Book Review: The Beans of Egypt, Maine

Carolyn Chute's first novel, The Beans of Egypt, Maine made its way onto my bookshelf last year by way of my fellow romper. Dani informed me that this was a book I simply HAD to read. It ended up on the back burner until just a few weeks ago when I finally plucked it from my library. Even though Beans came highly recommended, I had no idea what to expect. Truthfully, my mind only registered the "Egypt" part of the title and immediately associated it with the title of a 1960s children's book, The Egypt Game. I say all this because I truly did know what The Beans of Egypt, Maine would hold.

Chute instantly draws in her reader by creating scenes in which only half the story is revealed, while still making it clear there is much to be discovered. Writing short, concise scenes that work as isolated stories serving as snapshots of her character's lives, Chute weaves together a narrative that refuses to conform to a typical plot structure. Through these scenes Chute depicts her characters moving through life without judging their actions, decisions or lifestyle. The detached quality of the narrative allows the rawness of life Chute depicts to tell the other side of the story. The Beans of Egypt comprise members of an impoverished family living to survive in rural Maine. Their lives are a daily struggle. Chute seeks to show their stories, as real and as important as any other in literature today. I found the novel to be about Beans' relationships, strategies and the richness they found within their lives. While the narrator refuses to judge the uneducated, overworked and underpaid of the lower class, it is clear the perspective is one of respect - respect for the Beans' survival and resilience. Furthermore, the tone of the novel allows the static nature of the plot to flourish. Each scene in the novel reached a small climax; much like the small climaxes of everyday life - a new friend, discovery in nature, a loss. With this style and technique Chute wrote a perfect ending in which it is clear that life will continue exactly the same for the Beans - men will go to jail, die, women will have babies...it will be different men and women, but they will continue to survive, regardless of the hardships they face.

The Beans of Egypt, Maine was Chute's first novel, placing her on the literary map, but not for the reasons she hoped. There are a few scenes and one relationship in particular many critics deem incestuous. Because of these alleged instances of incest, the book became a New York Times bestseller, and in the edition I have, Chute includes a postscript, refuting the presence of incest. In the postscript Chute meditates on the possibility of rewriting certain scenes to eliminate such suspicions, but cannot bring herself to because she wrote the scenes as they represent the relationships she envisioned and instead finds herself disgusted that American culture reads incest into particular images. While it is unfortunate that the mind make that leap, I think it is naive to wish to change that association with one book. I think it is important for the scenes to stay as written and use it as a counterexample of an instance in which an associated image is inverted. There is one relationship in particular, between Roberta and Beal that I found confusing, because some of the members of the Bean family are not Beans by blood, but rather by marriage or association. While both Roberta and Beal are supposed members of the Bean clan, it appears that they are sleeping together and Roberta's growing number of children are in fact fathered by the young Beal. Is this wrong? Is this incest? While the scenes with Roberta and Beal made me wonder about the role of incest, I looked to the narrative as my guide. Because the narrative never raised the issue, I accepted that perhaps the technicalities of the Roberta and Beal's relationship were not of importance.

Chute wrote a beautifully compact novel that grabs hold of the reader's heart from the first page and refuses to let go long after the novel is finished. The life of the Beans is haunting in its raw survival, lingering in the recesses of this reader's mind. Worth the read, even the cringe-worthy moments.

- KER

Movie Reviews from the Vault: Thirteen

After watching a couple newly released movies, as previously written about on this blog, I decided that there may not be many high quality movies out there these days. Therefore, I decided to go back in time a bit and review from older movies that I have just recently discovered. Among these, is the film Thirteen which was released in 2003 and stars Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed. The movie is based on Nikki Reed's tumultuous life during her adolescence.

The plot follows Wood's character named Tracy as she enters the 7th grade and becomes entranced with her wild classmate Evie (played by Reed). Evie proves to be a terribly influence on Tracy who goes from being an excellent student, blossoming poet, and sheltered young lady to a 13 year old drug abuser who loses her virginity and verbally assaults her family members on a daily basis. Tracy's mother (Mel), played expertly by Holly Hunter, is a recovered drug addict/alcoholic who is trying to save her daughter without getting sucked into back into the drug and alcohol scene herself. As Tracy and Evie become closer friends, Evie makes up lies about her past in order to stay at Tracy's house and win over her family. In addition, Tracy is trying to deal with the fact that her father has a new family and does not have time for her. Just when the tension seems to be at its boiling point, Mel's boyfriend (who is an ex-cocaine addict) moves back in after his stay in the halfway house.

With such a heavy plot, I was skeptical that the young actresses wouldn't be able to pull it all off. I was completely wrong! Wood plays her part so well that I wondered if she had experiences similar to those in the film. Holly Hunter was equally exceptional as was Nikki Reed did not in fact play herself in the film but instead played the antagonist. Once I did some background reading on this movie, I found that it had been written by Nikki Reed and director Catherine Hardwicke in six days and was originally going to be a comedy. This shocked me because the material is so tragic and raw that there isn't even enough humor for a dark comedy. It was equally impressive to read that it was written in such a short time period because the characters are very well developed. Of course it has its pitfalls, but the majority of them hit in the first half an hour of the film. At times the script feels clunky, but it never interferes with the action or emotion of the movie. Overall, it is an extremely impressive feat and worth a viewing.

-DLP

Now Available on DVD: Taking Woodstock

As a huge fan of the 1960s music, history and culture, I have to admit that my expectations were a bit high. Still, Taking Woodstock did not even come close to my hopes for this film. The plot centers around the character of Jake Teichberg and the motel that his mother and father own. The motel has been sitting vacant for years and the family is in jeopardy of losing the place to the bank. In a certain twist of fate, Jake discovers that a music festival has been turned away by two towns in upstate New York. He is able to secure a permit to have the music festival held in his own town of Bethel. Suddenly, the producers of the festival and their staff are lowered into Bethel by helicopter. With them come thousands of audience members who inundate the sheltered town with hoards of hippies. During this historic event, Jake is battling with himself and his family over his need to leave his hometown and secure a future for himself elsewhere. Though Jake never actually gets to see Woodstock or any of the singers who performed, he does meet his first transvestite, smokes his first joint, and trips on acid. Though he basically missed the entire event that he helped save, he comes out the other side an adult.

Though it sounds like a great premise, the way that the director (Ang Lee) actually created the film made it drab and boring. Jake came off as being an extremely sheltered, neurotic, and whiny boy who was caught between his own life and that of his parent's. It is clear that his relationship with his parents created a great amount of stress for him, but his personality made it almost impossible to root for him. In addition, the characterization of the audience members was entirely one-sided. While the town laughed at them and called them hippies, Ang Lee did not do anything as a director to make the audience feel differently. The only character that was in the least bit dynamic was the transvestite Vilma who was played by Liev Schreider. Even Lee's portrayal of concert producer Michael Lang seemed one-dimensional with Lang being the sage-like hippie who spoke almost like Yoda. Perhaps the most upsetting, is that because Jake never gets to witness any of the actual festival neither does the audience! To add insult to injury, none of the music from Woodstock was even played in the movie. Basically, this is a film about Woodstock without any elements of Woodstock included in it. Overall, it was a huge bust and I believe that Woodstock experts and novices will find this film to be greatly disappointing.

-DLP

Now Available on DVD: Whip It!

Last week I rented Whip It because I love Ellen Page and think that she is hilarious. Though I was a bit disappointed, I thought that the movie was not without a certain amount of charm. The plot is simple, Ellen Page (Sarah Habel) is caught between her dreams and those of her mother (played by Marcia Gay Harden). While her mother enrolls Sarah in various beauty pageants, Sarah is drawn to roller derbies and its subculture. Though she does not want to disappoint her mother, she knows that she must follow her dreams.

The plot appears extremely simple and cliched but Barrymore and Page are able to make a jaded storyline more appealing than other films in the genre. Perhaps the reason for this is because Sarah's dream does not include increasing her popularity and dating the hunky guy at school. Instead it involves a sport and culture that is often considered part of the underbelly of the sports scene (that's when it's even acknowledged at all!). Things seem to get a bit hackneyed when Sarah falls for a band member in a local grunge band. However, that storyline is fleeting and the focus is placed once more on Sarah's conflicting feelings and subsequent personal growth. The movie could have been more interesting if there was a greater focus on roller derbies and less on Sarah's own inner turmoil. Yet, the movie was not intended to be solely about roller derbies and therefore the balance between the two was handled nicely. Overall, it's a story about girl power in the least irritating and most convincing way. As Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, this film shows that she has great potential as a director in this genre. Though I would never have spent the movie admission of $10, it is a good movie to watch curled up on your couch.

-DLP

Graphic Novel Review: Shadowland

What drew me to Kim Deitch's Shadowland was the amazing pictures that had such fantastic details and were so skillfully drawn. Of course, I can also never resist a book on the circus/carnival. At first glance, the crowded and overwhelming number of pictures seemed perfect for the circus atmosphere that often time has multiple acts all running simultaneously. However, I felt that the plot and characters in this graphic novel left a lot to be desired.

Shadlowland includes ten different stories that are all set in either the circus or a carnival with the characters that are larger than life such as clowns, midgets, bearded ladies, voodoo witches the size of one's thumb and many more true "characters". The first story is about a sideshow high diving pig that has past his prime and must watch as he is replaced by a younger pig. Another story is told by the circus owner's wife, who is a midget, and the sketchy dealings that her husband (a clown who is always in makeup) makes in order to keep the circus afloat.

Deitch gives the reader an interesting cast of characters and tells each of their stories in vignettes. Still, this was not enough to keep my attention. Some of the story lines turned extremely sexually graphic which deterred me from reading them while others felt as if they had been done before. While the illustrations are what first won me over, I soon found myself overwhelmed by what was going on in the illustrations. The more time I spent hunched over the graphics, the more I forget what the plot was and had to go back to the beginning. Though each page truly embodied the atmosphere of a circus/carnival is also left the reader feeling as if there is not enough time in the world to absorb all of the pictures and their meanings. While this is not in my top list of graphic novels, I still think that it is worth the time to flip through and at least look at the illustrations.

Kim Deitch also wrote Boulevard of Broken Dreams which is on my list of the 24 graphic novels I wish to read this year. So stay turned in the next couple of months when I review one of her other graphic novels.

-DLP

Book Review: The Lost Cityof Z

David Grann's Lost City of Z:  A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon is as close to non-fiction perfection as I have seen in a long time! Though the story is rather simple, Grann's writing makes the events come alive better than any novel I have read in the recent past. Basically, the tale is about the 1920s explorer Percy Fawcett who has discovered new lands across South America in a time far before satellites, GPSs, and even radio. Fawcett is attracted to dangerous adventures especially those that take place in the Amazon. For years, he had studied the Amazon and determined that there was a lost city inside the tropics that he called "Z". Others may be familiar with this city as El Dorado. For decades, Fawcett had explored in a similar area but was never able to find "Z". Finally, in 1925 (as a man in his middle ages), he decides to find the City of Z or die trying. Along with him, he brings his son and his son's best friend. Without spoiling anything in the book, Grann announces this in his first chapter, Fawcett dies on this expedition. Yet, he does not go forgotten! For decades later, even into 2005, people went searching for Fawcett and the city. However, the majority of these explorers also never returned. After researching Fawcett and his personal life, Grann becomes infected with the "Fawcett bug" as he calls it and decides that he too must follow in Fawcett's footsteps and try to discover the city in Fawcett's honor.

Though this seems like a nonfiction thriller, it is so much more. Grann is able to place Fawcett in with his contemporaries and show the reader how Fawcett's obsession with the region made him a better explored than even the man on Shakleton's expedition. Though Fawcett is not an entirely likable guy, Grann makes the reader sympathize with his neurosis and find compassion for the man who basically forced his family into poverty in order to feed his adrenaline rush (of course Fawcett was more complex than that).

What sets this piece apart from others about Fawcett is Grann's ability to give the reader in depth knowledge on contemporary times while still making the piece read like a thriller. In addition, Grann was given access to Fawcett's family members which in turn gave him access to some of Fawcett's journals and letters that have never before been shown to people outside of the FAcett family. Grann gives the reader a history of the Royal Geographic Society that is as interesting as it is informative. In addition, he brings the reader into the Amazon with just background and description that his audience feels a connection to the region in a similar way as Fawcett did. Overall, Grann is an excellent writer and this piece really shows his abilities. In addition, Fawcett is a superb subject that keeps explorers and readers coming back for more. An absolutely delight to read!

-DLP

Now Available on DVD: My Sister's Keeper

Whether the economy and salaries go down while unemployment and anxiety rise, we should all rest assured that there is still a constant in life: Cameron Diaz can still not act. Based on the book by Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper tells the story of a family on the brink of ruin. While sister Kate sits in the hospital preparing to die from her last battle with leukemia, her younger sister Andromeda is suing their parents for the fight to make her own decisions on her body. The back story: When Kate was under five years old, she was diagnosed with leukemia and there was no match for blood transfusions or organ donations. Therefore, Kate's mother and father decided to have a daughter who genetically matched Kate from whom the parents could harvest her organs and blood to ensure that Kate lived. This worked perfectly for about 11-12 years until Andromeda (the created daughter) decided that she wanted control over her own body and did not want to be subjected to tests and harvests. Of course this threw the entire family into shock and divided all members. If you are a reader of Jodi Picoult, you know that there is a twist to every story. However, this twist is not nearly as powerful on screen as it was on the page. Yet, that seems to be the motto for this film: read the book instead!!

In fact, there is little in common between the film and the book. Though the names are the same and the fact that one daughter sues the family for her medical rights is also the same, little else is. In this novel, there are in fact two twists that occur. Yet, the movie only showed one and the more boring one at that. If you have read the book, you would be outraged at the happy ending that the movie presents. In addition, the characters in the film are presented with much more heart and compassion than the cut-throat mom and extremely distant father in the novel. It seems as if none of the cast and crew even read the book. Instead, you would probably find dozens of copies of the novel being used as doorstops throughout the studio. Ironically, it is the movie that should find an alternative use. Overall...another dud!

-DLP