The best movies always start out as books! Here's what to look for streaming and in theaters:
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Truly one of the best books I've read in a while, a lyrical chronicle of
the life of Count Alexander Rostov after he is sentenced to house
arrest at the Metropol Hotel by the new Soviet government following the
Revolution of 1917.
Erudite and gentlemanly, Count Rostov "masters his circumstances so that
they don't master him", showing an elegant adaptability that saves his
life as well as his soul. Alexander is reprieved from a death sentence
by a pro-Revolution poem he had published in his youth, but he is
declared a non-person and is never again to leave the doors of the
Metropol, a hotel that has always catered to the rich, powerful, and
aristocratic. In his new situation, Rostov lives in the attic and leaves
behind the perks of his earlier life, while retaining his decency,
charm, and joie de vive. A wonderful and uplifting example of how to
survive and even thrive under terrible circumstances, and also a
beautiful story of how the love we share with others in any
iteration-romantic, paternal, fraternal,etc-is our saving grace.
American Animals: A True Crime Memoir by Eric Borsuk
A cautionary tale about the perils of being young, male, bored, and lacking a moral compass. Eric recounts his part in the heist of some rare books from the Transylvania College Library in Lexington Kentucky in 2004, and it's shocking how close they come to pulling off a relatively sophisticated crime. The four college students commit a fatal error in the execution, which is nothing compared with the errors in judgment they make in coming up with the plan in the first place. The deeper question is how and why a group of boys with promising futures and stable home lives took such a dark turn into felonious behavior.
Check out the excellent docudrama, now showing on Netflix:
American Animals
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Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
The Richardsons are a family living in Shaker Heights, OH in the '90s. The suburb was originally built in the early 1900s to attain a black and white kind of perfectionism, based on rigid rules. Although life is fairly good here, it is also pedantic and predictable. Elena Richardson, the matriarch, is the living embodiment of everything that Shaker Heights stands for, which works out okay with her first three kids, but sets her at odds with her youngest, the impetuous and fiery Izzy.
A catalyst enters the picture when Elena rents an apartment to an artist named Mia, a tumbleweed of a person who brings with her a teenaged daughter, Pearl, and a past loaded with secrets. Pearl finds the Richardsons' lifestyle intoxicating after the ragtag existence she's accustomed to. Lexie, Moody, and Trip Richardson all become entangled with Pearl, Izzy is fascinated with Mia, Elena struggles to control everyone and everything, and the swirling mass of churned up emotion will result in huge life changes for all of them.
Desire, envy, and jealousy are well-expressed in this story, but there is very little true warmth or love between characters. A side story about a white couple attempting to adopt a Chinese baby who was abandoned by her mother is difficult to empathize with because the adoptive mother is cold and entitled and the biological mother seems unable to take care of herself, let alone an infant.
The point of the book seems to be to highlight the difficulties experienced in the mother-daughter relationship, and how sometimes those we are closest to are the ones we know the least. Perhaps a little of 'love conquers all' thrown in there, too. However, the story left me despairing for women everywhere, because if these are typical relationships for females, then we have a lot of work to do.
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys When the U.S.S.R. took control over Lithuania, many thousands of 'political insurgents' were sentenced to imprisonment in Siberian Gulags. Less well-known is that over 100,00 Lithuanian women and children were exiled to remote work camps under horrendous conditions. This is the story of Lina, a girl whose father is arrested by the Soviets right before she, her mother, and brother are themselves deported to a work camp. Despairing of ever having a normal life again, Lina uses her unique artistic style to creates pictures that she hopes will reach her father, wherever he is. The descriptions of life in the camps is an eye-opener -there really seems to be no limits on what people will do to others who they perceive to be different than themselves. More than that, this is a story about hope and love, and how very important they are, even when they are the hardest things to come by. The tragic cruelties dealt out behind the Iron Curtain by the Soviets in post-WWII are starting to fade from memory, which is an excellent reason to read this book -lest such a horrible part of history be forgotten and repeated.
"Ashes in the Snow"
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
In the past, I have found Donna Tartt to be an uneven writer. The characters who inhabited "The Secret History" were so vile, pompous and self-important that I would not have picked up "The Goldfinch" if it weren't for the Pulitzer. According to critics who matter, for a novel to be deemed high literature, it must be authentic on all levels -emotional, intellectual, etc. While "The Goldfinch" is a fascinating story, venerated voices at, among others, The New Yorker, find it to be 'unconvincing'. This sentiment puzzles me greatly. Tartt's style of writing appears childish to them -but the story follows a boy from the age of 13 through young adulthood, so...of course it reeks of adolescent mindset. If a story captures something about another's life experience and can impart it in such a way that the reader inhabits that life, then that is great literature.
Having spouted off about THAT, let me say that Tartt allowed me to inhabit the life of a boy named Theo Decker. Theo lives with his mother in New York City when a fateful trip to the Museum to see a particular favorite painting of his mother's results in her death and his life being torn and reassembled in such a way as to make it unrecognizable. This event sets Theo off on a dissolute path as he mourns the loss of his mother. Where previously Theo was a boy who teetered on the edge of delinquency (he and his mother actually are stopping at the museum on their way to his school to discuss his imminent suspension), he evolves into a man who lives without moral absolutes, numbly swimming along in a sea of gray. Theo spends time looking for something good and true, but only finds it in a painting, the eponymous "Goldfinch".
Boris, a friend that Theo makes along the way, keenly discerns the edge between black and white -and invariably chooses the darker way. Fate seems to dictate that Theo's way will not be a smooth one, more so because he doesn't seem to understand the link between action and outcome. But Theo does understand love and beauty. In the end, is this enough? Also, the question: if you are true to yourself and follow your heart, as all the best axioms of the modern age urge us to do, what if your heart's desire leads you to dishonorable, self-destructive behavior? (Vanity Fair's review: It’s Tartt—But Is It Art?)
FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.
Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television 'family'. But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people did not live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television.
Now Streaming
Ready Player One by Ernest ClineIn the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. When Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.
Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.
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