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.

Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl

 

(hb; 2018)

From the inside flap

“Once upon a time, back at Darrow-Harker School, Beatrice Harley and her five best friends were the cool kids, the beautiful ones. Then the shocking death of Jim─their creative genius and Beatrice’s boyfriend─changed everything.

“One year after graduation, Beatrice is returning to Wincroft─the seaside estate where they spent so many nights sharing secrets, crushes, plans to change the world─hoping she’ll get to the bottom of the dark questions gnawing at her about Jim’s death. She suspects that her friends know much more than they ever let on.

“But as the night plays out in a haze of awkward jokes and unfathomable silence, Beatrice senses she’s never going to know what really happened.

“Then night fades to morning, a thunderstorm rages, and a mysterious man knocks on the door. Blithely, he announces the impossible: time for them had become stuck, snagged on a splinter that can only be removed if the former friends make the harshest of decisions.

“Now Beatrice has one last shot at answers. . . and at life. And so begins the Neverworld Wake.”

Review

Neverworld is an excellent, hard-to-set-down YA people-stuck-between-life-and-death science fiction novel. The setup, initially familiar, is made intriguing by Pessl’s overall superb writing and flow, fresh twists, and fully fleshed characters. This is an above-average read for its key genre, one worth checking out, possibly owning, if you’re open to YA novels.

The Tribe by Bari Wood

 

(pb; 1981)

From the back cover

“The Tribe follows a group of Jewish people who not only survive the concentration camps but thrive. Their secret follows them to modern-day Brooklyn, where they continue their relationship and keep their deadly cabal until one day a new threat arrives.

“Drawing on Jewish mythology and folklore, the novel also combines well-drawn characters and police procedurals to create a memorable and humane horror novel.”

Review

 Tribe is an excellent, character-centric, unexpectedly sensitive (in a good way) novel that is as much cultural drama as it is horror and police procedural. It’s sensitive in that it digs deep, in a respectful way, into the Judaism and its within-the-faith cabal, as well its characters, few of which could be called truly, wholly evil or wholly good. It is also restrained for a horror novel, in that Wood masterfully keeps the “monster” of the work in the shadows, not only adding to the psychological truths of the its collective self, but making it truly scary when its is fully shown (and not just described by characters) in the briefly gory climax.

 Tribe is not only one of the best horror novels I’ve revisited this year (I read it decades ago), but one of my all-time favorite horror reads as well, one worth owning, for its themes of dark-hearted humanity, well-written characters and overall excellent writing.

Angel Heart by Alan Parker

 

(1986; unpublished screenplay for the 1987 film)

Review

Parker’s unpublished screenplay for the 1987 film which he directed is as gritty, darkly sly, occasionally grisly and pulpy as its source material, William Hjortsberg’s 1978 pulp novel Falling Angel. Parker’s screenplay is vivid in its engaging-all-senses writing, one of the better screenplays I’ve read. It distills Hjortsberg’s increasingly sinister, walls-closing-in-on-Harry-Angel claustrophobia into a palpable and effective cinematic work, one that is reflected in the resulting film that mixes horror and noir. 

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The film was released stateside on March 6, 1987. As mentioned above, Alan Parker directed the film from his screenplay.

Mickey Rourke played Harry Angel. Robert DeNiro played Louis Cyphre. Lisa Bonet played Evageline Proudfoot. Charlotte Rampling played Margaret Krusemark.

Stocker Fontelieu played Ethan Krusemark. Brownie McGhee played Toots Sweet. Michael Higgins played Dr. Fowler. Charles Gordone played Spider Simpson. Dann Florek played Herman Winesapp.

Pruitt Taylor Vince played Det. Deimos. Eliot Keener played Det. Sterne.

Frank Frazetta’s Death Dealer: Plague of Knives by James Silke

 

(pb; 1990: fourth novel in James Silke’s Frank Frazetta’s Death Dealer quadrilogy)

From the back cover

“Across the vast valley that will, one day in the dim future be the Mediterranean Sea, assassins’ knives seek blood and refugees flee to the castle of Whitetree─where, according to prophecy, the White Veshta, goddess of light, will reveal her rebirth to the world. But Tiyy, sorceress, queen, and bearer of the mantle of the Black Veshta, is moving her armies toward Whitetree, for she means to have the Jewels of Light for her own vile purposes. Meanwhile, her murderers’ blades seek the life of the one man she knows will oppose her, the man she must at all costs stop before he reaches Whitetree. But Gath of Baal is the wearer of the Horned Helmet─is the DEATH DEALER.”

Review

Like its pulpy predecessor books, Plague is a vivid, hypermasculine, gory, action- and character-driven Conan-esque work, with Gath and Robin Lakehair─in a more subtle fashion─stepping up to again battle dark supernatural forces. As always, Tiyy, shadowy enchantress with multiple names, is one of the willing channels of these forces. Plague’s storyline is tight, befitting its series-up wrap-up status, with nuance that is lacking in the first two Death Dealer novels. Not only that, its characters, still adhering to the brutal rules and demands of their world, have matured, making Plague an effective, satisfying finish to the four-book series─even Tiyy, represented as a desperate, lesser threat in Plague, has matured, up to a point. She still uses her sex to beguile (as do most of the women in the Death Dealer quadrilogy), but there’s a certain tiredness in her mindset as she does so.

I especially like how Silke sidesteps the expected climactic demons-and-brawn battle, instead delivering a surprising embodiment of Robin Lakehair’s vaunted power, one that is sequel-friendly and low-key at the same time. This is an excellent “barbaric men’s adventure,” one that fans of Robert E. Howard’s Conan series might enjoy.

The Amityville Horror II by John G. Jones

(pb; 1982: a.k.a. The Amityville Horror Part II)

From the back cover

“When the Lutz family left the house in Amityville, New York, the terror did not end. Through the next four years wherever they went, the inescapable Evil followed them. Now the victims of the most publicized house-haunting of the century have agreed to reveal the harrowing details of their continuing ordeal. Learn about:

“The hooded figure with glowing red eyes that nearly trapped George Lutz inside the house on the day of their departure.

“The vast invisible power that battered their van as they drove away.

“The mysterious levitation and whipping that Kathy Lutz endured.

“The pig-spirit that only young Amy could see and that dogged her very footsteps.”

Review

Caveat: possible (minor) spoilers in this review.

Billed as nonfiction like its predecessor book, The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson, this─like the first book─should be read as a work of fiction. Jones, knowing this, wrote the Lutzes’ supposed experiences as a fictional tale.

As a work of over-the-top horror fiction, Amityville II is a fun B-flick read. The first book established that the demon that plagued some of the residents of 112 Ocean Avenue was a free-range hell-creature, something Jones runs wild with in the second book─the demonic energy follows George and Kathy Lutz when they move across the country, taking various forms in their lives: e.g., Jodie, the impish pig-monster “invisible friend” that speaks only to the Lutzes’ four-year-old daughter; George’s bad luck with jobs he should’ve easily landed; recurring black, swarming flies; George’s nightly 3:15 a.m. wake-up freakouts; when their dog becomes possessed with hyper-focused beaver-like energy and speedily chews away the thick base of a tree he’s leashed to.

The fun and wowness of Amityville II‘s first half takes on a defensive tone in the second. This is a surprising shift because the Lutzes, early on, admit they─had they not experienced the Amityville house─wouldn’t believe what they were saying either. However, in the second half, they shocked─shocked!─when people are skeptical (“cynical,” according to the Lutzes) when their ordeal becomes a bestselling book and blockbuster film.

At this point Amityville II is practically an all-caps WE’RE NOT LYING/CONVERT TO CATHOLICISM OR BE DAMNED work.

At best, the Lutzes come off as dysfunctional, overemotional dupes, led astray by Ed and Lorraine Warren (briefly mentioned as the renamed “Davies and Laura Harding”). The Warrens, like their next-generation familial “paranormal investigators,” are well-known con artists whose media legacy includes The Conjuring and Annabelle film series.

At worst, the Lutzes come off as scam artists.

Obviously, readers will decide for themselves what the Lutzes are.

Their couple-therapy, easy-peasy exorcism (which, according to the open-ended book, may or may not have solved their pesky demon problem) is a smug, jaunty and underwhelming finish to a mostly fun, mixed-tone and melodramatic fictional horror work. Not only that, its ending leaves key “twist” situations unresolved, e.g., the demon supposedly coming after the children, not the adult Lutzes.

It is recommended if you don’t take it seriously.

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The first movie sequel to the original 1979 Amityville film is not based on Jones’s book. Titled Amityville II: The Possession, the second flick in the ten-film franchise is based on Hans Holzer’s book. Holzer’s work is about the DeFeos, the family that lived in the house just before the Lutzes. As trashy horror flicks go, it’s a darker-than-usual terror film, with a great cast. It was released on September 24, 1982