Critics wondered what spy novelists like John le Carre would do once the Cold War ended. They underestimated the amount of Evil in the world, and the need for espionage and covert action. In The Night Manager le Carre painted a vivid picture of international gun-running. You can read my reviews of The Night Manager book here, and the TV mini-series here.

Our Kind of Traitor (2010), like The Night Manager, features an innocent–teacher Perry Makepiece–who finds himself involved with a Russian mobster, Dima, on the island of Antigua. Little by little, Perry is drawn into a world-wide money-laundering operation. The Russian mafia, the British Secret Service, and Dima play an intricate game with billions of dollars. Next week, the movie version of Our Kind of Traitor opens in the U.S. I’ll be reviewing the movie version, too. GRADE: C+

I think this movie should be titled Finding Dory’s Family since that’s what the plot centers around. Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) is a cute blue fish with short-term memory problems. Dory realizes she has a mother and a father and wants to find them. Dory’s two friends, Marlin (Albert Brooks) and Nemo (Hayden Rolence), accompany Dory on her search. But, of course, Dory gets separated from Marlin and Nemo. She meets a grumpy octopus, Hank (Ed O’Neill), who steals every scene he’s in. For fans of Finding Nemo, Finding Dory will be a solid sequel. It made $136 million in its opening weekend. Obviously audiences aren’t having any trouble finding Dory. GRADE: A-

Summer is a time when I usually read a kit of spy novels. Over the decades, I’ve read almost all of Alan Furst’s novels. Furst has staked out World War II as his preferred setting. A few years ago I reviewed A Mission to Paris. You can read that review here. Much of the action in A Hero of France takes place in and around Paris. And, compared to Furst’s other books, A Hero of France contains a bit more sex. It’s 1941 and Paris is enduring the Nazi Occupation. But, there is a Resistance. A man known as Mathieu builds a network to return downed RAF pilots back to England. But the Nazis infiltrate the Resistance and close in on Mathieu and his team. Like all of Furst’s WWII novels, the setting is carefully rendered. I enjoyed the suspense, but the story is a familiar one with few surprises. A Hero of France is a quick Summer read, nothing more. GRADE: C+

Thanks Katie and Patrick! May the Force be with you!

It’s Too Late to Stop Now, Vol. 1 is a 2-CD set of recordings of Van Morrison’s 1973 concerts in Los Angeles and London newly remixed and remastered. Van Morrison was at the top of his game in 1973. These concert recordings document an artist giving these audiences an eclectic mix of his hits and favorite songs. Van Morrison sounds like he’s having fun and so do the people listening to him. If you’re a Van Morrison fan, this is a must-buy. If you’re a casual fan, you’ll find plenty of music on these two discs to enjoy. GRADE: A
TRACK LIST:
Disc One:
1-1 Ain’t Nothin’ You Can Do 3:47
1-2 Warm Love 3:04
1-3 Into The Mystic 4:31
1-4 These Dreams Of You 3:36
1-5 I Believe To My Soul 4:08
1-6 I’ve Been Working 3:55
1-7 Help Me 3:25
1-8 Wild Children 5:04
1-9 Domino 4:47
1-10 I Just Want To Make Love To You 5:14
Disc Two:
2-1 Bring It On Home To Me 4:41
2-2 Saint Dominic’s Preview 6:17
2-3 Take Your Hands Out Of My Pocket 4:04
2-4 Listen To The Lion 8:43
2-5 Here Comes The Night 3:13
2-6 Gloria 4:14
2-7 Caravan 9:20
2-8 Cyprus Avenue 10:19

A movie with a cast that includes Greta Gerwig, Ethan Hawke, Julianne Moore, Maya Rudolph, and Bill hader couldn’t be bad, could it? No, not bad but not good either. Maggie’s Plan is directed by Rebecca Miller, Arthur Miller’s daughter and wife of Daniel Day Lewis. Miller also wrote the screenplay so what goes wrong is on her, not the excellent cast. Greta Gerwig plays a frumpy academic who stumbles into an affair with another academic, Ethan Hawke. Hawke is having marital problems with Julianne Moore. Moore plays a frosty high-powered professor at Columbia University more interested in her rising career than her husband. But, once Greta is married to Ethan Hawke’s character, she discovers he’s narcissistic and self-absorbed. So Gretta decides to come up with a plan where Hawke goes back to Julianne Moore. Maggie’s Plan is supposed to be a romantic comedy but there’s little romance or comedy in this awkward film. GRADE: B-

I reviewed Tom Shippey’s The Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories here. I happened to have Shippey’s The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories from 1992, too. As I’ve noted, Shippey includes more British writers than you’ll find in most of these chronological SF anthologies. Everyone will have their favorites among these classic stories. Mine is “The Screwfly Solution” by “Raccoona Sheldon” (aka, James Tiptree, Jr. and Alice Sheldon). In The Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories I commented on Robert Bloch and Michael Moorcock missing from the volume. In The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories, no Robert Heinlein or Isaac Asimov. But, despite those quibbles, this is a solid anthology worth reading. Just DON’T READ Shippey’s Introduction first: TOO MANY SPOILERS! GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
ix · Introduction · Tom Shippey · in
1 · The Land Ironclads · H. G. Wells · nv The Strand Dec ’03
22 · Finis · Frank L. Pollock · ss Argosy Jun ’06
33 · As Easy as A.B.C. · Rudyard Kipling · nv The London Magazine Mar ’12 (+1)
59 · The Metal Man · Jack Williamson · ss Amazing Dec ’28
70 · A Martian Odyssey [Tweel] · Stanley G. Weinbaum · nv Wonder Stories Jul ’34
95 · Night [as by Don A. Stuart; Dying Earth] · John W. Campbell, Jr. · nv Astounding Oct ’35
115 · Desertion [City (Websters)] · Clifford D. Simak · ss Astounding Nov ’44
127 · The Piper’s Son [Baldy] · Lewis Padgett · nv Astounding Feb ’45
154 · The Monster · A. E. van Vogt · ss Astounding Aug ’48
171 · Second Night of Summer [Vegan Agents] · James H. Schmitz · ss Galaxy Dec ’50
198 · Second Dawn · Arthur C. Clarke · nv Science Fiction Quarterly Aug ’51
228 · Crucifixus Etiam · Walter M. Miller, Jr. · ss Astounding Feb ’53
247 · The Tunnel Under the World · Frederik Pohl · nv Galaxy Jan ’55
278 · Who Can Replace a Man? [“But Who Can Replace a Man?”] · Brian W. Aldiss · ss Infinity Science Fiction Jun ’58
287 · Billenium · J. G. Ballard · ss New Worlds Nov ’61
302 · The Ballad of Lost C’Mell · Cordwainer Smith · nv Galaxy Oct ’62
322 · Semley’s Necklace [“The Dowry of Angyar”] · Ursula K. Le Guin · ss Amazing Sep ’64
340 · How Beautiful with Banners · James Blish · ss Orbit 1, ed. Damon Knight, Berkley Medallion, 1966
350 · A Criminal Act · Harry Harrison · ss Analog Jan ’67
363 · Problems of Creativeness · Thomas M. Disch · ss F&SF Apr ’67
385 · How the Whip Came Back · Gene Wolfe · ss Orbit 6, ed. Damon Knight, G.P. Putnam’s, 1970
400 · Cloak of Anarchy · Larry Niven · ss Analog Mar ’72
420 · A Thing of Beauty · Norman Spinrad · ss Analog Jan ’73
435 · The Screwfly Solution · Raccoona Sheldon · ss Analog Jun ’77
454 · The Way of Cross and Dragon · George R. R. Martin · nv Omni Jun ’79
472 · Swarm [Mechanist-Shapers] · Bruce Sterling · nv F&SF Apr ’82
496 · Burning Chrome · William Gibson · nv Omni Jul ’82
516 · Silicon Muse · Hilbert Schenck · ss Analog Sep ’84
535 · Karl and the Ogre · Paul J. McAuley · ss Interzone #23 ’88
550 · Piecework · David Brin · nv Interzone #33 ’90
577 · Select Bibliography · Misc. · bi

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s slim book, We Should All Be Feminists, is based on a TED speech she gave a couple years ago. Adichie writes about the sexism in her home country of Nigeria but finds some of the same disturbing behaviors when she visits the United States. My favorite story in this book is when Adichie is 9-years-old and her teacher told the class that whoever received the highest grade on a test would become the Classroom Monitor for the day. Adichie yearned to be the Classroom Monitor (a Big Deal in Nigerian classrooms). And Adichie studied hard and scored the highest grade on the test. But when the time came to claim her prize, the teacher told Adichie, “Only boys can be the Classroom Monitor.” That launched Adichie’s feminism because she thought what happened to her was so unfair. I found We Should All Be Feminists profound and moving. GRADE: A

Allan Bloom is best known for his surprise best seller, The Closing of the American Mind. Bloom was a college professor whose interests were Plato and Shakespeare. In this slim little volume, Bloom explores the political philosophy of Shakespeare by investigating some of his most famous plays. Taken from a political perspective, Bloom’s interpretations display a new vantage point for understanding Shakespeare’s plays. If you’re interested in the politics of Venice, the sinister machinations in Rome, or the dangers of dividing a kingdom you’ll find Bloom’s analysis compelling. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1: Introduction: Political Philosophy and Poetry
2: On Christian and Jew: The Merchant of Venice
3: Cosmopolitan Man and the Political Community: Othello
4: The Morality of the Pagan Hero: Julius Caesar
5: The Limits of Politics: King Lear, Act I, Scene i Harry V. Jaffa
Acknowledgments
Index

High-Rise is based on J. G. Ballard’s 1975 novel of the same name. Tom Hiddleston (who seems to be everywhere: The Night Manager, I Saw the Light, Crimson Peak) plays Dr. Robert Laing, a professor at a school of physiology, moves into the new high-rise. In a key scene, Hiddleston gruesomely removes the face from a corpse. One of his students faints as a result. That’s just foreshadowing the horrors ahead in this movie. The high-rise is organized on class lines: the rich and powerful occupy the top floors, the poorer tenants are relegated to the lower floors. When the power goes out, chaos results. Sex, drugs, and violence dominate the rest of the film. Elizabeth Moss plays a pregnant woman whose crazed husband (Luke Evans) tries to document the social dysfunction of the high-rise. Hiddleston (and many men) hook up with high-rise maven Charlotte Melville (Sienna Miller) as social constraints erode. Jeremy Irons, the Architect, occupies with penthouse with his selfish wife and her posse of sycophants. As the disorder increases, the sex-charged atmosphere ratchets up along with the violence.

High-Rise follows A Clockwork Orange and David Cronenberg’s adaptation of Ballard’s Crash. This is a grim and relentless film. GRADE: B