Topic: February 2005
THIS AND THAT
[2.07.06] Congrats to Margin contributor Cantara Christopher, operator of Cantarabooks.com. On the heels of the nationally successful film, Brokeback Mountain, which features Academy Award-nominated actor Jake Gyllenhaal in a supporting actor role, Cantara has announced the June 2006 release of the book, Claptrap: Notes from Hollywood by Gyllenhaal. The title includes an introduction by Jamie Lee Curtis. For more information
[2.05.06] Lucy Ellman doesn't give Kathryn Davis's latest novel, The Thin Place, the best review in last Sunday's New York Times, but she doesn't pan it either. Even when Ellman describes Davis's magical realism as being "annoying" and "of The Lovely Bones variety," she concludes: "Nonetheless, she has done something great here, something heathen, anarchic, democratic. She has given everyone and every thing a voice: animals, plants, children, coma patients, even the earth itself."
[2.02.06] Magical realism isn't only for audiences in southern climates. North Dakota's Dickinson State University recently featured Gunter Grass's The Tin Drum in their annual Film Festival sponsored by the college's Department of Language and Literature. Movies featured in the Film Festival are subsequently added to what has become a burgeoning film collection in that university's Stoxen Library.
[1.17.06] Fans of Isabel Allende's young adult trilogy featuring Alexander Cold will be pleased to know that the first book in that series, City of Beasts, has been slated for film production. No more details available yet, but fans of the series (City of Beasts was an international bestseller in 2002, and Kingdom of the Golden Dragon and Forest of the Pygmies followed in 2004 and 2005, respectively) will be delighted to see a collaborative effort between publisher HarperCollins, Walden Media and Walt Disney Pictures, who brought the recent success, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, to the silver screen last December.
SPOTTED IN THE BLOGOSPHERE
Canadian Girl Out and Aboot—What I've been reading lately…:
"3. A short history of Indians in Canada— Thomas King. I love Thomas King. This collection of stories doesn't disappoint. Some of the stories are creepy, some are funny, some are creepy and funny. He excels at magical realism, and at making points about culture and ethnicity in Canada. He definitely read the writing book where the teacher stressed, 'Show, don't tell.' "
"After reading 'The Jewbird' your spirit feels elevated. At first it is very difficult to understand everything but eventually you can enjoy the way that it is written. The idea of choosing a bird to represent one of the characters says a lot of the imagination of the writer and gives a magical realism tone to the story."
Janet gives an overview of the Guests of Honor for this year's Wiscon, which include Jane Yolen and (sometimes magical realist) Kate Wilhelm. Definitely a worthwhile "con" to attend, if you can.
Regarding Anne Patchett's Bel Canto—"I think Patchett didn't do [Garcia Marquez's magical realism in the same form—no people levitating or having second sight or whatever—but she certainly espoused what I would call an emotional version, whereby all sorts of traumatised and afflicted and trapped people suddenly find themselves wildly happy, fulfilled, loving and talented. Even singing scales, as has been noted, is delightful as a dawn chorus. This isn't normal, is it?"
RE: Harem by Dora Levy Mossanen—"I was expecting a book-length Orientalist fantasy painting, what I got was a complex emotional story about a line of women in medieval Persia. Mossanen's writing is fully immersed in Magical Realism, a genre I love (using the old definition), and reminded me strongly of Laura Esquivel. Don't expect historical accuracy though, the exact place/time is garbled, some details rang true while others seemed way anachronistic. The henna references made me twitch. I still loved the book, and look forward to reading her second novel, Courtesan."
Miss Johnson: Books I Recommend:
RE: The Magical Adventures of Pretty Pearl by Virginia Hamilton—"This book is a little bit difficult to get into at first but it is a good read. It combines African myth and folktale with an adventurous story of exploration. The main character travels from Africa to America. It talks about slavery and human condition but in a way that includes a lot of magical realism. I would suggest it for Grade 6/7 readers or an independent reading shelf in an intermediate classroom. My mom got it for me as an intermediate reader and I enjoyed it."
"I thought magical realism had run its course. Now comes Kafka on the Shore (2002, English translation 2005), by Haruki Murakami, translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel. This novel is another of the NY Times’ '10 Best Books of 2005.' … I didn’t get much beyond Chapter One. I’m not sure whether the critics would call this magical realism or fantasy or what. It’s hard to pigeon-hole a 'serious' or 'literary' novel in which 'cats and people carry on conversations, . . . a forest harbors soldiers apparently unaged since World War II, and rainstorms of fish (and worse) fall from the sky.' After applying the Pearl Formula (minus 30 pages) I would call it unreadable."
And You Will Know Me By The Trail of Books:
RE: Forever by Pete Hamill—"A good read but not a killer. 18th century Irishman lands in NY and saves an African shaman from a lynching. Shaman grants him eternal life so long as he doesn't leave the island of Manhattan. I think a lot of New Yorkers feel this way and if I had enough money, I would agree. Nice touches of magical realism. Features an interesting take on what a good guy Boss Tweed was."
"One of the things that is unique to travel, especially foreign travel, is the ability for the traveler to suspend their disbelief. When you are on familiar ground, everything seems rational, or easily rationalizable. But, in an unknown city, where things pop up out of context, it is so easy to give into the belief that that thing is not to be understood by the mind. … And, if there were any city I've been where these sorts of inexplicable events might take place, it is Barcelona."