Inside All of Us Is a Wild Thing

“Inside all of us is a Wild Thing.”

— Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are)

Where The Wild Things Are was at once everything and nothing that I expected. I expected it to be beautiful, and it was very beautiful. I expected it to be dark, and it was terribly dark. What I didn’t expect was how it would make me feel.

Sitting in that darkened theater, entranced like everyone else around me by the artistry and grotesque beauty of the film, I felt almost uncomfortable with the myriad of emotions it conjured up in me. Flashbacks to the most awkward moments of my preteen youth danced rapidly through my head and my chest. I distinctly remembered how it felt to be so filled with emotions all so near to the surface and warring constantly with one with the other to be on top. That period of time I usually treasure as footloose and fancy-free was so often fraught with unpredictable fear and paranoia, both valid and completely irrational – and I think we adults often forget that.

Even more striking was how time seemed to be in a different dimension then – each day an adventure, each hour a surprise. Sometimes an hour flew by so fast that dusk fell before you could prepare for it, catching you and your playmates altogether unawares. Suddenly it was time to go in and you weren’t ready for it, so a game of Flashlight Tag was proposed. Or just as often, Time slowed to a creeping crawl. After cramming what felt like a month’s worth of fun and activity into just one hour, you felt changed somehow at the end of the day, barely recognizing your own face in the mirror. I remember I spent ridiculous amounts of time in front of the mirror as a child, reconciling what I saw with what I felt changing inside.

As I sat there, mesmerized by the depth of character found in those amazing puppets’ facial expressions, all those memories and more flickered in and out of my consciousness. The absolute, all-consuming fear of what may be hiding in the dark shadows under my bed came rushing back in a stomach tightening rush.  The euphoria of being found when I was lost and frightened, the confusion when presented with adults misbehaving, the desperation to be heard, to be noticed, to be loved…it all bubbled up to the surface of of my heart, reminding me that maybe those feelings had never strayed that far away after all. Reminding me that perhaps I’d just gotten better at ignoring it, or maybe just better at giving the unknown a name and a face, compartmentalizing everything in an effort to better make sense of the world around me.

I teared up at odd, unexpected moments, in this world of the Wild Things where there is no clear bad guy or good guy, in this childhood version of the psyche where the battle for good and evil plays out in the jungle of your overwhelming heart and mind. As it is in real life, the life of the Wild Things is bittersweet, usually more bitter than sweet because they have the annoying tendency to eat their kings and they have no mommies. Carol, the impulsive, raging, angry, friendliest monster, was the easiest to relate to. No one plays the wronged, temper-tantrum-thrower like James Gandolfini. Something about Gandolfini’s voice and way made even the murderer, Tony Soprano, lovable.  Carol moved me to tears, especially when he felt compelled to show Max the wooden city he’d built. It was a vision of what Carol wanted life to be, his paradise where everyone lives together happily in one house, they have fun all the time and sleep together every night in one giant pile.

Carol: It’s going to be a place where only the things you want to happen, would happen.
Max: We could totally build a place like that!

Without changing a single important piece of the story, director Spike Jonze and writer Dave Eggers, managed to subtly address the most common pain children experience today, the pain of divorce. We all forget, due to the frequency of it’s occurrence,  how terrible a toll divorce takes on the innocent victims, the children. Wild Things doesn’t let you forget. Especially the most important question they have, “Do you still love me just as much?”

For those of us adults still possessed of an active imagination and jealously harboring the bits of the child still left inside, Where The Wild Things Are is a strange, dark and yet beautiful journey into all of our not-to-distant pasts. And for those of you shaking your heads, muttering about your extended age and life experience,  don’t forget that the world is ancient and we are each nothing more than seconds on it’s considerable time line. Let the wild rumpus start!

Slouching Towards Bethlehem

The further I got along in this book, the more I marveled that I have missed out on Joan Didion’s incredible writing all these years. How I missed her I’ll never know, but now I can’t wait to read more of her work. A writer of distinctive voice and quiet passion, her words are lingering, thought-provoking…even revelatory. This collection of essays is an excellent introduction to her particular style. The essays themselves are each wonderfully unique. Didion is a woman way ahead of her time, pensive yet wry, and explores each topic with singular depth. She sees the world in a visionary way and yet, as much as she reveals of herself here, she is obviously more of an observer than a leader. Never pushing her agenda but still actively scrutinizing the people around her and her own beliefs, she lets the words flow out in a way that almost makes the reader feel voyeuristic. I, dumbfounded, told my friend that introduced this novel to me, “She was a blogger before the Internet even existed!”

From a writer’s viewpoint, she is nothing short of inspiring. Marking specific passages for greater investigation later, I realized about halfway through that I could underline the entire book and I may as well schedule a second read through and save myself some highlighting time. Didion has the unusual gift of putting the interesting thoughts many of us quietly share in our routine lives, into succinct and  beautiful prose. I found myself nodding vigorously in agreement as I read, often dropping the book in my lap in pleasant surprise. This is the kind of book that you take your time with, letting new words roll around in your head, savoring the journey as the author opens doors to a slightly different world for you to explore.

Her style, as I said, is singular; I wouldn’t recommend it to all readers. For those of you that primarily enjoy fiction that is in the more John Grisham/Nora Roberts arena, Didion is not for you. However, if you enjoy journalistic essays detailing the tumultuous 60’s and 70’s, provocative and gripping writing with a dramatic but never maudlin flair and just plain brilliance, Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem is most certainly for you.

Firefly and Serenity

I haven’t been reading. Okay? I admit it. Instead, in the small quiet moments before bed or on lazy rainy days, I’ve vegged out watching season box sets and movies on my PC. I will read again soon but I am missing an old friend for his uncanny ability to recommend me the perfect title. He had my tastes nailed exactly and introduced me to some of my favorite books to date.

I just finished a pretty fun series called Firefly and the accompanying movie, Serenity. I love that word, serenity. It immediately makes me feel a little of its meaning. Calm, beauty, peace, patience, gentleness and more, all wrapped up in one little word.

The show and movie are nothing like that word.

Firefly and Serenity were a blast to watch and filled with tons of action, which is a must. If it doesn’t make me bite my nails, then it is not a good sci-fi flick.

The show is a science fiction fantasy with western overtones, so basically a western set in space. If you don’t like science fiction or westerns then this probably isn’t for you, but you could still give it a shot. The show only lasted for one season due to some production errors and shows being aired out of sequence. In that short time however, it acquired a pretty loyal following and quickly became a cult favorite. Those fans and the tenacious makers of the show (the main one being Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) were the driving force behind the making of the feature film, Serenity.

As is necessary with any good hour long show by Joss Whedon, the characters are dry and quippy, the writing is filled with made up or real foreign languages, and mysteries abound on all fronts.

My particular favorite was River, the young girl driven crazy by inexplicable experiments done on her by the evil ruling power in the ‘verse, the Alliance. After being rescued by her rich (and may I say very handsome) doctor of a brother, she proceeds to scare the crap out of everyone forced to share a ship with her. She is a lovable stick of dynamite and no one knows if she is going to explode, fizzle out or chew her own fuse off!

The other characters are just as rich, with perhaps the exception of the comedic relief that comes in the form of the wisecracking pilot, Wash. His lines are few and usually a quip so we don’t know too much about him, aside from the fact that he is married to a warrior woman (the formidable, strong and silent, Zoe) and loves it. You may still love him, but it is impossible to deny that he just doesn’t have the depth explored in his character that the others experience. I imagine that his growth may have been cut short by the abrupt canceling of network execs. However, he does have one exciting and very shining moment later in the series in the 10th episode titled, War Stories.

The rest of the crew is made up of the Han Soloesque Captain Reynolds; a sexy moral compass in the “Companion” ( a.k.a legal prostitute) named Inara; an eccentric yet adorable chick mechanic named Kaylee reminiscent of the cartoon mouse, Gadget, from Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers; the burly, morally ambiguous and stupid muscle man named Jayne and finally, the mysterious Preacher, Book.

The Crew

It is definitely a shame it didn’t go on. I have a few gripes with the ending story lines but they are spoilers and also completely unrelated to how good the series was, so I will refrain from mentioning them. I was sad to see it end.

If you decide to rent or buy the series Firefly, be sure to get the movie, Serenity as well. You will regret it if you don’t!

ROME

Instead of reading anything over the last few days, I used my usual reading time to watch the entire first season…of ROME! A friend of mine sent me the box set a few weeks ago and I just got around to watching it. It did not take long before it sucked me in completely and I walked around in a Rome stupor for days.

Rome is a shocking but probably more realistic look back at the rise of the Roman Empire. It was exciting. This is always an interesting topic to read about, much less watching an hour long episode of gruesome violence, insidious political plots, aristocratic games, and larger than life heroes. The show is beautiful to look at with shots that take your breath away and overall, pretty great acting. Without a clear bad guy to hate, Rome gives you license to get absorbed in each character story. However, Titus and Lucius, the Gods blessed soldiers who happen to fall into Caesar’s good graces, are clearly the best characters. They are the perfect Greek/Roman heroes, average men accidentally rising above their relatively low stations in life to achieve fame, love and glory, but jealous gods will exact their price for the gifts they bestow.

Watching the loosely based-in-fact portrayal of Caesar’s rise to and inevitable fall from grace gives the watcher many things to contemplate. The Senate and Senators; the constant power struggle; conspiracy theories; the political corruption; the power in the hands of the few wealthy; the hopelessness of the enormous lower class and its obsession with the heroes of its time makes you wonder, how has so little changed over so, so many centuries? Are we really the new Roman Empire? And if so, are we on our way to a fall?

If you haven’t seen it, and graphic sexual and violent images do not bother you, go out and rent the first two or three episodes. You will see what I mean right away. Much fun…

Shutter Island and The Stand

Okay, I admit it. I’ve horribly neglected my blog because I haven’t been reading as much. A friend of mine,

I own a first edition.

who shall remain nameless, has been monopolizing all my reading time… The only book I am reading at the moment is The Stand: Complete and Uncut Edition by Stephen King. It’s been a favorite for over 10 years now and I’ve read it so, so many times that I can really just pick out my favorite parts in the book as I read it, and skim through the rest.

The Stand is Stephen King’s masterpiece and since I don’t feel that I could do it justice in a review, I will just say that it is not only his best book, but easily one of the best that I’ve ever read.

I am determined to pick it up and have more titles to review soon.

My recommendation for the week is the book Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane.

Dennis Lehane writes Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone, among several others. This story starts out on a ferry headed toward Shutter Island. The two men that are traveling on the ferry are detectives and brand new partners who seem to have really hit it off. These detectives have their own pasts to contend with and they are currently investigating some strange happenings in the foremost mental institution in the country, that is located on Shutter Island. The mental institution was converted from military barracks long ago and what was rumored to be a secret ops location. The doctors there have a unique style of dealing with their criminally insane, and they house only the world’s most dangerous criminals. The book is exciting and filled with unpredictable plot twists! I highly recommend it to anyone.

This is now being made into a movie by Martin Scorcese.

A Prayer for Owen Meany

I absolutely worship John Irving.

Believe it or not, I did not have to read this in school (it is now required reading) and I didn’t even hear much about John Irving until about two years ago.

The first book I read by Irving was A Widow for One Year which corresponds with the movie “The Door in the Floor” starring Jeff Bridges. Excellent movie and book, by the way.

However, I fell deeply in love with John Irving only after I read A Prayer for Owen Meany.

It isn’t possible for me to list all the reasons why I enjoy this book but it is my favorite of Irving’s and one of the best books I’ve ever read. John Irving’s writing is pure genius and each sentence comes alive under your eyes. This was the first book I’d read in awhile that I literally could not put down. To this day, when I reread it (like I am right now) I carry it around with me religiously…even from room to room! His stories are all multi-layered and wonderfully complicated, filled with rich, devastatingly real characters that are still larger than life.

Trying to describe what any of Irving’s books are about can be very difficult. His stories are never simple or what you think they are about and they always take you on an unexpected roller coaster through time and lifespans. It is no use trying to predict anything, just enjoy the ride!

Now, I’ve read everything he’s written and wait with bated breath for his next title.

Also, never, ever, watch the movie, “A Prayer for Owen Meany.” It is terrible and not at all true to the book.

Odd Hours

I did something I try to never do.

I read a book out of order. When this happens to me, always by accidentally picking it up and not bothering to look and see if it is part of a series, it usually drives me so crazy that I have to put the book down as soon as I realize it. Not this time. In fact, I enjoyed this book so much that I am afraid to read the first one, afraid that it won’t measure up! Not a typical predicament for me, it is usually the other way around. In fact, there were many surprises for me with this title.

The book is Odd Hours by Dean Koontz and I have never enjoyed Dean Koontz more. I grabbed Odd Hours out of my unpacked boxes as a last resort, desperately looking for a book to read before I went to sleep. I read about four different books at once and I like to have a good book, but not an engrossing one, to lull me to sleep at night. I read the engrossing ones during the day whenever I get the chance.

I have not been Dean Koontz’s biggest fan, (to say the least) usually citing him as a second rate Stephen King with shallow characters and a cheap detective style but interesting paranormal ideas.

I take it back.

In this book, I laughed, cried and fell in love with the main character, Odd Thomas. It may be a typical plot line (an unlikely hero that may or may not save the day), but I didn’t notice because I was too busy being pleasantly impressed with the snappy dialogue, an Alice-in-Wonderland-type journey, and each new engaging and mysterious character. Odd Thomas has a self-deprecating sense of humor that is ever present to lighten the mood, whether facing certain death at the hands of Frank Sinatra’s ghost or a sweet, helpful but sharp old woman who drives her Cadillac through shrouds of fog like a sharp knife slides through warm butter.

This was delightful to read; fun, entertaining and quirky, with an intriguing plot and an undeniable strain of humanity winding its way through the core. I rarely, very rarely, read a book that makes me laugh out loud, but I found myself surprised into a big giggle or loud laugh more than a few times while reading about Odd Thomas’s thoughts and adventures.

Here is the passage that made me cry. It should move anyone who has experienced a painful loss.

“Grief can destroy you-or focus you. You can decide a relationship was all for nothing if it had to end in death, and you alone. Or you can realize that every moment of it had more meaning than you dared to recognize at the time, so much meaning it scared you, so you just lived, just took for granted the love and laughter of each day, and didn’t allow yourself to consider the sacredness of it. But when it’s over and you’re alone, you begin to see it wasn’t just a movie and a dinner together, not just watching sunsets together, not just scrubbing a floor or washing dishes together or worrying over a high electric bill. It was everything, it was the why of life, every event and precious moment of it. The answer to the mystery of existence is the love you shared sometimes so imperfectly, and when the loss wakes you to the deeper beauty of it, to the sanctity of it, you can’t get off your knees for a long time, you’re driven to your knees not by the weight of loss but by gratitude for what preceded the loss. And the ache is always there, but one day not the emptiness, because to nurture the emptiness, to take solace in it, is to disrespect the gift of life.”

I marked three or four pages that had passages like this. They leapt off the page at me and drew me in further after I stopped to read them a few more times.

I recommend this book to everyone but caution you to be sure to pick up Odd Thomas first! Don’t make the same mistake I did! I will be going to the library myself to pick up the previous titles in the series.

Body and Soul

Since I don’t have a book to read, I’ve decided to write about a book I really enjoyed about a year ago. I want to reread it as soon as I unpack it. This book really grabbed me and became an instant favorite.

Body and Soul by Frank Conroy is a fiction about Claude Rawlings’s journey from an lonely, latch key youth to becoming a world renowned classical pianist. It was slow going in the very beginning for me and I almost put it down, but I gave it another chance and was so glad that I did. This is a coming-of-age tale about a child prodigy, but it is unique in the delivery. Claude is a fascinating child but a flawed hero, which makes him all the more interesting. When the author branches off from his character’s lives to explain the details of classical music, I found myself drawn even further into the tale. I also ran out to buy some Rachmaninoff for background music!

Claude meets so many people in his journey to success, each with his/her own fascinating story. The characters danced on the page, larger-than-life and artistically quirky . Claude is endearing as a child, but as he grows up, he becomes more human and significantly more flawed. However, the most important people in Claude’s life, his militant mother, his reliable teacher and his impossible love interest, gradually grow and change in ways I did not see coming. It is a quiet tale of stories within stories.

Body and Soul is chock full of triumph, love, music, dreams, alcoholism, forgiveness and more. I read a review where someone said it was predictable, and I couldn’t disagree more. I can’t wait to read it again!

The Sweet Hereafter

This book is beautifully written, with bittersweet lines that jolt your senses and linger on in your mind, leaving you with an aching heart and a quiet thoughtfulness long after you’ve put it gingerly back on the shelf.

Russell Banks is a talented writer who manages to say heartbreaking volumes in just one short sentence. His story, The Sweet Hereafter, is all too human and universal in it’s themes of blame and loss. The characters are clearly drawn, the story is real but beautiful. From the very beginning you are immediately pulled into the impending sense of doom that hovers over you and never seems to let go, even when the event you are waiting for is finally brought into the light. Reading this book is something like walking through a thick fog. There is no black and white, only gray, no right or wrong, just people trying their best to make it through life the only way they know how.

Russell Banks makes no attempt to hide that the first several pages are just a riveting setup for a devastating tragedy soon to come.

I tried to read this a couple years ago and ended up setting it aside for something else. This time, I got lost in the poignancy and subtle humor of his words and the genuineness of the characters. This is the kind of writing that makes me insanely jealous of the author’s talent.

I was really moved by this book and recommend it to all those readers who are looking for something smart, different, emotional and thought provoking.

Emily of New Moon

I’m re-reading the Emily of New Moon series by L.M. Montgomery for probably the 100th time in my life. Isn’t it wonderful to read a favorite book from your childhood as you get older? I find that it means something different to me every time.

Right now, I’m just grateful to be able to lose myself in Emily’s world, her troubles, and her happiness. What a welcome break from reality! It is even more beautiful and poetic this reading. There are lines in her work that take my breath away and make my heart yearn. She has the wry sense of humor of an eternal realist and yet such an optimistic outlook. I believe L.M. Montgomery is a literary genius whose talent rivals the best of the best.

What I like best about her writing though, is the ability she has to make you completely accept this world she’s created, even reading it in the new millennium. This paradise in Canada where people still have manners and take care of one another no matter what, couldn’t be more different than the world we exist in now. Just the mantra that if you are good, kind and work hard, good things will eventually happen to you is normally something guffawed at- but not in Emily’s world. Montgomery puts such an emphasis on rising above your circumstances to achieve lofty goals with ambition and sheer determination. You really believe in her Emily.

L.M. Montgomery is one of the best authors I’ve ever read. I think she is to a girl’s childhood what Mark Twain is to a boy’s. This series is a perfect snapshot of a time long past, coupled with a timeless story of youth and following your dreams.

I recommend this to both young and adult readers.