Labels: Music, U2

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Madam Bovary
By Gustave Faulbert
Fiction

“Madam Bovary” remains a must-read classic and may be one of the most beautifully written novels ever penned. Flaubert’s impeccable eye for details can be breathtaking. He manages to capture setting by evoking the small, telling details of a room. He expertly punctuates character through dress, movement, and dialogue. What is so impressive about “Madam Bovary” is that the subject matter – a woman’s futile attempt to attain happiness through materialism and adultery – still resonates today in our celebrity obsessed culture. The ugliness of the characters – their flaws, prejudices, pettiness, and self-centeredness – can be found today in any suburb of the United States. The irony is thick in Flaubert and may be too much for modern readers, but this is a novel to savior, to read slowly so you can enjoy the language.

Grade: A

The Road
By Cormac McCarthy
Fiction

Let me be upfront about my general dismissal of most of Cormac McCarthy’s work. I’ve never found the pretentious, awkward language he uses in “All the Pretty Horses” and “The Crossing” all that compelling. I found myself distracted by his style, tone, and refusal to use proper punctuation. I may have to revisit McCarthy after reading “The Road.” This is a savage, heart-wrenchingly beautiful novel about the love of a man and his son set in the post-apocalyptic devastation of the United States. The world has been destroyed – there are no animals, few plants, the landscape is filled with ash, and the sky is a gray hole. The world is populated by ferocious survivors – many who have banded together into gangs and live by cannibalism. Into this utter decay and chaos, we follow a nameless man and his young son as they journey down a road in search for the ocean and a better life. Be prepared for one of the best father and son novels written in the last two decades. This is a can’t miss novel.

Grade: A

A Man Without A Country
By Kurt Vonnegut
Non-fiction

This series of essays by the master of wit is fun and insightful most of the time. This isn’t Vonnegut at his best, but he wrote the book at age 82 and most of the essays feel like they come from a very bitter and angry old man. The good news is that it is Vonnegut so you can mine lots of nuggets from it. He takes a lot of joy in pounding the President Bush and his staff of buffoons, but it doesn’t take much effort to take potshots at a president with a less than 30 percent approval rating. The book is scary short and can be read from cover to cover on a short airplane ride. One wonders what could have been if Vonnegut spent more time and effort to really flesh out these essays. Instead, they have the feel of a rant rather than a thought out criticism.

Grade: C+

Moonraker
By Ian Fleming
Fiction

I’ve been slowly reading the original James Bond novels by Ian Fleming and enjoying them thoroughly. This is the third novel in the series and so far the weakest of the lot. Although, “Moonraker” did hit new highs for drama and tension during the first 100 pages when Bond is asked to catch a card cheat named Hugo Drax at M’s upper-crust social club. How Bond catches Drax and then cons him into betting more than he can handle is the best part of the book. The second half slides into a standard action book fare. The plot – about Drax trying to blow up London with an Atom bomb – has less to offer than the card playing sequences – which is amazing in and of itself. This one is for Bond die-hards only.

Grade: C

Read out first "Cracked-Back" Book Reviews here

Labels: book review, Cormac McCarthy, Cracked-Back, Gustave Faulbert, Ian Fleming, Kurt Vonnegut, literature

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1. Serial killers are proficient professionals when carefully slaughtering large groups of teenagers, but always turn into sloppy amateurs when they reach the last one.

2. Major cities have lots of available on-street parking.

3. A paperclip in the hands of a spy or a serial killer is more deadly than a machine gun and/or better than a toolbox full of screwdrivers, pliers, hammers, and a blowtorch.

4. When you fall fully clothed into water it only takes a few minutes to fully air dry and you never have to worry about wrinkles or bad hair.

5. If a married couple has hot steamy sex, one of them will soon be dead.

6. Turning an unconscious person’s head to the side will snap their neck like a twig.

7. If two cars are chasing each other through city streets at high speeds, skidding around corners, blowing through red lights, and driving through sidewalk fruit stands, police officers wisely decide not to intervene.

8. You can ride a fiery explosion like a carnival ride without fear of having your clothes burned off you, your skin blistered and popped, and your limbs blown off.

9. Middle-aged men with pot-bellies and gray hair attract thin, curvy babes like ants to a picnic basket.

10. It is impossible to kill a good guy with a machine gun.

11. True love is only possible if you hate your future love the first time you meet. The deeper the initial hatred, the more fairy-tale the love.

12. Dead bodies are light.

Read "Jerry Ludwig Has a Mental Breakdown" by clicking here.

Labels: Movies, Parody

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DaRK PaRTY: How would you describe your grandfather for those unfamiliar with him?

Miriam: Since Joyce Kilmer died before I was born, I rely on the descriptions of my father and Robert Cortes Holliday. According to them, he was partial to good company, a very emotional and spontaneous person, an outdoorsman as well as a literary man and fond of his drink. He was an idealist who threw himself whole-heartedly into the causes he espoused, becoming an atheist when he was a Socialist, and then a devout Catholic upon his conversion after he was disillusioned by Socialism. He was a loving family man, but his dedication to his country and his horror at the sinking of the Lusitania led him to leave his wife and four children to serve in the army, putting his life in danger.

DP: His poem "Trees" -- one of the most popular in the world -- is often savaged by critics. What do you think of "Trees?"

Miriam: I think "Trees" is a lovely, simple poem, accessible to many, that does not stand up to severe literary criticism. It is not, and was never meant to be, a great poem. The whole point, after all, is that trees outshine poetry. It suffers from being set to music, for which it was never intended. It is not my favorite of Joyce Kilmer's poems, but it is the one that people love, and I have no argument with that. I am glad that it is used to foster reverence for the environment, and specifically for the dedication of tree plantings.

DP: Most of his other poems are often overlooked. Which poem of his is your favorite and why?

Miriam: My favorite keeps changing. Just now I prefer "The Snowman in the Yard," which reflects his devotion to his children. It's very homey and deals with ordinary things, and I find it very moving.

DP: What do you think is the biggest misconception about your grandfather?

Miriam: I guess I would have to say it's the notion that he was a saint. I think that idea is based on the reading of the one poem, "Trees," and not on any study of his life. He had the ordinary foibles of us all, and hated the Germans with a passion. I don't think he had any extraordinary virtue that would make him a saint except in the sense that everyone of good will is a saint.

DP: Your grandfather was a sergeant with the Fighting 69th during the Great War and was killed in combat at the age of 31. What do you think his career would have been like had he survived and continued to write?

Miriam: I think Joyce Kilmer showed promise, and it's possible that he could have become a leading poet if he had continued in the vein of poems such as "Delicatessen" and "The Blue Valentine." However, I think it's more likely that he would have continued to make more important contributions as an editor and poetry critic.

Read our interview about modern poetry here

Labels: 5 Questions, interview, Joyce Kilmer, Miriam Kilmer, Poetry

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