Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut

(pb; 1961)

From the back cover

“Mother Night is a daring challenge to our moral sense. American Howard W. Campbell, Jr., a spy during World War II, is now on trial in Israel as a Nazi war criminal. But is he really guilty?”

Review

Mother is one of my all-time favorite reads. It is a waste-no-words, fast-paced novel: specifically it is a dark, sly, twisty, hilarious and masterful satire about human nature, love, nationalism and war. Reading this in this current political slash global climate gave Mother a special, timely resonance. This is an excellent, blistering book, one worth owning.

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The resulting film was released stateside on November 1, 1996. Keith Gordon directed the film, from Robert B. Weide’s screenplay.

Nick Nolte played Howard Campbell. Brawley Nolte played Young Howard Campbell. Sheryl Lee played Helga and Resi Noth. Kirsten Dunst played Young Resi Noth.

John Goodman played Major John Wirtanen. David Strathairn played Bernard B. O’Hare. Arye Gross played Dr. Abraham Epstein. Anna Berger played Epstein’s Mother. 

Bernard Behrens played Dr. Lionel Jones. Gerard Parkes played Father Keeley. Frankie Faison played The Black Fuehrer. Author Kurt Vonnegut, billed as Kurt Vonnegut Jr., played Sad Man on Street.

Flashfire by Richard Stark

(pb; 2000: nineteenth novel in the Parker series. Foreword by Terry Teachout.)

From the back cover:

"Parker hobnobs with the excessively monied citizens of West Palm Beach while impersonating a Texan oilman looking to buy property. The true object of his affection is a twelve-million-dollar stash of jewels that he aims to steal from under the noses of a hundred socialites, a hit man, and six other thieves who have an unhealthy love of explosions. When things go sour, Parker finds himself shot and trapped -- and forced to rely on a civilian to survive."


Review:

When three fellow heisters (Boyd Melander, Hal Carlson and Jerry Ross) cheat Parker out of his money, Parker follows them to Palm Beach, where he hopes to recoup his cash -- with interest -- from them.

Further complications arise when he's at the wrong place at the wrong time, resulting in a hit being put out on him, and a blond real estate agent takes interest in Parker, a.k.a. Daniel Parmitt, who doesn't strike her as a typical client.

Stark's writing is pulp icy, blunt and intense (character- and action-wise), his usual style. Tom Hurley, last seen in Butcher's Moon, also makes a brief "appearance" (he is heard on the phone) in this difficult-to-put-down thriller.

Worth owning, this. Followed by Firebreak.

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Flashfire inspired the 2013 film Parker, which was released stateside on January 25, 2013. Taylor Hackford directed the film from a script by John J. McLaughlin.

Jason Statham played Parker. Jennifer Lopez played Leslie Rodgers (cinematic stand-in for Leslie Mackenzie). Emma Booth played Claire. Nick Nolte played Hurley.

Michael Chiklis played Melander. Wendell Pierce played Carlson. Clifton Collins Jr. played Ross. Carlos Carrasco played Norte.

Bobby Cannavale played Jake Fernandez. Patti LuPone played Ascension.

Micah Hauptman, billed as Micah A. Hauptman, played August Hardwicke. Kirk Baltz played Bobby Hardwicke. Mike Watson played "Sheriff on Boat". Rio Hackford, son of director Taylor Hackford, played Oliver.

The Deep by Peter Benchley

(pb; 1976)

From the back cover

"On a perfect day in Bermuda a honeymooning couple dives into the offshore reefs. They are looking for the wreck of a sunken ship. What they find is surprising. It lures them into a mysterious and increasingly dangerous encounter, a relentless struggle for survival."


Review

Fun, informative, mysterious, blast-through-it-at-the-beach suspense novel. Some of the scenes are brutal, but if you read Jaws and didn't flinch, you're probably okay reading The Deep.

This is a consummate guilty pleasure. Check it out.

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The film version was released stateside on June 17, 1977.

Nick Nolte played David Sanders. Jacqueline Bisset played Gail Burke. Robert Shaw played Romer Treece. Eli Wallach played Adam Coffin. Lou Gossett Jr., billed as Lou Gossett, played Henri Cloche. Robert Tessier played Kevin.

Peter Yates directed the film, from a script by book author Peter Benchley and Tracy Keenan Wynn.

The Executioners by John D. MacDonald

(pb; 1957, 1958: also published under the title Cape Fear)


From the back cover:

"For fourteen years convicted rapist Max Cady nursed his hatred for Sam Bowden into an insane passion for revenge. He lived only for the day he would be free -- free to track down and destroy the man who put him behind bars.

"Murder was merciful compared to what Cady had in mind -- and what Cady had in mind was Bowden's innocent and lovely teenaged daughter. . ."


Review:

Taut, realistic, and terrifying work, this. Its terrors strike at the heart of what most of us subconsciously fear: losing those we love to primordial forces beyond our control.

MacDonald leavens Cady's intended brutalities -- which are largely left to the reader's imagination, but more effective for being so -- by intercutting them with scenes of Sam Bowden with his affectionate family (his wife, Carol; their three kids), making The Executioners more palatable for squeamish readers.

The actualized violence in the novel is potent enough to send shivers up even the most hardened reader's spine. It's not as explicit or brutal as much of Jack Ketchum's ouevre, but a jungle-law mentality runs darkly through The Executioners, making it read like read like a logical, if restrained, influence on Ketchum's works.

Max Cady is pure malevolence, a canny, "animalistic" predator in our supposedly-civilized world -- one hundred percent nightmare, and all too believable (I've met people like Cady). I'll probably have a bad dream or two about him in the near future, but it's worth it, given how mean and lean this novel is.

Perfect suspense work from a prolific, consistent writer. Own this, already!

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The Executioners has been filmed twice, under the title Cape Fear.

The original Cape Fear was released stateside on April 12, 1962. Gregory Peck played Sam Bowden. Robert Mitchum played Max Cady. Polly Bergen played Peggy Bowden (cinematic stand-in for Carol Bowden). Lori Martin played Nancy Bowden, the Bowdens' teenage daughter. Martin Balsam played Police Chief Mark Dutton. Telly Savalas played Private Detective Charles Sievers. Page Slattery played Deputy Kersek. J. Lee Thompson directed, from a script by James R. Webb.

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The remake, bearing the same title, was released stateside on November 13, 1991. It was directed by Martin Scorsese, and scripted by Wesley Strick (from an earlier script by James R. Webb).

Nick Nolte played Sam Bowden. Robert DeNiro played Max Cady. Jessica Lange played Leigh Bowden (cinematic stand-in for Carol Bowden). Juliette Lewis played Danielle Bowden (cinematic stand-in for Nancy Bowden). Joe Don Baker played Claude Kersek. Robert Mitchum, who played Max Cady in the original film, played Lieutenant Elgart, an honest cop, in the remake. Gregory Peck, who played Sam Bowden in the original film, played a sleazy lawyer named Lee Heller in the remake. Martin Balsam, who played Police Chief Mark Dutton in the original film, played a "Judge" in the remake.

Illeana Douglas played Lori Davis. Charles Scorsese, Martin Scorsese's father, played a "Fruitstand Customer". Catherine Scorsese, Martin Scorsese's mother, played a "Fruitstand Customer". Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, Martin Scorsese daughter, played "Danny's Girlfriend".

North Dallas Forty, by Peter Gent

(pb; 1973)

From the back cover:

"Eight days in the life of a pro-football player. Eight days of savagery, pain, drugs, drinking, laughter and raunchy sex, and haunting love between a man and a woman... Eight days that take you into the heart of a man, a team, a sport, a game and the raw power and violence that is America itself. The author, Peter Gent, former offensive for the Dallas Cowboys, has emerged as an astounding writing talent."

Review:

Laugh out loud funny in some parts, sad in others, this dark comedy is a roller-coaster ride of Dantean proportions. It's not just another football book: it's a written-from-the-gut, inside look at a sport and a country that's troubling, compromised (by power-brokers, money men and players alike) and often admirable.

The ending is one of the most shocking I've ever read. I still get upset when I think about it, all the while applauding Gent's galvanizing finish.

By all means, check it out. Avoid the lackluster book sequel, North Dallas After Forty, which posssessed none of the power and realism of the original novel.

The film version was released stateside on August 3, 1979.

Nick Nolte played Phillip Elliott. Mac Davis played Seth Maxwell. Charles Durning played Coach Johnson. Dayle Haddon played Charlotte Caulder. Bo Svenson played Jo Bob Priddy. John Matuszak played O.W. Shaddock. Dabney Coleman played Emmett Hunter.

Ted Kotcheff directed the film, from a script by Peter Gent, Nancy Dowd (uncredited) and Rich Eustis.

Dog Soldiers, by Robert Stone

(pb; 1973, 1974)

From the back cover:

"Heroin. You pick it up in Southeast Asia. You smuggle it in through San Francisco. You sell it for all the ravenous American market will bear.

"For Converse, a disillusioned journalist, it is a perverse proof of his manhood. For his wife Marge, a college dropout working in a porno movie house, it is a new kick. For Hicks, a devotee of Oriental spiritualism and martial arts, it is another step past fear and moral scruples.

"For all of them it is a trip into a nightmare of lawless violence and insane greed."

Review:

Like the untenable and nasty war that helped spawn it (Vietnam), the events that take place after Ray Hicks smuggles heroin into the States are spectacularly f***ed-up. (Normally, Converse and Hicks smuggle marijuana, but the heroin pay-off, which looks to be astonomical, is too tempting.)

This is the melancholic, sordid and body-strewn milieu of Joseph Conrad, times ten. Converse is the cowardly, morally ambiguous American; Ray, his amoral American antithesis. Marge, Hick's wife in the States, with her growing needle habit, is just another victim. Even Antheil, whose smack Ray and Marge have fled with (after Antheil sends goons to whack them), is a victim of sorts, in a high-risk game where the wrong word in the wrong ear means instant death.

Bleak, ironic, crazy-violent and ultimately tragic, Dog Soldiers encapsulates many aspects of the Vietnam War, as seen by small-time eclectic "operators" whose cash and chemical endeavours arise from that struggle.

Stunning, pivotal work, this. Worth your cash and time.

The retitled film, Who'll Stop The Rain, was released stateside on September 8, 1978. Michael Moriarty played John Converse. Nick Nolte played Ray Hicks. Tuesday Weld played Marge Converse. Anthony Zerbe played Antheil. Richard Masur played Danskin.

Karel Reisz directed, from a script by author Robert Stone, and Judith Rascoe.

The Spiderwick Chronicles, by Tony Di Terlizzi & Holly Black

(hb; 2003, 2004)

Overall review:

This five-book kids’ series is lightweight, and probably won’t be remembered as a landmark work, but it is fun and straightforward. It’s a quick read, as each book is approximately a hundred pages long, packaged like Lemony Snicket’s An Unfortunate Series of Events series.


Review, book by book:

The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 1: The Field Guide – Nine year-old twins Simon and Jared Grace, and their thirteen year-old sister (Mallory) move into their institutionalized aunt’s abandoned house with their mother. When things start missing, and malicious pranks are pulled, the children (who have nothing to do with these events) realize that someone – or something – else is also living in the house.

The story is brisk, the characters deftly-fleshed (Simon loves animals; Mallory is a fencer; Jared is plucky), and the fun never lets up. 


The Seeing Stone (Book 2): When their cat goes missing, the Grace children search for it in the backwoods, and encounter more nasty magical beings. The suspense and mystery deepens.


Lucinda’s Secret (Book 3): The Grace children, desperate to escape prank-persecution from Thimbletack (a house boggart), visit their great-aunt Lucinda in a local asylum, discover a magical map, as well as the possible fate of their great great-uncle Arthur.


The Ironwood Tree (Book 4): When Jared espies a blond girl, and later, his evil doppelganger, riffling through Mallory’s bag at a fencing meet (which Mallory is participating in), and Mallory is kidnapped, Jared and Simon embark on a trek to save Mallory from the rock quarry dwarves who took her. Semi-grim finish, compared to the previous three books.


The Wrath of Mulgarath (Book 5): With help from Byron (a griffin they found in The Seeing Stone) and Hogsqueal (a hobgoblin, also befriended in The Seeing Stone), the Grace children rescue their mother (Helen) from a shape-changing Mulgarath, goblin leader of the dwarves, forest goblins and dragons. Satisfying, amusing conclusion: memorable.

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The resulting film is set for release on February 15, 2008. The authors, along with John Sayles and a few others, are set to co-script. Mark Waters is set to direct.

Freddie Highmore plays "Jared/Simon Grace". Sarah Bolger plays Mallory Grace. Mary-Louise Parker plays Helen Grace. Andrew McCarthy plays Richard Grace. David Strathairn plays Arthur Spiderwick. Joan Plowright plays Aunt Lucinda Spiderwick.

Nick Nolte plays Mulgarath. Seth Rogan voices Hogsqueal. Martin Short voices Thimbletack.