I reassert my opinion that this book is very uneven. I enjoyed parts of each section but skimmed through others.
Part 2 focuses on Oscar Amalfitano, who appeared briefly in Part 1 as a tour guide of sorts for the critics, and his family. Here I must, again, complain about the fact that women's voices in this novel are not regularly heard except through letters to men with whom they have abruptly severed sexual relationships. Amalfitano's wife, Lola tells her life's story through letters to him after she has left him and their daughter, Rosa. Lola's life is interesting and parallels the search for an author in Part 1 as she goes in search of a poet but we don't get her story first hand. Because this is the second instance and echoes the silencing of Liz, it bothers me all the more. The remainder of the section follows Amalfitano as he moves with his daughter from Spain to Mexico and as he goes through something of a mental break. Not incredibly interesting
Part 3 focuses on Oscar Fate (a little trite given Amalfitano's first name is Oscar . . . not to mention Fate as a last name . . . . ) who is an African-American journalist working for an Af-Am-centric publication. This section gets very boring very quickly as Oscar is working on a report about a founding member of the Black Panthers--the entirety of a speech the man gives is documented and I find that incredibly boring and unnecessary. Bolano seems to lack a certain grasp on the idea of brevity and synopsis. Anyway, Oscar then gets recruited to cover a boxing match in Mexico in Amalfitano's city (the same city to which the critics chased Archimboldi) and gets tangled up in some dubious dealings involving Amalfitano's daughter Rosa and her shady friends. This section is interesting but ends on a strange note with narratives bouncing back and forth between times and possibly points of view, not a narrative strategy in the book so far. So far, this is the best book in terms of consistency and being concise and honestly making me want to continue the book (after the Black Panther speech that is). Maybe the rest of the book will follow? I look forward to seeing how these narratives come together, or don't. At any rate, I've only read 349 pages of 898 so a lot is left to happen.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Catching Up Again: 5 Movies
The MacKintosh Man (1973):
My love of Paul Newman is certainly a documented fact. I just wish all of the movies he was in could measure up to his acting ability. The MacKintosh Man (whose tagline gives away a piece of information not revealed (or true) until the middle of the movie) is a mess of a spy movie. If you were the dumbest person alive, you might not figure out the whole thing before it's done but, with even a tiny bit of sense or experience with spy movies, you'll know the grand secret long before the movie thinks you should. All of that, of course, results in a spy movie with a significant lack of suspense. No need to see it.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975):
No, I hadn't seen this one in its entirety until recently but I had seen most of it. I liked it well enough but will admit to falling asleep in the middle of it for a bit . . .
The Pianist (2002):
I am not a devotee of Adrian Brody. I just don't really get it. And The Pianist really failed to connect with me on an emotional level. I just didn't care. And I didn't believe that he was tortured by not being able to play piano for all of those years. It's fine but not wonderful.
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946):
Wow, the movies I've seen recently are lackluster or just plain bad. This one falls into the just plain bad category. It's long and boring. Very long and very boring which resulted in me only making it through half of it.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008):
This is a beautiful movie. Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt have to be two of the most beautiful people alive. It has it's problems and isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, which is only magnified by all of the hype surrounding it even before it was released. It is, for example, not as good a movie as The Dark Knight. But, on its own merit, it is a good, enjoyable movie.
My love of Paul Newman is certainly a documented fact. I just wish all of the movies he was in could measure up to his acting ability. The MacKintosh Man (whose tagline gives away a piece of information not revealed (or true) until the middle of the movie) is a mess of a spy movie. If you were the dumbest person alive, you might not figure out the whole thing before it's done but, with even a tiny bit of sense or experience with spy movies, you'll know the grand secret long before the movie thinks you should. All of that, of course, results in a spy movie with a significant lack of suspense. No need to see it.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975):
No, I hadn't seen this one in its entirety until recently but I had seen most of it. I liked it well enough but will admit to falling asleep in the middle of it for a bit . . .
The Pianist (2002):
I am not a devotee of Adrian Brody. I just don't really get it. And The Pianist really failed to connect with me on an emotional level. I just didn't care. And I didn't believe that he was tortured by not being able to play piano for all of those years. It's fine but not wonderful.
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946):
Wow, the movies I've seen recently are lackluster or just plain bad. This one falls into the just plain bad category. It's long and boring. Very long and very boring which resulted in me only making it through half of it.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008):
This is a beautiful movie. Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt have to be two of the most beautiful people alive. It has it's problems and isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, which is only magnified by all of the hype surrounding it even before it was released. It is, for example, not as good a movie as The Dark Knight. But, on its own merit, it is a good, enjoyable movie.
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