Rec. #316: Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City

What: This funny, sweet, slightly trippy miniseries does a lot. It puts faces to the many characters in the sprawling, interconnected stories from the first Tales of the City book. It makes promiscuity and drug use look kind of adorable. It makes you want to move to San Francisco immediately. It also basically launched Laura Linney's career.

Representative quote:

"Mary Ann, a strange man answered the phone."
"He's not a strange man, Mom. He's a homosexual."
"WHAT?"
"I know you've heard of them. They have them on TV now!"

How to get it: Currently available to stream on Netflix.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Read the book Tales of the City (Rec. #67). The sequels --- More Tales of the City (Rec. #211) and Further Tales of the City (Rec. #294) --- also got the miniseries treatment.

Quote from a Fictional Character #8

"True, I have started noting down the odd things people say. But contact with the actual creatures themselves I keep to a minimum."

--- Miss Shepherd,

The Lady in the Van, by Alan Bennett, 1989

Also by Alan Bennett: The Clothes They Stood Up In (Rec. #169), The History Boys (Rec. #115), and The Uncommon Reader (Rec. #260).

Friday Flashback: Rec. #192: When Will There Be Good News?

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

What: Kate Atkinson's third novel featuring (ex) detective Jackson Brodie is --- without a doubt --- my favorite (so far, at least).

This is almost entirely due to the introduction of Reggie Chase, a sixteen-year-old with a criminal brother, a dead mother, a missing employer, and (luckily) a skill set that includes CPR.

Representative quote: "Mum used to say, 'Billy may be trouble, but he's our trouble. Blood's thicker than water.' It was a lot stickier, too. The day the puppy went flying through the window was the second-worst day of Reggie's life so far."

You might not like it if: You're hoping that the answer to the title is "Now! Here it is, right here, all good news, all the time." It's not.

How to get it: I still haven't seen the series adaptation starring Jason Isaacs. If they've gotten Reggie wrong, then when I eventually do watch it, I will likely fly into the sort of rage that hasn't been seen since someone cast Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet.


Three notes on usage:

1) If you haven't read the preceding Jackson Brodie books (see below), you may get a bit muddled.

2) In my opinion, many reviews of When Will There Be Good News? give away too many pieces of the plot. Avoid them if you can stand to. 

3) Lest you fear that this is 388 pages of doom and puppy-throwing, let me reassure you that the whole novel is permeated by a rich, dark, clever humor.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Case Histories (Rec. #3) and One Good Turn (Rec. #69) are both excellent, even though they don't have Reggie.

[Originally posted 10/9/11.]

Rec. #315: The Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story

What: This documentary about legendary caricaturist Al Hirschfeld admittedly spends about 60% of the time showing Hirschfeld's instantly recognizable line drawings. But his drawings are fantastic, so no complaints here.

Comparable to: Bill Cunningham New York is another documentary about a slightly-eccentric-older-man-artist-in-New-York-City.

Representative quote: "Sculpture is really a drawing that you fall over in the dark."

Connection to previous Wreckage: Bill Cunningham New York was Rec. #223.

Rec. #314: All This Heavenly Glory

What: Elizabeth Crane's second collection of linked short stories takes a tour through the life of Charlotte Anne Byers, including New York, alcoholism, and Owen Wilson.

Opening lines: "Charlotte Anne Byers, age eight, gets off the 104 at 63rd and Broadway at dusk and descends the cement stairs to the stage entrance of the New York State Theater like she knows what she's doing, which she does, but only marginally."

Comparable to: Ellen Gilchrist is also a master at popping in and out of characters' lives with short stories, but Crane's stories are funnier and her sentences are longer.

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

Connections to previous Wreckage: Crane has two other short story collections --- When the Messenger Is Hot (Rec. #73) and You Must Be This Happy to Enter (Rec. #245).

Ellen Gilchrist's story collections include Nora Jane: A Life in Stories (Rec. #25), Light Can Be Both Wave and Particle (Rec. #159), and The Cabal and Other Stories (Rec. #216).

Quote from a Fictional Character #7

"The only difference between us is I am a man and you are a woman, and we don't have to let that interfere if we are reasonably careful."

--- Henry Graham,

A New Leaf, 1971

(Rec. #56)

Friday Flashback: Rec. #193: Laura

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

What: A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he's investigating. (As you do.) The director is Otto Preminger; the detective is Dana Andrews; the woman is Gene Tierney; the suspects include Vincent Price, Judith Anderson, and Clifton Webb; the dialogue is sharp enough to draw blood; and the rest is critically-acclaimed film history.

Representative quote: "I should be sincerely sorry to see my neighbor's children devoured by wolves."

Bonus representative quote: "You'd better watch out, McPherson, or you'll finish up in a psychiatric ward. I doubt they've ever had a patient who fell in love with a corpse."

You might not like it if: You are inexplicably anti-noir.

How to get it: Buy it, borrow it, stream it, rent it. Whatever you do, though, please don't get confused about which actors are playing which roles. Take note: Dana is the man, Gene is the woman, and Vincent Price is not the gloomy one.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Get more noir with I Married a Dead Man (Rec. #47) and Brick (Rec. #62).

[Originally posted 10/10/11.]

Rec. #313: Schott's Original Miscellany

What: By now, Ben Schott has also given us subject-specific miscellanies (food & drink, sporting & gaming), as well as annual almanacs.

First, though, was the original, with all the fun lists and trivia you could want, including . . . hat taxes, untimely deaths of musicians, sumo wrestling weight categories, cockney rhyming slang, famous last words, two-dice odds, and Oscar Wilde's paradoxes.

Comparable to: A grown-up version of those Guinness Book of World Records volumes that middle schoolers go nuts for. Also mimics the experience of falling into a Wikipedia wormhole.

Representative quote (from the introduction): "It is, perhaps, possible to live one's life without Schott's Original Miscellany, but it seems a curious and brave thing to attempt."

How to get it: Buy or borrow.

Connections to previous Wreckage: I previously mentioned Schott's Original Miscellany in comparison to John Clarke's The Tournament (Rec. #12).

Quote from a Fictional Character #6

"I need not have been afraid for aunt Dot; once again she had revealed her quality of resilient and invulnerable immortality, which had enabled her in the past to surmount a thousand hazards, escaping from perils of brigands, cannibals, mercy-killings, harems, crocodiles, lions, camels, and now Russia."

--- Laurie,

The Towers of Trebizond, by Rose Macaulay, 1956

Also by Rose Macaulay: Crewe Train (Rec. #84) and Told by an Idiot (Rec. #181)

Friday Flashback: Rec. #189 (abbrev.): Fantastic Mr. Fox

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

What: Wes Anderson movie, Roald Dahl book, stop motion animation, animals, caper, farmers, George Clooney, apple juice flood, lab partners, Meryl Streep, bandit hats, cuss, Jason Schwartzman, mud, psychotic rat, Bill Murray, digging, bully, Michael Gambon, tree, supermarket, Willem Dafoe, blueberries, cellar, Owen Wilson, cider, tails

Representative quote: "If what I think is happening, IS happening... It better not be."

Bonus representative quote: "I understand what you're saying, and your comments are valuable, but I'm gonna ignore your advice."

[Originally posted 10/3/11.]

Rec. #312: I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere

What: In this svelte collection of twelve short stories from Anna Gavalda, translated from French, people's lives can change in an instant. There are missed highway exits, there are love affairs, there are horrible crimes, and there are wild boars and Jaguars.

Comparable to: Once French magazine compared Gavalda to Dorothy Parker, so, sure. Let's go with that.

You might not like it if: You don't fancy first-person narration.

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

Connections to previous Wreckage: Read about Dorothy Parker in What Fresh Hell Is This? (Rec. #237). Watch about Dorothy Parker in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (Rec. #296).

Quote from a Fictional Character #5

"Oh, god, Lem. You're using science for no good. We took an oath we would try to do that less."

--- Phil Myman,

Better Off Ted, 2009

[on the DVD cover image, Phil is on the far left and Lem is on the far right]

(Rec. #147)

Friday Flashback: Rec. #203 (abbrev.): The Blind Assassin

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

What: Tour de force novel from Margaret Atwood, multiple-award-winning, 20th-century spanning, sisters, roman à clef, button factories, pulp science fiction, wealthy industrialist, adultery, newspaper articles, suicide, Canadian history, bridges, dingy backstreet rooms, socialist agitator, dead husband on a sailboat, World War II, self-delusion, potboiler, story within a story within a story

Representative quote: "Herbivores flee before them, scavengers follow, wolves lope alongside."

Also: The Robber Bride (Rec. #105) and The Penelopiad (Personal Wreck List #3, Rec. #298)

[Originally posted 10/30/11]

List #30: Nine Hitchcock Films Starring Non-Blondes, Part 2 of 2

See Part 1 here!

6. Notorious (1946)

Non-blonde: Ingrid Bergman

What she's trying to do: Spy on some Nazis, seduce Cary Grant.

You can practically hear Alicia purring

7. Stage Fright (1950)

Non-blonde: Jane Wyman

What she's trying to do: Prove that her crush's lover (a very blonde Marlene Dietrich) is a stone cold killer.

There are just so many hats in this movie

8. Strangers on a Train (1951) (Rec. #166)

Non-blonde: Ruth Roman

What she's trying to do: Solve a murder so she can marry her dumb, social-climbing, tennis-playing boyfriend.

Anne, you could do better. Just sayin'

9. The Trouble with Harry (1955) (Rec. #145)

Non-blonde: Shirley MacLaine

What she's trying to do: Keep Harry buried. Except when she's helping to dig him up.

Burying bodies doesn't have to be so serious

[Check out more gorgeous Hitchcock screenshots at "1,000 Frames of Hitchcock"]

List #30: Nine Hitchcock Films Starring Non-Blondes, Part 1 of 2

Alfred Hitchcock made some films that didn't involve Grace Kelly. It's true!


1. The Lady Vanishes (1938) (Rec. #225)

Non-blonde: Margaret Lockwood

What she's trying to do: Prove she's not crazy by figuring out how that nice old lady on the train disappeared.

Train dining cars are the best places for sleuthin'

2. Rebecca (1940)

Non-blonde: Joan Fontaine

What she's trying to do: Compete with the memory of her husband's glamorous, tragic first wife.

Does it feel like someone's watching you?

3. Suspicion (1941)

Non-blonde: Joan Fontaine, again

What she's trying to do: Avoid the troubling idea that her husband might be trying to kill her.

Cary Grant, lurking menacingly. As usual

4. Shadow of a Doubt (1943) (Rec. #78)

Non-blonde: Teresa Wright

What she's trying to do: Not get murdered by her formerly beloved uncle.

I wouldn't take that hand if I were you

5. Spellbound (1945) (Rec. #185)

Non-blonde: Ingrid Bergman

What she's trying to do: Prove that a handsome amnesiac isn't a murderer.

I don't know how she gets her hair to do that

See Part 2 here!


[Check out more gorgeous Hitchcock screenshots at "1,000 Frames of Hitchcock"]