A Review of Gramma by Leanne Ellul

 

According to WHO “A mental disorder is characterized by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotional regulation, or behaviour.” From the point of view of a writer this presents a challenge: how do you use language to convey the inner rhythm of a person experiencing mental health challenges whilst keeping an interesting narrative flow? How do you go around the problem that a truthful exposition of mental disorder needs disorder and a functioning plot needs order?

I think Ms Ellul tackled this problem admirably and Gramma is a fantastic work of Maltese literature. Consider this segment:

Il-bidu ta’ kollox kien meta kelli 10 snin. 10 grammi ħafna. L-2010. Minn 20 tnaqqas 10 jifdal 10, u għedtlek  10 grammi ħafna. Mela ma tismax? It-13 ta’ Lulju. Anke 13 ħafna. Niftakar għax fit-13. Niftakar għax kont sejra ma’ sħabi l-baħar u ntbaħt li għax sirt mara ma nistax immur.

This small segment from Gramma shows how the novel has to function simultaneously on at least three seperate levels:

1) It has to simulate the toil of coexisting with the distructive inner voice of mental illness (above in bold);

2) It has to reproduce the voice of a young teenager experiencing drastic change in her life;

3) It has to carry the plot forward and keep it interesting.

Ms Ellul uses short, punchy sentences and an obsessive use of numbers - in all their permutations and linkages with food, dates, people, idioms, traditions and life experiences - to recreate the blended feeling of obsession and reality. Scenes don’t feel as if they are set for us like in traditional novels (descriptions of setting and character interplay are rarely in detail) and this forces us to remain entrapped within the guilt-ridden labyrinth that is Analiża’s mind.

The book is also effective in isolating Analiża, and hence the reader, from any meaningful relationship. This next segment efficiently portrays the grip the illness has on Analiża and how much painful it has become for her to even enjoy an outing with her family.

Sakemm il-ma toħroġ il-kejk u ngħidilha li jien m’iniex tifla żgħira, ġejja bil-kejk. Żgħira fl-eta u kbira fid-daqs. U nibki, u nibki u ma nistax nieqaf nibki. Mill-Miżieb għall-miżien, naħseb. U naħrab niġri u kollox qisu ġebel u kollox qisu trab u kollox qisu niexef u iebes.

This splendid segment shows not only how intensely claustrophobic and lonely it keeps getting in Analiża’s mind but also the author’s ability in using a dab of poetry to keep the going interesting despite the heavy themes; in the hands of a less-talented writer this important novel could have deteriorated quickly into a borefest.

I have used the word “Important” to refer to this novel not only because the themes are important but also because of the clever approach to language chosen by Ms Ellul that will set a benchmark.  I will not be surprised if this novel remains a reference not just for the YA category but also for Maltese Literature in general.    

Review of Manchester by the Sea by Kenneth Lonergan

 

The hype is justified. This movie deserves all the accolades it earned and more. Casey Affleck plays the part of Lee Chandler a man who is an emotionless zombie in the present and a warm husband and father in the backstory that runs parallel throughout the film. What has happened to this man to render him so cold? When (in the present) his brother dies and the legal guardianship of his nephew (played by the phenomenal Lucas Hedges) is assigned to him, the films reveals why the man is broken and I must say that I’ve rarely felt so gut-punched as I‘ve felt here. Then the real movie starts: how can a fractured man give a life and stability to an 18 year old when he is barely alive himself?

The acting by Affleck and Hedges is of another level; no one over acts, no one tries hard to kindle emotions by false desperation. No, that’s not how falling in the abyss works. People still make jokes, have coming-of-age awkward sex, go shopping, forget where they’ve parked their car, cook lunch... You get my point: this movie depicts the real human condition.
In the hands of an average director this movie would have fallen in the Hollywood trap and given us a Heartwarming Awakening-type resolution that makes us go to sleep feeling all fuzzy. But no, the material here is handled with the respect it deserves by the director Lonergan. I have as a scene burning in my memory that takes place between Casey Affleck and Michell Williams, it kicked me to the ground with its deep and honest portrayal of the fragility of human nature. The message is simple: some wounds will never heal and closure is a utopia.
Do yourself a favor and watch it; it’s one of the masterpieces of the decade.

Review of The Hunger by Alma Katsu

A book that has both a Locus and a Bram Stoker nomination under its belt must have done something right; The Hunger gets plenty of things right, but also others not so right. First the background:

The Donner Party (based on a true Donner Party journey that's infamous for resorting to cannibalism when becoming stranded) sets out on a wagon journey towards the fabled West. Winter hits them hard but apparently it's not the only thing that threatens to take chunks off their skins. As they travel across plains and valleys they become aware that something is looking at them, stalking them to be more precise. Not only are rations depleting fast, but so is lucidity and rationality. A dead, horrifically mutilated boy is discovered and the real tragedy starts.

The Good: The book is well researched and the historical part is given the respect it deserves. The characters have believable backgrounds that reflect the prejudices of mid 19th century America (if it was a crime, it must be an Indian; don't trust the Mormon; stay away from the unmarried man). The paranormal aspect is cleverly done and feels fresh, and the horror that it brings with it can be uncompromising and quite graphic. The prose is clean and witty and carries no traces of laziness in it - this provides a satisfying page-turning experience that will be kind to your eyes and brains.

The Bad: The real issue I have with this book is its narrative editing. Its quite common for books to provide a main story and a background story running in parallel. The problem that I found here is their contrasting rhythms, in particular beyond the 70-75% mark of the book. I understand that the author, Alma Katsu, wanted to reveal important aspects about the main characters during crucial moments of the main story, yet I found myself more than once shouting (like a Moran) at my book "Why now??" Think about this: One of the main revelations of the story is revealed, you find your self excited because finally you can start sniffing blood, tensions run high, you're 75%, 80% through so your eyes are drooling for the climaxing desert and then....then....boom: BACKFREAKING story that lowers the tempo back to a pre soup-aperitif. Imagine if in Die Hard, just as Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman faceoff in that last famous scene at the edge of the Skyscraper, Bruce Willis stops, takes out his phone, and calls to check if his laundry is ready (maybe I exaggerate just slightly, but you get the point).

Now, I might have forgiven Ms Katsu if she did it once, just to put more meat in her characters so we can care more - most authors do that, no prob. But, according to my count, this is done around three times in the last 15% of the novel and the overall effect is that the story starts to feel stretched out. Mind you, every backstory is as interesting as the main story, but unfortunately the out of synch tempos takes away the heat from their flame.

I've read a few reviews about the book complaining that it focuses more on the people than the paranormal, but I beg to differ. The problem is not the balance here - I think that Ms Katsu struck that just fine - the problem, as I described above, is the alternating tempos at the wrong moments that simply take our minds away from that monster beneath our beds. I think that this is very unfortunate because the rest of the book has been done with a commanding precision and is deserving of high praise.

Overall I still felt that a 3.5 stars was adequate because its hard in 2018 to release a horror novel with a fresh paranormal take like this one. If you are a horror lover this will still make a fine entry in your library, but just be aware that this could feel at times like the proverbial nuts with chocolates rather than that good old Cadbury your horror buds salivate for (alright, enough food analogies for today).

Review of Breathless by Jean Luc Godard

Michel and Patricia walk down the Champs-Elysees, he gives back the New York Harrold paper and says "Take it back, no horoscope". Patricia asks "What's the horoscope?" and Michel replies: "It's the future." That's Michel and Patricia for you: random, careless, dreamers, selfish; they kneel only to the god of "Now".
The celebrated film critic Pauline Kael said that the scariest thing about the movie is that we are attracted to these characters. Maybe that's subjective, but I sure can relate to that. All along, the film had me asking "what if we could live life without goals, without regard to authority or society?" Well, my hunch is that I would come crashing down to the realization that that might perhaps become a cardboard life where everything and everyone around me is just a prop on a stage.
I felt that this movie took me through that journey. The notorious editing (famous for its accidental jump cuts) complements the plot -- and whether there is one is a matter of debate -- because it's as unpredictable and law-breaking as the characters. The music, just like the characters, shifts from classical and dramatic (sometimes noir-style sometimes romantic) to one with a jazzy-comedic vibe; the hand-held camera and natural lighting, much like the characters, conveys the message that we are "living in the moment."
So, to whom would I suggest this movie? The film is tagged as a Crime-Drama, but it's very obvious that Godard cared very little about the crime elements of the movie. If you're looking for an exciting crime story, go instead watch Reservoir Dogs.

No, this is a movie about the fragility of the free spirit, living like Bogie (Humphrey Bogart) as Michel fantasized. If you are like me, the sort of person to whom the joys of cinema spring from its ability to paint life, then this movie is for you. Watch and rewatch it, then go read about post-war french cinema and how the French New Wave lectured Holywood on freedom and truth. Then you will understand why this is a classic. 

Soundtrack to Literature

Soundtrack to Literature: A Marriage of Arts

Lou Reed is arguably one of the most innovative recording artists of the past three decades. Just to get an idea of how big his influence was, one need only consider U2’s Bono words about him: “every song we’ve written was a rip-off of a Lou Reed song.” One of the features that set him apart was his thirst for challenging both listener and himself- the comfort zone was a limbo he was not too fond of. Thus, it should come as to no surprise that one of his most ambitious projects was delivered in 2003 when he decided to explore the tortured art of what he called his “spiritual forefather”: the nineteenth century master of Gothic Horror himself, Edgar Allan Poe.

The child borne out of this act of love was an ambitious combination of Edgar Allan Poe's poems and stories and Reed’s torturous soundtracks that saw the light of day first as a musical, then as a music album and finally as a graphical novel. It tuned out that Reed’s own vision of the beauty of sorrow was a fit-for-purpose companion for the horror writer’s musings and that’s why the American singer managed to bridge the centuries to provide a unique vision of beauty and horror for the modern era.

Whether one is into this sort of Gothic delicacy, it is hard not to appreciate the forward-thinking prowess of Reed. Just browsing through the graphical novel, one cannot regard the illustrations of Lorenzo Mattotti with indifference- the impossible geometries of shadows and characters, the abstract use of colours that are almost a parody of colourfulness, the inhuman postures of tortured meditation, the mixture of artistic depth and almost childlike sketches- all serve to pour life into Poe’s twisted narrations that had to spring from a very personal hell of his. Now take these visions, listen to Reed’s music and read poe’s poems and stories infused with heartbreak, mist, war, creatures, desperation, the love of death and death of love and you can fully imbibe the artist’s contribution: It is a merger of words, colour and sonic beauty that almost seemed destined to come together, even though conceived centuries apart.

How far ahead of his time was Reed? Whereas in the art of movie making it is very common to see a combination of visual and musical art, this is still uncommon in literature. With audiobooks on the rise readers are now being treated with the deeper experience of having a haunting tale being narrated by professional actors who are adept in giving life to emotions described by words and characters designed on pages. But how would it be if we did it Lou Reed’s way and provide layers of music to enhance the experience? How many times have you seen readers on bus attempt that by listening to their Ipod whilst reading, perhaps choosing songs that correspond to the emotions being described on paper? The human experience is a marriage of five senses that create memorable moments of existence.  We see this in musicals, movies, theatre, dances, so why can’t we see it happening in literature?

Mark and Paul Cameron, the CEO’s of a company called Booktrack, decided to do just that. Over the course of about three years, the Cameron brothers set up a service to provide movie-like soundtracks for digital books, five of which are available now for download onto an iPhone or iPad.  Creative designers read each book and determine what music and sounds should be used, and where. It all comes together with a composer, an audio technician, and sometimes, a sound producer. Cameron said it was only natural to seek out sound experts from the film industry, and they try to work with writers when they can. "It's almost like having your own personal conductor directing you as you're reading," Cameron explained.

Of course, this is not for everyone. Critics might point out that reading is a very personal experience and each reader makes up her own movie, soundtrack and special effects in her own mind. By creating a soundtrack for a book one might be intruding on such an experience and lift off some of the illusion that comes with reading a book. And what about the pace? Each reader creates his own experience by altering the reading pace according the segments of the book that mean the most to him. How would a soundtrack affect this? Indeed, some argue that the whole nature of book reading changes. David Gutowski, better known as "Large Hearted Boy," blogs about books and music, writing and soundtracks. "Once you add music to a book and as one piece of art, I don't know if you can call that a book anymore. It's more of a multimedia experience," he says.

As always, the beauty of art is that it is subjective. To one such innovation might mean an enhancement of the overall experience, to another it might mean intrusion. What is important here is that those who, like Reed, have a merged vision of art, can start to eagerly anticipate a world in which their reading experience is elevated to a new level thanks to the transcendental effect of music. Whether it is fast, military style drumming during a chase scene or a melancholic violin during a romantic interlude, if this serves to draw more people back to reading then we should welcome it with open arms and let no one call the written word a dying art anymore.

 

Review: The Snow and Darkness by Matthew Warren Wilson

The most annoying feeling when you're reading a book is the feeling that you're reading a book. Yes, I must explain. For those old enough to be around when the movie "The Never Ending Story" came out, they might remember how the film portrays Bastian as being completely transported into this new amazing world in both body and spirit, so much that he could interact with the protagonists and become one with the story he was reading. I think that movie says a lot about what a good book should achieve. Unfortunately at no point in time did "The Snow and Darkness"  involve me enough to care about the characters or feel moved about what was happening to them. 

The story recreates the classic scenario of a group of people (2 young couples, some of them hot, all of them horny...rings a bell?) being stranded and helpless. Just as the leader of the party realizes that they can neither go back nor forward he (it's  always a HE) decides to go out on his own to seek help. Then the crazy people (or monsters) attack. Now I don't mind classic setups. I devour every zombie, vampire and haunted house story that comes out. The problem arises when a story doesn't bring anything new to the table. It's even worse when the characters are not developed enough to make you care.

On the positive side I should compliment Matthew Warren Wilson for writing good, polished prose, that doesn't waste any time to propel you into  the action. Phrases are economically used and the dialogue feels real most of the time. In spite of all this unfortunately the story still doesn't provide enough genuine moments of freshness for me to rate it high. It's creepy at times, entertaining during others and has quite a few  number of splatterfest scenes which should  satisfy the gore lovers. Other than that I am afraid there isn't much more because the characters are too cliched and the events too predictable. The good guys are dull and the bad guys are copies of copies of copies of all the classic stuff we were brought up with. Think of this story as a sort of Texas Chainsaw Massacre with a twist.

Speaking of which, I also had a problem with the twist of the story (which of course I won't spoil here). Although I must admit that this is rather subjective and that other readers might appreciate it, I found this particular twist to be awkwardly placed in a horror novel. Maybe its just me, but sometimes a tool of narration that is intended to raise the stakes backfires and ends up diluting the very tension it was meant to create. A good horror novel should give you that roller coaster ride experience that once you get up there is no way in hell for you to go back down and the intensity just keeps escalating. I thought that this twist gave a decelerating effect to the ride which didn't start out too bad after all.

All in all I believe that the good writing is the main saving grace of this novel. All this author needs is to concentrate a little bit more on creating better developed characters that we haven't seen over and over again. It's amazing how the old formula always seems to work: Characters + Plot = Story. Without an original plot and multidimensional characters, your story will always leave readers begging for more. I will definitely be checking out this author when more new material comes out, because as I said, he is definitely an talented writer. It's just that his talents need, I humbly believe, to be employed on a better tale. If he achieves that, I am sure that he can definitely aspire to some success, somewhere along the near future. 

Review 2: Deadlocked by A.R Wise

The great Stanley Kubrick once stated that when it comes to art and originality, everything has already been done and our job is to do it a little bit better. Sadly, few are those who understand this principle, and this usually separates the average writers from the excellent ones.  Take zombie stories for instance:  the zombie world is one of the most popular branches of horror, but also one of the most overpopulated.  This usually makes me a little reluctant to embark on a new zombie experience, even though it’s one of my favorite genres.  Let me tell you that I’m really glad that I’ve overcome my reluctance and downloaded “Deadlocked”.

A.R Wise is a writer who seems to share Kubrick’s sentiment. In fact, in his author’s note at the end of his book-Deadlocked, he explains clearly that he decided to launch a new zombie series because he wanted to challenge himself with the task of finding a new angle for a zombie apocalypse. Right from the kickoff, you begin to suspect that he was successful. The stakes are terribly high right from page one as David, the protagonist, is locked inside an office with his dumbfounded colleagues around him and a hysteric wife, Laura, on the phone. With a single promise, he draws a map that will accompany the reader throughout the book:  yes he’ll survive; yes he’ll make it home alive in time to embrace her and their two daughters and get them the hell out of the city. He says bye and the nightmare commences thereafter.

This book erupts in nonstop action ala War of the Worlds, but much, much more intense.  What I really loved about this book is that the author didn’t envelope his characters in the usual impregnable cocoon that turns them into a walking miracle. On the contrary, he makes it very, very clear that no one is safe here. Not even children.  What is surprising here is not that the protagonist is taken through a very bumpy ride (that happens in every story) but that he gets his own fair share of bloody beatings in the process: there is no room for the usual near misses of narration here. No one is a hero; no one is calculative, cool or has any semblance of a plan. Everyone is scared to his bones and vulnerable as any other minor character whose death fills the pages with that adorable red that all horror fans love. Be prepared to be thrilled from start to finish.

The best aspect here is the character development. David has a very personal story to tell, and this is not just about basic zombie dodging, but it’s a story of family and how to deal with illness (more specifically cancer). There is a parallel here to behold: that between zombies and their maniacal taste for flesh, and cancer… and its own maniacal taste for flesh.  The author is extremely skilled in creating the perfect balance between nonstop action and those mandatory life-pondering passages which elevate an average movie or book into a work of art. Such deep passages are not cumbersome, on the contrary, they elevate the stakes and make you want to grab a shotgun and delve into the scene to lend a helping hand. 

Because the author keeps everything very simple, there are actually little if any negative points here. Of course, this is a series, so the author is excused of leaving loose ends, promising that they will be tied in the next book.  Even though there are certain genre-clichés that come with the territory (and that every zombie fan expects) there is not a single scene which is overblown, or a single moment which does not add an important dimension to the story.  The author here proves that simplicity, when handled well, is the best literary device.

Without hesitation, I am going to give Deadlocked five stars, mainly because I really loved the characters and the nonstop action does make it an unputdownable book.  When I find myself reading every bit of the author’s note, googling up the author’s name and instantly buying the next book in the series, then I know that I have truly uncovered a gem. Indie writers, please, read and take notes.