I am so in love with Rachel McAdams after seeing her performance in About Time. Who could not enjoy a romantic comedy with time travel? Domhnall Gleeson (whose most famous role is Bill Weasley in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2) plays Tim, an average barrister in London. But Tim finds out from his father, played by Bill Nighy, that males in their family have a peculiar power: they can travel through time. Director and writer Richard Curtis uses this time travel skill to generate plenty of humor. Tim decides to use his time travel power in the pursuit of Love. And he falls in love with Rachel McAdams (brilliant choice!). Whenever things get shaky, Tim travels back in time to fix things. But he soon learns the limits to time travel and the story takes a bittersweet turn. I really enjoyed this movie and you will too! GRADE: B+

Last FFB I reviewed Ross Macdonald’s The Far Side of the Dollar. I decided to go back and reread another Lew Archer mystery. Black Money was published in 1965. Lew Archer is hired by a rich man’s son to investigate his ex-girl friend’s new boyfriend. From this simple beginning, Macdonald weaves a complex plot that includes three murders. Black Money explores the usual Ross Macdonald themes of family secrets that impact the Present. Although not as good as The Galton Case or The Chill, Black Money is still first-rate Ross Macdonald.

Whether you’re going to like Donna Tartt’s 771-page novel depends on whether you can tolerate the narration of a teen-age narrator for all those pages. A tragedy strikes young Theo and he becomes a semi-orphan. Theo leaves New York City for Vegas and readers are treated to a couple hundred pages of drinking vodka and beer, vomiting, smoking pot, sniffing glue, and child abuse. Theo returns to New York City but then gets hooked on Oxycontin and other opiates. During this whole story Theo hides a priceless painting, The Goldfinch painted by Carel Fabritius in 1654. Stephen King’s rave review of The Goldfinch in the New York Times Book Review swayed me into breaking my rule never to read a Big Fat Book during a semester. Yesterday, Bill Crider commented: “But I could read six or seven Gold Medals in the time it would take to read this.” That’s exactly the feeling I experienced while reading The Goldfinch. GRADE: C

I found American Fictions 1940-1980 to be a browsers delight. Frederick R. Karl seemingly has read everything written during those 49 years. Even minor writers like James Purdy get a detailed treatment. There’s plenty of attention given to John Cheever, John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, Norman Mailer, Philip Roth, Joyce Carol Oates, and dozens of other writers from that era in the 637 double-columned pages of this book. Frederick Karl also evaluates writers. He’s not too keen on Saul Bellow. But he’s really impressed with William Gaddis and Joseph McElroy–two notoriously difficult writers. If you have any interest in the fiction published during the Post-WWII years, this volume is a gold mine. My only quibble is that Karl missed the importance of Philip K. Dick–no mention of him in this book. After Karl died in 2004, his estate published a sequel, American Fictions 1980-2000 which I haven’t read yet. I bought this volume online for a pittance. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FORWARD
A POLEMICAL INTRODUCTION : WHO WE ARE
Chapter One: THEMES AND COUNTER THEMES
Chapter Two: AMERICAN SPACE AND SPATIALITY
Chapter Three: THE WAR AND THE NOVEL–BEFORE AND AFTER
Chapter Five: GROWING UP IN AMERICA: THE 1940S AND THEREAFTER
Chapter Six: THE COUNTERFEIT DECADE
Chapter Seven: THE POLITICAL NOVEL: 1950S AND AFTER
Chapter Eight: THE 1960s: THE (WO)MAN WHO CRIED I AM
Chapter Nine: THE POSSIBILITIES OF MINIMALISM
Chapter Ten: THE FEMALE EXPERIENCE
Chapter Eleven: 1970S: WHERE WE ARE
Chapter Twelve: THE NONFICTION NOVEL
Chapter Thirteen: WHO WE ARE AND WHERE WE ARE GOING
NOTES
INDEX

The History Boys (2006) is adapted from the original Tony Award winning play by Alan Bennett (he also wrote The Madness of King George). Eight precocious students at an English prep school seek to go to England’s most elite university: Oxford. Two teachers help the boys prepare for the Admission process. One teacher is a shrewd newcomer who sees the application process as a game. The other teacher is an eccentric who tries to inoculate the boys from the falsity of the process with poetry, music, and silliness. Between the two vastly different approaches to Life, the boys learn that history can be both ironic and random. I loved the play and I enjoyed this movie version. The Tony Award winning cast from the play recreate their roles in the movie version. Both the play and movie explore what education and history really are. I picked up this DVD at BIG LOTS for $3. A bargain! GRADE: B+

The hapless 3-6 Buffalo Bills take on the 2-5 Pittsburgh Steelers in a game both teams desperately want to win. Injured rookie QB E.J. Manuel returns after being off for four weeks with a sprained LCL. My brother is a physical therapist and he told me that LCL problems can easily reoccur if the knee isn’t strong enough. We’ll have to see if E. J. Manuel can make it through the entire game today without getting reinjured. How is your favorite NFL team going to do today?

I’m a sucker for movies like Thor: The Dark World so factor that in while you’re reading this review. The Dark Elves return from their exile during a cosmic convergence that allows them to tap into The Aether, powerful Dark Energy. The Dark Elves basically want to destroy the Universe. Standing in the way of this wave of darkness is Thor, ably played by Chris Hemsworth. Natalie Portman (Thor’s girl friend) gets infected by The Aether and her life is in danger. Thor has to turn to his sly, cunning, and evil half-brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) for help. Plenty of action, some humor, and a conclusion that opens the way to more sequels. Fun, fun, fun! GRADE: B+

The Far Side of the Dollar follows the template of most Lew Archer novels: a family is tormented by secrets from the past. In this case, Archer is hired to find a teenage boy who escaped from a Rehab facility. A couple corpses later, Archer learns the seeds of these deaths go back decades. Family secrets are revealed at the end of the case, but Ross Macdonald saves a special twist for the conclusion. Macdonald has been criticized for writing the same book over and over again. Some readers will find the references in The Far Side of the Dollar to King Lear disconcerting (although they fit). This 1965 Lew Archer mystery isn’t as good as The Galton Case or The Chill but it still tells a compelling story.

I first listened to Van Morrison’s Moondance album (yes, the actual vinyl!) back in 1970 and I knew I was listening to a great artist. No one sounds like Van Morrison. Many of the songs on this album went on to become hits. “Moondance” is iconic. But I like “Into the Mystic” even better. “Caravan” still sounds great. And who can sit still when “Come Running to Me” comes on! This new release of Moondance has been completely remastered and sounds wonderful! I listened to DISC 2 with all the alternative versions and outtakes. But I’ll be listening to DISC 1 much, much more. GRADE: A