Racing Odysseus: A College President Becomes a Freshman Again begins with the author, Roger H. Martin, in a Johns Hopkins’ treatment room dying of cancer. He opts for an experimental treatment and suddenly his cancer is in remission. Martin decides to take a sabbatical from his college president job and spend a year as a freshman at St. John’s college. St. John’s is a “Great Books” school that focuses on classics to teach the curriculum. Plenty of Homer and Plato. I wish the book focused on this aspect of Martin’s freshman year. Martin takes a “vow of silence” in the seminars which seems to defeat the purpose of his quest. Martin spends more time on his passion of joining the rowing team than pondering the great literature he’s reading. So Racing Odysseus is a mixed bag. The gold standard for this kind of book is David Denby’s brillant Great Books. Racing Odysseus doesn’t come close. GRADE: B-
RACING ODYSSEUS By Roger H. Martin
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The two postings that generated the most comments in the second half of 2009 both were part of Patti Abbott’s FORGOTTEN BOOKS series. Shirley Jackson’s classic The Haunting of Hill House garnered plenty of appreciation. And Victor Appleton II’s Tom Swift and the Caves of Nuclear Fire produced reminiscences galore. Drongo actually found a copy of the book and read it! I want to thank Jeff, Patti, Rick, Deb, Art, Bill, Steve, Drongo, Beth, Bob, Richard, David, Tina, Todd, Evan, James, Micheal, Ed, Katie, Martin, Fred, Tom, Juri, Dan, Scott, Phil, Terrie, and all the rest of you for your support. This blog is a partnership and you’re doing a great job holding up your end of the deal!
David Thomson’s The Moment of Psycho: How Alfred Hitchcock Taught America to Love Murder explores the impact of Hitchcock’s masterpiece on other movies. The first half of this slim book retells in detail how Hitchcock made Psycho. Nuggets like how author Robert Bloch sold the book rights for a mere $9,000 and how Janet Leigh was had for $25,000. Thomson shows how Hitchcock played the censors to get Psycho released uncut. The second half of the book deals with Psycho’s impact on subsequent films. The Moment of Psycho is a quick read, but there’s plenty here to think about. GRADE: B+
“I wish this book was longer.” That’s a rare sentiment these days when so many books are too long and bloated. But Richard Holmes’ The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science contains stories to burn. The story begins with young Joseph Banks stepping onto a Tahitian beach in 1769 into a paradise of botany and a sexual Disney World. Banks returns to fame and fortune and becomes the President of the Royal Society for the next 41 years. Holmes shows how William Herschel and his sister Caroline revolutionized astronomy. Caroline finds fame as “The Comet Hunter” and is the first woman in Britain whose scientific discoveries the Royal Society acknowledges. The 19th Century’s race between Britain and France to develop hot-air balloon technology, Humphry Davy’s invention of miners’ lamps and anesthesia, and many other exciting scientific breakthroughs are captured in Holmes’ witty narrative. I just wanted it to go on and on! I can also highly recommend Holmes’ Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer; Sidetracks: Explorations of a Romantic Biographer; Dr. Johnson & Mr. Savage; Shelley: The Pursuit; Coleridge: Early Visions; and Coleridge: Darker Reflections. Great storytelling and elegant prose, what more could you ask for?
Imagine Philip K. Dick writing a long episode of Seinfeld and that’s a close approximation of Chronic City. The setting is an alternative universe (or are we the alternate universe?) where former child star Chase Insteadman meets gnomic critic Perkus Tooth. There’s plenty of conspiracy theory talk, plenty of pot smoking. Chase hooks up with ghost-writer Oona Laszlo while Chase’s fiancee, astronaut Janice Trumbull, is trapped aboard the International Space Station surrounded by Chinese space mines. My minor quibble is Lethem’s use of both first-person and third person narration. It might not bother you, but it always bugs me. While Chronic City was my favorite novel published in 2009, Anthony Trollope’s The Eustace Diamonds (published in 1871) was the novel that gave me the most pleasure in 2009. Runner up was Michael Gruber’s Valley of Bones (published in 2006). 
MAD MEN: SEASON THREE
THE CLOSER: SEASON FIVE
TOP CHEF: SEASON SIX
LEGEND OF THE SEEKER: SEASON TWO
It’s Complicated isn’t very complicated. The movie is basically director and writer Nancy Meyer’s wish-fulfillment fantasy. Meryl Streep plays a 60-ish divorced woman who can cook and bake (she owns restaurants), has two good-looking successful men vying for her affection, three perfect children, three perfect friends, and is about to build a beautiful new kitchen for her fabulous house. Meyer overplays her hand when she has Adam (one of Steep’s prospective lovers played by Steve Martin) tell her, “Your age is one of things I most like about you.” Empowerment fantasies are powerful which is why Meyer doesn’t tamper with her successful template that produced money-making movies like What Women Want, Something’s Gotta Give, and The Holiday. Alec Baldwin plays Streep’s randy ex-husband who woos her again. Every cliche about younger wives find their way into the plot. Clearly, Meyer knows how to push a woman’s buttons. The theater we saw It’s Complicated in was packed, mostly with women. GRADE: B 
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