Rec. #206: Get Away From Me

What: Singer Nellie McKay's 2004 debut album is a double-disc set because when you're a precocious genius you can do things like that. Also, it takes that much space to allow for McKay's full scope of self-penned chamber pop, jazz, reggae, cabaret, hip-hop, and torch songs.

Comparable to: Every drooling review of Get Away from Me got a lot of mileage out of gleefully comparing McKay to such disparate musicians as Rufus Wainwright, Ethel Merman, Van Dyke Parks, Ani DiFranco, Randy Newman, Missy Elliot, Bob Dylan, Peggy Lee, Eminem, Julie London, Flight of the Conchords, and Doris Day. 

Representative lyrics:

When it says goodbye

You don't hear it sigh

Does that it mean
That it's gone far far away
Is this your day to
Buy a paper
Draw a mustache
Make the mayor a giraffe
Try and tempt fate
Get pneumonia
Recuperate with soy bologna

You might not like it if: If you don't like it, don't tell me. I don't want to know.

Friday Flashback: Rec. #12: The Tournament

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

What: Illustrious figures from the 20th century participate in an epic tennis tournament. This book gives the play-by-play, both on court and off, in a long string of inside jokes. The more you know about the participants, the funnier the book is. A few of the "players": Monet, Twain, Chaplin, Earhart, Benchley, Garbo, and Arendt.

Comparable to: Even though its subtitle is "A Novel of the 20th Century," Clarke's book is really more of a novelty collection, along the lines of Schott's Miscellany or John Hodgman's The Areas of My Expertise.

Representative quote: "Nijinsky continues to look fabulous, although after the match he described himself as 'The Supreme Being' and offered to describe how he created the world. Friends say this is not a good sign."

You might not like it if: It seems too gimmicky for you.

How to get it: Buy it or borrow it. I saw a copy in a used bookstore just this past weekend.

Connection to previous Wreckage: In the book, Alfred Hitchcock makes an appearance on Day 2 and is described as "the slightly eerie Fred Hitchcock." He first appeared on this blog in "Rec. #5: Rope." I did not use the word "eerie" in my post.

[Originally posted 1/11/11.]

Rec. #205: How to Steal a Million

What: How to Steal a Million is my very, very favorite Audrey Hepburn film. Before you get all outraged on behalf of Roman Holiday or Breakfast at Tiffany's, hear me out. In this caper, Hepburn gets a chance to show off her underrated comedic timing as a woman protecting her father, an art collector-cum-forger. "Society burglar" Peter O'Toole is her reluctant accomplice, and the two rub against each other delightfully, with much sparky dialogue (see below).

Comparable to: It's directed by William Wyler, who had previously worked with Hepburn on The Children's Hour and, yes, Roman Holiday. He also directed The Best Years of Our Lives, Ben-Hur, and Funny Girl. Dude got around.

Representative quote: "Okay. You're the boss. Just do as I tell you."

Bonus representative quote: "I want you to take a long look at the trees, the blue sky, and the river, all of which I personally loathe, which is why a juicy stretch in a French prison doesn't bother me at all."

Bonus representative dialogue: "There's the bathroom; take off your clothes." "Are we planning the same sort of crime?"

You might not like it if: Your eyes burn from the dazzle of Hepburn's ridiculous Givenchy wardrobe. Or you don't like witty, urbane heist comedies from the mid-'60s. Or you have an irrational dislike of boomerangs, which play a pivotal role here.

How to get it: Watch it instantly on Amazon or rent it or borrow it. But if you borrow my copy, be forewarned that the loan period for this one is very short.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Get more Audrey with Wait Until Dark (Rec. #26) and Charade (Rec. #97).

Rec. #204 (abbrev.): Uncle Dynamite

What: P.G. Wodehouse novel, the idle rich, 1948, articulate farce, England, financing a manor house, Earl of Ickenham, delicate domestic situations, Pongo, housemaids, impostors, baby-judging contests, Mugsy, constables, going incognito, Uncle Fred, nocturnal marauders, tea

Representative quote: "Bill, who had been staring dully at the beetle, transferred his gaze to his companion. It was a wide-eyed, gaping gaze, speaking eloquently of a mind imperfectly adjusted to the intellectual pressure of the conversation."

Also: Cocktail Time (Rec. #24), Jill the Reckless (Rec. #136), Much Obliged, Jeeves (Rec. #153)

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

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 Week, List #3)

Rec. #202: The Riches, season 1

What: In the short-lived TV series The Riches, a family of Irish-Traveller grifters con their way into a place in the affluent suburbs. After witnessing a car accident that leaves a wealthy couple dead, parents Wayne and Dahlia Malloy (Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver) decide to assume their identities. They and their three kids start a new life in a Baton Rouge gated community. But the past catches up with them. Of course.

Comparable to: The kinds of shows you expect to see on cable channels that cost more.

Representative quote: "The American dream. We're gonna steal her."

You might not like it if: You expect too much from season 2. It has its moments, but it doesn't really go anywhere.

How to get it: Available to watch instantly on Netflix and Amazon, if you're into that sort of thing.

Connection to previous Wreckage: He's a Serious Actor here, but you might know Eddie Izzard from his fanatically adored stand-up shows, including Dress to Kill (Rec. #152).

Rec. #200 and Rec. #201: Brat Farrar and The Ivy Tree

What: Josephine Tey's Brat Farrar and Mary Stewart's The Ivy Tree are two glorious examples of mid-century suspense. Each novel centers on a fiendishly clever scheme to impersonate a missing heir. But as Brat Farrar becomes Patrick Ashby and Mary Grey becomes Annabel Winslow, the plans start to twist themselves inside out.

Representative quote, Brat Farrar: "But then he had never been interested in other people's concerns: their sins, their griefs, or their happiness. And anyhow, you couldn't be righteous with a man whose food you were eating."

Representative quote, The Ivy Tree: "There has to be luck, certainly, and there has to be careful planning. But it's like murder, isn't it? You only know about the ones that are found out. Nobody ever hears about the ones that get away with it."

You might not like them if: You're not willing to be won over by some charming, gutsy impostors.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Tey also delved into psychological suspense in Miss Pym Disposes (Rec. #75). I previously mentioned The Ivy Tree during Personal Wreck Week (List #1).

Brief Interlude

We are well within pinching distance of Rec. #200! I hope very much to do at least another 200 and, in aid of that, I have a small favor to ask.

When you have a spare moment during the next few days, please let me know if you've enjoyed any posts in particular --- whether it was the actual thing being recommended or how the recommendation was presented. (You don't have to include any "why" if you don't want to. And you can comment anonymously! That's fine!) This will be a tremendous help in planning future wrecks.

Perhaps you'd like a refresher of some of the older posts? If so, here is a list of the first 100.

Cheers!


(P.S. Yes, you're right, that is a picture of Stephen Fry skipping. Because what says "brief interlude" better than that?)

Rec. #199 (abbrev.): Dressing Up for the Carnival

What: Carol Shields, collection of short stories, day in the life, meteorologists, narrative theory, mirrors, hotel room, biographer, steering wheel muff, hyperverbal compulsion, keys, book tour, window tax, flatties, curious strands of asceticism

Representative quote: ". . . for the first time she comprehends who her brother is, that deep-voiced stranger whose bedroom is next to her own. Today, for a minute, she is her brother. She is Ralph Eliot, age seventeen, six feet tall, who later this afternoon will make a dazzling, lazy touchdown, bringing reward and honor to his name, and hers."

Also: More Carol Shields, in novel form, with The Box Garden (Rec. #146).

Rec. #198 (abbrev.): The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

What: Sequel to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams, towels, Deep Thought, ghosts, Arthur Dent, humming, eccentric orbits, Vogons, publishing offices, Zaphod Beeblebrox, existential elevator, talking meaty quadrupeds, Trillian, nut trees, Marvin, supercilious green blur, desert sound system, Ford Prefect, dead for tax reasons, apocalypse with dinner

Representative quote: "The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."

Also: Start at the beginning with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Rec. #42).

Rec. #196 and Rec. #197: Paul Schneider and the Real Girls

Sometimes I feel a bit bad for Paul Schneider because Parks & Recreation became widely and fervently adored right after he left the show. Sure, his movie career is doing just fine, thanks, but is it enough? Can it be enough, when he must see "Leslie + Ben forever!" scrawled on all the lockers of the metaphorical showbiz high school?

What: Amusingly (for me), Paul Schneider is in both Lars and the Real Girl and All the Real Girls. Both films are excellent, and he is excellent in them.

In Lars and the Real Girl, he plays a key supporting role as the older brother of Lars, a troubled and introverted young man whose new companion is a doll he ordered online. The movie does not go in for cheap laughs. It is careful instead of knee-jerk, thoughtful instead of facile, and generous instead of petty. (Also, Patricia Clarkson does a superb job and . . . whoops, she's been on Parks & Rec recently. Sorry, Paul.)

In All the Real Girls, he takes the lead as a womanizer who forces himself into sincerity when he falls for his best friend's sister. It is not a romantic comedy. (The currently overexposed Zooey Deschanel is also in this, but don't hold that against the movie. It came out in 2003.) (And, also, Patricia Clarkson is here, too.)

Representative quote from Paul's character (Lars and the Real Girl): [on what it means to be a man] "Like, you don't jerk people around, and you don't cheat on your woman, and you take care of your family, you know, and you admit when you're wrong, or you try to, anyways. That's all I can think of --- it sound like it's easy and for some reason it's not."

Representative quote from Paul's character (All the Real Girls): "When people from before come up, I want you to understand what they hate when they see me."

Connection to previous Wreckage: Paul Schneider played Mark Brendanawicz on the first two seasons of Parks and Recreation. And the show was very good! But season 3 was a-maz-ing (Rec. #119).

Rec. #195: Orion You Came and You Took All My Marbles

What: Kira Henehan's debut novel is about Investigations, puppets, a snake named Lavendar, mimed bowling, yellow eyes, surf memorabilia, gravel, Assignments, marbles, red hair, contemporary art, memory loss, savage pocketry, Russians, baseball jerseys, framing, shrimps, Lolita, and golf carts. Finley is the painstakingly accurate --- but never reliable --- narrator.

Comparable to: It's a little bit like George Saunders and Jaclyn Moriarty went on a road trip with some Tom Robbins characters and then wrote a book about it. Which is to say, it's free-spirited, impressionistic, episodic, and highly stylized, but nonetheless often an incisive reflection of how people really do act and speak.

Representative quote: "It was all over gravel, but better than the last place. There was all over swampland and crocodiles."

You might not like it if: At its most self-indulgent, the book skirts the edges of impenetrability. So watch out for that.

How to get it: Look at me, recommending a fairly new book that's in print and everything! (And, yes, Kindle-able.)

Rec. #194 (abbrev.): Midnight

What: Screwball comedy, 1939, Claudette Colbert, showgirl, would-be gold-digger, stranded in Paris, taxi cabs, Don Ameche, evening gown, the Ritz, noses, party crashing, John Barrymore, fake barons and baronesses, railway station, missing luggage, Billy Wilder, millionaires, divorce court, Mary Astor, hats, taxi driver cafe

Representative quote:
"I landed a lord, almost."
"Almost?"
"Well, the family came between us. His mother came to my hotel and offered me a bribe."
"You threw her out, I hope!"
"How could I, with my hands full of money?"

Also: Claudette Colbert and Mary Astor reteamed for more screwball in 1942's The Palm Beach Story (Rec. #17).

List #11: 4 Books That Are Ostensibly For People Under 18, but Are Actually for YOU

1. Moominvalley in November, by Tove Jansson (Rec. #109)

"Meant" for: Late-elementary-age kids who love funny names like Mymble, Toft, Fillyjonk, and Snufkin.

Actually for: Thoughtful types who are vaguely and wistfully considering a move to Sweden, Finland, Norway, or Denmark.

2. Confessions of Georgia Nicholson, by Louise Rennison (Rec. #130)

"Meant" for: Young teens who relate all too well to Georgia's hilarious misadventures.

Actually for: Grown-ups who are looking for honest-to-goodness funny writing, and are not above laughing at a 14-year-old.


3. The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip, by George Saunders (Rec. #18)

"Meant" for: Late-elementary-age kids who totally dig the way those gappers look. Plus, a goat on a table!

Actually for: Design nerds who want an excuse to read George Saunders out loud.

4. The Undertaker's Gone Bananas, by Paul Zindel (Rec. #16)

"Meant" for: Middle and high school students who feel like misfits.

Actually for: Everyone who never stopped feeling like a high school misfit. (So, everyone.)

Rec. #193: Laura

What: In the noir classic Laura, a police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he's investigating. 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).

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

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: Widely available in many formats. 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 caveats: 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: Kate Akinson first presented Jackson Brodie in Case Histories (Rec. #3), which was followed by One Good Turn (Rec. #69). Both are excellent, even though they don't have Reggie.

Rec. #191 (abbrev.): Slings and Arrows, season 2

What: Halfway point of acclaimed Canadian television series, Shakespeare festival, dead artistic director, prepping for new season, Macbeth, broken neck, government grant, playwright, German-influenced Romeo and Juliet, audit, interns, funding, ad campaign, dark comedy (Stratford)

Representative quote: "You know me. I'm petty and bitter. There's a reason for that, OK?"

Bonus representative dialogue:
"This is my life. I live in a storage room. I eat soup with a dead man."
"It could be worse."
"How?"
"You could be the dead man. Did you ever think of that?"

Also (with more info): Slings and Arrows, season 1 (Rec. #127)

Rec. #190 (abbrev.): Colour Scheme

What: Ngaio Marsh, murder mystery, 1943, New Zealand, sulphur springs, Scotland Yard, foreign ships at sea, Maurice Questing, stage star, German agents, flashing lights, a boot, Septimus Falls, English exiles, poison, Maoris, letters, Harpoon Club, spies, death by boiling mud bath

Representative quote: "Dikon was an over-civilized young man. He belonged to a generation whose attitude of mind was industriously ironic."

Also: Death and the Dancing Footman (Rec. #37) and Night at the Vulcan (Rec. #102)

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

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."

Rec. #188: Metropolitan Life

What: Fran Lebowitz, author of the 1974 essay collection Metropolitan Life, has often been compared to Dorothy Parker. This comparison is trite, but accurate. Which, of course, leads us to . . . lots of quotes (below).

Comparable to: Dorothy Parker. I just said so. Also, all those collections of humorous essays that have been published in the last ten years? By David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, David Rakoff, and basically anyone else from This American Life? They all owe a heck of a lot to Lebowitz.

Representative quotes:
"Having been unpopular in high school is not just cause for book publication." --- from "Letters"

"Children respond inadequately to sardonic humor and veiled threats." --- from "Children: Pro or Con?"

"He is audibly tan." --- from "My Day: An Introduction of Sorts"

"I love sleep because it is both pleasant and safe to use." --- from "Why I Love Sleep"

"There is no such thing as inner peace. There is only nervousness or death. Any attempt to prove otherwise constitutes unacceptable behavior." --- from "Manners"

You might not like it if: Like Parker, Lebowitz will go a long way for a pun. This can get exhausting.

How to get it: After the success of Martin Scorsese's documentary on Fran Lebowitz (Public Speaking), we got a rerelease of The Fran Lebowitz Reader. It includes both Metropolitan Life and Social Studies. It's also Kindle-able.

Connection to previous Wreckage: I suggested The Portable Dorothy Parker during Personal Wreck Week (List #3).