Summer Reading: Life After Life

What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you got it right? That is the premise of Life After Life by Kate Atkinson and it is so good! I started reading it while waiting to get my car serviced. The dealership was unusually busy and I had to wait for quite a while but I didn't even notice the time because I was so engrossed. I was genuinely surprised to see that three hours had gone by! When I finished the novel in the wee hours of the next morning, I was quite sad to be finished with such an absorbing story. Ursula Todd is born on a snowy night in England in 1910 but she dies before she can take a breath because the umbilical cord is wrapped around her neck. In the next chapter, Ursula is born and lives because, this time, the doctor is able to make it through the snowstorm and is able to save her. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Ursula Todd. Every time she dies (from influenza, from an abusive husband, during the Blitz), she returns with an innate ability to save herself from peril (although it takes her a few tries to save herself from the influenza). She always returns to that snowy night but, lest you think that it becomes tedious, her birth is described differently every time from the perspectives of different characters. It is an interesting device because you become intimately acquainted with everyone in Ursula's life. She leads many vastly different lives, often because of one small decision, but there are common threads in her life (all of the main characters are recognizably the same) which is fun to look for as you read. Ultimately, Ursula realizes her ability and decides that she has a higher purpose. It is absolutely brilliant! Atkinson's writing is beautiful.  Her attention to detail and her descriptions of historical events, especially the Blitz, are incredibly powerful. The theme of this book is so intriguing in that even the simplest decision can have far-reaching consequences.  I'll admit that I have been thinking about this idea non-stop since I finished it.  I highly recommend this beautifully written and though-provoking novel.

Zion National Park

Since we drove to St. George after visiting the Grand Canyon, we decided to drive through Zion National Park on the way home.  It is one of my very favorite places on earth and Sean had never been there.

Even though it was the Fourth of July, it was not as crowded as I feared (after our fun in the Grand Canyon).  We went pretty early and found lots of parking.  Sean really liked the tunnel (we always honk the horn when we go through a tunnel) and he loved climbing the rock formations.

I have so many memories of taking road trips when I was Sean's age, especially to Zion, and I hope that he has fond memories of this road trip with his crazy aunts!

Grand Canyon National Park

On Sunday we drove from Farmington, New Mexico (where we spent the night) to see the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.  It was about a five hour drive to the South Rim.  We had originally wanted to walk along the Skywalk but we learned that it is a five hour drive from the park entrance and that it cost $80.00 each!  We decided to stay at the South Rim instead.  It was unbelievably crowded (I may or may not have had a small meltdown trying to find a parking spot) but we were able to have lunch and see a viewpoint near the Grand Canyon Village.

It is very impressive (almost worth all of the trouble we had getting a parking spot).  We ended up going on the Desert View Drive on our way out of the park and we were able to stop at every viewpoint.  We should have done this to start with!

It was a little bit stressful at first to visit the Grand Canyon but it ended up being a good day.  Go here for more information.

Note: While we were driving through Arizona I noticed a sign for the city of Winslow.  Marilyn and I got really excited and asked Sean to pose on a corner.

He thought we were crazy until we played him "Take It Easy" by the Eagles.

Four Corners Monument

A couple of weeks ago Sean mentioned, completely out of the blue, that he wanted to visit the Four Corners Monument where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado meet.  He had learned about it this year while studying U.S. geography and knew all kinds of interesting facts.  He mentioned it several times and, being someone who is always up for an adventure, I said that we should go there on a weekend road trip and Marilyn agreed.  I'm not entirely sure that I meant it when I said it but Sean definitely thought I meant it and told his parents that Marilyn and I were taking him on a road trip!  How could we disappoint him?  Marilyn and I decided that if we were going to go down south we might as well hit up a few other noteworthy attractions and go over the Fourth of July weekend (when Marilyn had some time off).  We left early Saturday morning (because Sean thinks it is more fun to start on a road trip in the dark) and made it to the monument in about six hours.  It is in the middle of nowhere.  In fact, we made several wrong turns!  It costs $5.00 per person (when we read up on the monument we learned that they only take cash so we were prepared).  You are allowed to take pictures but you have to wait in a line.  We got there at just the right time because after we had taken our pictures, the line stretched out to the parking lot!  Sean wanted a picture of him touching all four states so he did a push-up (his leg is barely in New Mexico).  There are all kinds of stands around the monument selling Native American crafts and they only take cash!  Sean was a little bit disappointed that they had sold out of these beautiful bows and arrows (he's really into archery right now) but he did find a key chain.  There is really not a lot to do here except take your pictures and browse the stalls (we were there less than an hour) but Sean was fascinated.  This was his very favorite part of the trip.  Go here for more information.

The Legend of Tarzan

On Friday I had a Skarsgard movie marathon.  I saw Stellan in Our Kind of Traitor that afternoon and in the evening I saw Alexander in The Legend of Tarzan.  I actually liked this new adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs classic more than I thought I would (and not just because Alexander Skarsgard looks pretty, which he does).  The film begins with Tarzan (Skarsgard) back in England as the fifth earl of Greystoke with flashbacks to his life in the jungle being raised by apes.  He is lured back to Africa because an envoy of King Leopold, Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz, the ultimate villain), has promised to deliver him to a tribal chief in return for diamonds which the bankrupt king desperately needs.  Tarzan is joined by his wife Jane (Margot Robbie) and a former American soldier, George Washington Williams (an ever-amusing Samuel L. Jackson), who suspects King Leopold of enslaving the African people.  The action sequences are great and I loved the scenes where Tarzan plays with a group of lions and communes with elephants, although I was a bit disappointed that the animals are very obviously digital (the animals are much more realistic in The Jungle Book). However, it is the message about colonialism and exploitation that I found to be particularly compelling (and completely unexpected).  The character Rom is so menacing that I spent much of the movie wondering how Tarzan was going to get revenge and I almost cheered out loud when it happened (a great scene).  I also really liked the character of Jane because she is so feisty and self-sufficient (having also been raised in the jungle) and doesn't necessarily need Tarzan to swoop in and rescue her.  To be sure, there are flaws but I enjoyed this movie.  I am always pleasantly surprised when a summer blockbuster has a compelling story so I would definitely recommend it.

Our Kind of Traitor

As a huge fan of John Le Carre (I've read all of his books), I have been looking forward to the movie adaptation of Our Kind of Traitor for weeks.  I saw it Friday afternoon and it is pretty good with only a few minor deviations from the book.  Perry Makepeace (Ewan McGregor) and his wife Gail (Naomie Harris) are on vacation in Marrakesh trying to salvage their marriage when they cross paths with Dima (Stellan Skarsgard) who purports to be a money launderer with the Russian mafia.  He has sensitive information about British nationals who have ties to the Russian mafia and asks Perry to give this information to MI6 because he fears for his life.  Perry agrees and eventually meets with an agent named Hector (Damian Lewis) in London.  Hector has bad blood with an MP who is one of the British nationals implicated by Dima's information.  Hoping to get revenge, Hector sends Perry and Gail on an unsanctioned mission to get proof from Dima who will only cooperate if his family is granted asylum in England.  The tension mounts as Perry and Gail race from Paris, to Switzerland, and the French Alps as they try to protect Dima and his family.  I thought it was incredibly suspenseful and much of the suspense comes from the fact that you don't really know who you can trust.  Both Skarsgard and Lewis (I like him in just about everything he does) give great performances as the larger than life mobster and the devious agent, respectively.  When I first saw the previews for this movie, I thought that Ewan McGregor was entirely miscast as an academic who is bullied into a situation for which he is ill-equipped (I always think of him as the cocky, devil-may-care Alex from Shallow Grave).  But he almost seems diminished in his portrayal of a man caught up in events beyond his control (I had to look up how tall he is because I thought he looked so small and vulnerable on screen).  His characterization is spot-on and I found him to be very compelling as Perry.  This movie felt very Hitchcockian (including a very interesting McGuffin) which is always a good thing in my opinion.   I love spy movies (cliches and all) and I recommend this movie to other fans of the genre.

Motown The Musical

Imagine a concert featuring the Temptations, the Four Tops, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, and the Jackson 5.  That is essentially what it felt like last Thursday night at the Capitol Theatre when I saw a performance of Motown The Musical.  As you can imagine, it was incredible because the actors looked and sounded so much like the Motown recording artists they portrayed.  The musical tells the story of the rise and fall of Motown Records, particularly highlighting the tempestuous relationship between founder Berry Gordy (Chester Gregory) and his superstar Diana Ross (Allison Semmes).  Interspersed with the telling of the history of Motown is the music from their legendary catalogue.  My favorites included "Where Did Our Love Go," "My Girl," "Stop in the Name of Love," "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," "Baby I Need Your Lovin'," "War," "Ball of Confusion," "I Want You Back," "ABC," "Reach Out (I'll Be There)," "Mercy, Mercy Me," and "Get Ready."  It is such great music and the choreography and period costumes made every number spectacular.  People in the audience were singing, clapping, cheering, and practically dancing in the aisles!  I really loved Semmes' portrayal of Diana Ross, especially during the song "Reach Out and Touch," because she immitated all of her mannerisms perfectly (I laughed out loud when she flipped her hair).  However, J.J. Batteast completely stole the show as the young Michael Jackson.  Where did they find this kid?  He sounded and, more importantly, he danced just like Michael Jackson.  Those scenes were the highlight of the show for me.  If you are a fan of this music, I highly recommend that you see this musical if you have the opportunity.  Unfortunately, the run at the Capitol Theatre ended last night.

Note:  My only complaint is that I wished that every song could have been performed in its entirety.  There were just so many that had to be included!

Summer Reading: The Sense of an Ending

I think The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes is one of those books that people are either going to love or hate. I loved it! On the surface it seems like an ordinary story about an ordinary middle-aged man looking back on a rather mundane life, particularly his memories of his three best friends from school and his first girlfriend.  But it is anything but ordinary when our hero, Tony Webster, is forced to make contact with his old girlfriend after the death of one of his friends, causing everything he believes about his past to be challenged. The events are first presented in a linear way and then, at the midway point, they are presented again, backwards with hindsight. It is, in my opinion, a brilliant device because there are quite a few "a-ha" moments as you read the second half.  What I liked best is that we are left still guessing about what really happened with only the sense of an ending.  It is a study in character development and not a lot actually happens but I found it to be is so interesting because I think we all rewrite our personal history to suit our opinions of ourselves. The writing is absolutely exquisite.  Barnes has a way of conveying so much meaning with only a few words.  I found myself reading a particular phrase and then stopping to think about it for a while. This book is just the kind of perfect little gem that I love and I think I could read it again and again and derive just as much enjoyment as the first time. I highly recommend it knowing full-well that a lot of people might hate it.

Genius

Yesterday I saw the movie Genius and it seems as if I am the only person who liked it (aside from a few employees at the Broadway who gushed about it with me afterwards).  I guess you have to be an English teacher to enjoy this movie and, since I am one, I loved it.  It begins in 1929 when Max Perkins (Colin Firth), a long-time editor at Charles Scribner's Sons responsible for editing the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald (Guy Pearce) and Ernest Hemingway (Dominic West), receives a giant manuscript and begins reading what will become Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe (Jude Law).  Thus begins a tumultuous relationship between the taciturn Perkins and the effervescent Wolfe, to the detriment of their other relationships, namely with Perkins' wife (Laura Linney) and children and Wolfe's patron and lover (Nicole Kidman).  The narrative focuses on their attempt to edit what would become Of Time and the River from an unwieldy 1,000 page manuscript in crates to an eventual best-seller.  This movie is probably a hard sell to most people but I thoroughly enjoyed the scenes where they walked through the city editing the book line by line.  I always tell my students that word choice is so important!  One of my favorite scenes is when Perkins takes a red pencil to the manuscript of A Farewell to Arms!  Can you imagine!  Hemingway uses so few adjectives that it is remarkable that someone could find something to remove!  Yes, I know that I am a nerd.  No one else in the theater drew in a breath at that moment.  Firth, Law, and Kidman give marvelous performances, especially Kidman as Wolfe's over the top and jealous lover.  (For some reason Linney just doesn't do it for me and she seemed rather bland).  I loved this movie, but at the end of the day, it is a movie about editing so take my recommendation with that in mind; however, if you enjoy movies about complicated relationships between interesting people you might like it.

Note:  My only criticism of this movie is that these bastions of American literature are all played by British and Australian actors.

Dark Horse

Dark Horse is another little gem that I missed at Sundance this year.  Luckily the Broadway, my favorite art house theater in downtown SLC, screens most of the Sundance selections so I can eventually see all of the movies that I missed.  I saw Dark Horse last night and I loved this inspirational documentary of how a group of working-class people from a poor mining community in Wales bred a champion racehorse.  Jan Vokes, a barmaid at a local pub, decided that she wanted to breed a racehorse and enlisted the help of the pub's patrons to create a syndicate.  Every member contributed £10 a week and eventually 23 people owned a share in the horse.  Jan bought a mare that came in last in every race she ran and had a bad temperament then found a stallion with a stud fee of £3000.  She took a second job as a cleaner at a grocery store to pay the stud fee.  They raised the foal, which they named Dream Alliance, on an allotment in their village and then, when he was old enough, found the best trainer that they could afford.   Philip Hobbs agreed to train Dream Alliance because he was "street smart and scrappy" but ultimately didn't think he could win.  At Dream Alliance's first race, the syndicate only hoped that he would finish the race but were elated when he came in fourth place.  As he began winning, he started to garner national attention and became a symbol of hope for the entire village.  The members of the syndicate are absolutely endearing and often reduced me to tears in their interviews.  My favorite scene in the documentary is when the whole syndicate, including members with tattoos, piercings, missing teeth, and sandwiches wrapped in tin foil, went to the racetrack to see Dream Alliance in his first race and, wearing badges signifying that they were owners of a horse, mingled with the aristocracy.  This is a stand-up-and-cheer movie about achieving a goal that everyone says can't be accomplished and I highly recommend it.

Note:  Dark Horse won the 2016 Documentary Audience Award at Sundance.  Good stuff!