Review; 'Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark'

PAULINE KAEL: A Life in the Dark                                                            
By Brian Kellow
Biography
October 2011
Viking
ISBN: 978-0670023127

Pauline Kael reveled in the notion that movies had a subtext and were more than entertainments. The years she wrote reviews in The New Yorker began during a golden age of moviemaking. She continued on through the era of blockbusters and the beginning of the dominance of CGI over other methods of storytelling.

And although she reveled in strong film storytelling that included nuance, she did not celebrate shades of grey in her own life. Biographer Brian Kellow shows, rather than merely tells, how her world view of pro and con shaped the major relationships in her life. Those included her daughter, her grandson, her boss William Shawn and her acolytes, the Paulettes. For the last group, if you didn't take her advice, you were cast out. For her daughter, it meant years of being the practical one who took care of mundane arrangements. For her grandson, who has since died, it mean pure love. And for Mr. Shawn, it meant constant poking and no support, although she certainly sought his recommendations whenever it could help her.

There isn't much actual drama to Kael's life, and Kellow acknowledges this. He gives a great deal of space in his biography to quoting Kael's reviews. And this is fitting. Because the movies were her life. The scope and sweep of an era when movies came of age, when the blockbuster mentality took over and when movie critics had an influential voice in championing films, are the story of Kael's life.

The reviews themselves hold up well. The reviews provide a window into the passionate viewing experience of someone who took each film on its own merits even while upholding overall high standards that art be accomplished. Agreeing or disagreeing with a Kael review remains rewarding, for it engages the reader in reasoned decisions, based on reactions from the heart and the head, on whether the film delivered a rewarding viewing experience.

The value of this biography may not be in recounting the life of its subject, but rather in giving voice once again to its subject as she writes about what she loved most. The reviews quoted are both a history of that time in movie-making and a vibrant demonstration of honest reaction to a work of art that connects that work to its value in the viewer's life. Kellow shows how criticism can be enriching and, in doing that, pays honor to his subject.

©2012 All Rights Reserved CompuServe Book Reviews and reprinted with permission

Review: 'The Baker's Daughter'

THE BAKER'S DAUGHTER
By Sarah M. McCoy
Literary Fiction
January 2012
Crown
ISBN: 978-0307460189                                      

Families and dual storylines are getting to be rather common in popular and literary fiction these days. Both are important factors of an uncommonly good novel -- Sarah M. McCoy's The Baker's Daughter.

The novel is more than one story and, indeed, it's even possible to make the case that more than one character is the baker's daughter. There is the obvious one -- Elsie is the daughter of a baker in a small German town where everyone struggles to survive as the Nazis gain power and as the war drags on. There also is Elsie's daughter, Jane, who works alongside her mother in a small town German bakery in Texas. And then there is a daughter of Elsie's heart, Reba, who comes to the bakery for what she thinks will be a quick interview about holiday traditions. Instead, Jane and Elsie befriend a woman who has closed off her heart, even with love from family and a good man staring her in the face.

Review: 'Under the Mesquite'

UNDER THE MESQUITE

By Guadalupe Garcia McCall

YA Novel in verse

September 2011                                                                         

Lee & Low Books

ISBN: 978-1600604293

Lupita is the oldest child in a growing family of Mexican-Americans who love each other very much. Even so, she feels her bond with her beloved mother is the closest of all. To prove this, she searches through her mother's purse to find a small, wizened brown thing. It is her umbilical cord. Her Mami saved it.

So begins Guadalupe Garcia McCall's debut book, a novel in free verse that describes Lupita's coming of age. The verses include the longing for Mexico even as their family puts down roots (and plants roses bushes amid which a stubborn mesquite thrives) in Texas, Lupita's discovery of drama class and poetry, and her mother's cancer.

Review: 'The Lost Saints of Tennessee'

THE LOST SAINTS OF TENNESSEE
By Amy Franklin-Willis
Fiction
February 2012
Atlantic Monthly Press                                                                                                                              
ISBN: 978-0-8021-20005-2

Ezekiel is about as unhappy a man as can be. He hasn't adjusted well to his divorce, his hovering mother has lung cancer, the once promising young man has a dead-end job after dropping out of college and his dog is really old. Bad as all that is, Zeke's real problem is that his twin brother died 10 years ago. And no matter what his mother wants him to believe and no matter how much his sisters and ex-wife want him to talk, Zeke is having none of it.

Having reached his nadir, Zeke loads his dog and a Twain novel into his old pickup and heads toward Pigeon Forge to do in himself and Tucker the dog. He ends up at the refuge that is the home of his cousins in Virginia, the people who took him in years ago when he was a young college freshman and full of promise. They love him more than he does.

Review: 'No Mark Upon Her'

NO MARK UPON HER
By Deborah Crombie                                                                                  
Crime fiction (British police procedural)
February 2012
William Morrow
ISBN: 978-0-06-199061-8

A seasoned world-class athlete decides to return to her sport. She will need time away from her demanding career, but she may just have the leverage she needs for that. However, Becca Meredith's Olympic potential as a rower will not be measured, nor will she need a sabbatical from her Metropolitan Police job. Instead, she is found dead on the Thames, separated from her scull.

Her murder rips open deceit upon deceit and more than one kind of betrayal when Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid is assigned to investigate. It's a case Kincaid takes on reluctantly in the 14th book in Deborah Crombie's traditional British police procedural series. He not only has just married his partner, Gemma James, who also is a Scotland Yard detective, but their blended family has grown and at least one of them needs to be at home to help a scarred, scared three-year-old they adore. Gemma is just coming off her leave and Duncan is ready to be a househusband -- if this case and office politics at The Yard allow him to keep his word.

In Progress: 'A Life in the Dark'

Nearly midway through Brian Kellow's remarkable biography of The New Yorker movie critic Pauline Kael, A Life in the Dark, and completely enthralled by the movies, art and why having honest opinions about both matter.

I'm at the part now where Kellow is summarizing Kael's 1971 The New Yorker essay, "Notes on Heart and Mind". Kael is essentially saying people can mistake the packaging, or the way the story is told, rather than the point of the story itself in their appreciations. Although she pits Pop against The Arts, and there is a significant conversation that needs to take place often about the importance of both, there is another aspect to her thinking that matters as well.

When evaluating how a work has affected me as a reader, and of its value as a work of storytelling, there are two things to consider. What is the point of the story and how was the story told? Each plays a significant role in how well the other works. A story that works on every level -- characterization, a plot that arises naturally from the characters and their situation, whether there are any layers to the story that dwell on the complexity of the human condition -- all the story elements can jell together to make a story that resonates with the mind and the heart. This is true of any genre, whether literary or horror, whether classic Victorian tearjerker or modern hard-boiled tale, whether experimental short story or traditional Regency romance. And, yes, how well the story works while operating within the conventions of its genre is another consideration, but one that is within the broad area of how the story is told.

After all, it is possible to write about the same scenario within many genres. A revenge tale will look different as a mystery, a horror story, a romance or a contemporary literary novel. And each should be considered on its own merits, not whether a mystery, a horror story, a romance or a contemporary literary novel is a more worthy work of fiction based solely on its genre.

The other great aspect of any work of fiction that determines how well it works -- how well it gets its point across and how competely a reader can respond to it -- is the point itself. Sometimes, the point is so  ridiculous the whole work collapses.

This is one reason it took me months to write the review of Reginald Hill's The Woodcutter, which I posted earlier today. I just didn't see what the point of this elaborate, albeit well-written, novel was. Over time, what I have seen as the point doesn't raise my assessment. In fact, the assessment was lowered.

Sometimes the point of the story is a terrific one and most of the story elements sing, they work together so well. But one little aspect becomes larger and larger, until its weight collapses the ability of my disbelief to remain suspended. This is what happened with another extremely well-written crime novel, The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen. This is a very strong story about the strength and power of love, with engaging characters who I would gladly read about in other novels. But the thriller-like ending with more and more improbable acts of violence made me shake my head even while wishing the end could be possible.

Does anyone else look at what they read through similar lenses? I can see where breaking this down could help me view any fiction I would write, in addition to the way I look at what others have written.

Review: 'The Woodcutter'

THE WOODCUTTER
By Reginald Hill
Fiction
August 2011
Harper
ISBN: 978-0062060747                                                                              

Occasionally a book comes along that engages the reader but does not lend itself easily to any category. The Woodcutter, written by crime fiction master Reginald Hill, is such a novel.

It begins with Wolf Hadda, a successful man of the city, master of finance and friend to those in both government and business, a man who built an empire on his own. His life unravels as he is accused of financial misdealings and being a child pornographer. He is arrested, escapes and is grievously wounded when recaptured. His wife deserts him and his only child dies while he is in prison.
Years later, this shell of a man unleashes a plot of revenge after a young prison psychologist attempts to break through what is left of his encrusted ego.