Friday Review 2

This is an ever developing weekly blog piece. This week we’ll discuss:

1) JD Salinger (and Author invisibility)

2) Dr. Who’s new writers

3) Precious

4) Autofiction (Hitomi Kanehara)

5) Film and Book Round-up

1) J.D. Salinger

Jerome David Salinger, best known for The Catcher In The Rye, passed away yesterder aged 91. Newspapers across the country will discuss his works, choosing to focus on this one book in particular.

     Some, Like the Daily Mail, will chose to discuss his penchence for penpalling with young ladies while others will look at an author who wrote as New Yorkers spoke. Who wrote about teen angst before there was teen angst.

      I wish to talk about his 60 years as a recluse. There are few photographs of him after his internal exile in 59. There are fewer films. He disliked being a public figure. He actively sought to bloke biographies of himself, sued a Californian for attempting to publish a sequel to The Catcher In The Rye and routinely disuaded interviewers from trying.

     We live in a time of celebrity like no other. There are video websites for whatever we catch on our cameras or phones, there are gossip magazines with lurid photographs and tell-all tales from ex lovers and employees or associates. A case in point being a certain Rolling Stone working his way through Russia’s women.

      In a world where the public think they own or have a divine right to the ins and outs of anyone who sings, acts, writes or creates or is related to them, do we have a right to privacy as authors?

     I think we do. The trend of being public property for being famous (whether wanted or not) is a worrying one. Sure, should we do something infamously bad there is a right to know. But about relationships? or food habits? No. Let us have our privacy and leave your gossip to those who court it like Jordan.

    It’s been said that Salinger wrote 15 books during his long hiding from the world. They were, according to a neighbour, locked in a safe. The world waits to see if, now he has passed on, these books will be made public and what they contain.

2). Dr. Who Writers Announced.

SFX magazine released or rather publicised the list of writers for the new Dr. Who series (http://tinyurl.com/sfxcurtnye). Curiously the list includes Richard Curtis (four weddings etc) and Simon Nye.

     This could prove to be an interesting pair of appointments. Nye is best known for writing Men Behaving Badly while Curtis is the British Rom-Com king. Their episodes could take Dr. Who into a more laddish direction but equally we should not typecast them. Their work could reflect the young nature of the next doctor.

     In addition they are new faces on the scene which, with the show being revamped under Steven Moffat, could add a much needed freshness. The 2-part end to Tennant’s superb doctor showed how repetitive and stale elements of the show had become. We await the new series with eager anticipation.

3).  Precious

      Mentioned last week, director Lee Daniels, has come up with a truly engaging and shocking film. Some commentators (largely American) have damned it as reinforcing every stereotype we have of Black Americans. However, it is clearly a film about any underclass in America or other countries. The protatgonists are black in this instance but they do not exclusively act like this.

     The film follows Claireece (a stand out debut from Gabourey Sidibe) who styles herself as Precious and dreams of being a disco diva in 80s Harlem. In reality she is a raped and mentally bullied kid prone to binge eating on an epic scale. She has a downsyndrome child as a consequence of her father raping her and is beat upon by her mother for taking him away.

      As I said, its hard stuff. The film has its up turns and its escapisms as well as the bleakness, almost as if it too wishes to escape the world its in. It’s a must see but perhaps, not on the same day you watch “The Road.”

4). Autofiction

by Hitomi Kanehara.

     Kanehara is best known for writing Snakes and Earrings and she seems to specialise in the dark side of Tokyo youth. We are not talking about the usual yakuza cliches or perhaps the drug trip outs we might expect in the west. This is a world where sex with pervy adults is seen as a way of rebelling against said pervy adults. Go figure that out.

     Autofiction begins on an aeroplane and newly wed, Rin, has serious doubts and issues about her husband. She loves him but cannot help projecting her fears and experiences onto this new guy.

     Then the story rolls backwards in time through several stages in her young life. There are the significant relationships at the ages of 18, 16 and 15.

     Her personality seems to get worse as she gets younger while at the same time her relationships falter through internal dialogues. Rin, makes mention of mental illness but its never explored. The novel proposed much but doesnt deliver. It’s still an interesting look inside a young japanese woman’s insane mind.

5) Film and Book roundup.

Film:

Apart from Precious there is a few to recommend this week. Edge of Darkness crams a little too much of the book into a 2 hour run as Mel Gibson looks for the killer of his daughter; and predictably gets caught up in some monstrous conspiracies. Adoration shows that Atom Egoyan is capable of making forgettable movies as an essay on memories and identity becomes a mess. Lastly, Breathless, from Korea examines family values and violence.

Books:

      Dianna Wynne Jones has a new book out called Enchanted Glass where an Oxford Don (and part time wizard) inherits a house in the kind of village filled with grievences and meets a runaway boy. To make it more enchanting each character has a fairy counterpart. For poetry try A Hospital Odyssey by Gwyneth Lewis and lastly, The Shaking Woman is another fine and subtle piece from Siri Hustvedt looking at the mind-body duality.

PS. My debut novel (title might change) is entering the final stages of the first draft. The current word count is 120,000 and is sure to drop once some Tory style cuts set in.

William Crowbourne aka a lot of things.