Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Friday, December 25, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Bollywood
Bollywood looks to Aamir Khan to end 2009 on a high
MUMBAI — Bollywood is looking to Aamir Khan to bring festive cheer to the industry after a disappointing 2009 hit by a producers' strike, swine flu fears and a lack of box office success.
The actor-producer-director's heavily-marketed "3 Idiots", based on Chetan Bhagat's best-selling debut novel "Five Point Someone" about three struggling students at a business school, is released on Friday, Christmas Day.
His 2008 Christmas offering, "Ghajini", became Bollywood's highest grossing film and followed the acclaimed "Taare Zameen Par" (Stars on Earth) in 2007.
"We hope he creates a hattrick this year," said Amod Mehra, a Bollywood trade analyst.
Another leading critic, Taran Adarsh, gave the film 4.5 stars on his bollywoodhungama.com site and said it "easily ranks amongst Aamir, (director) Rajkumar Hirani and (producer) Vidhu Vinod Chopra's finest films".
Bollywood began 2009 after a muted end to 2008 due to the deadly terror attacks in Mumbai, which saw the cancellation of a number of films.
Audiences had already dwindled due to recession fears and disaffection at under-performing big budget films.
But the much-anticipated "Chandni Chowk To China", a co-production with US studio Warner Brothers and the first Bollywood film to be part-filmed in China, bombed at the box office.
Leading star Shahrukh Khan's own production "Billu" also disappointed, as world attention focused on the British film about a Mumbai teaboy, "Slumdog Millionaire", and its runaway success at the Oscars.
In April, Bollywood producers began a two-month boycott of multiplex cinemas, calling for a fairer share of box office receipts. The strike saw the postponement of scores of films and losses estimated at 63 million dollars.
Rising numbers of swine flu cases in Mumbai and the surrounding area added to Bollywood's woes, leading to the temporary closure of cinemas on public health grounds and the postponement of several films.
Despite a glut of new releases since then, only a handful of films have been considered hits, like "New York", about a group of friends in the city on September 11, 2001, and the thriller "Kaminey" (Scoundrel).
A new hero was found in Ranbir Kapoor after his hit "Wake Up Sid" and "Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani" (An Amazing Story Of Strange Love), while Salman Khan made a successful comeback in "Wanted".
But Adarsh told AFP: "It's not been a good year. In my opinion, it's been the worst year for the film industry.
"You can't blame anyone apart from the industry for churning out such bad movies. This results in perhaps 90 percent of films failing. It's not a good situation. We need to concentrate on quality."
Mayank Shekhar, national cultural editor at English-language newspaper The Hindustan Times, agreed and suggested that Hollywood -- which still has only a tiny market share but is trying to make inroads into India -- has benefited.
Roland Emmerich's "2012" crossed the 900 million rupees (19.2 million dollars) mark last weekend, making it the highest grossing Hollywood film in India, The Times of India newspaper said on Sunday.
Dubbed and original versions of James Cameron's "Avatar" and the hit comedy "The Hangover" have also done well.
Shekhar said "2012" would turn out to be the biggest hit in India this year, and had proved popular in both more expensive urban multiplex cinemas and traditional single screen cinemas in small towns and villages.
"This is the first time we've seen something like this. It may be an indicator of things to come, that people are now willing to choose," he told AFP.
"The Indian movie market has been the only one in the world where no one cares that (Hollywood director Steven) Spielberg is releasing a film. That might change."
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
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Stories from North Augusta
| BY STACEY EIDSON |
OPINION With more than 45 writers submitting their work in the third annual Metro Spirit Short Story Contest, I’m pleased to announce that Jonathan Jaffe of North Augusta is this year’s grand prize winner. Jaffe’s short story, “Child’s Game,” about a group of competitive college friends, stirred up the most conversation and received the majority of votes in our office. As this year’s grand prize winner, Jaffe will receive $100 in cash and a free registration to Augusta State University’s Sandhills Writers Conference. The conference will be held March 18-20 and it is a prize valued at $156, generously donated by ASU. For more information about the Sandhills Conference, please check outsandhills.aug.edu. In second place was the story, “A Day in an Afterlife” by Joseph Miles, about a man’s strange encounter in a graveyard. Coming in third was Lindsey Wise’s emotional story about the death of a woman’s first love and her fight to stay strong at his funeral. After learning she came in third, Wise, of Aiken, could not have been more excited. “It is a very personal story to me and I’m honored that you selected that one,” she said. “This was actually the first time I have ever submitted any of my writing to a publication, after much hounding from friends. So, it really is a treat for me to be selected as one of your favorites. It means a lot to me.” These three stories can be found inside the print edition of this issue. Due to space requirements, the Metro Spirit’s fourth and fifth place winners can be found on our online edition at metrospirit.com. In fourth place, was Daniel Costello’s short story “The Rag,” which deals with the frustrations of the newspaper industry and the turmoil employees experience after being laid off. Rounding out the top five stories was Tom Turner’s story “Two Together,” about a woman looking for a new home after the death of her husband. We want to congratulate all the winners and participants in this year’s short story contest. We thoroughly enjoyed reading each and every one of the submissions. So, while you are enjoying your Christmas cookies and eggnog, put your feet up, relax and have a good read. Of course, just one short week after Santa Claus pops down your chimney on Christmas Eve, it will be time to ring in 2010. One week doesn’t give you much time to plan, so the Metro Spirit has decided to help you out. Between now and the publication of the New Year’s Eve issue, the Spirit writers will be hitting the streets talking to some of the town’s professional bartenders to find out their favorite drink to celebrate the traditional ball drop in Times Square. We will feature those drinks and their recipes in our Dec. 30 issue. So, happy holidays everyone! Get ready for 2010. |
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Saturday, December 12, 2009
How serious do you want to be?
A Serious Man: A Seriously Fine Film
Asher Goldstein
2 months ago
Comments (0)
Flag this This past weekend, I was one of the many audience members who flocked to see the Coen Brothers' newest outing A Serious Man. The film, in limited release, managed to pull in an impressive $41,918 per screen average. As this second weekend of release comes upon us, so does my chance to get myself out to the cinema and once again see this eye-thumbing look at what is nothing less than an existential American nightmare.
The film follows a middle class Jewish college professor who finds himself at odds with every element of his life: his kids are repulsively irreverent, his job is thankless, his neighbors pay him little respect or attention, and his over-bearing wife gives him gut-checking notice that she is leaving him for one of their family friends. He is the prototypical helpless American male--weighed down by the social constructs that supposedly give a sense of anchoring to our society.
The story is told deftly by the Brothers Coen with the masterful aid of ever impressing cinematographer Roger Deakins, whose concise camera work and lighting illuminate a carefully constructed world that brims with life thanks to the always fantastic work of costumer and production designer Mary Zophres and Jess Gonchor, respectively. So in short: this is a damn good movie, one whose story is told way more than adequately and with a highly attentive technique of craft, both from the below the line crew and the films performers alike. That said, what struck me most--and, as it seems, most people I've spoken to--are the ideas presented throughout.
Frankly speaking, to an extent this is a very Jewish, and more specifically American Jewish, film and at the same time, not one whatsoever.
I've read that the film is supposedly likened to being the "most personal" of the Coens' work as there are clear references to what need be nothing but their own autobiography speaking (if the filmmakers, who were raised in a Jewish household, grew up in one that were Catholic instead, their main character would surely find the testaments of his priest being as ridiculous and confusing as our hero’s Rabbi).
Of the folks I've spoken with, many have been frankly offended by what they've seen, generally for religious reasons. The film is set in the world of a tightly knit Jewish American community and observed with a sharply satirical eye--suggesting that the wholesome, wisdom-seeking tradition of Judaism can be just as faltering and plainly useless as many of the other traditions that are observed in this world of ours. At the film's heart, the writers are inherently suggesting that human beings are subjected to a world that is nothing but suffering-inducing, harrowing, and uncaring. Furthermore, any attempt to explain or fashion some sort of wisdom from the dire events that fill our lives will inevitably either cause one to fall to the chains of ignorant comforts (religion, and moreover, human constructions of family, home, love, occupation) or will send one off into a fit of panicked desperation until we find strength in the idea that it is all essentially meaningless. Religious, and cultural for that matter, traditions are ridiculed as useless distractions and the only "out" that said practices get occurs in one scene, in one movement, in one shot for that matter. Such an instance infers that while faith and other such constructs are generally time and soul wasting, they do provide for our meager-selves a way to experience catharsis and allow humanity to come together, giving us reason to seek the shelter of one another, even if shelter is rooted in nothing more than the stuff of make believe.
Cheery, no? The somber ideas presented are lightened by the darkened comedy that fits well into the canon of these fine auteurs, though because of its heavy, heavy references to American Judaism, it could be a bit difficult for wider audiences to find the same attraction as they did to the masterful No Country For Old Men. In short, if you are either a fan of the Coen Brothers or are simply one who enjoys thought-provoking cinema, this is certainly not one to pass up. In my eyes, this film belongs alongside the work of other existentialist authors and artists. It certainly firms up my belief that Camus or Hardy would be proud to see the Coens added to their ranks any day.
The Coens lended their filmmaking abilities to this commercial spot for the Al Gore's Reality Coalition, which seeks to spread the truth about so-called "clean coal" technologies and how this moniker is nothing more than an oxymoron. For more info on the truth behind "clean coal" visit the The Reality Coalition's website. Take Action Learn more about The Reality Coalition, an organization the Coen brothers support.
Asher Goldstein
2 months ago
Comments (0)
Flag this This past weekend, I was one of the many audience members who flocked to see the Coen Brothers' newest outing A Serious Man. The film, in limited release, managed to pull in an impressive $41,918 per screen average. As this second weekend of release comes upon us, so does my chance to get myself out to the cinema and once again see this eye-thumbing look at what is nothing less than an existential American nightmare.
The film follows a middle class Jewish college professor who finds himself at odds with every element of his life: his kids are repulsively irreverent, his job is thankless, his neighbors pay him little respect or attention, and his over-bearing wife gives him gut-checking notice that she is leaving him for one of their family friends. He is the prototypical helpless American male--weighed down by the social constructs that supposedly give a sense of anchoring to our society.
The story is told deftly by the Brothers Coen with the masterful aid of ever impressing cinematographer Roger Deakins, whose concise camera work and lighting illuminate a carefully constructed world that brims with life thanks to the always fantastic work of costumer and production designer Mary Zophres and Jess Gonchor, respectively. So in short: this is a damn good movie, one whose story is told way more than adequately and with a highly attentive technique of craft, both from the below the line crew and the films performers alike. That said, what struck me most--and, as it seems, most people I've spoken to--are the ideas presented throughout.
Frankly speaking, to an extent this is a very Jewish, and more specifically American Jewish, film and at the same time, not one whatsoever.
I've read that the film is supposedly likened to being the "most personal" of the Coens' work as there are clear references to what need be nothing but their own autobiography speaking (if the filmmakers, who were raised in a Jewish household, grew up in one that were Catholic instead, their main character would surely find the testaments of his priest being as ridiculous and confusing as our hero’s Rabbi).
Of the folks I've spoken with, many have been frankly offended by what they've seen, generally for religious reasons. The film is set in the world of a tightly knit Jewish American community and observed with a sharply satirical eye--suggesting that the wholesome, wisdom-seeking tradition of Judaism can be just as faltering and plainly useless as many of the other traditions that are observed in this world of ours. At the film's heart, the writers are inherently suggesting that human beings are subjected to a world that is nothing but suffering-inducing, harrowing, and uncaring. Furthermore, any attempt to explain or fashion some sort of wisdom from the dire events that fill our lives will inevitably either cause one to fall to the chains of ignorant comforts (religion, and moreover, human constructions of family, home, love, occupation) or will send one off into a fit of panicked desperation until we find strength in the idea that it is all essentially meaningless. Religious, and cultural for that matter, traditions are ridiculed as useless distractions and the only "out" that said practices get occurs in one scene, in one movement, in one shot for that matter. Such an instance infers that while faith and other such constructs are generally time and soul wasting, they do provide for our meager-selves a way to experience catharsis and allow humanity to come together, giving us reason to seek the shelter of one another, even if shelter is rooted in nothing more than the stuff of make believe.
Cheery, no? The somber ideas presented are lightened by the darkened comedy that fits well into the canon of these fine auteurs, though because of its heavy, heavy references to American Judaism, it could be a bit difficult for wider audiences to find the same attraction as they did to the masterful No Country For Old Men. In short, if you are either a fan of the Coen Brothers or are simply one who enjoys thought-provoking cinema, this is certainly not one to pass up. In my eyes, this film belongs alongside the work of other existentialist authors and artists. It certainly firms up my belief that Camus or Hardy would be proud to see the Coens added to their ranks any day.
The Coens lended their filmmaking abilities to this commercial spot for the Al Gore's Reality Coalition, which seeks to spread the truth about so-called "clean coal" technologies and how this moniker is nothing more than an oxymoron. For more info on the truth behind "clean coal" visit the The Reality Coalition's website. Take Action Learn more about The Reality Coalition, an organization the Coen brothers support.
Avatar The Movie
Is James Cameron's Avatar 'the future of movies'?
James Cameron's Titanic was the biggest hit in history - but Avatar and its 3-D technology could be 'the future of the movies'. No pressure, then, says William Langley.
By William Langley
Published: 6:33PM GMT 12 Dec 2009
Comments 0
Comment on this article
Link to this video For the past few years, Hollywood has conducted its business to the unsettling sound of hundreds of millions of hard-to-come-by dollars whooshing into the giant maw of James Cameron's new sci-fi epic, Avatar. As a director, the 55-year-old brings to the movies some incontestable advantages – and a couple of reasons why, if you were thinking of employing him, you might not want to rush the decision.
One is a fondness for monstrous budgets, which admittedly furnish his films with impressive casts and bleeding-edge special effects, but cause long-term sleeping difficulties for studio executives. The other is a troublesome mixture of insecurity and absence of tact.
Related Articles
Is Avatar an attack on the Iraq War?
Avatar: review
Avatar: first review
James Cameron says Avatar a message to stop damaging environment
Yellow Submarine to be remade by Disney
Avatar movie: history of 3D cinema"Let us join together in silence in memory of the 1,500 people who died when the ship went down," Cameron said upon collecting his Best Director Oscar for Titanic. "… and now, let's party until dawn!" Irritated that Arnold Schwarzenegger had gone sightseeing in Washington DC during the filming of True Lies, he thrust his face an inch from his leading man's and bellowed: "Do you want Paul Verhoeven to finish this mother------?"
For better or worse, Cameron has been quiet since the release of Titanic in 1997. Perhaps too quiet. Although the film went on to become the biggest box office hit in history – with a global take of $1.8 billion – it presented the director with the problem of surpassing it with something even bigger.
That something has now arrived. Avatar is a computer-effects-heavy 3-D space fantasy, set 125 years in the future, about a disabled US Marine, Jake Sully, who is sent to Pandora, a moon of the distant Centauri star system, to find supplies of "unobtainium", an energy-rich mineral. Upon arrival, Jake discovers a world of beauty and innocence, populated by 10-foot-tall, blue-skinned beings called the Na'vi, whose peaceful existence the humans proceed to rock.
Cameron first hatched the story 14 years ago, but found that the technology needed to realise it didn't exist. The new digital 3-D system solved the problem; indeed, powerful voices in Hollywood, including that of Steven Spielberg, have predicted that the results are so immersive that the film and technology represent "the future of the movies", while cinemas have been scrambling to convert to the new format.
The reviews have been generally favourable. "The most expensive and technically ambitious film ever made," reports the influential Hollywood trade magazine Variety, "James Cameron's long-gestating epic delivers unique spectacle, breathtaking sights and narrative excitement." The rival Hollywood Reporter cheers: "As commander-in-chief of an army of visual-effects technicians, creature designers, motion-capture mavens, stunt performers, dancers, actors and music and sound magicians, Cameron brings science-fiction movies into the 21st century with the jaw-dropping wonder that is Avatar."
Cameron pays unusually close attention to reviews. When Kenneth Turan, the highly regarded critic on the Los Angeles Times, exercised his right to dislike Titanic – a "hackneyed and completely derivative copy" of the classic Hollywood romance – Cameron went ballistic, penning a furious rebuttal in which he denounced the review as "the vitriolic ravings of a bitter man… the worst sort of ego-driven elitism".
Why such sensitivity? In a long, choleric interview in the current edition of The New Yorker, Cameron – clearly still seething over the affair – appears to suggest that the critics had it in for him, and were confounded when Titanic was a hit with audiences. "We were branded the biggest idiots in movie history," he fumes. "They were just sharpening up their knives so they could really take the film apart. Then they couldn't. So ---- them. ---- 'em all."
Those who seek to explain Cameron's irascibility and thin-skinnedness point – as he does himself – to his working-class background and ingrained suspicion of the way the movie industry operates. "I try to live with honour," he says, "even if it costs me millions of dollars and takes a long time. It's very unusual in Hollywood. Few people are trustworthy: a handshake means nothing to them. They feel they are required to keep an agreement with you only if you are successful."
He was born, one of five children, in Kapuskasing, a small, mostly French-speaking town in Ontario, Canada, where his father worked at the local paper mill. When he was 14, he went to see 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick's sci-fi masterpiece, and became fascinated by the kind of hyper-realistic visual effects the film pioneered.
A few years later, the Camerons moved to southern California, where James – with no educational qualifications – took a succession of lowly jobs, first as a factory machinist, then as a truck driver, and later as a model-maker at a film studio.
An incurable workaholic (he claims to have worked on Avatar for 18 hours a day, seven days a week, for two years), he rose rapidly as a designer of sets and special effects. Then, in 1984, he got his first directing break with The Terminator, a low-budget thriller starring the barely comprehensible Schwarzenegger as a rogue cyborg, which earned an extraordinary $78 million.
The film's unexpected success marked the end of Cameron's deference to studio bean-counters. His sequel, Terminator 2, was the first movie to cost $100 million; Titanic was the first to cost $200 million; and the budget for Avatar is believed to have exceeded $300 million.
Critics occasionally suggest that the green stuff covers up flaws which other filmmakers wouldn't get away with, but it's hard to deny that Cameron has delivered value for money. Then again, it isn't only critics who find him tough going. He has been accused by the Screen Actors Guild of mistreating casts with his punishing routines and combative approach, and Kate Winslet has declared that she'd need an unusually large fee before working with him again. Five wives – the current one being actress Suzy Amis – testify further to the challenging complexities of his personality.
When Titanic won 11 Oscars – the most since Ben Hur – Cameron declared himself, before a billion viewers, to be "King of the World". Those who winced at the display should have realised that he was only getting started. With Avatar, and the 3-D age it could usher in, he's aiming to be Master of the Universe.
James Cameron's Titanic was the biggest hit in history - but Avatar and its 3-D technology could be 'the future of the movies'. No pressure, then, says William Langley.
By William Langley
Published: 6:33PM GMT 12 Dec 2009
Comments 0
Comment on this article
Link to this video For the past few years, Hollywood has conducted its business to the unsettling sound of hundreds of millions of hard-to-come-by dollars whooshing into the giant maw of James Cameron's new sci-fi epic, Avatar. As a director, the 55-year-old brings to the movies some incontestable advantages – and a couple of reasons why, if you were thinking of employing him, you might not want to rush the decision.
One is a fondness for monstrous budgets, which admittedly furnish his films with impressive casts and bleeding-edge special effects, but cause long-term sleeping difficulties for studio executives. The other is a troublesome mixture of insecurity and absence of tact.
Related Articles
Is Avatar an attack on the Iraq War?
Avatar: review
Avatar: first review
James Cameron says Avatar a message to stop damaging environment
Yellow Submarine to be remade by Disney
Avatar movie: history of 3D cinema"Let us join together in silence in memory of the 1,500 people who died when the ship went down," Cameron said upon collecting his Best Director Oscar for Titanic. "… and now, let's party until dawn!" Irritated that Arnold Schwarzenegger had gone sightseeing in Washington DC during the filming of True Lies, he thrust his face an inch from his leading man's and bellowed: "Do you want Paul Verhoeven to finish this mother------?"
For better or worse, Cameron has been quiet since the release of Titanic in 1997. Perhaps too quiet. Although the film went on to become the biggest box office hit in history – with a global take of $1.8 billion – it presented the director with the problem of surpassing it with something even bigger.
That something has now arrived. Avatar is a computer-effects-heavy 3-D space fantasy, set 125 years in the future, about a disabled US Marine, Jake Sully, who is sent to Pandora, a moon of the distant Centauri star system, to find supplies of "unobtainium", an energy-rich mineral. Upon arrival, Jake discovers a world of beauty and innocence, populated by 10-foot-tall, blue-skinned beings called the Na'vi, whose peaceful existence the humans proceed to rock.
Cameron first hatched the story 14 years ago, but found that the technology needed to realise it didn't exist. The new digital 3-D system solved the problem; indeed, powerful voices in Hollywood, including that of Steven Spielberg, have predicted that the results are so immersive that the film and technology represent "the future of the movies", while cinemas have been scrambling to convert to the new format.
The reviews have been generally favourable. "The most expensive and technically ambitious film ever made," reports the influential Hollywood trade magazine Variety, "James Cameron's long-gestating epic delivers unique spectacle, breathtaking sights and narrative excitement." The rival Hollywood Reporter cheers: "As commander-in-chief of an army of visual-effects technicians, creature designers, motion-capture mavens, stunt performers, dancers, actors and music and sound magicians, Cameron brings science-fiction movies into the 21st century with the jaw-dropping wonder that is Avatar."
Cameron pays unusually close attention to reviews. When Kenneth Turan, the highly regarded critic on the Los Angeles Times, exercised his right to dislike Titanic – a "hackneyed and completely derivative copy" of the classic Hollywood romance – Cameron went ballistic, penning a furious rebuttal in which he denounced the review as "the vitriolic ravings of a bitter man… the worst sort of ego-driven elitism".
Why such sensitivity? In a long, choleric interview in the current edition of The New Yorker, Cameron – clearly still seething over the affair – appears to suggest that the critics had it in for him, and were confounded when Titanic was a hit with audiences. "We were branded the biggest idiots in movie history," he fumes. "They were just sharpening up their knives so they could really take the film apart. Then they couldn't. So ---- them. ---- 'em all."
Those who seek to explain Cameron's irascibility and thin-skinnedness point – as he does himself – to his working-class background and ingrained suspicion of the way the movie industry operates. "I try to live with honour," he says, "even if it costs me millions of dollars and takes a long time. It's very unusual in Hollywood. Few people are trustworthy: a handshake means nothing to them. They feel they are required to keep an agreement with you only if you are successful."
He was born, one of five children, in Kapuskasing, a small, mostly French-speaking town in Ontario, Canada, where his father worked at the local paper mill. When he was 14, he went to see 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick's sci-fi masterpiece, and became fascinated by the kind of hyper-realistic visual effects the film pioneered.
A few years later, the Camerons moved to southern California, where James – with no educational qualifications – took a succession of lowly jobs, first as a factory machinist, then as a truck driver, and later as a model-maker at a film studio.
An incurable workaholic (he claims to have worked on Avatar for 18 hours a day, seven days a week, for two years), he rose rapidly as a designer of sets and special effects. Then, in 1984, he got his first directing break with The Terminator, a low-budget thriller starring the barely comprehensible Schwarzenegger as a rogue cyborg, which earned an extraordinary $78 million.
The film's unexpected success marked the end of Cameron's deference to studio bean-counters. His sequel, Terminator 2, was the first movie to cost $100 million; Titanic was the first to cost $200 million; and the budget for Avatar is believed to have exceeded $300 million.
Critics occasionally suggest that the green stuff covers up flaws which other filmmakers wouldn't get away with, but it's hard to deny that Cameron has delivered value for money. Then again, it isn't only critics who find him tough going. He has been accused by the Screen Actors Guild of mistreating casts with his punishing routines and combative approach, and Kate Winslet has declared that she'd need an unusually large fee before working with him again. Five wives – the current one being actress Suzy Amis – testify further to the challenging complexities of his personality.
When Titanic won 11 Oscars – the most since Ben Hur – Cameron declared himself, before a billion viewers, to be "King of the World". Those who winced at the display should have realised that he was only getting started. With Avatar, and the 3-D age it could usher in, he's aiming to be Master of the Universe.
Clint and rugby don't really mix.....
Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon in Invictus If Invictus (Warner Bros.), Clint Eastwood's inspirational sports biopic about the victory of the South African rugby team during Nelson Mandela's first year in office, had been made by any other director, it would be regarded as a tedious, unfocused, underplotted movie with a single strong selling point: The casting of Morgan Freeman as Mandela. Not the performance, the casting. No one else alive is as well suited to play the great South African leader. Freeman uncannily resembles Mandela, he imitates his accent convincingly, he radiates a benevolent aura of righteousness—but when does Morgan Freeman not radiate a benevolent aura of righteousness? What ought to have been the role of Freeman's career is instead less of an acting challenge than Driving Miss Daisy. Freeman-as-Mandela is an actor all dressed up with no place to go—at least, nowhere we didn't already know he was headed.
Yahoo! Buzz FacebookMySpace Mixx Digg Reddit del.icio.us Furl Ma.gnolia SphereStumbleUponCLOSETrue-life sports movies always work against the same disadvantage: Win or lose, the outcome of the game is known in advance. The only way to make the audience care is to somehow get us inside the heads of the people who were experiencing the triumph in real time. Eastwood goes to great lengths to explain why the 1995 World Cup championship was so important to South Africa: Only a few years out of the apartheid era, the nation needed a common cause for blacks and whites to rally around, and the national team, the Springboks, had historically meant nothing to black South Africans except being a symbol of segregation and oppression. Maddeningly, the movie never manages to make the championship matter to us.
Invictus, which takes its title from a Victorian poem that Mandela clung to as a source of hope during his 27 years in prison, takes one of the most genuinely inspiring moments in modern history and turns it into a high-minded plod. Every character is defined solely in terms of his (or her—but there aren't many significant hers on the premises) degree of racial nobility. Every line out of Mandela's mouth is a platitude: "Forgiveness is a powerful weapon" or "In order to build South Africa, we must all exceed our own expectations." As Mandela discusses leadership techniques over tea with the captain of the Springboks, François Pienaar (Matt Damon), both men agree on the importance of leading by example. But all either one does is lecture. "The rainbow nation starts here," Mandela scolds his bodyguards, who are prickly at first about integrating their ranks. Handing out beers to his dispirited team after a loss, Pienaar encourages them to drink up with these heartening words: "Taste it? That's the taste of defeat." Must the task of healing a divided nation fall exclusively into the hands of humorless goody-two-shoes?
It would seem hard to botch the inherently suspenseful events of the 1995 World Cup championship game, in which the underdog 'Boks fought their way back from a tie to win in an overtime squeaker. But though this film contains plenty of rugby—for viewers congenitally indifferent to sports, a lifetime's worth of rugby—Eastwood never gives his audience a basic grounding in how the sport works. For those not already in-the-know, the rules of the game remain as perplexing as those of Fantastic Mr. Fox's whack-bat. What exactly is accomplished in the scrum? What's a drop goal, and what does it mean to win a game on one? And what are the strengths and weaknesses of this particular team, other than the obvious fact that they go from playing badly to playing well after a training montage? A great sports movie—North Dallas Forty, Rocky, Breaking Away—gives its characters athletic personalities: Who's cool under pressure? Who's a choker? Who's phoning it in? Aside from Damon's Pienaar, who is himself little more than a resolute slab of muscle, the Springboks barely get personalities, period.
As a non-South African, I can't speak to the accuracy of the movie's racial politics, but they feel insultingly vague. A feel-good montage scored to a pop song that brags "I'm colorblind" smacks of self-congratulation, and the frequent paeans to equality and justice have an abstract, civics-class quality. The movie's only real suspense comes early on in a subplot about racial antagonism in the ranks of Mandela's security staff, but the Springboks' victory seems to wash all these tensions away in a rush of bonhomie. Invictus, based on a nonfiction account by John Carlin, posits Mandela's embrace of the national rugby team as a visionary moment of governance, but the movie never pauses to consider the question that must have dogged the president at the time: What if the 'Boks hadn't won the game?
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Scrooge, the banker!
Yet in the era of global financial crisis and multi-billion-dollar fraud, Jim Carrey believes Dickens's tale about how the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge learns to change his ways remains as relevant today as ever.
"I think it's a very pressing story nowadays, too," said Carrey, the star of Disney's re-imagining of the classic, released in North America on November 6. "I think stories get told at times when they're supposed to be told."
Related Articles
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin to host the Oscars
Jim Carrey and Colin Firth talk about A Christmas Carol
Snow in Cannes? Christmas in May?
Peter Pan, Richmond Theatre; A Christmas Carol, Rose Theatre, Kingston - review
Monday's BBC iPlayer choices
Financial crisis: We should turn to Charles Dickens in hard times, not just Little Dorrit"Scrooge is the first corporate scumbag. The unloved scumbag. So, in this time when all our constructs are breaking down because of greed, this story is so pressing," Carrey added.
"Everybody loves a good transformational story. You know, somebody who sees the light, who finally finds out what's important in life. And, this is one of the greatest ones ever written."
Just like the character of Scrooge, Carrey was confronted with a vision of his future during the making of the film.
But while Scrooge's insight came via the spooky Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, Carrey's own premonition was entirely due to his appearance after the 3D movie's special effects wizards went to work.
Instead of the familiar 47-year-old face known to millions in hits such as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Bruce Almighty, Carrey said he was left staring at the spitting image of his father.
"When I saw the movie, one of the first things I said when I saw the first close up of Scrooge is, 'my family is going to have a heart attack, because that is my father,'" he said.
"It's unbelievable. It's really a look into the future for me. Not the long chin and the long nose, but the look is what I'm going to look like when I'm old," Carrey added.
Disney's new take on the classic is the latest in a long line of adaptations of the beloved 1843 novella, with the first screen version coming more than a century ago with in the 1901 British short Scrooge.
The new film sees Carrey play the bitter, money-grabbing Scrooge as well as the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come.
The film, also featuring Robin Wright Penn and Gary Oldman, is directed by Oscar-winner Robert Zemeckis.
Zemeckis, writer and co-director of the phenomenally successful 1985 hit Back to the Future, said the story of Scrooge "might be the greatest time travel story written in the English language".
"It's fabulous... definitely this story influenced my own time travel stories," he said.
Like his groundbreaking 2004 hit Polar Express, Zemeckis uses performance capture technology to bring Scrooge and other characters to life, where each actor's movements are filmed and fused with animation.
For Carrey, the technique meant he and other performers were acting blind, with only a vague idea of what would actually end up on the screen.
"For an actor, there are certain aspects of the technology that are so exciting and amazing creatively that you can't wait to see what it turns into," he revealed. "For an actor, there are extra challenges. You have to create the ambiance and the belief in your surroundings in your head.
"I can't wait to do the process again. Watching it, you never know where it was going to go. You have to go through months of panic, not knowing and then slowly you start to fall in love with it. 'Oh, my God, look what they've done.' It's unbelievable."
"I think it's a very pressing story nowadays, too," said Carrey, the star of Disney's re-imagining of the classic, released in North America on November 6. "I think stories get told at times when they're supposed to be told."
Related Articles
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin to host the Oscars
Jim Carrey and Colin Firth talk about A Christmas Carol
Snow in Cannes? Christmas in May?
Peter Pan, Richmond Theatre; A Christmas Carol, Rose Theatre, Kingston - review
Monday's BBC iPlayer choices
Financial crisis: We should turn to Charles Dickens in hard times, not just Little Dorrit"Scrooge is the first corporate scumbag. The unloved scumbag. So, in this time when all our constructs are breaking down because of greed, this story is so pressing," Carrey added.
"Everybody loves a good transformational story. You know, somebody who sees the light, who finally finds out what's important in life. And, this is one of the greatest ones ever written."
Just like the character of Scrooge, Carrey was confronted with a vision of his future during the making of the film.
But while Scrooge's insight came via the spooky Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, Carrey's own premonition was entirely due to his appearance after the 3D movie's special effects wizards went to work.
Instead of the familiar 47-year-old face known to millions in hits such as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Bruce Almighty, Carrey said he was left staring at the spitting image of his father.
"When I saw the movie, one of the first things I said when I saw the first close up of Scrooge is, 'my family is going to have a heart attack, because that is my father,'" he said.
"It's unbelievable. It's really a look into the future for me. Not the long chin and the long nose, but the look is what I'm going to look like when I'm old," Carrey added.
Disney's new take on the classic is the latest in a long line of adaptations of the beloved 1843 novella, with the first screen version coming more than a century ago with in the 1901 British short Scrooge.
The new film sees Carrey play the bitter, money-grabbing Scrooge as well as the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come.
The film, also featuring Robin Wright Penn and Gary Oldman, is directed by Oscar-winner Robert Zemeckis.
Zemeckis, writer and co-director of the phenomenally successful 1985 hit Back to the Future, said the story of Scrooge "might be the greatest time travel story written in the English language".
"It's fabulous... definitely this story influenced my own time travel stories," he said.
Like his groundbreaking 2004 hit Polar Express, Zemeckis uses performance capture technology to bring Scrooge and other characters to life, where each actor's movements are filmed and fused with animation.
For Carrey, the technique meant he and other performers were acting blind, with only a vague idea of what would actually end up on the screen.
"For an actor, there are certain aspects of the technology that are so exciting and amazing creatively that you can't wait to see what it turns into," he revealed. "For an actor, there are extra challenges. You have to create the ambiance and the belief in your surroundings in your head.
"I can't wait to do the process again. Watching it, you never know where it was going to go. You have to go through months of panic, not knowing and then slowly you start to fall in love with it. 'Oh, my God, look what they've done.' It's unbelievable."
Worth a visit.....
I found this fascinating quote today:
Things are “hotting up” in the Global warming arena. You’ll know that a bunch of so-called scientists have been cobbling together various facts and figures in a most unscrupulous concoction of half truths and lies.gorseinonboy.co.uk, Gorsein Boy, Dec 2009
You should read the whole article.
Things are “hotting up” in the Global warming arena. You’ll know that a bunch of so-called scientists have been cobbling together various facts and figures in a most unscrupulous concoction of half truths and lies.gorseinonboy.co.uk, Gorsein Boy, Dec 2009
You should read the whole article.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
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Saturday, December 5, 2009
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Thursday, December 3, 2009
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Image by ecstaticist via Flickr
I'm thinking about books for Xmas. Now what can I convince my wife I really need to have?
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Gordon Brown’s son to blame for wife’s mysterious Tweet : Globally
Gordon Brown’s son to blame for wife’s mysterious Tweet : Globally
Now Mrs Brown and littler Brown become Gaffers.....as in making a gaffe!
Well - I've heard it all now. When one makes a mistake blame it on the kid. Economy down the shoot, the littler gets to be blamed. Problems in Afghanistan. Ah, littler again.........
Now Mrs Brown and littler Brown become Gaffers.....as in making a gaffe!
Well - I've heard it all now. When one makes a mistake blame it on the kid. Economy down the shoot, the littler gets to be blamed. Problems in Afghanistan. Ah, littler again.........
Son Objects to Moving Camus’s Remains - NYTimes.com
Son Objects to Moving Camus’s Remains - NYTimes.com
If I were Camus' son I'd be annoyed. Bet Camus is churning in his grave.
If I were Camus' son I'd be annoyed. Bet Camus is churning in his grave.
I'm relaunching today.......
Relaunch today for this site. No more St Yrieix Book club. Welcome to the Lincoln Reviews for films and books of all kinds.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Meet Mitch Albom.........
Dear David Vernon Goddard,
I work with Mitch Albom on his new website, and noticed that you recently wrote about Mitch and his work on your blog. So I thought you might be interested to know that we just launched a new website at www.MitchAlbom.com.
There's a huge amount of content on the new site, including dozens of videos and articles related to Mitch's books; a link to live-stream his daily talk radio program; message boards where fans can share their thoughts and comments with Mitch and other readers; a special section devoted to Reading Groups; a community service section where organizations can post volunteer events and users can search by zip code to find opportunities in their local communities; an archive of every column Mitch has written for the Detroit Free Press (more than 4,000), including all his new columns as he writes them; his ESPN sports commentaries; clips from movies made from his books; a section devoted to theatre productions of plays; and a place for teachers to share stories about using Mitch's books in the classroom. And there's much more as well.
You'll need to register in order to access certain parts of site, and we encourage you to sign up for the Newsletter as well. In the next couple of weeks Mitch will be making an announcement about his new book, Have a Little Faith.
We hope you'll visit soon and return often.
Kind regards,
Brenda
www.MitchAlbom.com
Please note that your email address has not been added to any list and this is the only message you will receive from us. If you wish to receive information about Mitch and his work in the future please sign up for the Newsletter at www.MitchAlbom.com.
I work with Mitch Albom on his new website, and noticed that you recently wrote about Mitch and his work on your blog. So I thought you might be interested to know that we just launched a new website at www.MitchAlbom.com.
There's a huge amount of content on the new site, including dozens of videos and articles related to Mitch's books; a link to live-stream his daily talk radio program; message boards where fans can share their thoughts and comments with Mitch and other readers; a special section devoted to Reading Groups; a community service section where organizations can post volunteer events and users can search by zip code to find opportunities in their local communities; an archive of every column Mitch has written for the Detroit Free Press (more than 4,000), including all his new columns as he writes them; his ESPN sports commentaries; clips from movies made from his books; a section devoted to theatre productions of plays; and a place for teachers to share stories about using Mitch's books in the classroom. And there's much more as well.
You'll need to register in order to access certain parts of site, and we encourage you to sign up for the Newsletter as well. In the next couple of weeks Mitch will be making an announcement about his new book, Have a Little Faith.
We hope you'll visit soon and return often.
Kind regards,
Brenda
www.MitchAlbom.com
Please note that your email address has not been added to any list and this is the only message you will receive from us. If you wish to receive information about Mitch and his work in the future please sign up for the Newsletter at www.MitchAlbom.com.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
March Meeting of the Book Club.....
Next Book will be "Snow Falling on Cedars"
Remember New venue to be confirmed by Pat and a different time.
20th March in the afternoon!!!!
Remember New venue to be confirmed by Pat and a different time.
20th March in the afternoon!!!!
Monday, February 23, 2009
The Five People you meet in Heaven.....A guide to reading
From the author of the number one New York Times bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie comes this long-awaited follow-up, an enchanting, beautifully crafted novel that explores a mystery only heaven can unfold.Eddie is a grizzled war veteran who feels trapped in a meaningless life of fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. As the park has changed over the years -- from the Loop-the-Loop to the Pipeline Plunge -- so, too, has Eddie changed, from optimistic youth to embittered old age.
His days are a dull routine of work, loneliness, and regret.Then, on his 83rd birthday, Eddie dies in a tragic accident, trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. With his final breath, he feels two small hands in his -- and then nothing.
He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden, but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people who were in it.
These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed your path forever.One by one, Eddie's five people illuminate the unseen connections of his earthly life. As the story builds to its stunning conclusion, Eddie desperately seeks redemption in the still-unknown last act of his life: Was it a heroic success or a devastating failure? The answer, which comes from the most unlikely of sources, is as inspirational as a glimpse of heaven itself.In The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom gives us an astoundingly original story that will change everything you've ever thought about the afterlife -- and the meaning of our lives here on earth. With a timeless tale, appealing to all, this is a book that readers of fine fiction, and those who loved Tuesdays with Morrie, will treasure.
1. At the start of The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Albom says that "all endings are also beginnings." In general, what does this mean? How does it relate to this story in particular? Share something in your life that has begun as another thing ended, and the events that followed.
2. What initially grabs your attention in The Five People You Meet in Heaven? What holds it?
3. How does counting down the final minutes of Eddie's life affect you as a reader? Why does Albom do this? Other storytelling devices Albom uses include moving from past to present by weaving Eddie's birthdays throughout the story. How do these techniques help inform the story? What information do you learn by moving around in time? How effective is Albom's style for this story in particular?
4. What does Eddie look like and what kind of guy is he? Look at and discuss some of the details and descriptions that paint a picture of Eddie and his place of business. What is it about an amusement park that makes it a good backdrop for this story?
5. Consider the idea that "no story sits by itself. Sometimes stories meet at corners and sometimes they cover one another completely, like stones beneath a river." How does this statement relate to The Five People You Meet in Heaven?
6. How does Albom build tension around the amusement park ride accident? What is the significance of Eddie finding himself in the amusement park again after he dies? What is your reaction when Eddie realizes he's spent his entire life trying to get away from Ruby Pier and he is back there immediately after death? Do you think this is important? Why?
7. Describe what Albom's heaven is like. If it differs from what you imagined, share those differences. Who are the five people Eddie meets? Why them? What are their relationships to Eddie? What are the characteristics and qualities that make them the five people for Eddie?
8. Share your reactions and thoughts about the Blue Man's story, his relationship with his father, and his taking silver nitrate. What, if anything, does this have to do with Eddie? Why does he say to Eddie, "This is not your heaven, it's mine"?
9. How does the Blue Man die? What affect does it have on you when you look at the same story from two different points of view -– his and Eddie's? Can you share any events that you have been involved in that can be viewed entirely differently, from another's point of view? How aware are we of other's experiences of events that happen simultaneously to us and to them? Why?
10. Discuss what it means that "That there are no random acts. That we are all connected. That you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind." Even though Eddie hasn't been reincarnated, consider karma in Eddie's life (where Eddie's actions would affect his reincarnation). If it isn't karma, what is Albom telling us about life, and death?
11. Think about Eddie's war experiences and discuss your reactions to Albom's evocation of war. What did Eddie learn by being in war? How did he "come home a different man"? Why did the captain shoot Eddie? Explore what it means when the captain tells Eddie, "I took your leg to save your life." Why does the captain tell Eddie that sacrifice is not really a loss, but a gain? Examine whether or not Eddie understands this, and the significance of this lesson.
12. Discuss what you might say to Eddie when he asks "why would heaven make you relive your own decay?".
13. Examine whether or not you agree with the old woman when she tells Eddie, "You have peace when you make it with yourself," and why. Consider what she means when she says, "things that happen before you are born still affect you. And people who come before your time affect you as well." How does this relate to Eddie's life? Who are some who have come before you that have affected your own life?
14. What is Eddie's father's response each time Eddie decides to make an independent move, away from working at the pier? Examine how Eddie's father's choices and decisions actually shape Eddie's life. Why does Eddie cover for his father at the pier when his father becomes ill? What happens then? Share your own experience of a decision your own parents made that affected your life, for better or for worse.
15. Who tells Eddie that "we think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do we do to ourselves"? What is the significance of this particular person in Eddie's life? Why is this important for Eddie to understand? Is it important for all of us to understand? Why? Discuss whether or not you agree that, "all parents damage their children. It cannot be helped." How was Eddie damaged?
16. Why does Marguerite want to be in a place where there are only weddings? How does this relate to her own life, and to her relationship and life with Eddie?
17. Discuss why Eddie is angry at his wife for dying so young. Examine what Marguerite means when she says, "Lost love is still love. It takes a different form. You can't see their smile or bring them food or tousle their hair or move them around on the dance floor. But when these senses waken, another heightens. . . . Life has an end. Love doesn't." Why does she say this to Eddie? Do you think he gets it? Discuss whether or not you agree with her, and why.
18. Why does Eddie come upon the children in the river? What does Tala mean when she says "you make good for me"? Discuss whether or not Eddie's life is a penance, and why. What is the significance of Tala pulling Eddie to safety after he dies? Why is it Tala that pulls him to heaven and not one of the other four?
19. What would you say to Eddie when he laments that he accomplished nothing with his life? Discuss what has he accomplished.
20. Briefly recall the five lessons Eddie learns. How might these be important for all of us? Share which five people might meet you in heaven, and what additional or different lessons might be important to your life. Discuss how Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven has provided you with a different perspective of your life.
"Sincere. . . . A book with the genuine power to stir and comfort its readers."
—Janet Maslin, The New York Times"Simply told, sentimental, and profoundly true, this is an contemporary American fable that will be cherished by a vast readership."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Fans of Tuesdays with Morrie will be delighted with this novel."
—People magazine"Transcendent. . . . Albom has aimed high here, and there's a whiff of paradise as a result."
—Atlanta Journal Constitution"Albom has a gift for tapping into readers' sincerely sentimental spots, and he will undoubtedly connect again here."
—Cleveland Plain Dealer"Albom has the ability to make you cry in spite of yourself."
—The Boston Globe"Albom has done a masterful job."
—Oakland Press"There's much wisdom here . . . An earnest meditation on the intrinsic value of human life."
—Los Angeles Times"This is the fable you will devour when you fall in love. This is the tale you will keep by your side when you are lost. This is the story you will turn to again and again, because it possesses the rare magic to let you see yourself and the world anew. This book is a gift to the soul."
—Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club and The Bonesetter's Daughter"Anyone who loved Tuesdays with Morrie should delight in reading The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Mitch Albom has populated his larger-than-life tale with memorable characters and filled it with the abundant warmth and wisdom that we've come to expect from this gifted storyteller."
—John Burnham Schwartz, author of Claire Marvel"This is a lovely book, sweet, entertaining and wise. What a gutsy, surprising follow-up to Morrie."
—Anne Lamott, author of Traveling Mercies and Blue Shoe"Deep, profound, superbly imaginative, written with the quiet eloquence of a storyteller who dares to leap into the most magical of places. This poetic book is full of lessons and hope."
—James McBride, author of The Color of Water and Miracle at St. Anna"A moving flight of fantasy come to teach us that Heaven is where we finally learn what our life was about."
—Harold S. Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People"In The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom lifts us to a new level. You'll find here echoes of the classics -- The Odyssey, for one -- and that puts Albom's book in the best of company."
—Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes and 'Tis"One of the best books I've read. Very well written. Touching and very comforting. Makes you stop and think of how people affect each others lives under the simplest circumstances, and no matter who and what you are in life, you can always make a difference."
—Maria Linsangan, book buyer, The News Group, Sacramento"I was changed by this book. It has that wonderful ring of truth that stories have which affirm the value of the individual."
—Donna Cressman, Maxwell Books, DeSoto TX"A books that you find yourself thinking about days...even weeks later, reading favorite sections to others and thinking about how your own actions and choices ripple through life and affect those around you."
—Julie Smith, Auntie's Bookstore, Spokane WA
His days are a dull routine of work, loneliness, and regret.Then, on his 83rd birthday, Eddie dies in a tragic accident, trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. With his final breath, he feels two small hands in his -- and then nothing.
He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden, but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people who were in it.
These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed your path forever.One by one, Eddie's five people illuminate the unseen connections of his earthly life. As the story builds to its stunning conclusion, Eddie desperately seeks redemption in the still-unknown last act of his life: Was it a heroic success or a devastating failure? The answer, which comes from the most unlikely of sources, is as inspirational as a glimpse of heaven itself.In The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom gives us an astoundingly original story that will change everything you've ever thought about the afterlife -- and the meaning of our lives here on earth. With a timeless tale, appealing to all, this is a book that readers of fine fiction, and those who loved Tuesdays with Morrie, will treasure.
1. At the start of The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Albom says that "all endings are also beginnings." In general, what does this mean? How does it relate to this story in particular? Share something in your life that has begun as another thing ended, and the events that followed.
2. What initially grabs your attention in The Five People You Meet in Heaven? What holds it?
3. How does counting down the final minutes of Eddie's life affect you as a reader? Why does Albom do this? Other storytelling devices Albom uses include moving from past to present by weaving Eddie's birthdays throughout the story. How do these techniques help inform the story? What information do you learn by moving around in time? How effective is Albom's style for this story in particular?
4. What does Eddie look like and what kind of guy is he? Look at and discuss some of the details and descriptions that paint a picture of Eddie and his place of business. What is it about an amusement park that makes it a good backdrop for this story?
5. Consider the idea that "no story sits by itself. Sometimes stories meet at corners and sometimes they cover one another completely, like stones beneath a river." How does this statement relate to The Five People You Meet in Heaven?
6. How does Albom build tension around the amusement park ride accident? What is the significance of Eddie finding himself in the amusement park again after he dies? What is your reaction when Eddie realizes he's spent his entire life trying to get away from Ruby Pier and he is back there immediately after death? Do you think this is important? Why?
7. Describe what Albom's heaven is like. If it differs from what you imagined, share those differences. Who are the five people Eddie meets? Why them? What are their relationships to Eddie? What are the characteristics and qualities that make them the five people for Eddie?
8. Share your reactions and thoughts about the Blue Man's story, his relationship with his father, and his taking silver nitrate. What, if anything, does this have to do with Eddie? Why does he say to Eddie, "This is not your heaven, it's mine"?
9. How does the Blue Man die? What affect does it have on you when you look at the same story from two different points of view -– his and Eddie's? Can you share any events that you have been involved in that can be viewed entirely differently, from another's point of view? How aware are we of other's experiences of events that happen simultaneously to us and to them? Why?
10. Discuss what it means that "That there are no random acts. That we are all connected. That you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind." Even though Eddie hasn't been reincarnated, consider karma in Eddie's life (where Eddie's actions would affect his reincarnation). If it isn't karma, what is Albom telling us about life, and death?
11. Think about Eddie's war experiences and discuss your reactions to Albom's evocation of war. What did Eddie learn by being in war? How did he "come home a different man"? Why did the captain shoot Eddie? Explore what it means when the captain tells Eddie, "I took your leg to save your life." Why does the captain tell Eddie that sacrifice is not really a loss, but a gain? Examine whether or not Eddie understands this, and the significance of this lesson.
12. Discuss what you might say to Eddie when he asks "why would heaven make you relive your own decay?".
13. Examine whether or not you agree with the old woman when she tells Eddie, "You have peace when you make it with yourself," and why. Consider what she means when she says, "things that happen before you are born still affect you. And people who come before your time affect you as well." How does this relate to Eddie's life? Who are some who have come before you that have affected your own life?
14. What is Eddie's father's response each time Eddie decides to make an independent move, away from working at the pier? Examine how Eddie's father's choices and decisions actually shape Eddie's life. Why does Eddie cover for his father at the pier when his father becomes ill? What happens then? Share your own experience of a decision your own parents made that affected your life, for better or for worse.
15. Who tells Eddie that "we think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do we do to ourselves"? What is the significance of this particular person in Eddie's life? Why is this important for Eddie to understand? Is it important for all of us to understand? Why? Discuss whether or not you agree that, "all parents damage their children. It cannot be helped." How was Eddie damaged?
16. Why does Marguerite want to be in a place where there are only weddings? How does this relate to her own life, and to her relationship and life with Eddie?
17. Discuss why Eddie is angry at his wife for dying so young. Examine what Marguerite means when she says, "Lost love is still love. It takes a different form. You can't see their smile or bring them food or tousle their hair or move them around on the dance floor. But when these senses waken, another heightens. . . . Life has an end. Love doesn't." Why does she say this to Eddie? Do you think he gets it? Discuss whether or not you agree with her, and why.
18. Why does Eddie come upon the children in the river? What does Tala mean when she says "you make good for me"? Discuss whether or not Eddie's life is a penance, and why. What is the significance of Tala pulling Eddie to safety after he dies? Why is it Tala that pulls him to heaven and not one of the other four?
19. What would you say to Eddie when he laments that he accomplished nothing with his life? Discuss what has he accomplished.
20. Briefly recall the five lessons Eddie learns. How might these be important for all of us? Share which five people might meet you in heaven, and what additional or different lessons might be important to your life. Discuss how Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven has provided you with a different perspective of your life.
"Sincere. . . . A book with the genuine power to stir and comfort its readers."
—Janet Maslin, The New York Times"Simply told, sentimental, and profoundly true, this is an contemporary American fable that will be cherished by a vast readership."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Fans of Tuesdays with Morrie will be delighted with this novel."
—People magazine"Transcendent. . . . Albom has aimed high here, and there's a whiff of paradise as a result."
—Atlanta Journal Constitution"Albom has a gift for tapping into readers' sincerely sentimental spots, and he will undoubtedly connect again here."
—Cleveland Plain Dealer"Albom has the ability to make you cry in spite of yourself."
—The Boston Globe"Albom has done a masterful job."
—Oakland Press"There's much wisdom here . . . An earnest meditation on the intrinsic value of human life."
—Los Angeles Times"This is the fable you will devour when you fall in love. This is the tale you will keep by your side when you are lost. This is the story you will turn to again and again, because it possesses the rare magic to let you see yourself and the world anew. This book is a gift to the soul."
—Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club and The Bonesetter's Daughter"Anyone who loved Tuesdays with Morrie should delight in reading The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Mitch Albom has populated his larger-than-life tale with memorable characters and filled it with the abundant warmth and wisdom that we've come to expect from this gifted storyteller."
—John Burnham Schwartz, author of Claire Marvel"This is a lovely book, sweet, entertaining and wise. What a gutsy, surprising follow-up to Morrie."
—Anne Lamott, author of Traveling Mercies and Blue Shoe"Deep, profound, superbly imaginative, written with the quiet eloquence of a storyteller who dares to leap into the most magical of places. This poetic book is full of lessons and hope."
—James McBride, author of The Color of Water and Miracle at St. Anna"A moving flight of fantasy come to teach us that Heaven is where we finally learn what our life was about."
—Harold S. Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People"In The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom lifts us to a new level. You'll find here echoes of the classics -- The Odyssey, for one -- and that puts Albom's book in the best of company."
—Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes and 'Tis"One of the best books I've read. Very well written. Touching and very comforting. Makes you stop and think of how people affect each others lives under the simplest circumstances, and no matter who and what you are in life, you can always make a difference."
—Maria Linsangan, book buyer, The News Group, Sacramento"I was changed by this book. It has that wonderful ring of truth that stories have which affirm the value of the individual."
—Donna Cressman, Maxwell Books, DeSoto TX"A books that you find yourself thinking about days...even weeks later, reading favorite sections to others and thinking about how your own actions and choices ripple through life and affect those around you."
—Julie Smith, Auntie's Bookstore, Spokane WA
The Five People you meet in Heaven......
THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN
Mitch Albom
Hyperion PressFictionISBN: 1401308589
• Read an Excerpt-->• Reading Group Guide
When I finished the last page of Mitch Albom's TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE, I knew I had to share the book with as many people as I could. I proceeded to buy 41 copies, inscribe them all to my friends and family members, hand them out, mail them --- whatever I had to do to spread the word. The book was that moving, in my opinion. So I was eagerly looking forward to THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN and I am happy to report that Albom did not disappoint me. He is a first-rate storyteller, and THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN is an imaginative, creative tale in the tradition of the best fairy tales or folklore.Eddie is a maintenance man who keeps the rides safe at the Ruby Pier amusement park. His 83rd birthday seems like any other day --- he inspects the rides, watches the people, makes pipe cleaner animals for the children. However on this day he dies unexpectedly, trying to rescue a young girl in harm's way.Eddie wakes up in heaven --- but not to the "paradise garden, a place where (we) can float on clouds and laze in rivers and mountains," not the idyllic place that heaven has been described as throughout time. Eddie awakens to a series of introductions --- or reintroductions --- to five people whom he had met during his life, either in passing or at length. They each carry answers to the whys and hows of Eddie's life. With each meeting he relives in part that time of his life, but now the gaps are filled in. For maybe the first time he sees what REALLY happened. "There are five people you meet in heaven," the Blue Man, Eddie's first encounter, explains. "Each of us was in your life for a reason. You may not have known the reason at the time, and that is what heaven is for. For understanding your life on earth."All five are of course deceased, and they all impart knowledge of Eddie's life and life in general. For instance, the Blue Man asks, "Why do people gather when others die," and his explanation is at the very core of the meaning of Albom's book: "It is because the human spirit knows, deep down, that all lives intersect. That death doesn't just take someone, it misses someone else, and in the small distance between being taken and being missed lives are changed." It is insights like these that leave the reader asking, "What does Mitch Albom know that we don't?"What he knows is that we all seek answers. We look for meaning behind the experiences in our lives. More often than not, we never get the answers but we continue --- we plod on, happy or unhappy, fulfilled or unfulfilled, pain-free or in pain. We live. Albom doesn't pretend to offer us the answers, but he does offer us an almost Taoist interpretation of life. It is. It just is. The answers may never be revealed. And do they need to be?THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN is a beautiful story. Eddie is human and likable for his foibles, fears and faults. The writing is often lyrical and fable-like. And though the book is fiction, behind it lies Albom's lifelong love of his uncle, which lends a tenderness and intimacy to the tale on par with TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE. You'll want to share this with your friends, family, acquaintances, and even those nameless people you pass on the street who may have played a larger role in your life than you ever could have imagined. --- Reviewed by Roberta O'Hara
Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.Click here to get the audiobook from Audible.com.
© Copyright 1996-2009, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
Mitch Albom
Hyperion PressFictionISBN: 1401308589
• Read an Excerpt-->• Reading Group Guide
When I finished the last page of Mitch Albom's TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE, I knew I had to share the book with as many people as I could. I proceeded to buy 41 copies, inscribe them all to my friends and family members, hand them out, mail them --- whatever I had to do to spread the word. The book was that moving, in my opinion. So I was eagerly looking forward to THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN and I am happy to report that Albom did not disappoint me. He is a first-rate storyteller, and THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN is an imaginative, creative tale in the tradition of the best fairy tales or folklore.Eddie is a maintenance man who keeps the rides safe at the Ruby Pier amusement park. His 83rd birthday seems like any other day --- he inspects the rides, watches the people, makes pipe cleaner animals for the children. However on this day he dies unexpectedly, trying to rescue a young girl in harm's way.Eddie wakes up in heaven --- but not to the "paradise garden, a place where (we) can float on clouds and laze in rivers and mountains," not the idyllic place that heaven has been described as throughout time. Eddie awakens to a series of introductions --- or reintroductions --- to five people whom he had met during his life, either in passing or at length. They each carry answers to the whys and hows of Eddie's life. With each meeting he relives in part that time of his life, but now the gaps are filled in. For maybe the first time he sees what REALLY happened. "There are five people you meet in heaven," the Blue Man, Eddie's first encounter, explains. "Each of us was in your life for a reason. You may not have known the reason at the time, and that is what heaven is for. For understanding your life on earth."All five are of course deceased, and they all impart knowledge of Eddie's life and life in general. For instance, the Blue Man asks, "Why do people gather when others die," and his explanation is at the very core of the meaning of Albom's book: "It is because the human spirit knows, deep down, that all lives intersect. That death doesn't just take someone, it misses someone else, and in the small distance between being taken and being missed lives are changed." It is insights like these that leave the reader asking, "What does Mitch Albom know that we don't?"What he knows is that we all seek answers. We look for meaning behind the experiences in our lives. More often than not, we never get the answers but we continue --- we plod on, happy or unhappy, fulfilled or unfulfilled, pain-free or in pain. We live. Albom doesn't pretend to offer us the answers, but he does offer us an almost Taoist interpretation of life. It is. It just is. The answers may never be revealed. And do they need to be?THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN is a beautiful story. Eddie is human and likable for his foibles, fears and faults. The writing is often lyrical and fable-like. And though the book is fiction, behind it lies Albom's lifelong love of his uncle, which lends a tenderness and intimacy to the tale on par with TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE. You'll want to share this with your friends, family, acquaintances, and even those nameless people you pass on the street who may have played a larger role in your life than you ever could have imagined. --- Reviewed by Roberta O'Hara
Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.Click here to get the audiobook from Audible.com.
© Copyright 1996-2009, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
An Approach to...... Snow Falling on Cedars......
Snow Falling On Cedars
by David Guterson
0-679-76402-X
480 pages
$12.00
About the Book
About this guide........
The discussion topics, author biography, historical material, and bibliography that follow are meant to enhance your group's reading of David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars.
We hope that they will provide you with new ways of looking at--and talking about--a novel that has been widely praised for its eloquent dramatization of themes of love, justice, racism, community, and conscience. These ideas arise organically from the book's suspenseful story of a murder trial, its evocation of a lost love, and its brooding, poetically nuanced portraits of character and place.
The place is the fictional island of San Piedro off the coast of Washington, a community of "five thousand damp souls" [p. 5] who support themselves through salmon fishing and berry farming. The time is 1954, eight years after the end of World War II, in which some of San Piedro's young men lost their lives and many others were irreparably injured, physically as well as emotionally.
Now one of those survivors--a gill-netter named Carl Heine--has drowned under mysterious circumstances and another fisherman is on trial for his murder. The fact that the accused, Kabuo Miyamoto, is a first-generation Japanese American is not mere coincidence. To the local coroner, Heine's injuries suggested that the sheriff look for "a Jap with a bloody gun butt" [p. 59]. And among San Piedro's Anglos, hostility against Japanese still runs high, even if, like Kabuo, those Japanese were born and raised on the island and fought for the United States during the war. Kabuo's trial, in a sense, is a continuation of the white community's quarrel with its Asian neighbors.
But the Japanese--and particularly Kabuo and his wife, Hatsue--have their own grounds for resentment, stemming from years of bigotry that culminated during World War II, when thousands of Japanese Americans were interned in government relocation camps and Kabuo was effectively robbed of land that his father had worked and paid for. Even as the state presents its case against Kabuo Miyamoto, the reader is compelled to recognize the Miyamotos' case against their white neighbors, the best of whom stood by as an entire community was driven into exile. Their case never receives a public hearing: it can only be prosecuted in the courtrooms of memory and conscience.
It is not only the Japanese who remember. Among the trial's observers is Ishmael Chambers, the embittered war veteran who runs the San Piedro Review. Ishmael is not an objective witness. He grew up with Carl and Kabuo. He lost an arm on Tarawa to Japanese machinegun fire. Most important, Hatsue was Ishmael's boyhood love and he has never come to terms with losing her. In the course of the trial he will find himself torn between rancor and conscience, loath to forgive Hatsue yet unable to condemn her husband. To a large extent, Snow Falling on Cedars is about the ways in which Ishmael, Kabuo, and Hatsue at last acknowledge their respective losses and recognize the sense of mutual indebtedness and need that may survive even the gravest injuries and betrayals--the way in which loss itself may become a kind of kinship. In a place as isolated as San Piedro, "identity was geography instead of blood" [p. 206] and people make enemies reluctantly, knowing that "an enemy on an island is an enemy forever" [p. 439]. The snow that falls on David Guterson's hauntingly imagined world falls on everyone who lives in it.
Historical Background...........
Between 1901 and 1907, almost 110,000 Japanese immigrated to the United States. They were drawn by promises of ready work--American railroads actually sent recruiters to Japanese port cities, offering laborers three to five times their customary wages--and by worsening economic conditions in their homeland, which was undergoing social upheaval in the aftermath of the Meiji Restoration. Although many originally came as dekaseginin--temporary sojourners--work was plentiful, not only on the railroads, but in the lumber camps, salmon fisheries, and fruit orchards of Oregon and Washington. Increasingly, the newcomers stayed on. Many purchased their own farms. In time, these issei--first-generation Japanese--started families.
The Japanese government actively encouraged emigration, and although the Gentleman's Agreement of 1908 curbed the flow of Japanese men, it allowed unrestricted entry to their wives and children. Many women were "picture brides," who came to join husbands they knew only through photographs and letters and whom they had "married" by proxy in ceremonies in their native villages.
Very quickly the newcomers encountered antagonism. Although Japanese constituted less than two percent of all immigrants to the U.S., newspapers trumpeted an "invasion." The mayor of San Francisco proclaimed that "the Japanese are not the stuff of which American citizens can be made." The Sacramento Bee warned that "the Japs...will increase like rats" if allowed to settle down. The Asiatic Exclusion League agitated for legislation to halt all Japanese immigration. Politicians ran for office on anti-Japanese platforms. In 1923, the state of Oregon prohibited issei from legally buying land. A year later, Congress passed the National Origins Act, which banned all immigration from Japan.
In spite of this, the newcomers thrived. They found ways of getting around some laws (under Oregon's Alien Land Law, first-generation Japanese could legalize their land purchases by registering them in the names of their American-born-or nisei-children). They tolerated other laws. Meanwhile, the immigrants preserved the ceremonies and values of Japan even as they encouraged their children to acculturate and, particularly, to educate themselves. "You must outperform your detractors," one issei counseled his children. Typically, the nisei grew up thinking of themselves as Americans, yet were reminded of their difference every time they encountered the taunts and ostracism of their white neighbors.
Following the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, hostility turned into paranoia--and paranoia became law. Japanese who had lived in America for thirty years were accused of spying for their native land. The day after Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Treasury Department ordered all Japanese-owned businesses closed and all issei bank accounts frozen. The U.S. government had already compiled lists of Japanese whose loyalties might be suspect, and more than 1,000 businessmen, community leaders, priests, and educators were arrested up and down the West Coast.
The restrictions escalated. Japanese homes were searched for contraband. Telephone service was cut off. One newspaper columnist wrote: "I am for the immediate removal of every Japanese on the West Coast to a point deep in the interior....Herd 'em up, pack 'em off and give 'em the inside room in the badlands...let 'em be pinched, hurt, and hungry." In February 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which empowered the government to remove "any and all" persons of Japanese ancestry from sensitive military areas in four western states. Japanese residents had only days in which to evacuate. They were compelled to sell their land and businesses for a fraction of their value, or to lease them to neighbors who would later refuse to pay their rent. All told, some 110,000 Japanese Americans were deported from their homes to hastily built camps such as Tule Lake and Manzanar, where they lived behind barbed wire for the duration of the war.
Neither Germans nor Italians living in this country were subject to similar restrictions, and recently declassified documents reveal that the Japanese population was never considered a serious threat to American security. In all of World War II, no person of Japanese ancestry living in the United States, Alaska, or Hawaii was ever charged with any act of espionage or sabotage. As one nisei later wrote, the victims of Executive Order 9066 were people whose "only crime was their face."
In 1988, the U.S. government formally apologized to Japanese citizens who had been deprived of their civil liberties during World War II.
This information was gathered from Lauren Kessler, Stubborn Twig: Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese-American Family. New York, Random House, 1993.
For discussion.........
Snow Falling on Cedars opens in the middle of Kabuo Miyamoto's trial. It will be pages before we learn the crime of which he has been accused or the nature of the evidence against him. What effect does the author create by withholding this information and introducing it in the form of flashbacks? Where else in the narrative are critical revelations postponed? How is this novel's past related to its fictional present?
The trial functions both as this novel's narrative frame and as its governing metaphor. As we follow it, we are compelled to ask larger questions about the nature of truth, guilt, and responsibility. How does the author interweave these two functions? Which characters are aware that what is at stake is more than one man's guilt?
When the trial begins, San Piedro is in the midst of a snowstorm, which continues throughout its course. What role does snow play--both literally and metaphorically--in the book? Pay particular attention to the way in which snow blurs, freezes, isolates, and immobilizes, even as it holds out the promise of an "impossible winter purity" [p. 8].
How does nature shape this novel?
Guterson divides his island setting into four zones: the town of Amity Harbor; the sea; the strawberry fields; and the cedar forest. What actions take place in these different zones? Which characters are associated with them? How does the author establish a different mood for each setting?
In his first description of Carl Heine [pp. 14-16], Guterson imparts a fair amount of what is seemingly background information: We learn about his mother's sale of the family strawberry farm; about Carl's naval service in World War II; and about his reticence. We learn that Carl is considered "a good man." How do these facts become crucial later on, as mechanisms of plot, as revelations of the dead man's character, and as clues to San Piedro's collective mores? Where else does the author impart critical information in a casual manner, often "camouflaging" it amid material that will turn out to have no further significance? What does this method suggest about the novel's sense of the meaningful--about the value it assigns to things that might be considered random or irrelevant?
When Carl's body is dredged from the water, the sheriff has to remind himself that what he is seeing is a human being. While performing the autopsy, however, Horace Whaley forces himself to think of Carl as "the deceased...a bag of guts, a sack of parts" [p. 54]. Where else in Snow Falling on Cedars are people depersonalized--detached from their identities--either deliberately or inadvertently? What role does depersonalization play within the novel's larger scheme?
What material evidence does the prosecution produce in arguing Kabuo's guilt? Did these bits of information immediately provoke the investigators' suspicions, or only reinforce their preexisting misgivings about Carl's death? Why might they have been so quick to attribute Carl's death to foul play? How does the entire notion of a murder trial--in which facts are interpreted differently by opposing attorneys--fit into this book's thematic structure?
Ishmael suffers from feelings of ambivalence about his home and a cold-blooded detachment from his neighbors. Are we meant to attribute these to the loss of his arm or to other events in his past? How is Ishmael's sense of estrangement mirrored in Hatsue, who as a teenager rebels against her mother's values and at one point declares, "I don't want to be Japanese" [p. 201]? To what extent do Kabuo and Carl suffer from similar feelings? How does this condition of transcendental homelessness serve both to unite and to isolate the novel's characters?
What significance do you ascribe to Ishmael's name? What does Guterson's protagonist have in common with the narrator of Moby-Dick, another story of the sea?
What role has the San Piedro Review played in the life and times of its community? How has Ishmael's stewardship of the paper differed from his father's? In what ways does he resemble his father--of whom his widow says, "He loved humankind dearly and with all his heart, but he disliked most human beings" [p. 36]? What actions of Ishmael's may be said to parallel the older man's?
Ishmael's experience in World War II has cost him an arm. In that same war Horace Whaley, the county coroner, lost his sense of effectiveness, when so many of the men he was supposed to care for died. How has the war affected other characters in this book, both those who served and those who stayed home?
Guterson tells us that "on San Piedro the silent-toiling, autonomous gill-netter became the collective image of the good man" [p. 38]. Thus, Carl's death comes to signify the death of the island's ideal citizen: he represents a delayed casualty of the war in which so many other fine young men were killed. Yet how productive does the ideal of silent individualism turn out to be? To what extent is Carl a casualty of his self-sufficiency? What other characters in this novel adhere to a code of solitude?
Kabuo and Hatsue also possess--and are at times driven by--certain values. As a young girl, Hatsue is taught the importance of cultivating stillness and composure in order "to seek union with the Greater Life" [p. 83]. Kabuo's father imparts to him the martial codes of his ancestors. How do these values determine their behavior, and particularly their responses to internment, war, and imprisonment? How do they clash with the values of the Anglo community, even as they sometimes resemble them?
Racism is a persistent theme in this novel. It is responsible for the internment of Kabuo, Hatsue, and their families, for Kabuo's loss of his land, and perhaps for his indictment for murder. In what ways do the book's Japanese characters respond to the hostility of their white neighbors? How does bigotry manifest itself in the thoughts and behavior of characters like Etta Heine--whose racism is keenly ironic in view of her German origins--Art Moran, and Ishmael himself? Are we meant to see these characters as typical of their place and time?
Although almost all the novel's white characters are guilty of racism, only one of them--Etta Heine--emerges unsympathetically. How do her values and motives differ from those of other San Piedrans? How is her hostility to the Japanese related to her distaste for farming? To what extent are Guterson's characters defined by their feelings for their natural environment?
Ishmael's adolescent romance with Hatsue has been the defining fact of his life, its loss even more wounding than the loss of his arm. Yet when Hatsue first remembers Ishmael, it is only as a "boy" [p. 86] and her recollection of their first kiss is immediately supplanted by the memory of her wedding night with Kabuo. How else does Guterson contrast Hatsue's feelings for these two men? (Note that Hatsue's feelings for both Ishmael and her husband become clear in the course of making love.) What does the disparity between Hatsue's memories and Ishmael's suggest about the nature of love? Where else in this novel do different characters perceive the same events in radically different ways--and with what consequences?
In choosing Kabuo, Hatsue acknowledges "the truth of her private nature" [p. 89]. That choice implies a paradox. For, if Kabuo is a fellow nisei, he is also rooted in the American earth of San Piedro's strawberry fields. How is this doubleness--between Japanese and American--expressed elsewhere in Snow Falling on Cedars?
Ishmael's attraction to Hatsue is closely connected to a yearning for transcendence, as indicated by their early conversation about the ocean. Ishmael says, "It goes forever," while Hatsue insists, "It ends somewhere" [p. 97]. Typically, it is Ishmael who wishes to dissolve boundaries, Hatsue who keeps reasserting them, as when she gently withholds the embrace that Ishmael so desperately wants. What limits might Ishmael wish to transcend, even as a boy? Does he ever manage to do so? Does Snow Falling on Cedars hold the promise of transcendence for its characters or at best offer them a reconciliation with their limits?
One way that Guterson interweaves his novel's multiple narrative strands is through the use of parallelism: Ishmael spies on Hatsue; so does Kabuo. The two men are similarly haunted by memories of the war. Both Kabuo and Carl Heine turn out to be dissatisfied fishermen who yearn to return to farming. Where else in this novel does the author employ this method, and to what effect?
What is the significance of the novel's last sentence: "Accident ruled every corner of the universe except the chambers of the human heart"?
Suggestions for further readingFiction: Walter Abish, How German Is It; Aharon Appelfeld, Badenheim 1939; Günter Grass, Dog Years; Ursula Hegi, Stones From the River; James Jones, From Here to Eternity, The Thin Red Line; Ivan KlÃma, Judge on Trial; Joy Kogawa, Obasan; Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird; Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; Norman Mailer, The Naked and the Dead; Shirley Nelson, The Last Year of the War; Howard Norman, The Bird Artist; E. Annie Proulx, The Shipping News.
Nonfiction: John Armor and Peter Wright, Manzanar; Timothy Egan, The Good Rain; Hazel Heckman, Island in the Sound; Lauren Kessler, Stubborn Twig: Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese-American Family; Ronald Takaki, Strangers From a Different Shore; Studs Terkel, The Good War; Joe Upton, Alaska Blues.
Also by David Guterson, available from Vintage Contemporaries:
The Country Ahead of Us, The Country Behind
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