The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin

(pb; 1976)

From the back cover

“Scattered throughout the world, ninety-four men. Each one a civil servant. Each one approaching retirement. Each one harmless, unknown to the other. Each one marked for death.

“Hiding in the jungles of Brazil, a Nazi scientist with a diabolical plan to create a new Hitler─and the deadly means to carry it out.”

Review

Boys is an intense, sharp and entertaining B-movie take on horrific world events, with a role-shifting cat-and-mouse game between Lieberman, the avenging Jew, and Mengele, the homicidal scientist, as the structure. Levin’s prose is tight, the characters well-developed, the action succinct and gripping, the pathos affecting, and the scenario─wild as it is─even more plausible when re-read in 2020 (I read it decades ago, when I was a teenager). This is an excellent, memorable thriller, one worth owning.

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The resulting film was released stateside on October 6, 1978. Franklin J. Schaffner directed it, from a screenplay by Heywood Gould.

Laurence Olivier played Ezra Lieberman. Gregory Peck played Dr. Josef Mengele. James Mason played Eduard Seibert. Lilli Palmer played Esther Lieberman. Bruno Ganz played Professor Bruckner.

Steve Guttenberg, billed as Steven Guttenberg, played Barry Kohler. Denholm Elliott played Sidney Beynon. Walter Gotell played Mundt. Rosemary Harris played Mrs. Doring.

Uta Hagen played Frieda Maloney. John Dehner played Henry Wheelock. Anne Meara played Mrs. Curry.

Jeremy Black played Jack Curry / Simon Harrington / Erich Doring / Bobby Wheelock.

Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L. Trump, Ph.D.

 

(hb; 2020: nonfiction)

From the inside flap

“Mary Trump spent much of her childhood in her grandparents’ large, imposing house in the heart of Queens, New York, where Donald and his four siblings grew up. She describes a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and trauma. She explains how specific events and general family patterns created the damaged man and general family patterns created the damaged man who currently occupies the Oval Office, including the strange and harmful relationship between Fred Trump and his two oldest sons, Fred Jr. and Donald.

“A firsthand witness to countless holiday meals and family interactions, Mary brings an incisive wit and unexpected humor to sometimes grim, often confounding excess. She recounts in unsparing detail everything from her uncle Donald’s place in the family spotlight and Ivana’s penchant for regifting to her grandmother’s frequent injuries and illnesses and the appalling way Donald, Fred’s Trump’s favorite son, dismissed and derided him when he began to succumb to Alzheimer’s.”

Review

Too Much is a great, perfect nonfiction book in that its author is clear in her writing, her pacing never lags, she tells you enough to be informative and interesting with no wasted words, and if she makes a claim or says something it is backed up with credible facts. I cannot say I enjoyed its subject matter─the cruelty, abuse and twisted dysfunction that defines four generations of Trumps makes for a sad, depressing, infuriating if excellent read. If you’re a 45 fan, of course, you’ll probably hate this. Otherwise, it might prove to be an interesting book.

Clash of the Titans by Alan Dean Foster

 

(pb; 1981: movie tie-in novel, based on the screenplay by Beverley Cross)

From the back cover

“He was Perseus, son of Zeus and Danae, born in disgrace, exiled to perish at sea, fated to survive at heavenly caprice─until he met his love, defied the Gods and dared to fight them or die.

“She was Andromeda, enslaved by her own beauty which beggared the heavens and brough a curse upon her city, her home, heart. . . until Perseus accepted the Devil’s own challenge, answered the deadly riddle and rode forth on his winged horse Pegasus to claim his love and to face the last of the Titans, armed only with a bloody hand, a witches’ curse and a severed head.”

Review

Clash is a fun, action-dominated and lightweight-take-on-Greek-mythology read, one that reflects the tone of its counterpart-source film. Foster, no stranger to writing movie tie-in books, penned Clash with well-edited verve, his descriptions appropriately cinematic vivid and his prose and characters lively. If you liked the 1981 film a lot and are looking for a light, quick and familiar-story book, chances are you’ll enjoy Clash.

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The film was released stateside on June 12, 1981. Desmond Davis directed it, from a screenplay by Beverley Cross.

Harry Hamlin played Perseus. Judi Bowker played Andromeda. Burgess Meredith played Ammon.

Lawrence Olivier played Zeus. Claire Bloom played Hera. Maggie Smith played Thetis. Ursula Andress played Aphrodite.

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There was a remake in 2010, but I have zero interest in it.

The Invention of Sound by Chuck Palahniuk

 

(hb; 2020)

From the inside flap

“Gates Foster lost his daughter, Lucy, seventeen years ago. He’s never stopped searching. Suddenly, a shocking new development provides Foster with his first major lead in over a decade, and he may finally be on the verge of discovering the awful truth.

“Meanwhile, Mitzi Ives has carved out a space among the Foley artists creating the immersive sounds giving Hollywood films their authenticity. Using the same secret techniques as her father before her, he’s become an industry-leading expert in the sound of violence and horror, creating screams so bone-chilling they may as well be real.

“Soon Foster and Ives find themselves on a collision course that threatens to expose the violence hidden beneath Hollywood’s glamorous façade. . .”

Review

Palahniuk’s latest work is─true to Palahniukian form─a novel with an unconventional structure, each scene an overtly crafted puzzle piece that, upon tale completion, reveals an unsettling, memorable whole. After reading this darkly amusing and horrific satire about Hollywood, reality and good intentions gone terribly awry, I will not view a movie scream or an awards show the same way again.

Invention ranks among Palahniuk’s best, naturally linked subversive works, between its character-focused and tight writing and his use of technological facts, conspiratorial “deep state” notions as well as his effective, sometimes stunning twists that leave room for readers’ further speculations. Worth owning, this.

Quest for the Future by A.E. van Vogt

(pb; 1970)

Review

Peter Caxton, middle-man academic film supplier, investigates why the short-subject films he sends out change, boring academic science text and visuals replaced with mind-blowing scenes of outer space and alien creatures. Caxton’s investigations lead him to a time- and character-expanding adventure in time travel and its human and interplanetary limits.

Quest is a blink-and-miss-twists-and-time-jumps book, one that blasts through the usual boundaries of storytelling (and, in doing so, was hard for me to follow). Its quick-cut turn of events did not detract from my enjoyment of the book too much, I just went along for the well-written ride, figuring it was thoroughly mapped by Vogt (a consistently superb and complex author) and it would work out in the end─which it did, dovetailing in an altered and effective way.

To better keep track of the plot and character points, this is likely a read-in-a-short-span-of-time work. I read this over the course of a week when I should have read it in two days or one sitting (which would’ve been easily possible, it’s only 253 pages). Because of this, I might read it again. Either way, this a wonderful, boundary-pushing and often clever read, something I could see as a film, perhaps directed by Christopher Nolan (Inception, Tenet).

Star Wars – Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising by Timothy Zahn

(hb; 2020: first book in the Star Wars – Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy)

From the inside flap

“Beyond the edge of the galaxy like the Unknown Regions: chaotic, uncharted, and near impassable, possessing hidden secrets and dangers in equal measure. And nestled within their swirling chaos is the Ascendancy, home to the enigmatic Chiss and the Nine Ruling Families that lead them.

“The peace of the Ascendancy, a beacon of calm and stability, is shattered after a daring attack on the Chiss capital that reveals no trace of the enemy. Baffled, the Ascendancy dispatches one of its brightest young military officers to root out the unseen assailants─a recruit born of no title but adopted into the powerful family of the Mitth and given the name Thrawn.

 

“With the might of the Expansionary Fleet at his back and aided by his comrade, Admiral Ar’alani, thrawn begins to piece together the answers he’s looking for. But as Thrawn’s first command probes deeper into the vast stretch of space his people call the Chaos, he realizes that the mission he has been given is not what it seems.

“And the threat to the Ascendany is. . . just beginning.”

 

Review

Caveat: possible (minor) spoilers in this review.

Chaos is a good, lots-of-political-and-military-maneuvering work, a familiar set-up read for those well-versed in the Star Wars-verse, especially Zahn’s previous Thrawn novels. Thrawn remains a compelling character, with his known quirks (studying alien artwork for psychological insight; his lack of political guile), in this methodical, well-written set-up for the Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy, with other familiar faces (e.g., Anakin Skywalker) making brief or extended appearances.

This time out, Thrawn’s military career is just starting to take off when threats, the first of which is the Nikardun, an aggressive species that is rapidly incorporating other aliens into the Nikarduns’ subjugating culture. The second threat is the Chiss-ruling Nine Families, conservative and arrogant to a dangerous fault, who ignore this threat, and seek to punish anyone who upsets the delicate balance of power within Chiss culture, especially an outsider like Thrawn. Thankfully for the controlled-risk-taking Captain, he has allies who complement his talents, allies he'll need if Chiss culture is to survive beyond its present days.

The smart-minded, climactic battle, brief as it is, is a thrilling pay-off for the deceptions-and-maneuvering gabfest that dominates much of this book. Chaos’s ending is an excellent set-up for the next phase in the Thrawn Ascendancy, one that echoes Palpatine-foreshadowings in a good way.

Note: In the filmic Star Wars timeline, Chaos occurs between the events of Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.