Movie Review: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" directed by David Fincher

                                              Movie Review: “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”


     The new American version of the first installment of Stieg Larsson’s “Millenium Trilogy” is very, very good.  For those who don’t know the story, a discredited journalist named Mikael Blomqvist is hired by Henrick Vanger,  a wealthy Swedish family patriarch, to solve the decades old disappearance and presumed death of his beloved niece, Harriet Vanger.  Harriet disappeared as a sixteen year old on the same day that a truck accident blocked the only bridge leading off of the island which contains the family compound.  Her body was never found.  The only lingering clues are framed wildflowers which are sent annually to Henrik, presumably by the girl’s killer.  Mikael enlists the aid of Lisbeth Salander, the girl of the title, an ace researcher who can get around any computer security encryption.  Lisbeth is a deeply troubled young woman prone to violence, revenge, bisexuality, body piercing and tattoos.  Mikael’s search for the long lost niece uncovers a probable serial killer, most likely one of the Vangers, but which one?  Several of the uncles were Nazi sympathizers and all of the Vangers have issues, either with alcohol, anti-Semitism or anti-social behavior.  Eventually Mikael and Lisbeth independently identify the culprit, ableit nearly too late to save Mikael’s life.  The solution to the fate of Harriet Vanger is revealed, although simplified in this version of the story.

     David Fincher's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" has many strengths.  The casting is brilliant.  I thought that Daniel Craig would be a bit too macho to portray Mikael, but this former James Bond displays enough wariness, uncertainty and even fear to be convincing.   Rooney Mara is superb as Lisbeth, portraying the character’s twin natures: vulnerable waif and vengeful control freak.  The supporting cast is excellent also, particularly Chritopher Plummer as Henrik Vanger.

     The cinematography adds to the general creepiness of the story.  The snowy landscapes of the Vanger estate make you feel at times like you are watching a black and white Hitchcock film rather than a modern blockbuster.  The city-scapes are also draped in winter drab, adding to the somber atmosphere.

      The highlight of the film, though, may be the opening credits, played over a heavy metal remake of Led Zeppelin’s classic “Immigrant Song” which was director David Fincher’s idea brought to life by Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor.  This American movie is very similar to the Swedish version, although the lack of subtitles is a definite plus for this one.  Rooney Mara’s interpretation of Lisbeth Salander is different from Noomi Rapace’s, but not necessarily better.  I thought Mara’s occasional humorous moments helped the character seem more real.

     This is not a movie for the faint of heart, however.  The violent rape scenes are disturbing and the photos of the serial killer's victims which Mikael and Lisbeth uncover are equally difficult to view.

      All in all, though, this is a very good rendition of Steig Larsson’s haunting story.

The Millennium Trilogy, Part 2 - The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

The Millennium Trilogy

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl Who Played With Fire

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest

By Stieg Larsson

           

(Blogger Note: This review was published in the October, 2010 edition of "LAMLight," the phyician newsletter of the Lynchburg Academy of Medicine and completes my review of the The Millennium Trilogy begun in the previous blog post.)

In my last blog post I began a review of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy.  As you may recall, these books have sold over 27 million copies in forty countries over the past five years.  The author, Stieg Larsson, was a Swedish political activist and journalist who died at age 50 from coronary disease shortly after turning the books into his publisher.  Again, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was reviewed in my last blog post and I will conclude in this post with a review of the final two books of the trilogy, The Girl who Played with Fire and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. 

             The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo introduces the two main characters who dominate all three books.  They are Lisbeth Salander, a mysterious and socially awkward young woman in her twenties and Mikael Blomqvist, a discredited journalist.  In Dragon Tattoo the two team up to investigate a decades old missing person case which eventually discloses a serial killer and sexual predator.  Lisbeth uses her skills as a computer hacker to help with the investigation.  As Dragon Tattoo concludes, Lisbeth also provides the information which vindicates Blomqvist.  Her new information (obtained by illegal computer investigation) overturns Mikael’s previous libel conviction and puts him back in good standing with the journalism community.  Using her abilities as a computer genius,  Lisbeth also steals all of the industrialist’s money (billions of dollars).  Lisbeth proceeds to leave the country in a jealous rage when she sees Mikael back with his part-time lover and editor of the magazine he works for.       

              Played with Fire opens with Michael hard at work as a publisher of “Millennium” magazine.  He is working with two free-lance reporters on a story to expose sex trafficking in Sweden.  The research that these two free lancers have produced implicates some police as well as high placed Swedish politicians and security officers.  One mysterious character keeps turning up in the investigation, identified only by the letter “Z”.  Meanwhile, Lisbeth has returned to Sweden, mainly because of boredom, but also to reconnect with her lesbian lover Miriam Wu.  As the article on sex trafficking is near completion, the two free lance writers are found shot in their apartment by none other than Mikael Blomqvist.  On the same evening that the two writers are murdered, Lisbeth’s previous legal custodian is murdered as well.  Circumstantial evidence links Lisbeth to the crimes and a nationwide search is begun.  The only person in Sweden who is convinced of Lisbeth’s innocence is Mikael Blomqvist.  The book then follows a chase to find Lisbeth – by the police who are convinced she is a mad serial killer, by Mikael Blomqvist who loyally wants to prove that she is not guilty of these  crimes and, finally, by members of the Swedish security community who have much more sinister motives.  The reader eventually discovers that the mysterious “Z” character is actually a Russian spy named Zalachenko who defected to the Swedes during the Cold War.  He was “handled” and protected by a small cadre of special security agents within the Swedish secret police.  Zalachenko also turns out to be Lisbeth Salander’s father.  He has a record of physical violence, including beating Lisbeth’s mother into a coma.  He also is the mastermind behind the ring of criminals responsible for the trafficking of young Eastern European girls for the purpose of prostitution.  The plot of this second book is nothing if not tortuous.   Following the trails of Lisbeth Salander as she eludes the police, Zalachenko’s various compatriots as they try to cover up his crimes and the actual police who are clueless as to the complexity of the situation, is difficult.  The many Swedish names are similar and therefore difficult to remember.  The fact that two main characters are named Nieminen (a biker dude who tries to destroy evidence and find Salander under the direction of Zalachenko) and Niedermann (Zalachenko’s son and Salander’s half-brother who operates as a bodyguard and hit-man) makes the whole thing difficult to decipher.  The conclusion of Played with Fire is really just a “page break” and resolves few of the issues raised in the plot:  The relationship between Salander and Zalachenko is well-defined, but their fates are literally hanging.  Both of these characters are critically injured in a final confrontation on an isolated farm.

            This is the way that Kicked the Hornet’s Nest begins:  Salander is in the operating room for a gun shot wound to her head.  Zalachenko has a severe ax wound to his face and other less critical injuries.  Niedermann is on the loose, having killed a policeman during his escape from the final confrontation in Played with Fire.  During most of Hornet’s Nest  Salander is in the hospital recovering from her injury.  Zalachenko is assassinated in his hospital bed (by whom is a critical plot line).  It has become clear by now that Lisbeth was not responsible for the murders in the Played with Fire, but she is being charged with the attempted murder of her father.  Blomqvist is even more determined to prove Lisbeth’s innocence and find out who has been protecting Zalachenko all of these years and why.  Blomqvist also discovers the identities of the security agents who controlled Zalachenko over the decades and unravels all of their misdeeds.  These injustices included falsifying psychiatric evaluations of the teenaged Salander, thus committing her to years in a mental institution to keep her from exposing her infamous father (Zalachenko).  Blomqvist (with the aid of a recovering Salander and her computer skills) finally figures out the whole mess, writes a huge expose and Salander is finally vindicated.  During all this, Blomqvist also falls in love with one of the female police investigators, but does manage to reconcile with Salander by the end of the Trilogy.

            Upon completing The Millennium Trilogy I am reminded of a quote attributed to  Sir Winston Churchill.  When asked about a colleague Churchill is reported to have said:  "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire."  These novels have many “virtues”.  They have fast-pace action sequences with explicitly detailed violence and sex (often together).  The three volume plot is very sinister and complex; by the mid-point of Played with Fire the plot is complex to the point of being almost impossible to follow.  There is an almost obligatory court scene at the conclusion of Hornet’s Nest which, while wrapping up some plot-line “loose ends”, seems anti-climactic.   The “vices” which I relish in a good novel include these:  First and foremost, I prefer likable characters.  The author, while developing his characters well and giving us plenty of back-story to really get to know them, never makes any of his characters very sympathetic.  When a story concerns a tragic victim, especially one of such epic proportions as Lisbeth Salander, I want to like the character.  It’s hard to really like Lisbeth Salander.  The reader can’t help but feel sorry for her, but like her?  I think not.  Mikael Blomqvist, who represents the hero of these stories, is ethically sound as an investigative journalist but has the sexual mores of an alley cat.  Blomqvist’s own sister, an attorney who represents Salander, even describes her brother as someone who “screws his way through life without regard to the consequences”.  This represents a contradiction which was hard for me to resolve.  The cabal of government security people, psychiatrists and lawyers who conspire to imprison Lisbeth and protect her despicable father are not flawed characters with mis-guided good intentions.  They are egotistical, delusional and (for the most part) sex driven maniacs.  What’s to like or relate to in these characters?  Not much.   I also enjoy and appreciate thorough description of place and setting, which the author did a great job of in the first book but abandons in the last two. 

            In summary, The Millennium Trilogy, including The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, is an international publishing phenomenon.  These books are well written, fast paced and intriguing.  The subject matter contains details which are not for the faint of heart. The characters are multi-dimensional and (at least Lisbeth Salander) unusual but not particularly likable.  The story is complex, but, in the end, complete.  Apparently there is a nearly finished fourth book that has been found in Mr. Larsson’s laptop.  Who knows where this will lead?

The Millennium Trilogy, Part 1 - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

The Millennium Trilogy

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

By Stieg Larsson

(Blogger Note: This review was originally published in September, 2010 in "The LAMLight", the physician newsletter of the Lynchburg Academy of Medicine.  It is posted here in anticipation of the new American movie based on this book to be released December, 2011.)

            Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy has become an international publishing phenomenon over the past five years.  The author’s tragic story adds a dimension to these novels which has played a part in generating enormous public interest.  Stieg Larsson was a political activist and the editor of a Swedish Trotskyist journal.  He exposed racist and extremist groups in his role as editor and journalist.  He was also an avid science fiction fan.  He was an admirer of such authors as Val McDermid, Sara Paretsky and Carol O’Connell and first entertained the idea of writing his own crime novels in the late 1990s.  He proceeded to write outlines for ten books.  He had the first two written and the third nearly complete before seeking a publisher.  After initial rejections he received a publishing contract in Sweden for three books.  In 2004, shortly after finishing the third novel in what has become known as The Millennium Trilogy, and before the first book was published, Larsson died of a heart attack at age 50.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was published posthumously in 2005 and by 2008 he was the second most read international author (behind only Khalid Hosseini).  By 2010, after publication of The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, his novels have sold over 27 million copies in forty countries.  Stieg Larsson is also the first author to sell one million e-books on Amazon.com.  In the September 5, 2010 edition of the “Lynchburg News and Advance” Larsson owned the top spot on the hard-back fiction list with Hornet’s Nest and the top two spots on the paperback fiction list with the first two installments.  His novels have won too many awards to list and continue to fascinate an international audience.  So, what’s all the fuss about?

            The trilogy really is one moderately long story (contained in Dragon Tattoo) and a second really long story divided between Played with Fire and Hornet’s Nest.  I decided to review them that way as well and so in this blog post I’ll discuss the first book and in the next post I’ll conclude with the last two.

            The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo introduces the two main characters who dominate all three books.  The first is Lisbeth Salander, a mysterious and socially awkward young woman in her twenties.  She intermittently plays bass in an all girl alternative rock band and works for a security company doing free-lance work.  Her main skill in this arena is her ability to hack into any computer or server with record speed.  She has very little affect, reacts inappropriately to social cues and, generally, is a misfit.  Although the diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome is never used in any of the books, it is apparent that she probably has a variant of that disorder.  Interestingly, the author created the character after a conversation with some of his colleagues regarding what characters in children’s literature would be like as grown-ups.  Lisbeth, apparently, is based on a grown-up Pippi Longstocking as imagined by Stieg Larsson. 

It is in her capacity as a computer hacker that Salander meets Mikael Blomqvist.  Blomqvist is a journalist and co-editor of a monthly political journal (named “Millennium”) who is investigating a Swedish industrialist.  An article regarding this industrialist’s misappropriation of funds and involvement in international illegal arms trafficking is eventually published by “Millennium”.  Blomqvist is sued for libel and loses his court case, owing the industrialist reparations and sentenced to three months in jail.  While awaiting incarceration, Blomqvist is hired by Henrik Vanger, the patriarch of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families.  Henrik wants the journalist to investigate the disappearance of his favorite niece Harriett.  Harriett Vanger disappeared during a family meeting forty years earlier and was presumed murdered, although her body was never found.  Blomqvist takes residence on the isolated Vanger estate and enlists Lisbeth Salander’s aid in researching the family.  Quickly the two discover closets full of Vanger family secrets, including Nazi collaborators, religious zealots and general family dysfunction.  What follows is a very complicated investigation with unexpected twists and turns.  Various family members come under suspicion regarding Harriett’s disappearance.  Sinister attempts are made to thwart Blomqvist and Salander’s investigation.  The conclusion of this book reveals a serial killer who abducted and sexually molested immigrant girls over the course of many decades.  The complicity of members of the Vanger family and the reasons (and the culprit) for Harriett’s disappearance are revealed.  Some of the gory details of the killer’s actions were a little graphic for my taste.

During the investigation Mikael and Lisbeth become lovers and we learn a lot about both characters.  These details play key roles in the plot lines of the second two novels.  We learn that Lisbeth was confined to a mental institution between the ages of twelve and fifteen and still must report to a case worker because she is considered mentally incompetent by the state.  Lisbeth is also revealed as bisexual and completely unpredictable.  Mikael has a complicated love life himself, carrying on a long-term affair with his married co-publisher while having other lovers (including Lisbeth) at the same time. 

This novel is more than just the introduction of the two main characters.  The plot is fast-moving missing person tale, is surprising and holds the reader’s interest.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the only novel of the three which has a plot which “stands alone” and can be read without reading the other two.  The supporting characters are well developed also and are all interesting.  The descriptions of Swedish cityscapes and the more rural settings of the Vander estate are rich and reminiscent of the work of another Scandinavian author, Norwegian Per Petterson (Out Stealing Horses). 

There are some troublesome aspects to this book, in my opinion.  I have talked to several people who have read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and steadfastly refuse to even consider reading the follow-ups.  First is the amount of graphic violent and sexual detail which I mentioned earlier.  I think that the most difficult feature, however, is the general disregard for the female characters in the book.   Ironically, Larsson’s original title for this manuscript was Men Who Hate Women.  Just as you wouldn’t judge English culture only on the writings of Ian Fleming, or American culture on the writings of say, Tom Clancy, then I don’t think you can judge Swedish culture based only on the writings of Stieg Larsson.  However, in this novel anyway, women seem to be held in low regard, viewed mainly as sexual objects and somewhat interchangeable and disposable.  The most extreme example of this is the serial killer who is identified at the conclusion, but some of the other characters (including Mikael Blomqvist) are guilty of the same tendencies. 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an intriguing read with a plot that holds interest and unique characters.  The setting in Sweden is a plus and the writing is excellent.  Twenty seven million readers tend to agree.  If you are only going to read one of the trilogy, this is the one, but be prepared for a wild ride.

There is an excellent Swedish movie with the same title based on this book.  The movie follows the plot of the book fairly accurately, although they simplify Michael Blomqvist’s love life and confine his list of paramours to Lisbeth Salander.  This makes Blomqvist a bit more of a sympathetic character than in the book.  The movie also alludes to Lisbeth’s early mental illness issues, but the reasons for this are not well laid out and I think would be difficult to understand without having read the book.  Cinematically, the movie is stunning.  The movie brings the images from the novel of modern Stockholm as well as the rural countryside vividly to life.  The Vanger estate, in the movie, is particularly beautiful, filmed during the winter and spring seasons.  This story has also been optioned by one of the Hollywood studios.  It will be interesting to see if the American movie is nearly as good as the Swedish one. 

(Next post I’ll conclude with a review of The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.)

Book Review: The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks

The Widow of the South

By Robert Hicks

Reviewed by Tom Carrico

(Blogger Note: This review was previously published in LAMLight, the physician newsletter of the Lynchburg Academy of Medicine and was referenced in a previous blog post book review of Devil's Dream by Madison Smartt Bell.)

      Just when you think there could be no more untold stories of the American Civil War, along comes a gem of a book: Robert Hicks’ The Widow of the South.  This book is set in Franklin, Tennessee, the sight of a brutal battle five months before Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.  The Battle of Franklin has been described by some as the bloodiest five hours of the Civil War.  Confederate General John Bell Hood decides to attack well entrenched Unions troops led by Major General John Schofield in an attempt to recapture Nashville.  Over the protests of other officers, including Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest, General Hood orders an ill-advised open field uphill infantry charge reminiscent of Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg.  This leaves thousands of dead soldiers and many more severely wounded.  The battle descriptions are very vivid and well told. (Indeed they are the equal of Charles Frazier’s descriptions of the Battle of the Crater in “Cold Mountain”.)  This novel is much more than a war story, however.  It is the narrative of war’s effects on the country, the soldiers and the citizens who are swept up in its enormity.

      

     The main character of the book is Carrie McGavock.  She is the mistress of a failing plantation known as Carnton (interestingly enough, from the Gaelic for “place of the dead”).  We meet her pre-battle as she suffers from severe melancholy, having never emotionally recovered from the premature death of three of her children from various fevers.  Her husband John is a dysfunctional gentleman farmer who has never adapted to the “changes” brought on by the War and cannot deal with Carrie’s depression.  He has invested heavily in “the Cause” and suffers financial defeat and loss of his lifestyle and livelihood. 

     The mansion at Carnton is commandeered as a Confederate field hospital by General Forrest and Carrie springs to life in her new role.  The hundreds of wounded and dying soldiers who arrive on her doorstep following the Battle of Franklin enable her to find a purpose for her life beyond grieving her losses.  One particular soldier catcher her eye.  He is Sergeant Zachariah Cashwell from Arkansas.  He somehow survives the charge up the hill as a color bearer, only to be taken prisoner and then shot while trying to escape.  He has a potentially mortal thigh wound but is saved when Carrie triages him to the front of the surgery line and a high leg amputation is performed.  Zachariah is initially resentful of his survival and Carrie’s role in it, preferring death over life as a crippled amputee.  Their relationship grows from one of anger and distrust to one of mutual respect and admiration and finally, love.  This continues until Zachariah is well enough to be taken away from Carnton as a prisoner of war. 

     The rest of the book relates the story of Franklin after the War.  The town is repaired, train lines are extended, freed slaves become small business owners and farms are reclaimed, however there lingers much despair and bitterness over personal losses suffered during the War.  One citizen who owns the land which was the Franklin battlefield decides to plow over the field, disrespecting the final resting place of thousands of Confederate soldiers.  Carrie fights a verbal and political battle over this decision.  Finally, Carrie and John and a corps of volunteers exhume all of the bodies and re-bury them in the Carnton garden adjacent to the graves of the dead McGavock children.  Carrie catalogues the identity and location of each body.   She then dedicates the remainder of her long life to the maintenance of this cemetery and communication with each of the families involved, hence, obtaining the title of “The Widow of the South”.   The inevitable late-life reunion with Zachariah Cashwell is poignant and brings this novel to a satisfying conclusion.

     This book is made even more remarkable by the secondary characters who are wonderful in their own rights.  These include Mattie, Carrie’s slave (a childhood “gift” from her father) and Mattie's son Theopolis.  Mattie is the “heart” of Carnton, organizing and basically running the household for the inept McGavocks.  The dilemma of the freed slaves is played out by these characters who have never known another life.  Mattie decides to stay at Carnton with Carrie following the War and receives criticism from other former slaves including her own son.  Theopolis opts to move to town and becomes a very successful cobbler. 

     This is a novel of war for sure, but it is much more.  It is a story of grief and despair, hope and faith and discovery of life’s purpose.  Trying times forge character and cement relationships which last a lifetime. 

     This is a work of fiction, but the characters of Carrie and John McGavock as well as  Mattie and Theopolis are real.  Carnton exists and survives today with its adjacent cemetery thanks to the work of a non-profit organization.  The author is a Board member of this organization and his passion for and dedication to this project shines through on every page.  This is a startlingly good story which is incredibly well told.

Movie Review: "J. Edgar", Directed by Clint Eastwood

“J. Edgar”

Directed by Clint Eastwood

This two hour and forty minute movie covers the entire career of J. Edgar Hoover, the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Leonardo DiCaprio does an excellent job portraying this complex man.  The story begins with J. Edgar working for the Attorney General Mitchell Palmer (which pre-dated the existence of the F.B.I.)  When extremists detonate numerous bombs, including one at the home of Attorney General Palmer, Hoover was involved in the investigation.  The next Attorney General, Harlan Stone, tasked Hoover with running a new Bureau of Investigation.  He was given total control and wide ranging powers.  The movie follows his career as the new F.B.I. tries to control “enemies within”: first gangsters, then Communists and mobsters.  Hoover was relentless in his pursuit of anyone or any group he perceived as working against his country.  He kept private files which he often used to blackmail celebrities and politicians (most notably John F. Kennedy).  There is an extended segment about midway through the movie dealing with the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby in 1932.  Using forensic techniques new to the time, Hoover and the F.B.I. eventually arrested a German immigrant named Bruno Richard Hauptman.  Hauptman was tried, convicted and executed for the crime, although doubts still exist as to his guilt.

The movie also tries to sort out Hoover’s private life.  He was deeply emotionally dependent on his mother, was awkward at best around women and found his only satisfying relationship with his second in command, Clyde Tolson.  They worked closely and also dined and vacationed together frequently.  The movie briefly mentions a relationship between Hoover and actress Dorothy Lamour, but focuses mainly on the presumed homosexual relationship with Tolson.

This movie is fairly slow moving, especially given the subject matter.  The movie is ambitious but tries to do too much.  A life and a career as complex as these just isn’t easily summarized.  The movie lacks focus, at once trying to illustrate Hoover’s relentless pursuit of any perceived “subversive” and his abuse of powers while also trying to show the audience enough psychological background to explain his tortured personal life.  It also helps to have some knowledge of the politics of the times.  In the movie confrontations in Bobby Kennedy’s office (who, as Attorney General was Hoover’s boss) are portrayed which don’t make much sense without knowledge of Hoover’s hatred of and ongoing battles with the Kennedys.   It is very well acted, especially by Leonardo DiCaprio as Hoover, Judi Dench as his mother Annie and Naomi Watts as his longtime personal assistant Helen Gandy.  I enjoyed the movie despite its flaws.

Book Review: The End of Everything by Megan Abbott

The End of Everything

By Megan Abbott

(Blogger Note: This review was published in the November, 2011 edition of LAMLight, the physician newsletter of the Lynchburg Academy of Medicine.)

This is a “missing girl” novel that packs a punch.  There are countless excellent books with this theme, so what makes this one special?  Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones was told from the point of view of the deceased victim.  Jodie Picoult’s House Rules had a main character who was autistic.  Stewart O’Nan’s Songs for the Missing focused on the tsunami effect that a child’s disappearance has on the victim’s family and community.  So what sets The End of Everything apart from a crowded field of books with basically the same premise?

The End of Everything is set in the mid-1980s in an unnamed but stereotypical Midwest town.  The missing girl in Megan Abbott’s novel is Evie Verver, a typically energetic thirteen year old who is just beginning to exit the awkwardness of middle school and enter into the vague mysteries of high school.  The story is told by Lizzie Hood, Evie’s best friend and next door neighbor.  They are avid field hockey players who are in awe of Evie’s older sister Dusty, the star of the high school team who has boys following her around like puppy dogs and also is the apple of her Dad’s eyes.  Mr. Verver is a dapper middle aged man who wallows in “what could have beens.”  He sits in his basement with the girls drinking beer and playing old vinyl phonograph records from his youth.  Mrs. Verver is largely absent, prone to bouts of melancholy and staying mostly in her bedroom. 

One afternoon after practice Lizzie’s Mom picks her up from school to shop at the mall for an eighth grade graduation dress.  This leaves Evie alone at the field to walk home by herself.  She does not come home and the Ververs contact the police.  There are no clues regarding Evie’s disappearance and the family and community enter a state of panic.  Mr. Verver in particular turns into a chain-smoking ball of nerves.  Lizzie becomes the focus of the police investigation as she slowly recalls details of the day of Evie’s disappearance and then fragments of odd conversations over the previous weeks.  The key piece of evidence is Lizzie’s report of a black car circling the school the day of Evie’s disappearance.  She identifies the car from photographs and the investigation then shifts to a local insurance agent whose office is on the route the girls usually take when they walk to school.  This man is the same age as Mr. Verver, is married and has a son who attends the same high school as Dusty (and owns the black car identified by Lizzie.)  There is evidence (again supplied by Lizzie) that Mr. Shaw, the insurance agent, was stalking Evie (or was it Dusty?) before he snatched her.  Lizzie gains celebrity status amongst her peers as everyone begs her for more details.  An odd codependent relationship develops between Lizzie and Evie’s father.

Questions mount up faster than answers.  Where are Mr. Shaw and his black sedan?  Is Evie alive or dead?   What’s up with Mr. Verver?  Is he just a cool Dad or is he as guilty as Mr. Shaw?  Underlying this whole story is a sexual tension that is undeniable and understated.  Nothing is ever explicitly revealed, but the implications are that there was a lot of weirdness behind the Verver’s closed doors.   Was Evie an innocent victim or did she conveniently use Mr. Shaw as an escape from something worse?  Does Lizzie know more than she is telling, letting some information conveniently slip out but hiding the most damaging?

The resolution of this story is incomplete.  The author leaves a lot of unanswered questions.  There is a tidy climax to the story, however, which actually opens even more questions. 

This is an extremely well-written book.  It takes a worn out theme and spins new life into it.  The characters are superbly developed, mainly by the striking descriptions of their actions:

               

            “There’s a throb in my chest when I see him.   Mr. Verver is back and he is pulling the nozzle trigger on the garden hose, spraying the dry thatch of flowers, the frail brown shrubs.  There’s a beer bottle by his feet, foamed to the top, and two more empty ones, shuddering slightly on the windowsill next to a small speaker gushing restless tales of lost love and the loneliness of the road.”

                

              The novel evokes Middle America in a time when there was still innocence on the surface, when lurid details weren’t exploited for headlines and certain things were held closely secret by families.  This book has a certain “creepiness” to it that rivals the best of horror writers such as Stephen King.  In the style of an Alfred Hitchcock movie, what isn’t shown or told is much more disturbing than what is. 

This is an outstanding novel which stands as an equal to the aforementioned novels.  It is fast paced and very entertaining.  It is hard to put down.  I recommend it highly.  The End of Everything is available in hardcover from Little Brown and Company and in e-book formats. 

Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

A Thousand Splendid Suns

By Khaled Hosseini

Reviewed by Tom Carrico

(Blogger Note:  This review was published several years ago in "LamLight" the monthly newsletter of the Lynchburg Academy of Medicine.)

        It’s amazing that this author has the #1 fiction paperback (The Kite Runner) and the #1 fiction hardback (A Thousand Splendid Suns) on “The New York Times” bestseller list.  The Kite Runner has sold over four millions copies since its release in 2003.  It is a hauntingly written novel set in war-torn Afghanistan.  It is exceptionally well plotted and opens the window on a part of the world that very few of us are familiar with.  The two boys in The Kite Runner are from different socio-economic circumstance but forge a friendship which transcends politics, war and economics.  Even though this story is set in Afghanistan, it is a story of childhood betrayal and its consequences and could really have been set anywhere.  It is a great story wonderfully told, however, and the fact that it takes place in a land few of us understand makes it educational as well as entertaining.

       To use a baseball metaphor, if The Kite Runner was a home run, A Thousand Splendid Suns, the author’s second effort, is a game winning walk-off grand slam.  The author has managed to tell the modern history of Afghanistan: from the end of the monarchy to the invasion of the Soviets to the chaos of rule by the war lords to the tight fisted maniacal rule of the Taliban to the post-9/11 return to some semblance of relative normalcy.  The author again uses the device of telling the stories of two main characters of differing backgrounds, this time women.  The first, Mariam, is the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy businessman in Herat.  The book opens with the story of Mariam’s childhood.  She is sequestered on the outskirts of the city in a clay hut with her mother.  Her father visits once weekly and servants from his house bring basic supplies.  Mariam’s mother is understandably bitter and the tension between mother and daughter is palpable.  Eventually Mariam is given in marriage to Rasheed, an older shoe-maker from Kabul, mainly to remove the embarrassment of her very existence from her father’s world.  This man is domineering and abusive and Mariam’s inability to conceive causes her to quickly fall out of favor.

       The second main character is Laila, a beautiful young girl who grows up as a neighbor of Rasheed and Mariam in Kabul.  She has a childhood friend, Tariq, a young man who lost a leg to a Soviet land mine.  As these children mature, they fall in love. Tariq’s family decides to run from the warlords who by now bombarding the city.  During the hysteria of their pending separation, the two young lovers conceive a child.  Once Laila realizes she is pregnant and has no idea how to contact Tariq, she also marries Rasheed and convinces him that the child is his.  Needless to say, the relationship between Laila and the forlorn Mariam starts out poorly and gets worse.  Eventually they are brought together by their shared victim status and their mutual disgust and hatred for Rasheed.  The resolution of the conflict between these two women is riveting and, well, painful.  You get the impression that there aren’t too many happy endings in Afghanistan.

       While the author tells these two women’s stories, he also gives the reader a fantastic and comprehensive history lesson.  The modern history of Afghanistan is complicated and the author uses some of the secondary characters to deliver this lesson.  Laila’s father is a school teacher and is very interested in politics and a lot of his dialogue is opinion about the current state of affairs.  Laila’s two older brothers fight for one of the warlords against the Communists and are both killed.  Rasheed is a businessman who tries to manipulate whatever political system is in charge at the moment, which also gives insight into the political and social climate through all of these regime changes.

       This is not an easy book to read.  Over and over again, it is heart breaking.  The cruelty to women is incomprehensible.  The status of medical care during the rule of the Taliban is clinically detailed by the author (who is a physician) and graphically described when Laila presents to the only hospital in Kabul which is allowed to treat women and has to undergo a Caesarean section without anesthesia because the Taliban won’t fund the women’s hospital. 

       Khaled Hosseini has a writing style reminiscent of Ernest Hemingway.  He writes in short, brutal sentences which conjure images that the mind can’t even comprehend.  He always uses the perfect word or phrase.  He alludes to Hemingway in one section when Laila’s father is reading The Old Man and the Sea.  A Thousand Splendid Suns is also a fight against impossible odds, a story of hope when the situation is hopeless, and the resilience of the human spirit.

       I think that this book is destined to be a classic.  It is critically important for every American who has an opinion about war, freedom and human rights to read this book.  It’s easy to forget the citizens of a country as it is repeatedly trampled over the decades.  This book puts very real faces on people caught in the crossfire of a conflict they did not initiate.  It describes conditions and situations which those of us living in the comfort of 21^st century America cannot comprehend.  This book is at once entertaining and horrifying, edifying and humbling, compulsively readable and appallingly shocking.  It is terrific.

       

Jimmy Buffett and The Coral Reefer Band, MGM Garden Theater, Las Vegas, Nevada, October 15, 2011

Jimmy Buffett and The Coral Reefer Band

MGM Garden Theater, Las Vegas, Nevada

October 15, 2011

This was no ordinary concert.  It wasn’t even an event or a “happening”.  It was a total multi-sensory, “you’ve got to see it to believe it” experience!  The evening started early.   We decided to stop by Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville restaurant for dinner before the concert.  Apparently about 20,000 other people had the same idea.  In celebration of the opening of the new “Margaritaville Casino,” the adjacent street was closed and there was a giant block party.  People had been partying there for quite some time.  There was a band, concession stands, bars and an amazing array of Parrot Heads in every imaginable costume.  I felt pretty underdressed in a mere tropical print shirt and shorts, but we tried our best to “blend.”  The centerpiece of this celebration of all things Buffet was “Lucky Rita” an enormous margarita, mixed over the preceding several days.  The purpose (successful) of concocting “Lucky Rita” was to set the Guinness Book of World Records record for the world’s largest margarita.

http://www.margaritaville.com/videos.html?ma_id=5&mc_id=517 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNG_rSfA9KM  

This “frozen concoction of which I speak” started with 2125 gallons of Margaritaville Gold Tequila and 708 gallons of Triple Sec.  They were selling margaritas for $38 per souvenir blender full.  We opted for a couple of Land Shark beers. 

             We realized that we would never get into the restaurant with enough time to get to the show, so we began our walk up the Strip, stopping in the Paris Hotel and Casino for dinner.  They had a wonderful “Recession Special” with an all-inclusive dinner (including a glass of wine) for $25.95 each.  It was a very good meal and by far the best deal we found in Las Vegas.

            Then it was on the MGM Grand Garden Theater.  We joined a procession of very intoxicated people as we meandered through the casino, most of the crowd regaled in Parrot Head or Cheeseburger hats, flowered leis, shark costumes and tropical attire.  This was a sight to behold.  This procession drew curious looks from the casino patrons, who were, at least momentarily, distracted from pulling levers on slot machines, tossing dice and drawing cards. 

            The crowd was happily drunk.  We didn’t really find anyone obnoxious, belligerent or unruly (well, at least not until the concert was over.)  The crowd was almost as much fun to watch as Jimmy Buffet.  There were all ages present, most in some sort of costume.  By the end of the show, a lot these folks were having a hard time navigating the stairs. 

            It was the second time we had seen Jimmy Buffett, the first time since 1981.  Jimmy looks more like Joe Biden now than the curly-haired troubadour of the 1970s and 80s, but he can still put on a terrific show.  He is the consummate entertainer, peppering the time between songs with banter and quips.  The set list included many of the same songs as the 1981 show and the crowd very happily sang along with all of the lyrics.  Highlights were “Brown Eyed Girl”, “Margaritaville” and “A Pirate Looks at Forty.”  Two recent songs which were recorded as collaborations with country artists also brought the fans to their feet: “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” (recorded with Alan Jackson) and “Knee Deep” (recorded with The Zac Brown Band.)  The show finale began with the theme from “Jaws” and the whole crowd started the “Fins to the Left, Fins to the Right” dance.  The encore began with a rousing rendition of “Viva Las Vegas”, continued with a very good version of Stephen Stills’ “Southern Cross” and an acoustic solo performance by Jimmy of “Tin Cup Chalice.”  A very satisfied crowd shuffled and stumbled out to the strip or, in our case, to the monorail train having been part of something special.

    SET LIST

The Wino And I Know

Brown Eyed Girl

It’s Midnight And I’m Not Famous Yet

Pencil Thin Mustache

Off To See The Lizard

It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere

Life Is Just A Tire Swing

Son Of A Son Of A Sailor

Come Monday

Why Don’t We Get Drunk And Screw

Volcano

Cheeseburger in Paradise

One Particular Harbour

Use Me

Bama Breeze

Jolly Mon Song

Knee Deep

Margaritaville

School Boy Heart

A Pirate Looks At Forty

The City

Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes

Fins

            ENCORE

Viva Las Vegas

Southern Cross

Tin Cup Chalice

"The Beatles Love" by Cirque du Soleil at The Mirage, Las Vegas, Nevada

“The Beatles Love” by Cirque du Soleil

The Mirage Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada

My wife Ellen and I attended the late show on Friday, October 14, 2011.  “The Beatles Love” is celebrating its fifth anniversary and apparently continues to draw huge audiences.  I had many reasons for NOT wanting to see it.  The Beatles were a big part of growing up for me.  “Beatlemania” and the British Invasion of the early Sixties occurred while I was in middle school.  The “Abbey Road” album was released during my senior year in high school.  I had an English teacher in eleventh grade that for about a week played “Revolution #9” from the “White Album” (the whole album side of seemingly random noise) during class and we were to write about what we heard.  You get the picture: The Beatles were a big deal for me then.  As I’ve grown older and learned to play a bit of music myself, I have gained a whole new respect for the inventive, creative and unique band that The Beatles were.  I had seen Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr (along with Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison) on Larry King Live when the show first opened and to a certain extent bought their explanations as to why they licensed their music for this production.  I heard Paul say that he and Ringo heard the music as if it was brand new – this newly remastered and re-ordered music.  I purchased the soundtrack CD and only listened to it once or twice.  I thought it was weird hearing the songs kind of mish-mashed together and figured this show was just another big payday for what had become The Beatles franchise.  Was I ever wrong!

Hearing this music through the sound system at                         The Mirage is worth the (staggering) price of admission alone.  There is volume without ear-splitting pain.  There is subtlety and tonal qualities I had never appreciated before.  And those harmonies!!!  Way before Graham Nash, Stephen Stills and David Crosby or The Eagles ever considered their first collaboration The Beatles were blending their voices in searing, soothing, exciting and unique harmony.  In the recent HBO movie about George Harrison, George Martin, the original producer for the group, described his dilemma when he first heard The Beatles.  “Who is the lead singer?”  He thought to himself.  He finally decided they didn’t have a lead singer (as had been the custom in pop music up until that time) they were a group and the group dynamic was the “lead singer.”

The re-mix or “mash-up” of the music itself is a wonder.  George Martin and his son Giles used original multi-track recordings, unreleased demos and concert audio to cobble together the soundtrack to “The Beatles Love.”  A segment of music may contain vocals from one song as well as a back beat, orchestral arrangement and instrumental bits from others.  The listener appreciates a certain thrill when he can identify the origins of the particular sounds: “That’s the guitar lick from ‘Revolution!’, ‘That’s the harmony from ‘Strawberry Fields!’.”

The theatrical interpretation by the 60 member Cirque du Soleil cast was nothing short of amazing.  The combination of classical and modern dance, acrobatics, speed skating, clowning and acting brought the music even more alive.  The visual effects were stunning as well.  There were video clips, streamers, a giant cloud like billowing tent which covered much of the audience, confetti, strobe lights and costumes of all description.  These interpretations of the music also highlighted the political nature of The Beatles later music, an aspect often neglected or glossed over in other retrospectives of the band. 

The absolute highlight of the show for me was the ballet performance of a single female dancer in a white dress during “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”  She reads a letter throughout the dance.  Is the letter from a soldier?  Has her fiancé or husband been killed in war?  Who knows, but the combination of the wailing guitar and the sorrowful dance was awe inspiring.

  The audience ranged in age from twenty-somethings to folks even older than us.  It’s hard to imagine, but he majority of this music is close to fifty years old.  This show seems to be bringing some of the magic that was The Beatles to another generation and recruiting another legion of folks who appreciate the music.   All in all, “The Beatles Love” was fascinating and thrilling entertainment which I am glad we made the decision to experience while in Las Vegas.
 

Air Travel 2011: Hoegaarden Beers, WSJ Wrath and a New Peril: The Walking Texter

     Our trip to Las Vegas began as usual, at the Lynchburg airport.  Besides the fact that it was pouring down rain, the departure was fairly routine.  There was an interesting exchange when the young fellow in front of us in the security line pulled out two bottles of Hoegaarden beer.  He gave them to the lady checking bags and said "This is for you, it's really good beer and you can drink them when you get off."  Somewhat unimpressed with his largesse, she deposited them in a bin with various shampoos, lotions and oils and said "NEXT!"

     During our layover in Charlotte we chose two seats near our departure gate for Vegas.  There was a fairly normal appearing middle aged man reading a Wall STreet Journal sitting across from us.  I dove back into Abraham Verghese's Cutting for Stone but soon noticed the guy with the WSJ was talking to himself.  At first, I thought he was using some microscopic blue tooth device, but NO!  He was arguing with his newspaper!  After listening to a number of exclamations, including "Aw, come on!" and "How can that be?" I slipped on my noise cancelling head phones.

    Finally, I have identified a new threat to the health and safety of air travelers:  the "walking texter."  These folks seem equally divided by gender, are stratified through all age groups and come in all sizes.  They walk briskly through concourses, usually while dragging a large rolling suitcase in one hand and texting on a mobile communication device with the other.  They run into fellow travelers with reckless abandon and never mutter any type of apology.  They ususally growl.

    The good news:  the luggage carts in Charlotte behaved themselves this time, did not run into our aircraft or impede our progress towards our destination.

Book Review: Devil's Dream by Madison Smartt Bell

(Blogger Note: This review was published in the October, 2011 issue of LAMLight, the newsletter of the Lynchburg Academy of Medicine)

  This is a fascinating historical novel depicting the life of Nathan Bedford Forrest.  As a Virginian all of my life, the American Civil War has always been an interest.  I guess it can be forgiven if as a child growing up during the Civil War Centennial I thought the majority of the war was fought in Virginia, with the occasional foray into Maryland and Pennsylvania.  Spending eighteen years in Richmond reinforced that notion.  Driving past the statues of Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Jeb Stuart every morning on Monument Avenue makes one think that all of the major personalities fought or died in Virginia.  It has been almost astonishing to me to learn that the “War of Northern Aggression” was fought fiercely all over the South and that there were major players elsewhere that deserve historical mention alongside Lee, Stuart, Longstreet and Jackson. 

   Madison Smartt Bell is a native of Tennessee (I wonder if he thinks the whole war was fought in his state?) and received his M.A. from Hollins College.  He now lives in Baltimore and teaches at Goucher College.  He is known for meticulously researched historical fiction and his eighth novel,   All Soul’s Rising, was a finalist for the National Book Award in the 1990s. 

   Nathan Bedford Forrest is an intriguing figure.  He came from modest means and made a fortune before the war with land investment and as a slave trader.  He enlisted in the Confederate army as a private and rose to the rank of Lieutenant General by war’s end. He had no military training but devised aggressive cavalry techniques and maneuvers.  He often argued with his better trained superiors over tactics.  The most famous disagreement was with General John Bell Hood preceding the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, ground covered very well in The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks.

  The author does an outstanding job of capturing the contradictions in Forrest’s life.  He shows him courting his high society wife and treating her with great respect while abusing his female slaves.  Forrest showed great admiration for many blacks, including several as his closest advisers during the war and yet could sell and beat these same fellow humans seemingly without remorse.  He is alleged to have allowed a massacre of black Union soldiers at the Battle of Fort Pillow rather than take them prisoner, although this novel makes it seem as if the massacre was beyond Forrest’s control. 

   The author uses a second main character, a free black named Henri who encounters Forrest at the beginning of the war, to tell much of the story.  Henri is a Haitian who came to New Orleans with the intention of igniting a slave revolt.  Henri serves Forrest as a scout and soldier until he is killed at the Battle of Chickamauga.  Through Henri’s eyes we see Forrest go berserk in the heat of battle:  charging into enemy lines with a double edged sword in one hand and a six shooter in the other.  He often had multiple horses (often as many as three or four) shot out from under him during these reckless charges.  We see Forrest shot, stabbed, beaten and starved.  In one memorable scene, Forrest is confronted by another general who Forrest has accused of cowardice.  The second general pulls a gun and shoots Forrest at point blank range.  Henri sees Forrest fall, assumes he’s dead and then watches in amazement as Forrest jumps up and runs after his would-be assassin yelling “Nobody kills Nathan Forrest and deserves to live!”

   The secondary characters are important and abundant in this novel as well.  Nathan’s wife Mary Ann is attracted to her husband’s audacity and brashness but is equally embarrassed by his occupation as a slave trader and by his not so subtle indiscretions with his slave mistresses.  Mary Ann’s mother lives with the couple for some time and acts as an over-bearing and outspoken conscience.  She repeatedly stirs up ill feelings within the extended Forrest family.  Forrest’s many brothers play significant roles, both at home in Memphis and as battlefield advisors.

    I have only two criticisms of this book.  The first criticism is the chronology (or lack thereof) with which it is written.  It’s like the author wrote the story in proper sequence but then cut and pasted the individual chapters in a random order.  A chapter describing intense fighting in Franklin, Tennessee is likely to be followed by a chapter describing Forrest first meeting Mary Anne and her mother while rescuing them from a wagon trapped in a creek bed.  I tried to decipher the reason the author did this, but I couldn’t figure it out.  It becomes very confusing when the battle sequences are presented out of date order.  The second criticism is that the author does not include or even mention Forrest’s post-war life.  The fact that he survived is unbelievable.  How Forrest rallied against carpetbaggers  became the first Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan would certainly (in my opinion) have added a lot to this character’s life story.  But, this is not a biography and the author had to stop somewhere, so maybe this isn’t a valid criticism. 

  Devil’s Dream is a superbly written historical novel with a fascinating and enigmatic main character.  History and Civil War buffs should really enjoy this book.