Silver Screener

The Truth About Grief: The Myth of Its Five Stages and the New Science of Loss (2011)

Recommended

This book goes a long way to reassuring those whose grief process doesn't match the "stages" paradigm.  Ruth Davis Konigsberg reminds us of how informal Kubler-Ross's process for developing these stages was, and that it was based on anecdotal tales from those confronting their own mortality.  Given the breeding ground of the self help mania of the 70's, Americans have taken those stages and forced them on a myriad of life events far from the original intent.

For me, as a recent widow, it was a relief to read that my grief process was more in line with others experiencing the same loss.  The fact that I didn't feel the need to do "grief work" in a formal sense was quite normal, not denial or depression. 

The author has cited a number of studies, primarily covering those who have lost spouses, which  indicate that grieving the loss of a spouse has its own rhythms for each person.  She did distinguish a syndrome call Prolonged Grief Disorder and how it is different than "normal" grieving. 

I recommend this to anyone who has been pressured to do grief counseling or journaling or other processes to get through their grief, when these steps don't feel right to them.  More needs to be done to reduce societal pressures on the bereaved to behave in ways not natural to them in order to be thought to be healthy or to avoid being though cold, unfeeling, or disloyal to a spouse.

Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman - 2010

Recommended for film buffs

I am not sure why the author felt he had to legitimize this film study by connecting the movie to a sociological study, because the book succeeds best as a consideration of the difficulties in modifying a complicated novel into a seminal film.  While the author's conclusions are mildly amusing, it is clear that his real love is in tracing the making of this movie by delineating the characters and lives of the major players and intertwining them with the actual real time making of the movie.

The reviews of this book were almost universally raves, with many of them starred reviews.  Wasson has a real passion for film and a flair for descriptive writing that can take small moments and string them together into a vivid character study. Occasionally, however, I found the wriing a little too inclined to celeb-mag gushing.

Wasson's passion for film and the cinematic process is very evident in this book, particularly with regard to Capote (author of the novel) and director Blake Edwards.  (He has in fact written a book about Edwards' films, A Splurch in the Kisser, 2009).  It is fascinating to read that Marilyn Monroe was Capote's choice for Holly Golightly, and that Hepburn really didn't think this was her kind of film.  Moon River, that iconic wanderer's ballad, almost didn't make it into the film, and Capote never liked the film.

While I found that the sociological premise alluded to in the title added little to the pleasures of the book, Wasson's admiration for both writer, director and the process of taking a difficult story from book to film makes this a pleasure to read for any film deviotee. Readers who aren't into film may not appreciate the finer points of this book.

Available in hardback and Kindle edition.

Millenium Trilogy - Steig Larsson's Lisbeth Salander

Highly recommended

I spent my summer vacation finally reading this much talked about  Swedish trilogy.  I tend to resist reading books that get that much hype, particularly when the author is no longer around to explain or defend his books (Larsson died prematurely of a heart attack and all three books were published posthumously).

That being said, I found Lisbeth Salander a compelling and fascinating character.  Nearly autistic, she is a highly talented hacker and misanthropist, a person so damaged that the Swedish state has deemed her incapable of handling her own affairs and appointed a guardian for her.  One of the many pleasures of this trilogy is watching Lisbeth exact her revenge on those she feels has wronged her, including her guardian.  She has no scruples about violence, but her moral code is quite inflexible.

The plots of the three novels follow on each other's heels, and are as much centered around Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist and publisher of an independent magazine, as they are Lisbeth.  The magazine, Millenium, is devoted to exposing corruption and malfeasance in sensitive places and Blomkvist's original contact with Salander is using her computer skills to research a story. 

Larrson has done a masterful job of delineating his characters with all their virtues and flaws nicely illustrated.  The plots are interesting and well constructed, but the real pleasure of these books is the process of getting to know both Salander and Blomkvist, and following their difficult and unusual relationship.

There are allegedly a mostly finished novel and several outlines for others that Larsson left behind, but since his estate is in dispute, it may be years (if ever) before those are published. 

Available in hardback, paperback, mass market paperback, audio and Kindle versions.

 

 

Star Island - Carl Hiaasen (2010)

Marginally recommended

Just finished Carl Hiaasen's Star Island, his first adult fiction title since 2006's Nature Girl. It focuses on the absurdity of starlet fame (think Britney, Lindsay, Paris, etc) in Florida and features one of Hiaasen's more edearing characters, Skink, the ex governer who lives in the Everglades and feasts on roadkill.

Unlike his previous books, in which the author creates and fleshes out the most eccentric characters and gives them wonderful supblots, this book reads more like he was just phoning in the appropriate parts and someone else put it together. One of his hallmarks was how well he could weave diverse characters and subplots into a finish that made sense. In this book, he had to create an Epilogue, the cheater's way to tie up loose ends.

Don't get me wrong, I have loved his other books, and I mildly enjoyed this one, but after a four year wait, I was disappointed because I had high expectations.

This book is available in hardback, adiobook or kindle edition.