, ISHMAEL TOFFEE stands out too, by its creative and surprising prose. Reveals Roger Smith as a multifaceted writer with a very strong voice and a fearless taste for narrative exploration. I liked DUST DEVILS a little better than ISHMAEL TOFFEE, but don't interpret this as a seal of quality. Some stories are just meant to reach out certain people more than others. I praise Roger Smith's courage for tackling such a difficult issue and never shifting his gaze from the horror of such situation. If you're looking for hardcore, gazing-into-the-abyss literature, Smith's the man you want to read.

THREE STARS

The Heavy - Short Change Hero

The Heavy's THE HOUSE THAT DIRTY BUILT is a really good album and I think SHORT CHANGE HERO might be the best song overall. HOW YOU LIKE ME NOW? is awesome too, but this is the most eclectic and original of the two. It has influences of hip-hop, electronic music, western movies and oh yeah, also cool lyrics. Some people don't like the intro, but I love it. It's an atmospherical song and the intro puts you right in the mood, so I put the unedited version. It's been on my playlist for a few weeks now and I don't think it's going anywhere. 

The Heavy - SHORT CHANGE HERO

I can't see where you comin' from
But I know just what you runnin' from:
And what matters ain't the "who's baddest" but
The ones who stop you fallin' from your ladder, baby

And you feel like you feelin' now
Doin' things just to please your crowd,
But I love you like the way I love you,
And I suffer, but I ain't gonna cut you cus

This ain't no place for no hero.
This ain't no place for no better man.
This ain't no place for no hero
To go "home."

This ain't no place for no hero.
This ain't no place for no better man.
This ain't no place for no hero
To go "home."

Every time I close my eyes, I think,
I think about you inside,
And your mother, givin' up on askin' why -
Why you lie, and you cheat, and you try to make
A fool outta she...

I can't see where you comin' from,
But I know just what you're runnin' from.
And what matters ain't the "who's baddest," but the
Ones who stop you fallin' from your ladder, cos

This ain't no place for no hero.
This ain't no place for no better man.
This ain't no place for no hero
To go "home." 

Book Review : Ben Tanzer - My Father's House (2011)

Country: USA

Genre: Literary

Pages: 171

Shop for some Ben Tanzer on Amazon

I want to believe, not just be hopeful and positive and supportive, but believe, but can I, really?

It's common practice to have a high body count in today's fiction. Arguably, the most popular works of fiction of our times are cable television crime epics, such as BREAKING BAD, THE WIRE, THE SOPRANOS or even DEXTER. Those series, as awesome as their are, feature litres of blood, tears, dead relatives and sworn vengeances. Whenever death strikes (or looms around the corner, really) in real life and threatens someone you love, it's a different ball game. It grabs you someplace within, stretches you up, makes you tense and squeeze the breath out of you. That's this unromantic but oh-so-real side of death that Ben Tanzer explores in his novella MY FATHER'S HOUSE. While Tanzer doesn't have the most accessible style, his musings come from a honest, painful place. I think Socrates said: "The unexamined life is not worth living", Ben Tanzer takes this idea to heart as he focuses on a difficult part.

The narrator's father is dying. Well, yes and no. He has a rare form of cancer and things aren't looking up. He needs a bone marrow transplant, but finding the right match proves to be difficult. He's also looking towards experimental treatment out of despair. The narrator is married, no kids, works in one of those places where people try to turn themselves around when they fell off the deep end. Homeless, prostitutes, addicts, he sees all the ills of the world during his shift. MY FATHER'S HOUSE is the existential struggle he leads against the death of his father. The mourning of everything he didn't do with him, the abandonment of the idea of truly knowing him and the realization that they aren't so different. 

I can't say I relate a hundred percent to MY FATHER'S HOUSE, but I know where it comes from. I understand the feeling of existential void and the places where death takes you. For the longest time, I didn't know what to think of MY FATHER'S HOUSE, until I sat down and read about half of it in one sitting. That's how it's meant to be read. It's deliberately structured to reward patience and I thought it was pretty clever. The evolution of the narrator's trail of thoughts doesn't appear evident if you read ten pages, but if you read forty or fifty, the transformation becomes noticeable. I appreciated this particularly because it's hard to render the concept of time passing in a book, while being fair to the reader. I thought Tanzer found a very creative way to do so. His chapters are short, but resonate with each other. It's textbook dialogism, I suppose but it's applied to such a minimalistic execution, it makes it beautiful and rewarding to read. 

"Maybe you need to be confronted to feel things. Is that possible?"

"Sure, " I squeak, barely loud enough to be heard.

"And how does that make you feel?"

I pause. How much of me does she want?

The comparison might appear easy, bordeline oblivious to you, but I could definitively feel an influence of John Irving in Tanzer's prose. Tanzer is more minimalist an philosophical, but both have the same life-affirming quality and most interestingly (from my experience of Irving anyway), both are centered around the problems occured by an alienated narrator's inner life. There are good friends, a loving family and yet and terrible, oppressing loneliness the narrator is trying to transcend. While not being a realist writer per se, it's a variable that has visibly a lot of value to Tanzer. There is no Hollywood ending, but his characters don't go down in flames like in a Greek tragedy either. There is life, there are things to be learned and most time you will never be sure what it is. I appreciated that control, MY FATHER'S HOUSE is not a story of excesses and it stays coherent throughout.

I liked MY FATHER'S HOUSE. It was not a transcending read for me,  but I know it will be for some people. I know it will serve its purpose and help some people who have lost a loved one. The reason why it didn't sweep me away is deeply enrooted in me. I was raised in a very rationial, working class household and I was taught to never question the way of things. Things happen, you deal with them the best you can, so you can go on with your life. That straightforwardness is hardcoded in me. MY FATHER'S HOUSE will appeal to a certain type of people, which is both its strength and its weakness. It reads half like fiction, half like philosophical musings.  It's a beautiful existential battle that display the vulnerability of human condition and cleverly crafted novella and Ben Tanzer's an interesting new voice. Give him a chance to seduce you.

THREE STARS

It's not the Hit, It's the Swing that Matters

 All hail Rob Darken

I have the strangest relationship to black metal. The music is fine *, it's the closest music has ever been to a perfect mix of aggression, darkness, artistic value and actual musicality. No, it's the people I have difficulty with. You think hipsters are an elitist bunch? Spend a little time on black metal internet forums and you will find that once again, hipsters have invented nothing. If you're a black metal fan, you can't ever listen to the proper bands or have the right ideas. There is always someone to tell you satanic black metal is for idiots, that grown-up listeners are into NSBM **. Other will tell you the themes have no importance, that it's the music that counts. There's always this band from Poland or Hungary, which you've never listened to, who are printing about thirty-three copies of their albums and then proceed to leak it to a worthy elite on the internets.

So, in order to be the most extreme, dark, misunderstood and tortured musician ever, there is all sorts of entertaining excesses committed, creating myths and folklore for the genre. Most people know about the tragic saga of Mayhem, who's line-up was so evil it self-destructed ***, but they are superstars, legends in the field. If you want to find the real folkloric guys, you have to dig deeper. Here are a few of these ever-so-fascinating people...

Silencer (Sweden)

This guy strikes me as someone who understood perfectly how the game is played. The legend of Nattramn wants that he's been institutionalized for psychological issues after the release of their only album DEATH - PIERCE ME. Since in black metal, you're never as good as your first album, Silencer just retired after him, leaving 48:57 of the laments of a tortured soul as their only legacy. They are an object frozen in time and therefore can do no wrong anymore. Unless they want to reunite. That's right, apparently, Nattramn is out in the world again and still making music with industrial/dark ambiant band Diagnose: Lebensgefahr. I don't know if anything about Nattramn's problems is true. If it wasn't, that would make him one of the smartest men in black metal.

Lucifugum (Ukraine)

Lucifugum will go down in history as the band who shot the most ambitious video with the least financial means of all time. I think ALL MOTHERS DIE was meant to be epic. There's an impressive cast, the narrative implies the story of an inter-generational struggle, there are special effect and there's even a troll..or a shaman or whatever. Some guy once told me I didn't understand the beauty of this video, that it was full of "Slavic Imagery", but somehow I doubt that. I watch ALL MOTHERS DIE a few times here and there and I'm astonished at every viewing. I don't know much about them, except that they are still active today and they graced humanity with one of the most mind blowing videos of all-time.

Ildjarn (Norway)

It's unclear how much we know about Vidar Vaaer, better known as Ildjarn. He used hang around the black metal elite, he played bass with Thou Shalt Suffer the band that would ultimately create symphonic black metal giants Emperor. But everybody knew each other back then. Since, he has retreated in the woods, became a poster boy for misanthropy and recorded stuff like this and this. Then he bought himself a keyboard and started recording stuff like this. I know, quite the contrast. Then he released a Greatest Hits in 2005 titled ILDJARN IN DEAD and proceeded to drop from the face of the Earth. But not before leaving an awesome final statement for us to wrap our heads around.

Les Légions Noires (France)

There are so many legends about these guys, I don't even know where to start. They were a collective of bands, but their two most legendary members were Vlad Tepes and Mütiilation. They released albums in ridiculously low copy numbers (going as low as seven, I heard). Allegedly, one of their album is dark ambient, mixed with a microphone jammed in an eviscerated rat. Meyhna'ch of Mütiilation ended up having a record deal for playing actually great black metal and proceeded to be ejected from Les Légions Noires. Officially for being a junkie, but word was that there was a lot of jealousy involved. Legend wants that Meyhna'ch has been forced to drink piss by other members. Also, since then he has proceeded to play live with a dead rat on his belt, faked his own death, made a very successful comeback and then disappeared again. Some people are just not meant to live normal lives.

Gorgoroth (Norway)

Gorgoroth are superstars in their own right, but have earned themselves a place on this list due to the legendary antics of their ex-frontman Gaahl. Some of you might remember him for giving that creepy interview in METAL: A HEADBANGER'S JOURNEY. The man has an impressive rap sheet. He was imprisoned in 2002 for assaulting someone and rumor wanted that he drank his blood. His mother then testified at his trial, saying he was vegetarian. He said in interview that he supported the church burnings in Norway and that his favorite historical characters, those he drew inspiration from were Julius Caesar, Nero, Caligula and Adolf Hilter (of course). Then he kicked out founding member Infernus and sued him for the rights to the name Gorgoroth. He lost, then he came out of the closet (probably becoming the first gay nazi sympathizer ever) and retired for music.

I might catch hell for the fanboys for this article, but I don't care. I like these people and their music, they are the flagship for a fascinating subculture. They don't always hit, but do they swing hard. I'm just not part of that culture, I'm a mere observer. If the reaction to this article is good enough, I might just pull a part deux.

*For the most part, like in every musical genre, nothing is really absolute.

** National-Sociatlist Black Metal, I'm not even kidding.

*** Not everybody outside black metal know they are still a flagship band for the genre today. The two surviving original members and singer Attila Csihar are still writing music and touring.

Book Review : Lawrence Block - In The Midst Of Death (1976)

Country: USA

Genre: Hardboiled

Pages: 244

I hadn't planned on fucking his wife.

There was a point where I hadn't even considered it, and another point where I knew for certain that it was going to happen, and the two points had been placed remarkably close together in time.

Hard to say exactly why it happened.

Writing a series without an expiration date, like James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux or Lawrence Block's Scudder's is a breakneck thing to do. There are so many ways to get boring and repetitive and yet, if your character is your trademark, he's also your lifeline. While the two first Scudder novels THE SINS OF THE FATHERS and TIME TO MURDER AND CREATE were rather straightforward murder investigation, Lawrence Block raises the stakes and offers something completely new for the third installment of his series. There is a murder investigation to IN THE MIDST OF DEATH, but it's part of a larger, deeper, more complex narrative that shows the strength of the chains that binds the ex-cop to his old life. Scudder is not just an wounded observer anymore. That's my kind of character progression. With masterful patience and timing, Block shows you the other half of Matthew Scudder for a few hundred pages. The part he doesn't want you to see.

The novel starts as Scudder pays a visit to a blackmailing prostitute named Portia Carr on behalf of his client, a certain Jerry Broadfield. Only problem, she turns up dead a few pages later and Broadfield is arrested for murder. When visiting his client in jail, he claims he's been set up by the police, because he collaborated with Special Prosecutor Abner Prejanian on a police corruption affair. The policemen Scudder still know in the force all think Broadfield's an asshole and wish him a fate worse than death, regardless whether or not he killed Portia Carr. Smells enough like foul play for Scudder and he decides to dig deeper. When you go back to the life you walked away from, you can't go back and not expect ghosts to gnaw away at you. Scudder puts the quiet and fragile inner balance he found in his drifting lifestyle on the line, so he can make things right for his client.

Matthew Scudder is such a successful character because he keeps running away from who he is, but his line of work keeps bringing the truth back to him. He would probably live a peaceful life if he decided to be a brick layer, but he know how to do only one thing, sniff out the wolves in sheep clothing and putting them behind bars. While finding Portia Carr's murderer is necessary to his investigation this time, it's not what the novel is about. IN THE MIDST OF DEATH is about the illusion of the thin blue line. The more human and often uglier side of the police. What drove Scudder away from the force was his own fallibility, when he killed by mistake young Estrellita Rivera while pursuing robbers when off-duty. Being confronted to that trait in the policemen he meets for his investigation will weight extremely heavy on his shoulders.

A gradual process, death. Someone had stabbed her to death forty-eight hours ago in this very apartment, but her voice still answered the telephone.

I called two more times just to hear her voice. I didn't leave any messages. Then I had another can of beer and the rest of the bourbon and crawled into his bed and slept.

 Lawrence Block strikes me at someone who understands very well the dynamic of a series. It's easy to say, you'll tell me. The man has launched multiple successful series over the years (three, I think?). But don't forget IN THE MIDST OF DEATH was written during the late seventies, when the Scudder series was still a newborn (and we're talking of a character who had a longer life than me). There is something new involved every time. A new difficulty, weather it's in regards to his task or emotional. There's also a sense of continuity. The alienation, the inscrutability, the alcohol problem, the musings, these anchor Scudder in our minds. Block make good, strategic usage of those in his writing.

IN THE MIDST OF DEATH and TIME TO MURDER AND CREATE are generally regarded as interchangeable titles since what was supposed to be tome 2 was published after tome 3 and I tend to agree that the order in which you read those is not very important. I decided to read them in order their were designed to, but don't let it guide your decision. I'm three books down in Matthew Scudder's legacy right now and IN THE MIDST OF DEATH is the best so far.

FOUR STARS

Interview with Tom Piccirilli

I am very excited today to have Tom Piccirilli in interview. After reading EVERY SHALLOW CUT and THE LAST KIND WORDS, I had many questions that I was dying to ask him. Yesterday, I had the privilege to ask them and he has been more kind, generous and earnest in his answers that I could've ever wish. THE LAST KIND WORDS will be released on June 12th. Pre-Order your copy, because this will be very popular. This is my book of the year so far and it will be on many reviewer's year end list. In the meantime, get to know Tom Piccirilli a little more... 

The profession of writing has always been very romanticized. "Everybody has a best-seller in them", "This is the best job in the world", etc. You've been openly critical about being a career writer. What would you say to a young soul who wants to write for a living? 

I would tell him that it's a harder job than he could ever fathom. It takes you to places inside yourself you might not ever be able to get back from. It hurts, digging that deep. The financial instability, the disappointments, the loneliness tend to mount up day in and out, year by year. Writing isn't really a thing you choose to do. You don't decide to become a writer. You either are or you aren't. But be prepared. Be cautious. Chasing your dream, any dream really, is like chasing a tiger into the jungle. You could be lost, you could be eaten. But you follow because that's the thing you do.

You've made a lot of material available through the Kindle Store over the last few years. Novellas, stuff we can't really get elsewhere. Do you think eBooks are going to change the publishing game? If yes, how so?

They've already changed the game. Writers can get their catalogs back into print. Newbies don't have to spend years learning their craft, they can self-publish a book on kindle that hasn't been edited or even spell-checked. Some people are making fortunes via this form of publishing whereas they couldn't pay their rent with traditional publishing. I just hope we find some kind of balance between e-books and physical books. I'm a bibliophile. I want to be able to touch a book and feel the pages in my hands. I want to stick it on the shelf. I want to visit brick'n'mortar bookshops. I don't want to think of a world without bookstores. 

Your fans point you out as the go-to guy for dark fiction. Personally, I think you're one of the darkest writers in the game. What do you think are the common threads between noir and horror (which are arguably your two main genres)?

I think there's more common ground than differences, that's for sure. Both fields ostensibly take you to a place where you are thrilled and horrified. Horror might be more graphic or delve into the supernatural whereas noir, historically, is more reality-based. But both deal with fearful situations, painful dead-ends, the long dark night of the soul. Characters might lose just as easily as win. In noir, true noir, your destiny is sealed. You will die at the end. You will have your heart torn out by a femme fatale. You will be betrayed by your best friend. In horror there's a chance that good will conquer evil. In noir, you're dead from the first sentence. 

THE LAST KIND WORDS is hailed by many (included yours truly) as a breakout effort. Did you have that feeling while writing it? How did you felt about the novel throughout the writing process? 

 In a way I guess we all think that our latest effort is going to be the breakout, the one that takes us up to the next ring of the ladder, whatever that ring might symbolize or whatever we might associate with it. As with all my other novels, I was just trying to tell the best story I could tell at the time. The only difference was that I made a wilful decision to put emphasis on the "family drama" element of the story and dig a little deeper where the familial relationships were concerned. I didn't want women to read the book and feel it was just a "guy story." I wanted to alter my style a touch so that it didn't just feel like a crime novel but a literary (whatever that means) novel with its roots in the crime genre.

What is there about family that fascinates you?

Family is representational of the world. How one reacts to the world. You have love, you have resentment, regrets, pain, tragedy, sorrow, joy, history. Studying the depths of your feelings toward family is learning about how you'll act in almost any situation throughout the rest of your life. It's so fundamental in us. It's genetic. You are raised, you are loved, you are hurt, you carry scars, you forgive if you can, you deal. Within the context of that is just about every story you could possibly want to tell. So I dove in.

Collie's impending execution is treated very straightforwardly. You never give your take on it. What's your opinion about capital punishment in the US?

 I'm unsure, really. You'd think I might have a firm stance one way or the other on such an important topic, but I just don't know. And since I didn't know, I thought I would use it as the basis of the plot so I could examine the subject from different angles. That's what makes for good drama, I feel. The not knowing, the examination, the reflection. 

THE LAST KIND WORDS is dark, but also human and heartbreaking. Terrier is taking many selfless decisions, out of love for his family. Would you say it's an anomaly in your career or is your writing gearing towards that in the future? 

 I think I drew the story from the same well I've drawn many others. The themes are ones I've tried to mine several times before: the search for identity, the killing draw of the past, the selfless act that destroys, the lost love that reemerges. These are the building blocks for a great deal of my fiction. It's difficult to revisit themes and topics and subject matter without winding up just retreading the same ground. So we shift focus, emphasize other elements, toys with the ingredients and gravy.

Tom Piccirilli is the author of more than twenty novels including SHADOW SEASON, THE COLD SPOT, THE COLDEST MILE, and A CHOIR OF ILL CHILDREN. He's won two International Thriller Awards and four Bram Stoker Awards, as well as having been nominated for the Edgar, the World Fantasy Award, the Macavity, and Le Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire.

Book Review : Chris F. Holm - 8 Pounds: Eight Tales of Crime, Horror & Suspense (2010)

Country: USA

Genre: Suspense/Horror

Pages: 294 kb (eOriginal)

Buy It Here

Darkness. It seemed to Emily that darkness was all she'd ever seen. It had been two weeks now, two weeks that she'd been stranded in this cold, cramped place. A well, they told her now. Hell, it seemed to her.

8 POUNDS is the type of book you will only find on Kindle. A complete, well-shaped work and yet only a taste of what a writer can offer. Chris F. Holm was a perfect candidate to release a 99 cents eBook. The man doesn't write short stories all that often, but when he does, everybody talks about it for the following weeks. Eager to get cracking on his new novel DEAD HARVEST, I thought I should give a go to his short stories first. Because I like his shorts, because I can and because it was ungodly cheap to do so. While it's about the shortest, most non-committal read you can find (which is not necessarily a bad thing, in a .99$ eBook situation), there are many things to love about 8 POUNDS. It goes it many directions, but the pen of Chris F. Holm is strong enough to bind the stories together under his vision.

First of all, let's get clear of the elephant in the room. Stephen King. Holm draws inspiration from the grand master, that's for sure. But it's done right, without plagiarizing themes or even atmospheres. Holm's stories feel unique and vibrant. If they reminded me of King, it's because they flow exceptionally well and they focus on tight storytelling. Holm knows which kind of writer he is and who he's writing for. SEVEN DAYS OF RAIN, his Spinetingler Award winning story brought a terrific setting that both wraps up the readers and the characters in its embrace. It's not quite a paranormal story, but more mythical I'd say, which makes its power. Using elderly protagonists made this approach possible and even seducing. It was one of my favorites of the lot. It's easy to understand why it won an award.

Two other stories stood out for me. THE TOLL COLLECTORS, which is definitively more horror-oriented (despite standing on the edge of several genre) and THE WORLD BEHIND. Holm has such a knack for bone-chilling settings, it makes his (great) character seems like the icing on the cake. THE TOLL COLLECTORS happens over a dark and lonely patch of the Interstate, where a hired killer has to go through an unexpected life-examination. It's the pinpoint place where this story needs to be. THE WORLD BEHIND deals with the weight of childhood memories through a life-defining moment. I love that theme, that childhood always weights a lot more than you think it should and Holm offers a very accurate, controlled and sharp story about the haunting of childhood.

Prison was a rebirth for Ray; he read and lifted and he fought, winning more than he lost. He learned that he enjoyed inflicting pain, and that he was good at it. When he got out, he found a more productive outlet for his talents than beating on drunks in bars or felons behind them. He'd learned control. He'd learned patience. And he's learned that a man with his proclivities was always in demand.

There were stories I thought didn't work as well. A BETTER LIFE wasn't my cup of tea. Thought it offered a wet balloon for a plot twist. THE BIG SCORE also didn't do much for me. But with such a scatter shooting approach (there are more or less three genres announced in the collection's title), I was expecting some of the stories to be less to my liking. I find Chris F. Holm is at his best when working on the edge of horror and the paranormal. When he tackles the theme of innocence, his game gets even better. That's what makes his strength because genre restraints are obviously not made for him, hence his latest novel DEAD HARVEST that seems to blend genres with the author's trademark accuracy and minutiae.

It's hard not to recommend 8 POUNDS. Yeah, the stories are many different genres, but there will be stories that hook you up and leave their mark in your flesh. In my case, there were three which I keep thinking about still, more than one week after reading. 8 POUNDS is a display of power by Chris F. Holm. No matter what he writes about, his storytelling is tight and his prose spare and focused. If there is such a strong parallel to make with Stephen King, it's not because he's a copycat. It's because he's cut from the same mold as the best selling author.

THREE STARS

Ray LaMontagne - Crazy

Anthony cover. I'm partial about Ray LaMontagne. He has one of the best voices in the business but the's the perennial dude-with-a-guitar that signs many songs that sound like each other. But this is really good. Great even. I like the Gnarls Barkley song (who doesn't, really?), but with Ray's voice, the stripped down simplicity, it gives the song another layer of depth. That kinda blew me away the first time I heard it. It's going to be hard for you to listen to the original with the same expectations afterwards. It's a sunny day here, supposed to be over thirty degrees for the first time this year, thought it would fit the Sunny Sunday vibe pretty well. Enjoy!

Ray LaMontagne - CRAZY

I remember when, I remember, I remember when I lost my mind
There was something so pleasant about that place.
Even your emotions have an echo
In so much space

And when you're out there
Without care,
Yeah, I was out of touch
But it wasn't because I didn't know enough
I just knew too much

Does that make me crazy?
Does that make me crazy?
Does that make me crazy?
Probably

And I hope that you are having the time of your life
But think twice, that's my only advice

Come on now, who do you, who do you, think you are,
Oh bless your soul
Do you really think you're in control

Well, I think you're crazy
I think you're crazy
I think you're crazy
Just like me

My heroes had the heart to lose their lives out on a limb
And all I remember is thinking, I wanna be like them
Ever since I was little, ever since I was little it looked like fun
And it's no coincidence I've come
And I can die when I'm done

But Maybe I'm crazy
Maybe you're crazy
Maybe we're crazy
Probably

Uh, uh

Dead End Follies Vs Law 78

I try to keep off political arguments as much as I can. They always bring a crowd of raucous, emotional commenters who love being right way too much. But injustice has been hitting home this week, so I feel compelled to drop you a word about this. I have written considerably less this week and this has something to do with it. I have been hitting news sites for the whole week, looking for updates in this really nasty conflict. It took a turn uglier than all I could've imagined though.

In order to jugulate the student strike (which is heading into its fifteenth week), our Prime Minister Jean Charest pulled Law 78 out of his sleeve. This atrocity enables the government and the police to supervise the right to protest. That applies to everybody. Anyone with a chip on their shoulder, they need approval from the police and the government to proceed to a gathering of more than twenty-five people. They need to provide an itinerary, which can be altered by law enforcement at any time.

According to the Prime Minister, Law 78 was necessary to preserve social peace. The students have been walking the streets for a month now and nobody died. There were a few windows broken every night and a few inured people, but the protesters have the most wounded players in their rosters by FAR. I don't think they even injured one person. That social peace argument was bullshit. The Liberal Party has been in power for about eight years now and have become notorious for their corruption. They stole ungodly amount of money, but they have never stepped on fundamental rights. Nobody ever did. Not here. The worst part about that law is thaty polls show MASSIVE support despite the numerous breakdowns about how disastruous it can be. There is still a political numbness going over the province right now, but I hope this horrible law will help politicize people again, so we can kick the Liberals out for the next election.

Please, don't have the wrong idea about this post. I am neither for or against the raise of tuition fees that started all this mayhem. I think the raise is way too steep, but it's been an inevitable political issue for years now. They would have been raised sooner or later. The debate has been horrendously mishandled though. The Liberal Party refused negociations for weeks and multiplied insulting comments as students associations showed very poor rationality and negociation skills. The most radicals even tried to turn the protests into something larger. Into a "Quebec Spring". All they did was to get Quebec in trouble. Now the tuition fee raises remain integral, the points students associations won in negociations are now voided and there is this stupid law. Nobody's happy. Except for this strange majority who just want their calm, quiet, comfortable househould. Their entertainment on television. News about riots in North Africa instead of here. Until they have something to get angry about. Then they'll get thrown to prison. Fuck.

Book Review : Warren Ellis - Crooked Little Vein (2007)

Country:  U.K

Genre: Hardboiled/Satire

Pages: 277

The guy next to me began frantically scrubbing his crotch with the glove. I decided to keep my eyes on the screen. It was obvious to me by this point that I was never ever going to have sex again, and I just needed to get through this until the lights came up and I could find someone to question.

CROOKED LITTLE VEIN landed on my desk at work, from the firm swing of a coworker who also gave me the proverbial "Dude, you gotta read this." I was a little skeptical at first, because my coworker isn't exactly into hardboiled/noir, so I doubted him despite his good intention. Well, I shouldn't have. Maybe CROOKED LITTLE VEIN isn't an award winner, but it's a good, original novel. A little background might help you understand this bad boy if you decide to give it a chance. Warren Ellis is first and foremost a comic book writer. His agent was pushing him to write a novel, so he hammered the first ten thousand words of an extreme satire of America and the hardboiled genre, thinking she would leave him alone after that. The word "satire" might make the purist in you wince, but let me reassure you. This novel is actually funny. Very funny, in fact.

P.I Michael McGill's business is a little low. The novel opens, he wakes up to find a rat pissing in his coffee mug. But his luck is turning as men in suits invade his office and the heroine-addicted White House chief of staff walks in with a mission he deems tailor made for Mike. He needs to find the constitution. The REAL constitution that the founding father wrote to steer the American people towards the light in the darkest hour.  That's only chapter one. Mike accepts the investigation due to the sheer amount of money the chief of staff drops to convince him and embarks on the strangest journey of his life through the American underbelly. Over the course of his adventure he will find love, excess and sex. A lot of sex. In every possible way you can imagine doing it wrong.

The satirical treatment of the American Way of Life given by Warren Ellis is hilarious. Because it's not judgmental and most important, it's not one bit mean. It's based on a logical fallacy he willingly commits himself in reducing every angle of desire to one thing. Fucking *. Mike and his sidekick Trix are running into waves of perverts and windows trying to get their hands on the constitutions. It's being traded amongst powerful people and that said powerful people are letting their desire go loose when the world doesn't look at them. That often means fucking. And Ellis portrays it as such a good-natured act sometimes, I couldn't help but to crack up loud. My favorite scene was when a bunch of homosexual party animals are dealing with Mike to inject brine into his testicles to get the information he wants. Then they proceed to call him out for being a pussy when he doesn't accept right away. The scene where he puts his pants back on afterwards is gold.

There we go, Mike. An inch over your nuts, you clever bastard you. Cold zipper metal where it really really should never be. Lift up your ass, buy a little wiggle room...

Of course, 277 pages of maximum-overdrive satire and full of over-the-top characters who surrendered to their darker impulses, some things will get lost in the way. Michael McGill is a forgettable protagonist, despite the use of first person narration, you often lose the sense of who he is in front of that continuous Vaudeville spectacle. There's a lot of low brow humor, which won't be everybody's cup of tea and it kinds of dulls the senses after a while. You have to have the stomach for it. Nonetheless, I can see CROOKED LITTLE VEIN having a tremendous success with a younger demographic (let's say 17 to 25). Become a cult classic even. The Lynchian dreamlike logic and the Mark Leyner inspired absurdity, wrapped up as a hardboiled novel, is a very seducing package. CROOKED LITTLE VEIN is a lot of fun, if a little unfocused, like a booze soaked night. To me, it was a nice break from the bleak atmospheres and the bloodbaths I'm used to. Whenever you need a change of pace in your reading, this is a book you want to give a chance to.

THREE STARS

*Or almost, really. It's not 100%, but fucking is the predominant thing here.

Dead End Follies Book Club: CODE FOR FAILURE

My fellow book bloggers will understand this. When you get an unsolicited request for review, it usually goes from good to terrible. It's never great. It's not that it can never be great, but great writers often don't have to do this. Well, Ryan W. Bradley did this and man, CODE FOR FAILURE was about the greatest thing. Not the usual type of novel you'll find in the HarperCollins library though. It doesn't respect any format standards or any traditional ideas in terms of its content. Ryan W. Bradley has to market his book the hard way because he has new ideas. 

I was reminded of many artists I loved when reading CODE FOR FAILURE. Kevin Smith being the first. CLERKS was the first big time comedy about over-the-counter jobs. It reminded me of personal hero of mine Henry Rollins, who brings politics to the masses in an entertaining, digestible format. There were echoes of Raymond Carver also. It had everything to charm me. But what made it truly remarkable is that despite that his influences are clear, the ideas are his alone. He is a new voice, a new force to be reckoned with.

Buy CODE FOR FAILURE here

THREE REASONS TO READ: CODE FOR FAILURE

1) It's a credit to realism. Anybody that ever called realist novels boring need to read CODE FOR FAILURE. By using a clever form (short vignettes), Bradley captures the bare essence of what makes life soul crushing and yet beautiful. 

2) It's a fun political novel. Your usual friendly neighborhood political novel will talk about mass movements and revolutions. The macro side of politics. This novel deals with the micro. How you're affected in your daily life by thing such as gas prices, the self-esteem movement and the shift of values of a nation.

3) It's human and deeply positive. David Foster Wallace once said the novelist's job was to highlight what it is to be a human being. To find what's still shining in the darkness. Bradley understands that. His protagonist is flawed and wounded, but he refuses to give up.

THREE TOPICS ABOUT: CODE FOR FAILURE

1)  Do you think the protagonist's longings are a construction or do you think it's human nature to long for something better? As children of this generation are sheltered from physical and economical need, is it a normal shift they take towards things like love and fulfillment?

2) CODE FOR FAILURE almost has a sketch-like approach, like in comedy. Do you think it helped or it hurt the most dramatic points of the novel and why?

3) Do you think college is carrying a certain romanticism about life on the work market? If so, how?

Movie Review : The Avengers (2012)

Country:

USA

Starring:

Robert Downey Jr.
Chris Evans
Mark Ruffalo
Chris Hemsworth
Scarlett Johansson
Jeremy Renner
Tom Hiddleston
Samuel L. Jackson
Gwyneth Paltrow
Paul Bettany (Voice)

Directed By:

Joss Whedon

A curious kind of hype surrounded the release of THE AVENGERS. Fanboys and casual moviegoers expected Marvel's ultimate blockbuster to reward them for putting them through years of introductory films that would lead up to this very moment. It was the case for Thor and Captain America (who got dealt a particularly bad movie) and to a certain extent Hulk, who never found the right people to do him justice on film. The Iron Man franchise has already lifted off, but it's the exception that confirms the rule. So did it? Yes, the Marvel-Joss Whedon team delivered. Now, let's get things in perspective. It's a pertinent celebration of the Marvel Universe, but this is more entertainment than a piece of cinema that makes you drop to one knee. I'm happy it is what it is, though. THE AVENGERS knows what it can do well and what it can do. Joss Whedon took the right decisions to make it work. He created a clever blockbuster that plays the right cards to please everybody and managed to pack major surprises.

If you're not familiar with The Avengers comics, it's not very complicated. You don't really need have any background on superheroes to understand, not even to have seen the prior movies. It helps, but it's not mandatory. You just need to know that Nick Fury (Jackson) of governmental agency S.H.I.E.L.D deals with paranormal events. One of his projects was the Avengers Initiative, that had for goal to assemble a commando of individual with superhuman capacities (read superheroes) to deal with a variety of threats mankind doesn't have the firepower to deal with. While it first failed, Fury brings it back together in a hurry when alien substance called Tesseract opens a vortex from another dimension and Thor's bad boy little brother Loki (Hiddleston) comes in to steal the Tesseract cube and use it for nefarious plans. It's up to Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, Thor, Natasha Romanov and Clint Barton  to stop him.

There are two angles to THE AVENGERS, action and comedy. This philosophy is taken so literally, it's almost beautiful. The comedy segments will appear overbearing to certain viewers and have been the principal issue negative reviews put forward. I loved it. Joss Whedon spent enough time polishing the clever game of wits between his characters to make a statement - This will not be a mind numbing series of exploding things like TRANSFORMERS was. I thought this was a smart decision, since the Hasbro franchise has hurt the public's faith in action movie. There are great characters to root for and fun clashes of personality. Captain America is pushed into the cupboard a little bit, but I don't think fans will mind. He's kind of a dated superhero and clearly not a Joss Whedon favorite. Good thing, because Chris Evans is by far the less talented guy of the acting crew.

Speaking of acting, there is a come-from-nowhere surprise in THE AVENGERS. There was a general surprise when Mark Ruffalo was chosen over Edward Norton to play Bruce Banner. I thought it was an interesting risk as Ruffalo is a severely underrated talent. His face isn't yet a trademark and he tends to morph into his character in spectacular fashion. I'm a fan of Hulk. Along with Spiderman, he's my favorite Marvel hero (the two are probably my favorite superheroes, period). Ruffalo IS the right man to play Bruce Banner. He plays the variables of the character with a subtlety that maybe clashes with the movie, but the script gives him enough spotlight to pull it off. Watching Ruffalo, you will understand the omnipresent anger within the character, that stigmatizes the character. The fear, the sadness, the paranoia. Ruffalo can filter it through one look and a few works. This guy needs a standalone Hulk movie. He has enough game to do justice to this amazing character.

THE AVENGERS is half personality clashes and half fighting, using superpowers. That makes for a two hours and a half movie that passes by like fifteen minutes. I had to see it in 3D, because of the bad call of somebody I went to see it with * and just don't bother. The editing is a particularly bad fit for 3D. It's fast paced and before you can realize there's a 3D trick being pulled off, the shot is over. It's aggravating. There is no shaky cam tricks pulled off, so kudos to Joss Whedon for keeping it simple and enjoyable. Those are the two keywords here. Simple and enjoyable. THE AVENGERS will write itself in a long series of summer blockbusters, but it's a good one that's both entertaining and respectful towards its origins. It's a rarity in the Hollywood landscape. If you have one superhero movie to go see, this is the one you should choose.

SCORE: 85%

* "There's a screening at 7PM, let's go see this one."

   At the cinema...

   "Fuck, it's a 3D screening. Next 2D is at 8:20"

   "Let's go see it in 3D man, how bad can it be?"

Movie Review : Thor (2011)

Country:

USA

Starring:

Chris Hemsworth
Natalie Portman
Tom Hiddleston
Anthony Hopkins
Idris Elba
Rene Russo

Directed By:

Kenneth Branagh

Good marketing will get inside your head and create a need for something your never cared about before. Great marketing will take something already successful with a small but dedicated demographic and reintroduce it to a new platform, cashing in on both the old and the new fans. Whoever introduced Marvel Comics to Hollywood did just that. Whoever in Marvel (or Disney) had the vision of hyping up an Avengers movie by introducing the initiative's members saw through the appeal of an immediate cash-in, so I can respect that *. THOR was part of this Avengers "vision" and it shows. If anything, it's a safe movie. It has decent star power, goes through the necessary details not to offend the Marvel fanbase, sets the table for THE AVENGERS (Loki's the bad guy too) and manages to keep the political variables under the lid pretty well. It's just...not...all that great, really. It left me the impression it was made not to loose money, rather than to entertain people. According to IMDB, it tripled its initial investment, so mission accomplished.

The Thor fans will be familiar with the story. I was more of a Hulk type of kid, but I knew the basic elements of the story. Thor (Hemsworth), son of Odin (Hopkins), is next in line for the throne of Asgard, which is another realm of the cosmos in Marvel's universe. Mythology aside **, long story short, Thor gets banished from Asgard by Odin for ignoring his word and heading into battle with another realm Asgard had a truce with. He is stripped of his powers and sent to earth, where he is found by scientist Jane Foster (Portman) and her team. The easy conclusion is that they stumbled upon a very buff mental patient who eats a lot and who's obsessed about his hammer. But a government agency named S.H.I.E.L.D is interested in that hammer too and many more people. Meanwhile, back in Asgard, Odin is caught with a mysterious ill and goes under while Loki (Hiddleston) takes power. He has one thing on his mind, getting rid of Thor so he can reign freely.

THOR is a competent movie. I found myself being mildly involved in a story I pretty much knew, part due to Kenneth Branagh's sense of drama and to the chemistry between Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman. But it's a movie that spends a lot of time and energy trying not to drop things. That makes any potential mistake the movie would make look so much bigger. I would've loved a little boldness, like let's say a little more inspiration from the actual Norse mythology. The figure of Odin, for example was disappointing. Anthony Hopkins is a great actor, but he doesn't look like he takes this part not very seriously. In fact, he looks like he's interpreting a Shakespearean tragedy where you walk around an altar and yell a lot. Not exactly the powerhouse Odin is supposed to be. I know it's Marvel's Odin and not the Norse one but Hopkins' overdramatic approach got on my nerves. 

It was unintentionally funny at times too, which I thought made for part of his charm. The Thor-Odin relationship and the latent daddy issues were not subtle at all. Thor wants to live to Odin's legacy of blood and his old man knows better than to put his people through an excruciating war again. The dynamic is interesting and while Chris Hemsworth isn't the most talented actor, the part of Thor seems cut out for him. It's not too difficult and it relies on his physicality more than emotions and subtlety. 

My viewing of THOR felt like walking in a Marvel Museum wing dedicated to the character. It's fun but there's not all that much for your friendly neighborhood cinema lover. This is what you get for making an introductory film, I guess. I suppose later Thor adventures are much more exciting. The liberties taken with the characters are minor, which is in Hollywood more good than bad. It was a nice surprise to see Idris Elba, better known as Stringer Bell from THE WIRE, have a small part as Heimdall. He's a very talented actor. The main objective of THOR was to keep the Marvel ball rolling and not to mess things up for the Avengers initiative (sic). Well, mission accomplished Kenneth Branagh. THOR doesn't wow you and will probably be seen in very few DVD collections, but it's a nice afternoon movie with decent pacing. It's even better when you're supposed to see THE AVENGERS the same night (tee hee hee). 

SCORE: 71%

* I got two bucks on Joss Whedon.

** Thor explains it to Jane surprisingly well in about three minutes. Kudos to whoever came up with this straightforward explanation. 

Book Review : Nik Korpon - Old Ghosts (2011)

Country: USA

Genre: Noir

Pages: 102/114 kb

Buy It Here

The sun bled through the exposed window over the sink. Bars of light caught dust motes, swirling like we were standing in a Billy Wilder movie.

If there is any issues that plague genre literature, it's creativity. When certain variables determine whether or not you belong to a certain artistic current, it's so easy to surf whatever somebody else has created and tweak it just a little. Many stories sound the same. Pulp writer Nik Korpon doesn't suffer from any creative issues, though. BY THE NAILS OF THE WARPRIEST didn't read like anything else ever and OLD GHOSTS even more so. But unlike its predecessor, this story fits the novella format just right. I can't say it's an easy read, but it's original and daring and it manages to deconstruct the ideas that make noir. Chalk it up as experimentation, as character study, as a unique object, but OLD GHOSTS is a great story that knows its strengths and its limits. It's the kind of book that given enough time, will be quoted as one of the books that brought a genre forward. Avant-Garde is the word I'm looking for.

OLD GHOSTS will require some patience. Protagonist Cole is working construction is Baltimore. He recently married his girlfriend Amy and are trying to have a baby. Cole appreciates to the fullest his luck to have found a great girl for himself. His colleague/partner Paddy introduce him to a potential client whom Cole recognizes. His old friend Chance Miller from Boston. He came to Baltimore with his sister Delilah (an old girlfriend of Cole...sort of) with real estate projects...sort of. They are the life Cole ran away from when he moved to Baltimore and they want him back. They mirror danger and excitement to him and make him miss the excitement of his past life. But Cole is a smart guy. He knows there is more than meets the eye to this apparition of old ghosts. They want him back for a reason.

When I say OLD GHOSTS is  a novella that requires patience, I'm sure many of you winced. How can a hundred pages novella requires patience? It's all about instant gratification, right? Not here. Please, don't let it turn you away though. You've read stories like that before. They are my favorite kind. Layers of information add up and change the meaning of what you're reading gradually. The elements you begin with are just symptoms of what's really going on. While the narrative builds itself up, Korpon nails his trademark unique atmospheres and vivid symbolism. OLD GHOSTS is particularly apt in this department as it messes around with your head. Korpon deconstructs Cole's life on construction sites and he uses the empty, half-built houses as a metaphor for change and the concept of aging. You can reinvent yourself, but you can't   deny who you once were. That allows him to play with other genres' tropes such as horror and..well..ghost stories. I don't remember who said reading OLD GHOSTS was like listening to a Nick Cave record, but it's a great comparison.

I saw Amy's smile, her golden hair swimming among the debris of Boston, the shards of an abandoned life. I saw myself lying in an alley with ice picks stabbed through my eyes.

I liked OLD GHOSTS for many reasons and the main ones were that it skewed some old ideas of noir and flirted with crossover again. Reading Nik Korpon feels like a breath of fresh air, in that regard. If you have read BY THE NAILS OF THE WARPRIEST already, don't expect to get into OLD GHOSTS and find a something similar. One has very little to do with the other. Only thing they share is Korpon's beautiful writing style (although I thought it flowed better in WARPRIEST). OLD GHOSTS is a clever piece of storytelling that will crawl up your spine and find its way inside your skull. The Baltimore of Nik Korpon is the most seducing rendition of the city since David Simon's. It's bold, somewhat mythical and most important, it feels new and pulsing with unexplored possibilities. I haven't read that many writers who nail the concept of darkness in their writing like Korpon does. 

FOUR STARS

Marilyn Manson ft. Johnny Depp - You're So Vain

You will press play and then hate me. Carly Simon's YOU'RE SO VAIN is the biggest earworm and Marilyn Manson is one of the best cover artists I know. Not that his own stuff isn't good because it totally is, but he's extremely talented at reappropriating other people's music and lyrics and giving it a new dimension. If you're not 100% convinced, try also his I PUT A SPELL ON YOU or even YOU SPIN ME ROUND. Part of this new cover's drawing power still lies in the Carly Simon's original arrangements, but Manson gives it a new polish it didn't have. Oh yeah and can you hear Johnny Depp sing? I'm not sure I can. Meanwhile, enjoy and hate me for the rest of this week.

Marilyn Manson ft. Johnny Depp - YOU'RE SO VAIN

You walked into the party
Like you were walking onto a yacht
Your hat strategically dipped below one eye
Your scarf it was apricot
You had one eye in the mirror
As you watched yourself gavotte
And all the girls dreamed that they'd be your partner
They'd be your partner, and

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

You had me several years ago
When I was still quite naive
Well, you said that we made such a pretty pair
And that you would never leave
But you gave away the things you loved
And one of them was me
I had some dreams they were clouds in my coffee
Clouds in my coffee, and

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

I had some dreams they were clouds in my coffee
Clouds in my coffee, and

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

Well, I hear you went up to Saratoga
And your horse naturally won
Then you flew your Lear jet up to Nova Scotia
To see the total eclipse of the sun
Well, you're where you should be all the time
And when you're not, you're with
Some underworld spy or the wife of a close friend
Wife of a close friend, and

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

The Road in your Rearview Mirrow

It was thirteen years ago today, so I was sixteen. The world was still reeling from the Columbine tragedy. Our society tasted chaos and death at its heart. I woke up and left for school, just like the day before and like every day before that one. It wasn't supposed to have a story. High schools in May are full on teenagers clenching their teeth through the last segment of the school year. I walked to school that day, dreaming of the end of June. 

Bad news travel fast in small towns. When I passed the door, I was immediatly told: "Have you heard? There's been a big accident." There was indeed. Four girls, including one of my best friend's sister and my cousin had died. Well, she wasn't really my cousin. She was the daughter of my mother's best friend. We called her Auntie and I called her children my cousins. We spent many Christmases and summer vacations together. I knew her better than any of my blood-related cousins. Her name was Marie-Ève and she was eighteen years old.

There was snow that morning. It's not uncommon in northern regions to have snowstorms in May, but it hadn't snowed in two weeks prior to that morning. There was very little snow left on the ground. But it snowed that morning and it never snowed afterward, until the following month of November. An ice patch formed on the road, in a very difficult curve. The girls were car pooling, on the way to their last exam of the semester at Cegep de Sept-Iles, a place I would spend two years of my life in, less than eighteen months later. Well, they never made it. I don't remember precisely, but I think it's them who hit the ice patch and drifted in the other lane. They hit another car face to face.

Everybody in their vehicle died. All from severed spine. Word was that they didn't suffered. That death was instantaneous. In the other car, there was only one man. He survived. It wasn't his fault. He was on the way to work and suddenly had a car in his face and few minutes later, four deaths on his mind. His ghosts are probably meaner than mine. I wonder sometimes if they really all died on the spot. What really happened as life left the car? Did they say their last goodbyes? Were her last thoughts lucid and collected or did she see where she was going?

This is a drama like there are thousands. I don't pretend it's an everyday haunting for me, but it's important to remember. She was worth remembering. Still is. May 12th 1999 and its consequences have taught me many things. It was the first time I saw death for what it really was. To me before, it was the end of the road. Something associated with old age. But to see Marie-Eve in her coffin, to kiss her cold forehead, being there when the shut the lid on her for the last time. It changed things. Brought me closer to the man typing those words today.

People don't really die if you remember them. So May 12th is important for me and I hope it always will. It's a curve on my road.

Book Review : Tom Piccirilli - The Last Kind Words (2012)

Country: USA

Genre: Literary/Noir

Pages: 320

Pre-Order It Here

He had two weeks to go before they strapped him down and injected poison into his heart. I knew Collie was divided about it, the way he was divided about everything. A part of him would look forward to step off the big ledge.He'd been looking over it his whole life in one way or another.

You have to understand. I gave a five stars review to Tom Piccirilli's EVERY SHALLOW CUT last Winter and it was damn earnest. Now, his latest novel THE LAST KIND WORDS is longer, more layered, more complex emotionally and believe it or not, bolder. It's also very different from his 2011 powerhouse novella, which is the only variable that saves my scoring system from looking silly. I had the priviledge to read this novel which is only released on June 12 and expect it to turn heads. Many heads. I expect THE LAST KIND WORDS to win awards this year. Probably more than one. It's been my favorite read this year so far and there's a reason for that. Not only it's a great noir novel, but Piccirilli's concern while writing it went far beyond the tropes of a single genre. This is a great novel, period. You will find it dark and tough, but you don't need to be into any genres to appreciate it.

There is a plot (a damn good one) but going into THE LAST KIND WORDS, you have to understand the dynamics it's build around. It's a family story. The Rands, a family of thieves from generation to generation. Old school thieves who mastered the art of sneaking without recurring to violence. Oh and they are also all named after dog breeds, which I think it's awesome. Pinscher, Collie, Grey(houd), Mal(amute), (Air)Dale and the protagonist himself, Terrier Rand. He's coming back home after cutting the ties for five years,  two weeks shy of his brother Collie's execution. His elder brother has went mad dog five years ago and killed eight people for absolutely no reason. The issue is, Collie pretends he killed seven people that night, not eight. He has information regarding other potential victims from the same unknown killer. Terrier will investigate those claims, torn in between the pain he caused by leaving and the pain Collie caused to the family.

What made THE LAST KIND WORDS larger than life is the dimension Tom Piccirilli gave to his characters. His premise was risky. A serial killer whoddunit has been done to death. But Piccirilli masterfully leaped over this potential issue by making his story about the Rands. Terrier abandonned his family for five years, thinking he was running away from thieves, from a lifestyle. But he came back to human beings, who missed him and who could've used having him around all that time. Terrier's relationship to his parents is particularly heartbreaking in its veiled conversations and the affirmation of love through symbolic gestures. I thought it was an interesting commentary on the crime genre, that the function doesn't make the individual. To have given to thieving such a small place against family issues was a bold move. This conflict is expressed within Terrier in a bone chilling scene at the end of chapter one.

He showed teeth and I loathed his smile. It said that he had me in his hand, that he could make me come to him whenever he called. I'd thrown a hundred fists into that smile and I'd never hit it even once.

There is so much more to THE LAST KIND WORDS than what I can fit into a review. Piccirilli has made the neighborhood of the Rand family come alive with great characters and problems and Terrier is bouncing all over the city trying to solve issues for his family with a nagging feeling of guilt and at the same time, wrestle with his own demons. This is layered with many subplots that will keep you reading as Terrier is slowly pulling the strings on his brother's claims. Many other strange bird are flying around the Rands nest. A policeman with an Oliver Twist complex, a deadbeat boyfriend, a horny journalist, a mobster living in the shadow of his father. There is a lot going on, but it never gets derivative due to Tom Piccirilli's amazing sense of pacing. The right amount of new information comes at the right time and often through the support cast, so it binds all this people together and the most experienced readers/writers will barely notived, because they will be way too involved emotionally in the story to pick apart and find issues. On a technical standpoint, THE LAST KIND WORDS is nothing short of a tour-de-force.

While Piccirilli has his very distinctive style and themes, THE LAST KIND WORDS kept reminding me of one of my favorite novels, MYSTIC RIVER. It's imbued with the same sense of place and the same taint to the characters. To me, comparing anything to what Dennis Lehane has done is the highest compliment and Tom Picciirilli's latest novel holds up to what my favorite writer does. It's that good. Piccirilli writes crime with a perspective and a sense or urgency that nobody else has. He finds the beauty in chaos and darkness. You want to know what's even more exiting about THE LAST KIND WORDS? Word is that there's a sequel coming...

FIVE STARS