Quick updates on books recently devoured in a short period of time."All the King's Men" by Robert Penn Warren****
Ostensibly a political study based on the life of Huey Long, but with a big dose of Southern gothic thrown in. Prose so rich it's almost drug-like. Highly recommend the movie version with Sean Penn whose perfomance as Willie/Huey is riveting. Click pic above for clip of Willie's stump speech (and, yes, that's James Gandolfini who falls in the hog pen). The "ain't nobody ever helped a hick but a hick hisself" speech makes the hairs stand up on your neck.
"Borstal Boy" by Brendan Behan ***
Behan's memoir about being in a juvenile farm prison at age 16 for plotting to blow up some ships in Liverpool on behalf of the IRA. Despite Behan's swagger and resentment he offers charming accounts of being sucked into "Cranford" by Mrs. Gaskell, provided by the borstal's lending library, and offers unsentimental but humane observations about his fellow inmates from across Britain.
"The Witches of Eastwick"*** and "The Widows of Eastwick"** by John Updike
Despite it's fake feminist overlay, "Witches" is a fascinating examination of the devil in the person of the ill-made Darryl Van Horne, who is a kind of anti-creator. "Widows" is an extremely weak sequel in which the witches attempt to rectify things that happened in the first book, but ultimately it's more travelogue with a some spells thrown in than anything particularly interesting or insightful.
"Cotton Comes to Harlem" by Chester Himes**1/2Short, spare noir crime pulp with lots of spice.
"Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins**
Final book in the Hunger Games trilogy. Initial juvenile dystopian had lot of interesting things to say about power, public relations, and image making, that devolved into a one-trick pony in the second installment, "Catching Fire." Sadly, the third book doesn't redeem the series. Collins seems unable to develop her characters so opts for torturing them in ever more inventive gladiatorial arenas. All that will provide jobs and fun for the Hollywood geeks who do special effects for the movies (which is where this story is ultimately headed). But there's just not much meat there when all's said and done.
"My Name is Number 4" by Ting-xing Ye***
Straightforward memoir about growing up in the chaos of China's Cultural Revolution. Ting-xing Ye's father was a factory owner before the Revolution, which put her family in a suspect position with the Communist Party. She was eventually forced to leave school to work on a cooperative farm where various political factions vied for power and played head games with the workers. The narrative is so detached that it seems dead in places--it's certainly no "Diary of Anne Frank"--but an interesting personal look at a strange and terrible historical event.
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