Carl Deuker -- Books, Movies, TV

Have gone from likely this moderately to liking it greatly.   Events:  Sibling (Sean) abuse.  This is a topic that is not discussed much, but is a big deal. I remember having a student (Ryan) who had a mean older brother who made his life hell.  A parent would have been arrested; an older sibling--nothing . . . yet.    BYU   Lack of knowledge of basics:  Napoleon, the holocaust, hygiene, blue books, study .  .  . a tough start.   Trips back to Idaho  . . . the junkyard, more brutality at the hands of Sean . . . self-loathing (a boy touches her hand, and she thinks she's a whore)   Back to BYU Father burnt badly in accident at junkyard   more success . . . new boyfriend, but she can't bring herself to tell him (Nick) anything of her family.   Academic success . . . summer in Cambridge . . . encouragement to go to grad school . . . world expanding . . . doesn't want to be just a Mormon mom choir director . ...

Tara's break with domineering, loony father.  Brother Sean nearly as bad, though at times he speaks up for her.  Insane machines and danger in the scrapping yard where Tara works. Sean injured badly. Tara works a scissors machine that could kill her. Dad oblivious? Sean car accident.  Tara comes upon it.  Calls home--bring him to mother is the direction from dad.  She starts back to the house, but then goes to a hospital instead.  Major, irrevocable split from family.  She realizes that she is a terrible daughter because she'd do it again. Studies for BYU.  Manages, somehow, to get a 28 on her ACT and is admitted. Father thinks BYU is full of fake Mormons who are really gentiles and evil.  Mother wants her to go though she won't admit it to father. She goes, and is shocked at the worldliness of her Mormon roommates. She is completely unprepared for college.  She pretended to have home schooling from her mother, but nothing much pas...

Mormon author describing her childhood in Idaho with an "end of the world is coming" father.  No schooling. The Feds are satanic. Guns and stored food. Notable scenes:  Father has daughter help him with his junkyard work and nearly kills her.  Piece of metal goes through her leg.  She's supposed to hop out of her father's dump truck just before he dumps it and help "settle" the iron into the larger container.  She is pinned by the metal in her leg and just manages to jump out at the last second. 17 foot fall, serious bruises, but she feels she's let him down--and he does, too.  "How did you manage that?" he asks. Older brother and narrator listening to classical music together--a shared bond outside the narrow scope of the family.  He leaves the house later, pointing the way for her. Another brother, helping the father, junk cars, is badly burned by car gasoline. Our narrator, at 10, manages to get the brother's leg into a black plast...

Enjoyable . . . I suspect the "book" was created after the radio show.  Book ends at the beginning of WWII.  Irish Free State (sort of a commonwealth state) is trying to establish itself.  More radical Catholics and Northern Ireland want to see it fail.  Poverty related to world-wide depression is rampant in all of Ireland.  I will find another book to bring me from 1939 to the present day.

When the Catholics aren't killing the Church of Englanders, the C of E are killing the Catholics.  The Scot Presbyterians get involved as well. French Revolution (and French ships) add more fuel to the fire. Industrialization undercuts wool spinning and weaving by Irish women. Irish were just barely making it with farms and some wool weaving/spinning. With just farms, poverty and political 2nd class status. An island that was top to bottom forested is, by the early 19th century, bereft of trees

Lots of blood on both sides . . . Potatoes planted partly because other crops were trampled so frequently in war . . . Famine/suffering among the poor. . . Political oppression is overwhelmingly of English origin. . . Church of Ireland (a branch of C of England) brings with it many privileges. Scots-Irish, presbyterians, are second on the list.  Irish Catholics a distant last.  Scots-Irish immigrate to American after Revolutionary War.  Crisis for England--Catholics becoming overwhelming majority.  England has lost in America; Irish are restless; concessions made at end of 18th Century.

"Audiobook. Short segments by various readers. Ice Age bridge introduces humans to Ireland just 10,000 years ago. Recent--British Isles inhabited for 100,000 years. Forests from North to South. Interesting archaeological ruins showing engineering ability and astronomy--not unlike Stonehenge. Celts as more a culture than a people.  Entertaining"

Audible and Kindle A good book to read now and again to remind oneself that change is the essence of everything and that all roads lead to dusky death, so be kind and just along the way and don't grip life too tightly.

Capote writes incredibly. I just never quite got the appeal of Holly Golightly. Plot:  Her visits to Sing-Sing to see Sallie Tomato, the Mafia guy, get her in trouble with the cops.  She has to flee NYC for Brazil.  A last time with our narrator.  The cat dropped off in the street, then regret, then unable to find him. Our narrator returns again and again to look for the cat. Finally finds it (Holly) comfortable in a new home with a new name. So, is Holly tragic? Probably not--more like the cat that always lands on its feet. Also like the cat in that she doesn't and hasn't and won't have an easy time of it, despite her looks, charm, and wit. I will definitely read more Capote. 

Holly's past revealed. Orphaned, taken in by Doc Golightly in Tulip, marries him at 14. Grows up a little and runs away. Journey: Just a small town girl Livin' in a lonely world She took the midnight train goin' anywhere Came to mind.  Her "husband" shows up to try to take her back.  She's kind to him as he was kind to her, but of course she doesn't go back. Tragedy: her brother Fred dies in the war. More fast living. Her roommate Margaret Thatcher(!) marries the man who seemed to be Holly's beau, Rusty.  Don't much care for Holly, but Capote's writing is fantastic.  I don't usually like metaphors and similes all that much--too showy--but his are perfect so they seem natural.  What a gift.

Feels a little like an F. Scott Fitzgerald story. Also feels dated. Holly is presented as a distinctly American type.  Free spirit, open to any and all experience, young, brash, beautiful, intriguing.  But . . . time has a way of changing how we see things.  Or maybe Capote always wanted us to see her as shallow, mindless, racist, and gruesomely materialistic. 100 pages to figure it out.

Always good to branch out--an Icelandic thriller has an ending that no American writer would ever use. Situation:   Our main cop is personally in danger and the girl is trapped in a gondola in danger of freezing to death. American ending:  Cop kills bad guy and rescues girl.  Icelandic ending:  Cop escapes from bad guy by running (!) away.  He goes to where the girl is trapped but he can't figure out how to work the gondola so he gets help from others.  Dirty Harry he is not!

Almost finished.  The killer has been revealed--the one-eyed boyfriend.  He and his friend were both in love with Hjorides (sp? Yikes! Audible).  They decided to have a "kill" contest to see which one would win her.  One-eyed loses his eye, but wins the contest.  He makes it seem as if his friend has committed suicide, then buries him. Now he's in a "game" shootout with Birrack. The other murder of the retired father-in-law was a copycat.  Son-in-law, resentful that his father-in-law was going to spend all his money, kills him, hoping that the blame would fall on the other murderer. Son-in-law as quirky character. Obese wife; love of gardening; all he wants to know about prison is:  Can I garden there?  Wife is taken out by four men. Good question:  how does arresting her husband and sending him to jail help anyone?

Two murderers . . . one a copycat who kills his father-in-law because the f-i-l was going to spend all his savings and not give any to his (obese) daughter and the son-in-law.  But that leaves the first murderer loose. He is threatening to kill a policeman.  Can Bikkar and Gunnar figure out who he is and stop him? There was an odd serious of Trivial Pursuit literary questions posed by the murderer.  " Answer this or I'll kill!"  Answers were from Houseman, Poe, Ian Fleming . . . Fun . . . but highly unlikely!

Murderer is nicknamed the Gander because he (so far) has killed only geese hunters. However, a twist.  The body of a "suicide" from a year earlier is discovered--did the Gander commit this crime too.  And another twist. The Gander challenges the police with riddles.  "Solve it by X or someone else will die."  He informs them that he hunts men for the pleasure of killing. Good cop pairing.  Vietnamese boat person, not thoroughly Icelandic except for his looks, paired with Gunnar.  Brains and brawn; dapper and dowdy; healthy and heavy drinker .  . . but they make a good team.  Pretty good so far.

Lawyer murdered while goose hunting on land that he had recently taken possession of.  Old landowner in financial trouble, unsophisticated--told to leave the land.  Lawyer killed by shotgun.  Killer circles in on him but is never seen.  Two murderers? The old man?  Good start--set in Iceland, so it's a pleasure to hear the Icelandic names of people and places.  Not crazy about the audible reader so far.

The author, Michelle McNamara, died before this book was completed. It's great that editors and friends put this together--this murder/rapist should not be forgotten. However, the "pieced together" aspect of the book keeps it from being a top-notch book. Interesting questions: Should police have access to DNA held by Ancestry.com and the like? They could match DNA and find criminals, or at least close relatives of criminals and from there . . . ACLU issues, that's for sure, in allowing govt to comb through DNA files. Was the murderer a pilot? A Sacramento State student? A realtor? Builder? One thing seems semi-certain: he had some sort of job. It's possible that the book will lead to more clues and he'll be found. It's also possible, though not mentioned, that he's dead. Recommended by Marian and of interest because of California.  Author died of fentanyl and other drugs in her system.  Sounds like another story in itself right there.  Also inter...

"More following of clues; more frustration. One possibility is that the murderer/rapist has an airplane. Footprints lead to airstrip. One pair of crimes were hundreds of miles but only 22 hours apart. Possible the m/r is involved in housing developments, perhaps educated at Sacramento State, perhaps unlike other serial killers. McNamara follows two great suspects who don't pan out. DNA exonerates."  Shows, unwittingly, how easily the wrong man can be arrested and convicted. One guy parallels the killer/rapist in his movements. He looks like a sure thing . . . only he isn't. Without DNA, likely he would be arrested and convicted." x