By Nick Cave.
Published by Faber & Faber Inc.
An affiliate of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Copyright 2009.
Originally published by Text Publishing Company, Australia.
278 pages.
This is Nick Cave's second novel. The last one he did, "And the Ass saw the Angel", was written over 20 years ago. For the unitiated, cave is foremost a musician, but he has also written film scores and has acted and written films also. One great film he wrote was the Australian western, "The Proposition".
The first thing that should be said and has to be said is this is no "And the Ass Saw The Angel". Comparisons have to be made. That book was epic, grand, biblical and a minor masterpiece. This book is much more personal and simpler and probably not as good.
It focuses on father and playboy Bunny Munroe. Bunny Munroe is a traveling salesman and a cocksman. He is so obsessed with sex that he really can't help himself, even though it's killing his marraige and he really does love his wife. In fact his wife is so unhappy, she commits suicide.
This leaves Bunny distraught and on a self-destructive bent, though one could argue that he was already self-destructive before the death of his wife. It also leaves him and his son haunted. They think that they can see her or can feel her presence. In Bunny, this haunting intensifies the guilt he feels. In his son, this haunting brings the boy comfort.
So he has his boy in tow, and he continues selling beauty products while leaving the boy in the car to wait out Bunny's encounters.
The title tells us that Bunny is to die in this book, so saying so is no spoiler. But it seems that Bunny is dying a little bit as the story continues. Like in Jim Jarmusch's film "Dead Man", he's dead even before he actually dies. It's the journey he takes towards his eviction from this mortal coil.
The death scene is particularly well written. In it, all the women he had ever known are gathered and SEEM to be on the verge of forgiving him... In this scene he takes a psychdelic trip to his end. I'm having trouble remembering the details as I had read this book about 2 weeks ago, but I do remember it being particularly moving.
In some ways I think the story is autobiographical. Cave has written many songs about love which have a slight yet clear eroticism in them. I can't help from feeling that many of thoughts that Bunny thinks are quite similar to Cave's way of thinking. That he's constantly thinking about sex. I mean we're talking about the guy who dated Kylie Minogue, who by the way is brought up in the book as a fantasy figure along with Avril Lavigne.
Also, he paints a portrait of a father and son relationship, and no matter how screwed up the father is, the son still loves and admires his father. Cave, leading the life of a rock musician, perhaps has some guilt towards his sons and their relationships. The son's admiration for his dad, is perhaps what Cave is wishing for in his own relationships.
This is the weirdest thing, a trailer for a book. Weird but here it is.
And here is an excerpt read by the man himself.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Up **1/2
Directed by Pete Docter & Bob Peterson.
Screen Play by Pete Docter & Bob Peterson.
Voices by Edward ASner, Christopopher Plumer, Jordan Nagai, Bob Peterson, Delroy Lindo, Jerome Ranft, John Ratzenberger and David Kaye.
Released 2009.
Seen in theater.
Yet another film from Pixar studios. There are some things that I really like about this film, but some things that bug me too.
It starts off with a wonderful "news reel" animated in black and white with film specks and all. It describes the travails of world adventurer Charles Muntz. Then there's a montage of the lead character, Carl Fredrickson, growing up, starting from when he was a toddler and meeting his future wife-to-be, Ellie. As very young children, they connect because they are big fans of the f0re mentioned adventurer Muntz. While this scene is of course animated, it is completely charming and has the feel of early 20th century America.
The couple grow up and eventually become married and it seems they have the perfect marriage. Again, a very heartwarming scene. Unreal, because there is no such thing as the harmonious marriage they have, but it makes one yearn to fall in love again and dream.
As their marriage matures, they both have the adventurers dream of going to and living in a paradise located in South America. But the dream never happens because life takes over, yet they continue happily along in their marriage. They try to have a baby but lose it and grow old together childless. Eventually, the wife dies and so does the dream.
When the old man, Carl, is about to be evicted he has a plan. He ties 1000's of balloons to his house and decides to follow his dream by flying his house to South America and escape eviction. What he doesn't realize is that there is a young, fairly stupid boy scout in his basement that got caught up in the lift off of his house. Eventually they land in their paradise and an adventure ensues.
The balloons really bothered me. I was not able to suspend belief, though I knew that was necessary. Not that the balloons were able to lift a whole house, but that the old man and the kid were able to drag the house along like it was a light as a balloon it's self. Here there is this octogenarian and a young boy with ropes tied around their waists dragging around hundreds of tons of house.
Another thing that bothered me was the last 20% of the film where it becomes an action packed rock 'em, sock 'em blockbuster adventure. First of all, this is too predictable, though it was well put together and choreographed as any other action scene I have seen. I doubt there is any other way a Pixar movie can end, so I guess I'm asking too much when I say I would like to see something a little different for a change.
Also, it bothered me that this ancient guy was involved in such an action packed adventure. Sure the film makers referenced one time during the fighting sequence that he was old (his adversary was also very old and it was kind of a joke) but in real life, the man would have had a heart attack. I know, suspension of belief etc, but sometimes films ask too much of their audience.
The dialogue was great and the characters were wonderful. Some of my favorite characters were the couple as youths, the gigantic bird and the young and dumb scout that came along for the ride.
If I had a rating scale for kid's movies, this would probably get a higher rating, like 3 or 3 1/2 stars. It is a really good film, but I don't use such a system. It must be rare, but I believe it is possible for a children's/family film to transcend it's genre.
Couldn't really find a trailer per se, but I found this, which concentrates on my favorite character the bird Kevin.
Screen Play by Pete Docter & Bob Peterson.
Voices by Edward ASner, Christopopher Plumer, Jordan Nagai, Bob Peterson, Delroy Lindo, Jerome Ranft, John Ratzenberger and David Kaye.
Released 2009.
Seen in theater.
Yet another film from Pixar studios. There are some things that I really like about this film, but some things that bug me too.
It starts off with a wonderful "news reel" animated in black and white with film specks and all. It describes the travails of world adventurer Charles Muntz. Then there's a montage of the lead character, Carl Fredrickson, growing up, starting from when he was a toddler and meeting his future wife-to-be, Ellie. As very young children, they connect because they are big fans of the f0re mentioned adventurer Muntz. While this scene is of course animated, it is completely charming and has the feel of early 20th century America.
The couple grow up and eventually become married and it seems they have the perfect marriage. Again, a very heartwarming scene. Unreal, because there is no such thing as the harmonious marriage they have, but it makes one yearn to fall in love again and dream.
As their marriage matures, they both have the adventurers dream of going to and living in a paradise located in South America. But the dream never happens because life takes over, yet they continue happily along in their marriage. They try to have a baby but lose it and grow old together childless. Eventually, the wife dies and so does the dream.
When the old man, Carl, is about to be evicted he has a plan. He ties 1000's of balloons to his house and decides to follow his dream by flying his house to South America and escape eviction. What he doesn't realize is that there is a young, fairly stupid boy scout in his basement that got caught up in the lift off of his house. Eventually they land in their paradise and an adventure ensues.
The balloons really bothered me. I was not able to suspend belief, though I knew that was necessary. Not that the balloons were able to lift a whole house, but that the old man and the kid were able to drag the house along like it was a light as a balloon it's self. Here there is this octogenarian and a young boy with ropes tied around their waists dragging around hundreds of tons of house.
Another thing that bothered me was the last 20% of the film where it becomes an action packed rock 'em, sock 'em blockbuster adventure. First of all, this is too predictable, though it was well put together and choreographed as any other action scene I have seen. I doubt there is any other way a Pixar movie can end, so I guess I'm asking too much when I say I would like to see something a little different for a change.
Also, it bothered me that this ancient guy was involved in such an action packed adventure. Sure the film makers referenced one time during the fighting sequence that he was old (his adversary was also very old and it was kind of a joke) but in real life, the man would have had a heart attack. I know, suspension of belief etc, but sometimes films ask too much of their audience.
The dialogue was great and the characters were wonderful. Some of my favorite characters were the couple as youths, the gigantic bird and the young and dumb scout that came along for the ride.
If I had a rating scale for kid's movies, this would probably get a higher rating, like 3 or 3 1/2 stars. It is a really good film, but I don't use such a system. It must be rare, but I believe it is possible for a children's/family film to transcend it's genre.
Couldn't really find a trailer per se, but I found this, which concentrates on my favorite character the bird Kevin.
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