Carl Deuker -- Books, Movies, TV

"To all humankind, Tess was only a passing thought. Even to friends, she was only a frequently passing thought." Angel Clare is a good character. He's "enlightened," in so many ways, but when Tess's confesses her "crime," he reverts to ancestral form . . . Tess's "confession" comes earlier than I expected, right after Angel reveals that he has had a bad moment with a woman. Tess points out the similarity in their transgressions, though his is the only true transgression, expecting forgiveness. She doesn't get it. She returns to her mother . . . realizes she can't stay with her. Thoughts to suicide. Unhappiness that divorce is not possible. Departs. Tragic in that the two, if Angel could just see clearly, would indeed be a great couple, each adding to the other.  Nature as a definite force involved in the tragedy.  It's not neutral--when things go bad, the very skies mock Tess. Tess as unaware of the power of her bea...

Woody Allen film Woody--a failed filmmaker--is breaking up with his wife and trying to take up with Mia Farrow.  His brother-in-law, Alan Alda, is a wildly successful and completely vapid film maker who also has his eye on Mia.  This is the misdemeanor plot. The crime plot involves an opthamologist, wildly successful, who has a fling with a stewardess that develops into a two year affair.  His lover, feeling spurned, threatens to tell his wife.  Our good doctor, with much hand-wringing before and after, arranges to have her murdered. End:  Alan Alda gets Mia and the doctor gets away with murder.  His conscience doesn't bother him as time passes. Strengths--a film about ideas Weaknesses--Would he really kill her? Impossible to imagine he prefers murder to confessing to his wife. Creepiness:  Woody Allen takes his 13 year-old niece to a bunch of films.  She's alarmingly like Mia Farrow in too many ways, from hair style to love of movies. ...

Film of a Joseph Wambaugh based on the murder of a policeman in an onion field outside of L.A.  The true story is notable for two things:  1) The partner of the murdered cop, under threat, gives up his gun.  After this, protocol for cops was changed--cops are not to give up their guns.  2) The appeals dragged on and on. the killers eventually received life imprisonment.  Neither was ever paroled.  Both died in prison in 2012. James Woods was great as the psychotic killer. First half of the movie was terrific; second half was a yawner.  Appeal court hearings that drag on and on are not compelling.

More wonderful descriptions of work, the country, the sky, Tess.  But . . . the coming tragedy is very clearly marked out already, as is the total unfairness of it all. In a way, the "boring" nature of the plot just shows how far we have come as a society. Angel is an "enlightened" man; no "enlightened" man today would behave as he so clearly will.

Tess as poor, ignorant, young, innocent, with a good heart beginning the voyage of life . . . Early dance where a stranger (who will play a large part later on) doesn't dance with her . . . Her father enamored of the possible nobility of the Durbeyfields . . .Tess good to her siblings . . . Tess brings hives to market . . . disaster, her horse dies . . . She goes to the d'Urbervilles for help for her family and is hired to look after fowl.  Alec, young rake, has his eye on her . . . Fair and market day--amazing writing . . . She watches the dance, wanting to go home, but Hardy describes the joy of the beaten-down peasants at this freedom  . . . finally they leave . . . there is an altercation . . . Tess is rescued by Alec . . . Night descriptions are incredible, just as the dance descriptions were. . . Tess is left alone by Alec who has gotten them lost to extend his time with her.  He returns, finds her asleep, and rapes her.  Amazing chapter, blending of innocent j...

One-Four-Five   A divorced doctor, Rick Sims, in misery because of the break-up of his marriage, takes up the guitar again.  He befriends a guitar shop employee and the two of them jam together, and they also share their stories of bad marriage.  We learn, through flashbacks, that Sims had been a pillar of the community.  True, he'd fallen for the mother of a cancer-stricken child, but nothing had come of it.  In fact, the mother had screamed at him at the funeral of her child. Crushed by the rebuff, Sims then has a one-night alcohol-fueled fling with an office employee, Olga. He believes her to be unmarried, but finds out otherwise when a husband shows up and beats him up.  Divorce follows, and misery. Limited visits with his children, money problems, crummy living situation But the guitar seems like a light at the end of the tunnel. He gets better, enjoys the camaraderie. They post a jam session on YouTube and wait. Ending:  "There was a faint c...

Chosen Girl:  Elderly, neglected, lonely woman looking out the window at kids waiting for the bus in the cold.  Little girl from a religious sect that has moved into town is without warm clothes. This makes her think of her own son, now a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, and his upbringing.  Son missed visiting at Christmas, but promised to come in April.  She has decorated the house for Christmas in April, but--selfish prig that he is--he insists it was a vague sort of statement and not a promise at all.  Broken heart. She finds herself at a meeting of the cult/sect and feels, for the first time in a long time, a sense of belonging. Traditional tale, well-written, characters are believable.  Just plain good. Test Taker:  Boy who takes SAT's for others for money.  Alienated, naturally. Sees the underside of the successful of the world.  Parties, discovers he is taking a test for a kid who dissed him.  Flunks it on purpose.  Wha...

I liked this story quite a bit until the very end.  Senior in high school, football player, fighting depression, unable to connect with his classmates, girlfriend.  Across the street is lives an older woman who (insanely) picks up by hand every leaf that falls from her tree. We learn, as the story progresses, that the boy is a football player who suffered a concussion and has not fully recovered; thus,  the headaches, the lethargy, the depression.  His girlfriend takes up with his replacement.  He sees her wearing his "rival's" jersey on the night before a big game.  She goes to his rival's house that night; he lurks outside.  Dad of rival comes out and gives him a couple of slaps--"Wake up! Stop stalking my daughter! Get your life in order!" Here's where the story fell down for me.  He goes home and, in a fit of rage, kicks the older woman's leaves out of their many, many bags.  Good.  But the next morning he goes over, rake in hand...

Kiddie Pool Neighbors, great friends, and then they have a falling out.  One of the men dies.  He has a air compressor in his garage.  Living (estranged) neighbor goes over without permission to use it.  He discovers, in the garage, a picture of his wife.  He realizes his wife had an affair with the neighbor. He thinks back over his own openness with the neighbor regarding the lack of sex in his marriage. Awkward, mixed feelings toward himself, his wife, his neighbor, his life.  Good story. Nine Inches Teacher supervises middle school dance.  The nine inches refers to the distance that must be maintained between couples in slow dances.  Teacher is unhappy in his own life, flirts a little with another teacher whom he nearly took up with.  At the end of the dance, one young couple is blissfully breaking the rule.  Our protagonist wants to ignore them, but is forced to make a big deal of it.  Description of their enrapture is fant...

Smile on Happy Chang's Face    A little uneven.  Story is about middle-aged man, athletic, who has an effeminate son.  The story unfolds while the man is umpiring a championship LL game.  The pitcher for the "good" team is a Chinese girl whose father is watching.  Name is ironic--Happy Chang never seems happy. As the game unfolds, reader learns that the son is gay and that Dad, (our umpire), punched his son.  Dad is divorced with limited contact, miserable.  The coach of the "bad" team is his next door neighbor who saw his arrest and who has a jock son. Chang girl is a star.  Her team seems to be about to win.  However she has thrown inside a few times and has hit a batter.  Coach/adversary orders his boy to bean her.  The boy does; the girl is knocked out. Happy Chang comes out of the stands and fights bad coach and is arrested. Girl (improbably) gets up and continues to pitch????  She gets two outs in the final in...

Back Rub:  Story about a cop who stops a young boy for minor traffic violations.  Then, one evening, he gets in the car with the boy and gives him a back rub.  Boy, freaked out, gets the cop away.  The boy has somehow failed to get into college so is delivering pizzas.  Later, he is called out to deliver to  . . . the cop.  Another creepy encounter, the cop is later fired. Liked this story very much because it captures my personal experiences perfectly -- nothing "really" happened, but the sense of danger, creepiness is captured. And that creepiness is something. Grade My Teacher:  High school teacher goes on-line to see her "grades" from students. She is middle-low and is depressed by it. Reads one:  "This teacher called me a fat pig."  Totally unfair, she never did it.  She figures out the girl who wrote the review, confronts her at Starbucks . . .  only the confrontation turns into a mutual spilling of sadness over weight...

Ted, main character, sees his boss having sex with Martha, a married co-worker. Boss calls Ted in and basically bribes him to keep silent by giving him a raise.  Ted agrees, but then in a performance he puts on as part of his job, he takes on the language of chivalry (sort of) and tells the audience of the boss's philandering.  Martha humiliated, boss fires Ted. Ted is financially in trouble. Why did he do it?  It's as if the chivalric language has captured his mind, sort of. Least satisfying of the stories.

"Home"  Soldier returns to dysfunctional home. Mom has new boyfriend, Harris.  Garbage-strewn house, "potty mouth." Bleak.  Narrator has ex-wife who has remarried a guy he hates.  "Three cars for two grown-ups. What a country. What a couple of selfish dicks my wife and her new husband were." Looks at his town.  Section with castles, then the castles get smaller, then his house--a peasant hut. He breaks in on a family day at his ex-wife's house.  He wants to hold the new baby.  New husband says no.  "Having all these people think I was going to hurt the baby made me imagine hurting the baby."  He pours lemonade all over the floor and leaves. Contemplates murdering them all.  Realizes no one could stop him.  "Your belief that anything and everything can be fixed with talk, talk, endless yapping, hopeful talk." He doesn't kill them:  "Find some way to bring me back." Plea, but not hopeful.

Terrific dystopian story told as diary:   Father, feeling that he's letting his children down by various failures (messy house, not enough money, poor birthday gifts, credit cards overdrawn, general life-heading-nowhere-failing-my-kids) wins money.  He uses it to make his yard beautiful for a birthday party for his 13 year old daughter and to buy her expensive gifts which she has requested. The crowning piece are the Semplica Girls--a version of foreign nanny/worker glad to be in America.  Only these girls don't work--they simply hang in the yard as ornaments.  Father to youngest daughter who is repelled:  "But see, we're helping them by paying and they send money back to their home country." Party is huge success, but later the SG's disappear.  Father is responsible to the company for damages--thousands of dollars.  It turns out that the younger daughter has let them go.  Father has wife ask her parents for $.  They refuse. Grim story in e...

Escape from Spiderhead/Exhortation Spiderhead disturbing story. A chemical drip is inserted into subjects. One of the substances added to the blood stream makes main character fall in love.  He has sex with a couple of women under the influence of the drip. Drip shut off, love disappears. To "check" that the drip works properly, they then have main character decide which girl will receive the "drip from hell," a chemical causing depression and suicidal actions.  Main character doesn't care, but they give the drug to one of the girls anyway. She seems to kill or come close to killing herself.  Our main character, appalled by the life he's being forced to live, gives himself a dose of the "Darkenfloxx." He has a vision of the craziness of life:  are murderers, at birth, murderers? Had they chosen their path of harm or was it foisted upon them?  He has a moment, apparently, when he could save himself, but he chooses to (apparently) die rather than r...

PUPPY  Dysfunctional family has puppy that they need to get rid of.  Mom places ad; family is coming over. Description of family.   Mom:  husband changed from long-haired attractive to stooped old man. Husband: talks constantly of living on a farm and doing what needs to be done, though he never lived on a farm.   Conversations together:   Sell and move to Arizona, get hooked on phonics for kids, buying a car wash. . . wonderful randomness. Straight-laced suburbanite comes to look at puppy.  Seems like she will buy it, even though she is repelled by house.  (Dog turds on carpet, filthy.) She is proud of how accepting she is until she looks out window and sees white trash's son tied by harness to a tree.  Reader knows he is a menace to himself, darting across I-90, for example.  Suburban mother beats hasty retreat, leaving dog to be (probably) drowned by dad who does what has to be done.   Suburbanite remembers her own pathetic ch...

PUPPY  Dysfunctional family has puppy that they need to get rid of.  Mom places ad; family is coming over. Description of family.   Mom:  husband changed from long-haired attractive to stooped old man. Husband: talks constantly of living on a farm and doing what needs to be done, though he never lived on a farm.   Conversations together:   Sell and move to Arizona, get hooked on phonics for kids, buying a car wash. . . wonderful randomness. Straight-laced suburbanite comes to look at puppy.  Seems like she will buy it, even though she is repelled by house.  (Dog turds on carpet, filthy.) She is proud of how accepting she is until she looks out window and sees white trash's son tied by harness to a tree.  Reader knows he is a menace to himself, darting across I-90, for example.  Suburban mother beats hasty retreat, leaving dog to be (probably) drowned by dad who does what has to be done.   Suburbanite remembers her own pathetic ch...

Victory Lap Liked it a lot.  Plot.  Teenaged girl home alone. Her thoughts, memories, inanities.  The randomness of her shift is convincing.  Neighbor boy whom she considers a dork comes home.  We switch to him. Controlling parents. His thoughts. Oh my God, I left my shoes on.   Other thoughts, such as, why do I hate my parents so much when they are . . . Well, what are they?  Overbearing.  Curses them in his head.  "Meter Man" knocks on back door.  Girl opens it.  He's actually rapist/murderer.  We get into his head.  Saw the girl, fantasized about her. His concerns that he be a proficient rapist/murderer and not screw up.  Boy sees girl being dragged to car.  He considers doing something, then thinks not, then does. Girl escapes, is amazed that this nerdy boy has done what he's done. She thinks it's surreal, phones the police. The switching of consciousness among characters is very effective, as is the voic...

What an ending.  Okay, to jog the memory months from now. Gary Jansen, a dance teacher, has fallen under the spell of Katie, a reporter.  But Katie isn't really Katie.  She is really Jen Bone, the one child of Harris Bone who survives the fire. Gary falls for Katie and kills! his wife to be with her.  (Shoves her over a cliff.) Katie and Gary are in Florida for the dance show . . . Glory sees Katie, recognizes her as Jen Bone.  this also jogs Glory's memory. She now recalls that it was Katie/Jen who started the fire that killed the Bone family, not Harris. Katie glimpses this, follows her onto the beach, and after maybe okay guy Mark leaves Glory, Katie kills her. Meanwhile . . .  Mark is by himself at a cabin.  Glory's old boyfriend (Troy) takes a boat over to kill him.  Tresa, Glory's sister who "loves" Mark, goes to warn him. Meanwhile . . . Father of Mrs. Bone--can't recall his name--is murdered.  The murderer is Sheriff Reich...

Action packed, and confusing in a good way. Scene is now Wisconsin. Door Island.  Gary Jensen definitely no good.  He has kidnapped and intends to kill Amy who is on to him.  Amy's roommate, Katie, has called Hilary and they are the only hope for Amy (they'll succeed).  The question is:  who is Gary Jensen?  He's not Harris Bone, but he is somehow connected. While this is going on . . . Troy, Glory's wimpy boyfriend, has decided to kill Mark to avenge her death.  He's on a boat heading out to the island to shoot him . . . but . . . Tresa heard him discuss his plan and she--still in love with Mark--is headed to Mark's island cabin to warn him about Troy. And . . . Mark has had a fight with Peter Hoffman, a friend of Delia (mom) and Glory and Tresa.  Peter ends up with Mark's phone.  Mark drives out to get it back, but while he's on his way to retrieve the phone, someone else blows Hoffman away. Of course Mark will be suspect #1. ...

Interesting mystery plot.  Mark Bradley is the main suspect, so he is -- of course -- innocent. Or is he?  Little hints keep him in play as the possible murderer and as a possible teacher philanderer, though his wife is certain he is innocent of both charges.  Then there's Harris Bone, the man who burned his family--except for one daughter.  He may have been spotted by murder victim Glory and so killed her to keep her quiet, or he may be hiding in Mexico as his sole remaining child insists.  Next there is Gary Larsen, a dance teacher/pervert who Amy (ex-student) of Hilary, thinks might be the murderer.  Strong "tense" scenes.  The fire; Amy being followed as she runs; attempted murder of Mark in the deserted cabin while Hilary showers. Our main detective, Cab, is the son of a Hollywood actress who now lives in London.  He has a tragedy in his life -- forced to shoot girlfriend who turned out to be a terrorist -- the depiction of which is one of ...

Got a lot more interesting.  1) Analysis of how being accused messes up the lives of Mark and Hilary Bradley.  2) Gary Larsen, coach of one of the dance teams, is wife-murderer.  One of his students is suspicious and about to put herself into danger.  3) Cab, our Florida detective, has gone up to Door County, Wisconsin to investigate.  East Coast/Midwest conflict, nicely depicted.  Provincial Wisconsin island is believably described.  Liking the book more and more.

20% finished Cab is investigating. His "love of his life" was also killed on the beach, so this murder brings back painful memories. Cab has trouble connecting with the people he likes. Mom was actress; Dad was unknown to him. Cab talks to family of Glory (murdered girl, and girl who saw the fire.) All points to school teacher, so he's innocent. Murderer is probably Bone family member in disguise. Okay, so far. Not great. Prologue remains the strongest scene.

Joyce is a touch act to follow, but I need a break. Prologue of The Bone House describes a fire--tense, tense.  Then story moves to Naples, Fl. Teacher (accused of improper relationship with student) vacations with wife. Life is miserable for him. Job, marriage going to hell. Glory, sister of girl he is suspected of seducing, is murdered on the beach.  He was with her just before her murder.  Things don't look good.  Time to lawyer up! Nice set-up . . . how does the fire that occurred back in Wisconsin tie into the murder in Naples, Florida? I should know in three or four days.

Joyce is a touch act to follow, but I need a break. Prologue of The Bone House describes a fire--tense, tense.  Then story moves to Naples, Fl. Teacher (accused of improper relationship with student) vacations with wife. Life is miserable for him. Job, marriage going to hell. Glory, sister of girl he is suspected of seducing, is murdered on the beach.  He was with her just before her murder.  Things don't look good.  Time to lawyer up! Nice set-up . . . how does the fire that occurred back in Wisconsin tie into the murder in Naples, Florida? I should know in three or four days.

Final chapters describe the artist awakening. Stephen tries to come up with a theory of art/beauty/truth based on Aristotle and Aquinas.  I didn't follow the argument, but what does come through is the excitement of the life of a mind, and also the excitement of a 21 year old starting his life.  No other book that I can think of makes the mind, grappling with difficult ideas, so thrilling. We are in Stephen's mind as he composes his "ardent ways" poem--the artist beginning his work. Great passages: Sickness in the infirmary--he covers his ears, then uncovers them, and the sound is like a train roaring through a tunnel. As a boy, he hears song:  Bury my in the old churchyard . . . he is immediately struck with the power of the words, "so beautiful and so sad."  Then, later, his love of the Count of Monte Cristo Dinner argument over Parnell (Dante, Mr. Casey, S. father) is the greatest argument I've ever read Cricket:  balls hitting bats:  "T...

Every sentence in the description of his religious conversion and then his mortification of his sinful flesh is great . . . but there are just so many of them.  I think the passages would today ring most true to the fallen away fundamentalist or evangelist. I don't think very many Catholics, at least in the USA, have felt Joyce's intensity. Next scene is the famous epiphany, the call to be the artist.  The girl on the beach, looking into his eyes, neither wanton or shy.  Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

 Joyce is over the top on purpose, and he wants us to understand why Stephen would be scared in the moment but to also see that the priests are piling on to keep the artist from exploring a full life. So, it's the greatest "scare" sermon of all time but, like a horror film, the impact is strong but short-lived.

"Rain was falling on the chapel, on the garden, on the college. It would rain forever, noiselessly. The water would rise inch by inch, covering the grass and shrubs, covering the trees and houses, covering the monuments and the mountain tops.  All life would be choked off, noiselessly:  birds, men, elephants, pigs, children: noiselessly floating corpses among the litter of the wreckage of the world. Forty days and forty nights the rain would fall until the waters covered the face of the earth.  It might be.  Why not?"

Israel articles.  One interesting insight--people say that the conditions between Palestinians and Israelis are unsustainable, yet they've been sustained for over forty years.  Israel patient. Israel also becoming more religious, more dominated by Sephardic Jews who tend to be more hard-line vs. Arab States. Portrait of the Artist I reached the "retreat" section and stopped. I'm interested how this will read.  As a young adult, I thought it fantastic.  In my forties, I remember being disappointed as it seemed over the top (especially the description of hell). So now .  .  .   I'll find out in the next day or two.