4 Mini Book Reviews

Hi there one and all! I'm at Book Riot today reviewing four books for Buy, Borrow, Bypass:

• Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny Reid
• Waking the Merrow by Heather Rigney
• Patricia Brent, Spinster by Herbert Jenkins
• Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

All of these books deserve longer, more thoughtful reviews, which I hopefully will be able to write soon. But since I recently took on another job (for those of you keeping track at home, that's three jobs), time is a bit at a premium nowadays, so I can make no promises.

If you've read any of these books, let me know what you thought here or over at Book Riot!



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Movie Review: COMPLIANCE

Originally released: 2012
Starring: Ann Dowd, Dreama Walker, and Pat Healy
Directed by: Craig Zobel
Based on: the strip-search prank scam in Mount Washington, Kentucky



Review by the lovely Bridget of Books as Portable Pieces of Thoughts

Synopsis:

A very busy fast food joint, somewhere in one of the unnamed towns of the USA. The manager, a middle-aged woman called Sandra, is having a really bad day: due to a screw-up by her underlings, almost $1,500 worth of bacon has been ruined, and she is now conscious of needing some extra effort to please her bosses. All of a sudden she gets a call from a cool, authoritative man who identifies himself as Officer Daniels; he claims one of her employees, a pretty twenty-something blonde called Becky working on the till, has stolen some money from a customer's bag.

Very distressed and very busy, Sandra more or less meekly comply with every request of that man, although they are just talking on the phone. Afer all he wants her to avoid the worst - an unnecessary delay and scandal, tarnishing the reputation of the whole joint and herself as an efficient manager. First she search Becky's bag, then she strip-searches the girl and keeps her almost naked in the back office, under the 'surveillance' of several men. Becky is to be isolated and effectively imprisoned and helpless until the squad car arrives. The results of Sandra's decisions are disastrous. Soon most of the staff are involved in demeaning, humiliating and compromising activities. How will it end?



My impressions:

This chilling film, written and directed by Craig Zobel, is based closely on the true story of a serial phone-prankster sociopath in the US who, for a decade, got away with a bizarre repeated hoax. His daring escalated and in 2004 he brought off his masterstroke of insidious evil. The con trick was a very sadistic demonstration of the weakness and suggestibility of human nature, more devastating than anything in the well-known Stanford and Milgram experiments (testing individuals' response to authority in the 60s of 20th century) because real lives were wrecked.

From different optical illusions like Escher’s impossible labyrinths to unsolicited emails from rich and generous African officials who offer us a fortune for a very small favour, common sense has us hard-wired to reject the implausible. We should be able to do it in our best interest. Unfortunately sometimes we fail. Believe me, it is a movie which will drive a cruel punch to your gut far more effectively than any thriller or slasher because it will make you ask yourself: what would I do in such a situation? It is a cold, hard, shrewd film: satire with a drop of cyanide. The set and decorations match that : filth and grease set the scene for human sliminess.


That doesn't look good.

What Compliance shows, however, is how very important it is that "Officer Daniels" targets a fast food chain. A fast food joint is a place to lower your guard as well as your standards. Here is where the real degradation can flourish because a chain is always conscious of a menacing corporate authority somewhere above them: branch managers, regional managers, people who might only reveal themselves as a voice on the phone. Obedience and badly suppressed fear are the order of the day, especially on the unthinkable subject of hurting your milking cow, a customer. Relinquishing your free will and simply going with the flow is part of the process for all concerned. So when some brazen authority figure on the phone knocks everyone with some new situation, submitting is the natural way to react. Your inner voice might nag you, suggesting that something is very wrong and yet at any time, in any period, when people supposedly in authority tell us what to do – more often than not we do it. Without thinking about the consequences. Without thinking at all.

One weakness of this low-budget film is that the characters — though realistically acted — are a bit too shallow and generic. It’s also a mistake, in my opinion, to keep cutting away to the prankster but without showing his inner self. I WANTED to know what made him tick and my questions weren't answered - not really. I also have to say it seemed to me that Zobel didn’t sell the idea, just the outrage: The more indignities and violations Becky endured at the hands of people who were supposed to be her friends and co-workers, the more it felt like a hollow provocation. As things went from bad to horrible, I got the urge to walk into that back room where Becky was being interrogated and start yelling, “What’s wrong with you people? Are you a bunch of puppets? Switch on your brains! Take a moment and call somebody, like the actual freaking police!”

Final verdict:

A competently crafted film, telling a very chilly story - undoubtedly one of the toughest sits of the movie year 2012. Still sometimes it is good to be reminded how we are programmed to do things that go against our natural instincts as long as we believe we have the law on our side.




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Book Review: PERFUME, THE STORY OF A MURDERER by Patrick Süskind

Once upon a time in France, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born into a harsh world. Forget about love and human kindness; everyone is out for themselves. Especially when it comes to Grenouille, because he has no soul--or so people believe, because he has no scent. He doesn't smell bad, like the fish market he's born in, or good, like a baby generally does--he doesn't smell of anything. Ergo, he freaks people out. As far as they're concerned, he shouldn't even exist. One of his nursemaids calls him a vampire, and this is more accurate than she knows, because once Grenouille realizes he can distill people's scents, he decides to steal them for himself. And by people I of course mean beautiful young virgins.

This novel wasn't exactly pleasant to read, but it had its moments. The first fifty pages or so are pretty boring, because Grenouille's just an innocent little serial killer and doesn't do much except sniff around woodpiles and whatnot. There's also a slow part in the middle where J-BG lives in a cave for seven years and entertains himself remembering all the smells he's smelled (yeah, I skimmed through that part). Other than that, though, the book's actually pretty interesting, especially when Grenouille is learning how to become a perfumer; and the very end, which nearly punches you in the face with its existentialism, really makes the entire novel worth it.

One thing that did surprise me was the subtext. I definitely don't think every work of fiction emerging from Germany in the last 60 years has something to do with WWII, but in the instance of this specific book, there's a case to be made. Like Adolph Hitler, Grenouille is seemingly unkillable, surviving abandonment by his mother, anthrax, some sort of black plague episode, and hypothermia, just to name a few. He's completely asexual and not a sensuous person at all--as in, he doesn't care about food or beauty or being comfortable; he only cares about scent. When he does kill, it's not because it brings him a personal sense of satisfaction, it's just a means to an end--gaining these girls' scent so that people will love him and do whatever he wants them to. The killings aren't acts of passion or even hate, but are efficient, almost mechanized, so that Grenouille can get what he really wants: control and power. "If he wanted, he could be feted in Paris... or could walk out to Versailles and have the king kiss his feet; write the pope a perfumed letter and be revealed as the new Messiah...."

Despite seeing with their own eyes the evidence of Grenouille's murders, and hearing him confess, the people of Grasse cannot resist the pull of Grenouille's perfume:

The ten thousand men and women, children and patriarchs assembled there... grew weak as young maidens who have succumbed to the charms of a lover. They were overcome by a powerful sense of goodwill, of tenderness, of crazy, childish infatuation, yes, God help them, of love for this little homicidal man.... These people were now pure liquid, their spirits and minds were melted; nothing was left but an amorphous fluid, and all they could feel was their hearts floating and sloshing about within them, and they laid those hearts, each man, each woman, in the hands of the little man... for better or worse. They loved him.

After this massive incident of Group Think, which results in Grenouille's escape, the town of Grasse tries its best to mind-bleach the entire episode. They convict an innocent man of the killings, the records pertaining to "G" are lost, and no one speaks of it again. Life forcibly moves on. One might say Grasse has lost its innocence, but it would be more correct to say that the people of Grasse lost their perception of their own superiority. Grenouille's perfume of beauty, love, and purity reached these people and they all reacted with their basest lusts and greediness, behaving like "human beasts." Because of the enchantment of having their desires satiated, they let a murderer go free--not only that, but worshiped him. It's not just the knowledge that they're no better than Grenouille, but how thin their veil of morality and humanity is that keeps the citizenry from looking each other in the eye.

This is the type of novel where everyone is to blame. Even the people who "save the world" from Grenouille (at his own design) do so in the most disgusting and inhumane method imaginable, then congratulate themselves afterward. The narrator believes Grenouille is a terrible person, yes, but he's a terrible person because the world, totally selfish and greedy, made him that way. Aside from his superpowers--unkillable, super-smell, etc.--there really isn't much difference between Grenouille and any of the other characters in this novel. Does Grenouille really have no soul? Of course not; he desires the same thing we all do, love. It's when he realizes no one will ever love him--or vice versa--that he gives up.

If this story is a metaphor for what happened to Germany in WWII, then it's only in a more abstract sense. But I don't think it's as cynical as it first appears; if anything, Süskind is making an argument for tolerance and kindness and the Enlightenment values of freedom, equality, brotherhood, etc. (except for when it comes to women; if I thought the movie was misogynistic, the book is a lot worse). So while this may not be my favorite book ever, I do think it was worth reading. There are Ideas and there is History, and it reads amazingly fast in the non-boring parts (which is most of the novel). On more than a few levels this book is deeply disturbing, but then what else would one expect from a novel about a serial killer?



Musical notes: "I Think Ur a Contra," by Vampire Weekend

Isis by Douglas Clegg

Iris Villiers lives in gloomy Belerion Hall with her mother, crazy grandfather, and twin brothers.  The house is surrounded by legends, standing stones, and ancient tombs that the family still uses to bury their dead.  Growing up and listening to all the old legends, Iris comes to believe in the Cornwall superstitions, much to her brother's consternation.

Then tragedy strikes the family, and Iris becomes unhinged, using the old legends to commit a horrifying act.

This is a very short book, but it packs quite a punch.  It's seriously spooky in that deliciously Victorian, subtle manner, and ended in a way that I did not expect and found deeply disturbing.  It reminded a lot of The Mummy by Anne Rice (click here for my review), both atmospherically and story-wise.

Plus the book is absolutely gorgeously illustrated by Glenn Chadbourne--the reproduction of the cover here really does not do justice to the detail of the illustrations.

This book is a little too short to be a thoroughly engrossing read, but it is a quick bite of spooky narrative that is well-worth picking it up, especially if you're a fan of the Edwardians.

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The Mummy

Or, Ramses the Damned... sexy, that is!



Broom_Service recommended this book to me, and I'm really happy she did. I enjoyed it; but at the same time, I feel totally dissatisfied with the ending and as if I never connected with the characters.

I've read Anne Rice before (you know how I love the books about the vampires), but I didn't like her. Her world view is extremely... how do I put it... depressing. It's like her books want to be about good and evil and life after death, but she doesn't really believe in any of those things, so it doesn't work out. And by the way, I did think that about her writing long before I knew she was an atheist (back when she was an atheist... she changed her mind, didn't she?).

The book begins with a Howard Carter-like discovery in Egypt. Lawrence Stratford, a wealthy English businessman and amateur archaeologist, has made a brilliant discovery: an intact tomb from the time of Cleopatra. Only, the writing on the tomb is from the time of Ramses II and, as Lawrence finds out when he opens it up, it's not a tomb. Instead, it appears to be a study with scrolls containing the autobiography of Ramses the Great, telling of how he fell in love with Cleopatra about 1000 after he should have been dead.

Oh, and the tomb/study also contains the mummy of Ramses II.

Except, just like the tomb, the mummy isn't a really a mummy. As Ramses writes in the scrolls, he took an elixir to make himself immortal. After centuries of wandering all over the ancient world, Ramses decided to put himself into an endless sleep, from which a ruler of Egypt could awaken him if they needed his help. Cleopatra woke him, they fell in love, and you probably know how the rest of Cleopatra's story worked out. Broken-hearted by her death and her refusal to become immortal, Ramses put himself into another sleep, from which he planned never to awaken.

Lawrence is not as incredulous of this story as one might think. But before he can investigate further, he's murdered. The not-a-mummy is shipped back to England and placed in the possession of his daughter, Julie. Struck by sunlight, Ramses awakens, just in time to save Julie from being killed by the same person who killed her father. Naturally, Julie is shocked; but by the end of the day she's head-over-heels in love with Ramses. OF COURSE SHE IS. He's handsome, charismatic, he saved her life, and he's probably the only lusty heterosexual male she's ever encountered (seriously, there seems to be a surplus of bisexual men in her life, which is kinda weird, and the one who's not bisexual--that we know of--is sort of a push-over).

Meeeeanwhile, Ramses is in love with Julie, too. Hmm, am I sensing a pattern here? He wakes up, gloms onto the first woman he sees, and pretty soon he's in lurv! Whatever. That doesn't mean he's over his ex, Cleopatra, though. So when Julie and Ramses decide they need to go to Egypt so he can put his past to rest, you can already guess what's going to happen: somehow, some way, Ramses is going to come across Cleopatra's mummy and bring her to life with his elixir of immortality. And yes, he did make more even though he knows it is bad news.

Well, that is exactly what happens, kids! Ramses sees Cleopatra in the Cairo Museum and brings her un-rotting corpse back to rotting state, and consciousness, with his elixir. This is when the book really starts to get interesting. Horrified by what he has done, Ramses backs away from the walking mummy, and then is arrested by museum guards. Like Dr. Frankenstein, Ramses has created life with something that doesn't know its own strengths and is not prepared to handle the real world. Cleopatra, who is the real mummy of the story, immediately starts killing people.

There are several themes running through the book, one of which is the idea of modernity. This is the Edwardian era, well after the start of the Industrial Revolution, and both Cleopatra and Ramses are shocked and disoriented by the noise and speed of the modern world--Ramses pleasantly, Cleopatra not so much. The characters are constantly talking about "modernity," the modern world, etc. I think this is because the elixir is a metaphor for modernity or technology. Ramses has possibly the greatest technological advance of all time--something that can be produced cheaply and easily, with common ingredients, make anything indestructable, and bring people back from the dead. Even though he knows from experience that the elixir is not merely dangerous but "is the secret to the end of the world itself [p. 152]," he cannot stop experimenting with it. Even though he knows what he's doing is horrible and morally reprehensible, he can't stop himself from taking the next step in seeing whether or not it will bring a 1,000-years-dead corpse back to life. And he can't stop producing the stuff because the knowledge is in his head. That's his only excuse--he knows it, and he can't unknow it. The same might be said of modern technology, from the Victorians to today; technology keeps advancing, even though what it's capable of becomes more and more dangerous. Once the technology has been created, there're no re-do's--it's out there, and people are going to use it. Ramses is damned not because he's immortal, but because he's incapable of learning from his mistakes. Oh, he may gain some impulse control for a while, but pretty soon his memory starts to fade and then there he is, pouring the elixir on plants again; in that sense, Ramses is a metaphor for all of humanity.

Another motif running through the book is the opera, Aïda. Both Ramses and Cleopatra are totally obsessed with listening to the opera on their amazing new gramophones; and a performance of the opera at Shepherd's Hotel ("the hotel") provides the scene for the climax of the book. The opera is about an Ancient Egyptian commander, Radames, who falls in love with an Ethopian princess named Aïda (an Arabic name meaning "visitor" or "returning," according to Wikipedia). Unfortunately for him, the pharoh's daughter, Amneris, is also in love with Radames and she doesn't take well to being rejected. To put it lightly. Eventually, Radames is convicted of being a traitor and sentenced to be buried alived. Aïda locks herself up in the tomb with Radames, chosing to die with her beloved, while Amneris simply stands outside the tomb and cries.

It's no wonder Ramses and Cleopatra love this opera so much, because it basically tells the story of their relationship in Ancient Egypt. I know you're thinking Ramses is Radames in this metaphor, but he's not--he's Amneris. He loved Cleopatra more than she could ever love him, and in the end she chose to die with Mark Anthony rather than face eternity (or any length of time, for that matter) with Ramses.

As I mentioned before, I did not like the end of this book. Even though the actions of the characters make sense if my theory that the elixir as a metaphor for modern technology is correct, I felt like there were a lot of questions and issues left hanging. There wasn't much of an emotional resolution to the story at all, and the only character who got shafted was Julie's ex-fiance, Alex, who in all honesty was the only character who didn't deserve it. The others walked away from their actions with little to no consequences. I can understand the impulse not to moralize, but I feel cheated that Rice didn't give me something to frame the story into a wider context. Give it meaning, if you will.

Despite that, however, I did really enjoy the book as a whole. It was entertaining and fun to read (although I wouldn't call it scary), and would recommend it to just about anyone.

Technorati Tags: the mummy, ramses the damned, ramses II, ramses the great, ramses, egypt, ancient egypt, anne rice, cleopatra, mark anthony, howard carter, modernity, technology, frankenstein, aida

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