Saturday, October 15, 2005

Taking Time Out

I took a mini-vacation over the last two days. On Friday, I shopped until I dropped and saw the new film, "Good Night, and Good Luck." Today, my brother and I took my niece to the Texas State Fair and to see the musical "Wicked" for her fourteenth birthday.

"Good Night, and Good Luck" was a terrific film. It's probably inevitable that moviegoers and critics will draw parallels to the political situation today. I happened to see the film in the same theatre in which I had seen Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11." I found GNAGL to be much more effective than F9/11. Moore irritated the hell out of me with his grandstanding and silly stunts. GNAGL is far more subtle and far more devastating with its warnings not to confuse dissent with disloyalty. It is not likely to improve President Bush's approval ratings.

Since I seem to be doing reviews, if you like mystery/thrillers, try Lee Child's latest book, "One Shot." I've been following Child's career since I read his first novel, "The Killing Floor," back in 1998. I think this is his best book yet.

Child's hero, Jack Reacher, is a modern day Shane, the loner who rides into a troubled situation, utilizes his special skills to bring about resolution and leaves. Jack Reacher has replaced the spot in my heart once held by Robert Parker's Spenser.

Here is an excerpt from Publishers Weekly on "One Shot": The final sentence of Child's ninth suspenser . . . -"Then he could buy a pair of shoes and be just about anywhere before the sun went down"-is quintessential Jack Reacher, the rugged ex-army cop who practically defines the word "loner" and kicks ass with the best of 'em. In the book's gripping opening, five people are killed when a shooter opens fire in a small unnamed Indiana city. But when ex-infantry specialist James Barr is apprehended, he refuses to talk, saying only, "Get Jack Reacher for me." But Reacher's already en route; having seen a news story on the shooting, he heads to the scene with disturbing news of his own: "[Barr's] done this before. And once was enough."

I'd offer to loan you my copy, but I've already given it to another friend.

2 comments:

Gabrielle said...

Oh, man, I'm dying to see GNAGL! And thanks for the heads-up on Lee Child. I've never read him but he sounds like my kind of writer.

Maya Reynolds said...

Hi, Gabrielle: Lee Child's Jack Reacher is my kind of hero. Very big, very dangerous and a sexy combination of predictable and unpredictable. I think you'll like him.