Author Archives: Duff

Fiction: “The Interloper” by Antoine Wilson

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Sort of an odd duck. I don’t think it was ALL due to me just having seen “Evening” before I started reading this, but the time it takes place in felt confused. It FEELS like it’s the ’50s or ’60s, very formal, the wife part of a “society” family, the way the murder took place, the writing of letters, the lingering on of CJ’s spirit: all felt very “old,” belonging to the time of Capote and “In Cold Blood.”

But then there are references to snowboarding, and photo shop and Mailboxes, etc. = so it’s supposed to be contemporary. I never really got over this tonal imbalance and really felt much of the plot and the characters would have worked better in THAT time rather than THIS one.

Did enjoy the epistolary drama, the lead’s plan to break the murderer’s heart. The ending reminded me of a very specific part of “Evening,” but I don’t want to give anything away. If you’ve seen that and read this, shoot me an email (link below “Say What”?), I’d love to know if anyone else noticed this particular resonance.

Big Screen: Evening

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The presence of so many great actresses kept me interested in this one, despite the reviews, but in the end, Roger Ebert’s assessment of (I’m paraphrasing) “a movie to cry in, that doesn’t make you cry” was correct. Seemed to be many different motivations going on, leaving things convoluted and not necessarily making sense.

Some good performances (some = eh) but too many moving parts / too many subplots that crisscrossed or were dropped. A lot of regret and contemplation of the past, and while one character seems insistent on that meaning everything, another character tells her it means nothing.

Had potential, but definitely fell short.

Fantasy/Mystery: “Blood Bound” by Patricia Briggs

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Second in the series (#1 here).

Still involved with the werewolves but the mystery here centers around the local vampires and their seethe. Very spooky stuff!

Some neat religious imagery with Mercy insisting on wearing a lamb necklace instead of a cross: “I don’t wear a cross. As a child, I’d had a bad experience with one. Besides, a crucifix was the instrument of Our Lord’s death — I don’t know why people think a torture device should be a symbol of Christ. Christ was a willing sacrifice, a lamb, not a cross for us to hang ourselves on; or at least that’s my interpretation.”

Fantasy/Mystery: “Moon Called” by Patricia Briggs

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So I was in a bookstore to pick up the second Kim Harrison book and they didn’t have it, but I found this book instead.

Mercy Thompson = mechanic AND “walker” (can shape shift into a coyote), brought up in a pack of werewolves and involved with another one in her current locale. Has to enlist the help of a local vampire and a local witch to solve this mystery.

Whipped right through it, couldn’t put it down. So with the Harrison books, and the Terry Goodkinds I started earlier, somehow I have now gotten myself involved in THREE fantasy series. And then there’s Proust where I’m ready to read Book 4, and the Vidal novels of Empire where I’m ready for #2… I just don’t have the kind of reading time I want!!

Fiction: “Freddy and Fredericka” by Mark Helprin

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I bought this book some time ago and found that I had three Helprin novels on the shelf and had yet to read anything by the man. I’m so glad I finally did as this novel was really lots of fun. Tale of two bumbling oafs in the Royal Family sent off to “conquer America” and stop embarrassing themselves. In the tradition of comedies of manners, or Tristam Shandy. While the subjects, and many of the periphery characters, are soundly mocked, there are also beautiful, poetic, descriptive passages as they make their way through America…very hard to resist a road trip after this one!

There are so many funny moments, and there is also a very tender love story as the Prince and his wife finally come to know each other. There are also a lot of really funny “Who’s on first?” moments, particularly when they meet up with politician Don Knott. “Are you x(whatever)x?” “No, I”m not.” “No, I’M Knott.”

Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Fantasy/Mystery: “Dead Witch Walking” by Kim Harrison

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A bounty hunter witch quits her job to go solo, in cahoots with a vampire and a pixie, and winds up on the run for her life. Gotta love it when the heroine is flawed enough for you to be worried about her at the same time you’re rooting for her. Very enjoyable start to a series: really liked the pixies vs. fairies bits, and the old shaman across the street…

Late-Summer Live Tunes

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Jul 14-15 Pitchfork*
Jul 21 Travis
Aug 3-5 Lollapalooza
Aug 9 Bishop Allen
Sept 12 Midlake
Sept 20 Common

*If you, like me, are busy trying to figure out which bands you want to see at Pitchfork, shoot me an email (link below “Say what?”) — I made an excel grid of the schedule, as well as a written out version that includes Chicago Innerview’s descriptions of each band.

Netflix: Harvard Man

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This is one of those movies with so many absurd plot twists and coincidences that you just have to decide to GO WITH IT if you don’t want to be driven crazy.

Harvard b-baller (Adrien Grenier) is sleeping with Girl A (the daughter [Sarah Michelle Gellar] of a mafioso) and Girl B (his philosophy professor [Joey Lauren Adams]). When he needs $$$ from Girl A and fixes a b-bball game to get it, the FBI (Rebecca Gayheart and Eric Stolz!) comes after him. Fortunately Girl B is currently engaged in a menage à trois with those same FBI agents and is able to help him out. There’s also an LSD subplot and lots of (actually interesting) philosophy lectures and musings.

It’s a quite a (wackjob) trip but I found it very entertaining. Plus it starts w/ a fairly hot sex scene. So there you go.

Big Screen: La Vie en Rose

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Wow, Edith Piaf’s childhood was really awful. Not sure, at least from the way the movie played it, whether she ever really got over it. Thought the movie was very well done, some really impressive performances. Wondered about the point of the timeline jumps. Is the end meant to be more profound since we keep returning to it over and over? In some movies (Memento, Run Lola Run, etc) the nonlinear progression of time has a reason. Here, it didn’t seem to add anything to the story.

Well worth seeing. A long movie that didn’t FEEL long at all – unlike other recent viewings, two and a half hours passed by without notice.

Big Screen: Ocean’s 13 (or #3)

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All three of these movies suffer from an overabundance of slickness. The boys are all nice enough to look at, but otherwise it’s a lot of posturing. Felt this entry in the series actually lacked some girlie action (i.e., actual “relationships” as the Ellen Barkin character is just a mark and not anyone Linus actually cares about) that might’ve made it more human.

Entertaining enough for a nice air conditioned break from the heat, but nothing special.