I was excited to go see the preview of Flash of Genius because it had two actors that I really admire and think are talented: Greg Kinnear and Lauren Graham. I also enjoy period films that really get into the details. This film gets that right, and I was savoring images of a dining […]
Flash of Genius More Like Splash of Rain Read More »
Living in Center City Philadelphia brings with it a lot of perks. I can do almost anything I want just by walking a few blocks. This includes walking to all the music concerts I’m always craving. Classical music concerts. I know this blog is eternally boring and nerdy. Today’s gripes won’t help that image. But
Classical Music Rogues Read More »
I have always thought the defeat of the Spanish Armada to be one of the best stories of history. This movie gives us a dramatic visual portrayal of that event, and also an inkling of what the political climate was at the time. It seems a bit skewed in some ways, for modern audiences, because females
Elizabeth and the Golden Age Read More »
One of my new year’s resolutions for 2007 was to reconnect to my longstanding desire to write novels. Over the last ten years I have worked as a professional writer doing business writing and publicity for various organizations but somehow none of the personal, fictional projects I’ve started have ever amounted to anything. Over the
The Writing Graveyard: abandoned writing ideas Read More »
Cather, Willa (1922). One of Ours. Another novel that shows the “American Story” of the early Twentieth Century, One of Ours is one of the most disturbing war account novels I have read. The American Dream collides with the horrors of modern warfare with beautiful flashes of poetic insight, tales and descriptions of death, suffering,
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Poole, Ernest (1917). His Family. Won first Pulitzer Prize for Novel in 1918. I was reminded of Virginia Woolf’s The Years, but His Family is more personal and slightly less sweeping. The plotting is old-fashioned by today’s standards, but the characterizations are developed and strong. The theme is well executed. A great document of its
His Family: 1918 Pulitzer Novel tells of archetypal America Read More »
So Big, Edna Ferber (1924) 1925 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction I am beginning to marvel at how universal the American Story is. The toiling, for generations,families’ vast economic fluctuations. economically. This book show that industry without humanity is greatly lacking. Selina is real, plucky it is called, as she sets out for an adventure and finds
So Big (1925 Pulitzer): the big American story Read More »
Tarkington, Booth (1921). Alice Adams. 1922 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Left with the thought of the fluidity of the American middle class. People work hard to a certain point, then it can come crashing down. The great opportunities presented by our economy sometimes can be cruel because people are able to prop themselves up artificially. Today
Alice Adams: novel thinking about the American middle class Read More »
The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder Winner of the 1928 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Thornton Wilder had an inspired idea with this book. It is a very obviously constructed book, enjoyable and hitting all the places it needs to, but obviously crafted. It borrows from a more classical style. The problem with works
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Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin spoke to me. I related to Mary personally; that was surely part of the intention: we all fail. We are all human. And American stories are always about people who don’t or can’t follow the rules or who do not do things the way others do them. The Gullah
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