Quote from a Fictional Character #26

"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."

--- Alexander Bullock,

 My Man Godfrey, 1936

Friday Flashback: Rec. #69: One Good Turn

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: In the midst of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, there's a small road accident that leads to a frightening case of road rage. Events in One Good Turn spiral from there, taking into their scope a successful novelist, the wife of a corrupt real estate tycoon, a washed-up comic, a police detective, a mysterious Russian woman, and ex-PI Jackson Brodie. 

This is not one mystery --- it's several intersecting mysteries. With one extremely well-executed payoff.

Comparable to: Like Deborah Crombie, Atkinson has a knack for picking up peripheral characters and placing them full-on in the dangerous trajectory of her story. Some of them don't make it to the end of this book, but some of them get carried on through to the next.

Representative quote: "Even Martin had wondered at first if it was another show --- a faux-impromptu piece intended either to shock or to reveal our immunity to being shocked because we lived in a global media community where we had become passive voyeurs of violence (and so on). That was the line of thought running through the detached, intellectual part of his brain. His primitive brain, on the other hand, was thinking, Oh fuck, this is horrible, really horrible, please make the bad man go away."

You might not like it if: You don't want to keep track of the different mysteries. You want one mystery, with one plot.

How to get it: Please look at the picture at the top of this post and take a moment to appreciate the wonderful title/cover pairing of this edition (2006 U.S. hardcover). Don't you want that?

Connection to previous Wreckage: Atkinson introduced Jackson Brodie to the world in Case Histories, which was Rec. #3.

After One Good Turn comes When Will There Be Good News? (Rec. #192) and Started Early, Took My Dog (Rec. #270).

Kate Atkinson also wrote Emotionally Weird (Rec. #282), Human Croquet (Rec. #137), Life After Life (List #35), and Not the End of the World (Rec. #301).

[Originally posted 3/9/11.]

Rec. #334: Across the Universe

What: Director Julie Taymor tackles the '60s via a spectrum of Beatles songs. It's Taymor, so of course the cinematography is gorgeous; it's the Beatles, so the music is excellent; it's a fun idea, so they managed to grab some special day players (Bono, Eddie Izzard). Also noteworthy, though --- the impeccable and dynamic choreography.

Representative quote: "Don't worry about it, kids, okay? Just tune in, turn off, drop out, drop in, switch off, switch on, and explode."

Quote from a Fictional Character #25

"That is rather dangerously nice of you."

--- Inspector Roderick Alleyn,

Artists in Crime, Ngaio Marsh, 1938

(see also List #27)

Friday Flashback: Rec. #26: Wait Until Dark

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: The Hitchcock film that Hitch never made. Wait Until Dark is an honest-to-goodness thriller starring Audrey Hepburn as a blind woman who is terrorized by drug-running thugs, including Alan Arkin at his badass best (before he became everyone's spunky grandpa).

Crucially, the film flips how darkness is usually used to ratchet up the suspense. Here, darkness is an asset to the protagonist, not a liability. See Ms. Hepburn holding that match? That's a threat.

Comparable to: The film is based on a play by Frederick Knott, who also wrote Dial M for Murder. The two stories definitely have similarities, but Wait Until Dark is creepier.

Representative quote: "I have your knife, Mr. Roat." (In context, that line gives me chills.)

You might not like it if: The late-'60s vibe grates on you and you wonder where Susy's iPhone is.

How to get it: No matter how you watch it, this is the key: For the last 15 minutes of the film, turn off all the lights. Theaters were instructed to do that when the movie first came out, and it is still very good advice.






[Originally posted 1/25/11.]

Rec. #333: The Red House

What: Eight members of an extended and semi-estranged family take a week-long holiday together in the English countryside. Author Mark Haddon does a killer job getting inside the characters' heads, down to the books humming in their brains, even as he makes it clear that the characters will always remain, to some extent, completely incomprehensible to one another.

Comparable to: Haddon also wrote The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and A Spot of Bother. This is closer to A Spot of Bother, but instead of focusing on a family spreading out, it's about a family turning in.

Representative quote: "Behind everything there is a house. Behind everything there is always a house, compared to which every other house is larger or colder or more luxurious."

How to get it: Buyable, borrowable, Kindle-able.

Connections to previous Wreckage: The Red House was part of List #22: A Few of the Best Books I Read in 2012. Haddon's A Spot of Bother was Rec. #27.

Quote from a Fictional Character #24

"You never know who anybody is, except me. I am who I am."

--- Susan Ricci,

The Spanish Prisoner, 1997

(Personal Wreck #4 and List #28)

Friday Flashback: Rec. #25: Nora Jane --- A Life in Stories

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: Nora Jane stories have popped up in Ellen Gilchrist's short fiction collections for almost thirty years. Here, the stories are finally collected and ordered chronologically, in the order Nora Jane lives them. 

Here are a few things about Nora Jane Whittington. She is a self-taught anarchist. She is caught on the Golden Gate Bridge during an earthquake. She has twin daughters. It is not entirely clear who the biological father of her daughters is. Her mother is a drunk. Her grandmother is an opera singer. She robs a bar disguised as a nun.

Comparable to: Gilchrist shares Alice Munro's knack for using regionally-specific short fiction to dig into daily life. She's more fanciful than Munro, though.

Representative quote: "It was only fate, the I Ching assured him. A fateful flaw that would cause disaster and ruin but not of his own doing and therefore nothing to worry about."

You might not like it if: You find you cannot stand the central character. Personally, I adore Nora Jane but have trouble with Rhoda Manning, another Gilchrist character with her own set of stories.

How to get it: Even if you can't find this particular book, you can track down Nora Jane stories in other Gilchrist collections, such as Victory Over Japan, Light Can Be Both Wave and Particle, and The Courts of Love.

Connections to other Wreckage: Light Can Be Both Wave and Particle was Rec. #159 and Victory Over Japan was Rec. #324.

[Originally posted 1/24/11.]

Rec. #332: Dirk Gently

What: Author Douglas Adams is best known for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but he also gave us two and a half books about Dirk Gently (see Connections to previous Wreckage, below).

The television series Dirk Gently is by no means a straight adaptation, but instead takes characters (Dirk Gently, Janice Pearce, DI Gilks) and plot elements (flailing holistic detective agency, disappeared millionaires and cats, Zen navigation) from the books and gives them new storylines.

The result has the same ramshackle-caper-farce tone as the books, thanks in no small part to actor Stephen Mangan's floppy hair.

Opening lines: "As I explained when we spoke on the phone, my methods of detection are based on an almost unswerving belief in the fundamental interconnectedness of all things."

You might not like it if: Thinking about Douglas Adams makes you sad.

How to get it: The bad news is the entire show is only four episodes. The good news is it's currently available to stream for free with Amazon Prime.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Adams first introduced Dirk Gently in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (Rec. #162), returned to him in The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (Rec. #306), and left us with the beginning of a third adventure in The Salmon of Doubt (Rec. #4). See other Douglas Adams books in List #25.

Also, actor Stephen Mangan was in Green Wing (Rec. #110). We love that show and everyone associated with it.

Rec. #331: Much Ado About Nothing (Whedonverse version)

What: Filming party scenes is tricky --- so many people largely speaking so much nonsense --- but there are ways to do it effectively. One choice, as seen in last year's The Great Gatsby, is to Baz Luhrman your way to a glitzy, decadent, sensory-overload spectacle, which can certainly be a dazzling route to take, particularly on the big screen.

Joss Whedon chooses a different path for his home-video version of Much Ado About Nothing --- he makes Shakespeare's most famous comedy into an extended (and admirably booze-filled) house party. Whedon and his characters love words, especially clever words, so all the clever Shakespearean dialogue still cuts through the characters' muddled decision-making and buzzed emotions.

It's not a party to goggle at, but it's a party you desperately want to join. (Not least because Fran Kranz is there, albeit in the unpalatable role of Claudio. But I digress.)

Representative quote: "I wish my horse had the speed of your tongue."

How to get it: Currently available to stream on Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Connection to previous Wreckage: This version of Much Ado About Nothing was on List #36: A Couple of the Best Movies I Saw in 2013.

Quote from a Fictional Character #23

"There is a certain stage in the progress of a man's love when he feels like curling up in a ball and making little bleating noises if the object of his affections so much as looks squiggle-eyed at him; and this stage my Uncle William had reached."

--- Mr. Mulliner,

"The Story of William," Meet Mr. Mulliner, P.G. Wodehouse, 1927

Friday Flashback: Rec. #65: The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: The Miracle of Morgan's Creek is a comedy about the consequences of anonymous sex. It was hugely successful when it came out in 1944, despite many concerns from the Hays Office.

Trudy Kockenlocker is a small-town girl determined to send the boys off to war with a smile and, whoops!, ends up pregnant and unsure who the father is. It's written and directed by Preston Sturges, so of course it's a farce! The film is full of expert pratfalls and snappy dialogue. Plus, look for Diana Lynn in a killer performance as Trudy's savvy younger sister.

Comparable to: Your best beloved screwball comedies.

Representative quote: "It's airtight, it's foolproof, it's almost legal!"

Bonus representative quote: "But he gave his name as Ratzkywatzky!" "He was trying to say Jones. He stuttered!"

You might not like it if: You've just stopped believing that I might know what I'm talking about.

Connection to previous Wreckage: Need more screwball comedy? Luckily, there's Rec. #17: The Palm Beach Story, which is also by Preston Sturges.

[Originally posted 3/5/11.]

Rec. #330 (abbrev.): The Year of Secret Assignments

What: Jaclyn Moriarty, rival schools, Australian students, letter exchange program, secret missions, lock picking, identity theft, car-jacking, typical high school stuff like that

All content is presented as coming from: notebooks, letters, diaries, notice boards, statutory declarations, emails, meeting transcripts, secret assignments

See also: Feeling Sorry for Celia (Rec. #48) and I Have a Bed Made of Buttermilk Pancakes (Rec. #235)

Quote from a Fictional Character #22

"The Europeans may have been imperialists, but they knew how to make a building."

--- Carl Petrovic,

The Daytrippers, 1996

(Rec. #232)